Aindrea Emelife is a Nigerian-British curator, art historian and broadcaster who has quickly become one of the art world’s most recognisable faces. Committed to the belief that art is the emotional memory of the world, Emelife is animated by how a single artwork, an everyday image, or a line from a book can reveal more about the world than it first seems to. In her hands, art becomes a mirror, a crack in the canon, a way of seeing what history left out.
Notably, Emelife curated the widely praised Nigeria Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale, Nigeria Imaginary, named among the best pavilions of the Biennale by the New York Times and the Financial Times.
Amongst many exhibitions, of particular note is BLACK VENUS, staged first at Fotografiska New York, which traced the legacy of Black women in art history and popular culture, and was met with widespread critical acclaim across the British and American press. It has since travelled to the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco and Somerset House in London.
At nineteen, Aindrea debuted her first column for the Financial Times. She was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2021, and has since written widely for The Guardian, Vanity Fair, the BBC and Frieze, featured in programming on Sky Arts and BBC Front Row, and become a regular voice on podcasts including Talk Art and Intelligence Squared. A committed public speaker, she has taken the stage at festivals and institutions across the UK to make the case for art history beyond the gallery wall.
As part of a wider mission to bring art’s stories to new audiences, Aindrea has a growing list of collaborations with Chanel, Valentino, Miu Miu, Google and WeTransfer. She has also collaborated with Net-a-Porter, who named her to their Incredible Women list.
She sits on the Board of Trustees for New Curators, the Board of Directors for ACASA, and serves as an Advisor at NXTGEN.
In 2021, Aindrea was appointed to the Mayor of London’s Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm, and also sat on the Artistic Advisory Panel for the Memorial to Victims of Transatlantic Slavery.
Her first book, A Brief History of Protest Art, was published by Tate in 2022. She is currently working on her next book, which promises to be her most ambitious yet.
Photo Credit: Matea de Mayda
