ICI is pleased to announce that Anaïs Duplan (Brooklyn/Iowa City), Negarra A. Kudumu (Seattle), Marie Hélène Pereira (Dakar, Senegal), and Ronald Rose-Antoinette (La Trinité, Martinique) have been named the inaugural Curatorial Research Fellows as part of the Marian Goodman Gallery Initiative in honor of the late Okwui Enwezor.
Launched in January 2021, the initiative was conceived by artist Steve McQueen to create educational and research opportunities through ICI for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) curators, including two Curatorial Research Fellowships annually.
141 curators responded to the initial call for applications for Curatorial Research Fellowships open to BIPOC curators based in the US and curators of African descent based anywhere around the world. Applications came in from 19 US states, Washington DC and Puerto Rico, and from 26 countries, including 14 in Africa. The response to the program, impressive in size and geographic scope, is not only the result of ICI’s curatorial networks but also a reflection of the need for research opportunities for BIPOC curators.
Given this overwhelming response and the strength of the candidates, two additional fellowships were immediately made available at Steve McQueen’s behest and in part with his support.
ICI’s Executive and Artistic Director Renaud Proch remarked: “We were so inspired by the sheer number and quality of the proposals. Being able to offer four fellowships rather than two and double the scope of the program this year has been truly meaningful, and we’re deeply grateful to Steve McQueen for making it possible. This expansion adds to ICI’s already growing program of curatorial fellowships, which are critically necessary to foster new voices in the field.”
The four fellows were selected by Hitomi Iwasaki, Director of Exhibitions and Programs at the Queens Museum; Tumelo Mosaka, independent curator; and Renaud Proch, ICI's Executive & Artistic Director. ICI Curatorial Research Fellowships will provide them with a tailored framework for independent research, guided by mentors, leveraging ICI’s programs and network of collaborators as a resource, as well as a $10,000 stipend.
Tumelo Mosaka will serve as the lead mentor for the program and shared, "Someone once said 'we rise by lifting others.' This represents how Okwui Enwezor inspired me to do for others what he did for me. The ICI Fellowships offer an opportunity to bridge gaps, build networks across continents, and be an agent for social transformation."
These four Curatorial Research Fellowships are made possible as part of the Marian Goodman Gallery Initiative in honor of the late Okwui Enwezor, with additional support from Steve McQueen and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
About the Marian Goodman Gallery Initiative in honor of the late Okwui Enwezor: In its first three years, from 2021 to 2023, the Marian Goodman Gallery Initiative will allow ICI to develop one Curatorial Intensive (ICI’s professional development program for emerging curators) in Africa and two or more Curatorial Research Fellowships every year for the next three years. The initiative will not only empower but also sustain a new, more diverse generation of curators in the U.S. and worldwide, by giving access to professional development for more than 35 emerging curators, and providing independent research study opportunities to at least eight early-to-mid-career curators. The initiative will generate new collaborative networks and strengthen existing ones among curators, artists, and art spaces across the US, in Africa, and around the world. With permission from his family, the Initiative was named in honor of Okwui Enwezor, one of the most influential curators of the last 50 years. A curator, art critic, writer, poet, and educator, Enwezor (1963-2019) championed the agency of African art, challenged the long-established narrative of European and North American art, and embraced a global perspective which opened countless doors for new voices and critical inquiry in the curatorial field.
About Marian Goodman Gallery: For over forty years, Marian Goodman Gallery has played an important role in helping to establish a vital dialogue among artists and institutions working internationally. Marian Goodman Gallery was founded in New York City in late 1977. In 1995 the Gallery expanded to include an exhibition space in Paris – with an additional exhibition space and bookshop added in 2016 - and in 2014 an exhibition space in London. The London space closed and transitioned to Marian Goodman Projects in 2021, a new initiative to present exhibitions and artist projects in London and other select cities around the world. http://www.mariangoodman.com
About Steve McQueen: Steve McQueen is an artist, film director, and screenwriter. His first film, Hunger (2008), was awarded the Caméra d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, and his third, 12 Years a Slave (2013), received the Golden Globe, Oscar, and BAFTA awards for best picture in 2014. His latest project is Small Axe, an anthology of five films about the West Indian experience in London.
McQueen was featured in Documenta (1997 and 2002), represented Great Britain at the Fifty-Third Venice Biennale in 2009, and was selected several times for the Venice Biennale’s central pavilion (2003, 2007, 2013, and 2015). Solo exhibitions of his work have been held at the Art Institute of Chicago (2012) and Schaulager, Basel (2013); and at the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Pérez Art Museum, Miami; Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois (all 2017) and The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2016). Year 3, his portrait of an entire age group of London schoolchildren is currently on show at Tate Britain, London until the end of the month and he had a major solo exhibition at the Tate Modern, London in 2020.
