Okwui Enwezor, Pioneering Curator of Documenta and Venice Biennale, Dies at 56

Okwui Enwezor, a curator and critic originally from Nigeria, has passed away. He was notable for being the second individual after Harald Szeeman to curate both Documenta and the Venice Biennale, and he was the first African to take on such roles. At 18, Enwezor relocated to New York, where he obtained a degree in political science from New Jersey City University. He co-founded the Nka Journal of Contemporary African Art and rose to fame with the 1996 Guggenheim exhibition In/sight. Enwezor directed the Johannesburg Biennale in 1997 and became Documenta's first non-European curator in 2002. His 2015 Venice Biennale, titled All The World’s Futures, included a live reading of Marx’s Das Kapital, showcasing his focus on context and dialogue in exhibitions.