Makgati Molebatsi, Violet Nantume and Luvuyo Equiano Nyawose have been announced as mentors for the second edition of Latitudes CuratorLab, an online practice-based curatorial residency for emerging curators in Africa.
RMB Latitudes has invited 10 aspiring curators from different countries in Africa to apply to the 2023 residency programme. The selected curators will be guided through a facilitated online residency that is designed to offer practical industry experience and to hone their curatorial skills. The residency will run for 6 weeks from January to April 2023 and participants will plan and conceptualise their own show to be hosted on Latitudes Online, an online marketplace for art from Africa.
About Makgati Molebatsi
Makgati Molebatsi is Senior Art Specialist at Aspire Art Auction, based in Johannesburg. She is the co-founder of Latitudes Art Fair. In 2016, she established Mak’Dct Art Advisory & Agency, a service guiding private individuals, companies, and early-career artists in navigating the contemporary art world.
Molebatsi says:
“The art ecosystem is evolving and more artists and artworks are entering the art space. There is an increasing need for critically discerning, knowledgeable curators who will bring new and fresh perspectives to exhibition-making while contributing to the nurturing of artists’ career trajectories, their cultural relevancy, and their connection to audiences. CuratorLab is a necessary platform for providing a foundation for curators’ creative ideation and an opportunity for learning and honing their curatorial practice.”
About Luvuyo Equiano Nyawose
Luvuyo Equiano Nyawose (he/they) is an artist, curator, filmmaker, and researcher. He is interested in developing and cultivating research and artistic methodologies around Black cultural production in Africa and its diaspora. With a decolonial approach as his operational framework, his scope includes curatorial projects such as exhibitions, workshops, acquisitions and publishing.
Nyawose graduated with a BA (Hons) in film from AFDA: The School for the Creative Economy (formerly The South African School of Motion Picture and Live Performance) and received an Honours Degree in Curatorship from the University of Cape Town’s Centre for Curating the Archive (UCT). He is the 2019 recipient of the Andrew Mellon Graduate Internship at Iziko South African National Gallery and a Creative Knowledge Resources fellow (2019–2020), an interdisciplinary project funded by the National Research Foundation (NRF) and UCT which seeks to document and study socially engaged art and interventionism. Nyawose sits as a member of the University of Cape Town’s Works of Art Committee which is responsible for the institution’s art acquisitions and curation. In 2021, Nyawose presented a solo exhibition eBhish’ at blank projects in Cape Town. He is the 2021–2022 University of Cape Town’s Institute for Creative Arts (ICA) Live Art Festival Curatorial Fellow and an Institute of Creative Arts Fellow (2020).
About Violet Nantume
Violet Nantume is an artist and curator. She creates works that trigger controversy. Her curatorial efforts are focused on themes that aim to challenge existing paradigms about a wide range of subjects. She is a graduate of the Margaret Trowell School of Industrial and Fine Arts, Makerere University where she double-majored in Jewellery Making and Ugandan Contemporary Art History.
Nantume is a director at Underground, a nomadic contemporary art space in Kampala, Uganda. She has collaborated with artists and curators from all around the world to organise exhibitions, and she has contributed to art publications such as Artforum. Currently, she serves as the lead researcher for an exhibition project looking at the work of Professor Francis Xavier Nnaggenda.
