Olu Oguibe

Olu Oguibe
File:Olu Oguibe.jpg Olu Oguibe
Born	(1964-10-14) 14 October 1964 Aba, Eastern Nigeria
Fields	Conceptual art
Institutions	University of Connecticut
Alma mater	University of Nigeria, Nsukka School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
Doctoral advisor	John Picton
Notable awards	State of Connecticut Governor's Arts Award (2013)

Olu Oguibe (born 14 October 1964) is a Nigerian-born American artist and intellectual. Professor of Art and African-American Studies at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, Oguibe is a senior fellow of the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at the New School, New York, and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. He is also an art historian, art curator, and leading contributor to post-colonial theory and new information technology studies.. Oguibe was honoured with the State of Connecticut Governor's Arts Award for excellence and lifetime achievement on 15 June 2013.

Early life and education

Born on 14 October 1964 in Aba, Nigeria, Oguibe was educated in Nigeria and England. In 1986, he earned a degree in Fine and Applied Arts from the University of Nigeria. In 1992, he received a PhD in art history from the School of Oriental and African Studies University of London for his thesis "Uzo Egonu: An African Artist in the West" (also the title of his 1995 book).

Art and teaching

Oguibe taught critical theory at Goldsmiths College before moving to the United States. To date his art has been shown in major museums and galleries around the world including the Whitney Museum of American Art; Whitechapel Gallery and the Barbican Center, London; Migros Museum, Zurich; the Irish Museum of Modern Art, and Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, among many others; as well as in the Havana, Busan, and Johannesburg biennials, and most recently at the 2007 Venice Biennial. His public art works may be found in Germany, Japan and Korea. Oguibe has previously taught in several colleges including the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of South Florida where he held the Stuart Golding Endowed Chair in African Art.

International curator

He has also served as curator or co-curator for numerous exhibitions. These include the 2nd Biennale of Ceramics in Contemporary Art in Genoa and Albisola, Italy, in 2003; Vidarte 2002: International Video and Media Art Festival at the Palacio Postal, Mexico City, in 2002; Century City at the Tate Modern, London, in 2001; Authentic/Ex-centric: Africa in and out of Africa for the 49th Venice Biennale in 2001, and Five Continents and One City: 3rd International Salon of Painting at the Museo de la Ciudad, Mexico City, in 2000. He has served as advisor for the Dakar, Johannesburg, and Havana biennials and as critic-in-residence at the Art Omi International artists’ residency.

Writer and critic

Oguibe’s critical and theoretical writings have appeared in several key volumes including The Dictionary of Art, Art History and its Methods, Art in Theory 1900-2000, The Visual Culture Reader, The Third Text Reader on Art and Culture, The Black British Culture and Society Reader, and Theory in Contemporary Art: From 1985 to the Present, as well as numerous serials such as Frieze, Flash Art International, Art Journal, Texte zur Kunst, Zum Thema, Third Text and Criterios. His most recent books include Reading the Contemporary: African Art from Theory to the Marketplace (MIT Press, 2000) and The Culture Game (University of Minnesota Press, 2004).