Yesomi Umolu is Director of Curatorial Affairs and Public Practice for the Serpentine Galleries. Formerly she was Director and Curator, Logan Center Exhibitions at the University of Chicago where she leads an ambitious program of international contemporary art focused on emerging interdisciplinary practices. Umolu also teaches courses in contemporary visual art and spatial practices as a lecturer in the humanities division. Prior to joining the Logan, Umolu held curatorial positions at the MSU Broad Museum; Walker Art Center; and Manifesta 8, the European Biennial of Contemporary Art. She has also contributed to programming at the Serpentine Galleries and Tate Modern.
Umolu has worked on key solo exhibitions and commissioned projects with Assemble, Ursula Biemann, and Paulo Tavares, John Akomfrah, Mike Cloud, Mariana Castillo Deball, Kapwani Kiwanga, Candice Lin, Harold Mendez, Camille Norment, Karthik Pandian, and Andros Zins-Browne, among others. As Artistic Director of the 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial (2018-2020), Umolu oversaw a critically acclaimed curatorial program featuring new commissions, off-site installations, and a host of performances, talks, workshops, and community engagements with over 80 international contributors.
Umolu is a 2016 recipient of the prestigious Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Arts Curatorial Fellowship. She has been a visiting lecturer and critic at numerous universities including Williams College; University College London; University of Michigan; and University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, among others. She served on the curatorial advisory board for the United States Pavilion at the 16th Venice Architecture Biennale. She is a trustee of the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, Chicago.
