Tumelo Mosaka is a Johannesburg-born and New York City-based independent curator. He is the Mellon Project Director and Curator in African American and African Diaspora Studies at Columbia University, New York. Mosaka has worked within and outside museums exploring global transnational artistic practices especially from Africa, the Caribbean, and North America. He is the Resident Curator at Opa-locka Community Development Corporation in Miami, FL, and an advisor to Prospect.6, New Orleans, LA.
As an independent curator, Mosaka has curated numerous exhibitions including: Beyond Tradition: Contemporary Sculpture from Africa, Opa-loka, FL (2022); YAKHAL INKOMO, Javett Art Center, South Africa (2022); Usha Seejarim, A Solo Exhibition, Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam (2020); Turning Tide, Mémorial ACTe Museum, Guadeloupe (2017); Andrew Lyght: Full Circle, Dorsky Art Museum, New York (2016); Poetic Relations, Perez Art Museum, Miami (2015); and Otherwise Black at the 1st edition of International Biennale of Contemporary Art (BIAC), Martinique (2014). Mosaka also served as Curator of Contemporary Art at the Krannert Art Museum (KAM) in Champaign, IL, where he curated several exhibitions including: Blind Field (2013), OPENSTUDIO (2011), The Kangarok Epic (2011), iona rozeal brown (2011), MAKEBA! (2011), Baggage Allowance (2010), The Bikeriders: Danny Lyon (2010), Lida Abdul (2010), and On Screen: Global Intimacy (2009), among others; and as Associate Curator of Exhibitions at the Brooklyn Museum in New York, NY, where he curated Infinite Islands: Contemporary Caribbean Art (2007), Passing/Posing: Kehinde Wiley (2004) and co-curated Open House: Working in Brooklyn (2004). He also worked for the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina where he co-curated the exhibition Listening Across Cultures (2001) and Evoking History (2002).
Prior to joining KAM, Mosaka also organized several international exhibitions including Otherwise Black (2014) for the 1st edition International Biennale of Contemporary Art in Martinique (BIAC).
