Smooth Nzewi

Smooth Nzewi © 2021 The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Photo Peter Ross
Smooth Nzewi, The Steven and Lisa Tananbaum Curator in Painting and Sculpture, The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, USA. © 2021 The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Photo Peter Ross

Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Nzewi is an artist, art historian, and the first Steven and Lisa Tananbaum Curator in the Department of Painting and Sculpture at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), where he participates in the Museum’s acquisitions program, the installation of the collection galleries, and the development of special exhibitions and catalogs.

He leads the Museum’s Contemporary and Modern Art Perspectives (C-MAP) Africa group, which is MoMA’s internal research and exchange initiative devoted to art in a global context.

Prior to joining the Museum’s curatorial staff in 2019, Nzewi was the Curator of African Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art (2017 – 2019), and at Dartmouth College’s Hood Museum of Art (2013 – 2017).