Aindrea Emelife

Aindrea Emelife (b. 1994) is a Nigerian-British curator and art historian specializing in modern and contemporary art, with a focus on questions around colonial and decolonial histories in Africa, transnationalism and the politics of representation. She currently serves as the Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at MOWAA (Museum of West African Art) in Benin City, Nigeria - a new museum opening in stages from 2024 onwards.

Aindrea studied at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London before embarking on a multifaceted career as a curator and art historian, producing highly acclaimed exhibitions for museum, galleries and private collections internationally.

Recent exhibitions include BLACK VENUS; a survey of the legacy of the Black woman in visual culture which opened at Fotografiska NY, MOAD (San Francisco, USA) and Somerset House (London, UK). Her most prolific and deeply meaningful project to date recently opened - she curated the Nigeria Pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale to incredible critical acclaim from the New York Times, ArtForum, Financial Times, The Times, The Guardian as well as amongst colleagues in the art world.

Aindrea is currently shaping and working on the exhibition programming for MOWAA for the next 5-10 years, including many personally led curatorial projects and commissions. Her first book, A Brief History of Protest Art, was released by Tate in March 2022. Emelife has contributed to exhibition catalogues and publications, most recently including Revising Modern British Art (Lund Humphries, 2022). Her next book, Black Venus, which will be a history of the Black woman in art and visual culture, will be published by Thames and Hudson and released early in 2026.

Since 2021, she has been part of the Mayor of London’s Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm as well as serving on the Advisory Panel for the Transatlantic Slave Trade Memorial Commission.

Aindrea Emelife, Curator, Modern and Contemporary Art, Museum of West African Art (MOWAA), Benin City, Nigeria, and Curator, Nigeria Pavilion, 60th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale Di Venezia, has been awarded by the Getty Foundation, Los Angeles.