ANTAWAN I. BYRD, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Art History at Northwestern University and an Associate Curator of Photography and Media at the Art Institute of Chicago. He recently co-curated Project A Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica, currently on view at the Art Institute until March 30, 2025. Other recent exhibitions include Closer to the Earth, Closer to My Own Body, a solo exhibition of work by the Kenyan artist Mimi Cherono Ng’ok and The People Shall Govern! Medu Art Ensemble and the Anti-Apartheid Poster. The publication for the latter, which Byrd co-edited, was ranked among the “Best Art Books of 2020” by the New York Times. He was a co-curator of the 2nd Lagos Biennial of Contemporary Art (2019), Kader Attia: Reflecting Memory at Northwestern’s Block Museum of Art (2017) and was an associate curator for the 10th Bamako Encounters, Biennale of African Photography (2015). In 2017, he received the Award for Curatorial Excellence from the Arts Council of the African Studies Association. From 2009 to 2011, he was a Fulbright fellow and curatorial assistant at the Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos, where he now serves on the Board of Artistic Advisors. Byrd is also on the Board of Trustees of the Graham Foundation, Chicago. He is currently at work on a book manuscript that, based on his dissertation research, explores the centrality of sound technologies to the sixties-era politics and visual culture across Africa and the African diaspora.
Bio as of 12/2024
Photo by Felton Kizer