Aindrea Emelife is the British-Nigerian curator spearheading a new wave of contemporary artists, and presently also the curator behind the second-ever Nigerian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2024. When we get on a call ahead of the event’s opening (on 20 April), she’s in Venice, working with a team on the installation. As she speaks, I can sense the excitement in her voice: ‘We are working towards the installation’s completion and it's been going really well. I'm looking forward to the reveal.’
Emelife’s career has been prolific. From her early days as an art writer to becoming a Financial Times columnist at only 20, while studying for an art history degree at The Courtauld Institute of Art, and later becoming one of London's interesting art curators. Among a pool of her curated works, ‘Black Venus’, her 2022 exhibition featuring 19 artists who analysed the legacy of Black women in visual art, set the pace. And now, she is the curator of modern and contemporary art at the Museum of West African Art (MOWAA) a position that is instrumental to her vision of Nigeria and African art.
