This interview took place on October 11, 2018, via phone, while Bisi was in London and Temitayo was at home in Lagos. After several weeks of attempting to schedule a conversation, the two managed to speak at length and Bisi was as energetic as ever. It is believed that this was Bisi's last interview, and unfortunately, due to the decline in her health, she was never able to see the finished text. It was also the last long conversation Temitayo had with her, and the last time Temitayo would hear the voice of her friend so full of vigor. Temitayo remembers when she met Bisi in Lagos as a young artist visiting the CCA Lagos. Over approximately eight years, Bisi became a key mentor for Temitayo, with respect to both her studio and curatorial practices. While Bisi is dearly missed by many, her impact reverberates and is captured in anecdotes...
Bisi Silva
Temitayo Ogunbiyi is a visual artist who curates and writes on occasion. She has collaborated with the Centre for Contemporary Art Lagos, The Boys' Quarters in Port Harcourt, Bloom Art in Lagos, and The Nubuke Foundation, among other international institutions. She currently serves as head of curatorial of ART X Collective. Ogunbiyi has degrees in art history (Princeton University) and Curatorial Studies (Columbia University). She has been awarded several fellowships, most recently a Digital Earth Fellowship and an artist in research fellowship at the Smithsonian Institution. Her work has been shown at the Madre Museum of Contemporary Art; the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts; the Centre for Contemporary Arts, Lagos; Tiwani Contemporary Gallery; the Perm Museum of Contemporary Art; the Freies Museum, Berlin; Stephen Friedman Gallery and Berlin Art Projects, among other venues. She lives in Lagos with her young family. [email protected]
Bisi Silva was raised in the UK and attended the Royal Academy of Art in London. She returned to Lagos in 2008 and founded the Center for Contemporary Art Lagos, arguably the most significant catalyst for contemporary art in Nigeria. Championing photography, installation, and other new media that were not popular within the Nigerian visual art sector at the time, she consciously created platforms for artists working in these mediums. She curated numerous exhibitions at the CCA Lagos including El Anatsui, Playing with Chance (2014); Like a Virgin (2009), featuring the work of Lucy Azubuike and Zanele Muholi; George Osodi, Paradise Lost: Revisiting the Niger Delta, (2008); and Ndidi Dike, Waka-into-bondage: The Last ¾ Mile (2008). She was co-curator of the transcontinental exhibition The Progress of Love, (2012–2013) and of J.D. 'Okhai Ojeikere: Moments of Beauty (2011), along with a monograph on Ojeikere's work. She was one of the curators for the Dakar Biennale in Senegal (2006) and served as co-curator for the second Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, Greece in 2009. She died at the age of 56 of breast cancer in February 2019.
Temitayo Ogunbiyi is a visual artist who curates and writes on occasion. She has collaborated with the Centre for Contemporary Art Lagos, The Boys' Quarters in Port Harcourt, Bloom Art in Lagos, and The Nubuke Foundation, among other international institutions. She currently serves as head of curatorial of ART X Collective. Ogunbiyi has degrees in art history (Princeton University) and Curatorial Studies (Columbia University). She has been awarded several fellowships, most recently a Digital Earth Fellowship and an artist in research fellowship at the Smithsonian Institution. Her work has been shown at the Madre Museum of Contemporary Art; the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts; the Centre for Contemporary Arts, Lagos; Tiwani Contemporary Gallery; the Perm Museum of Contemporary Art; the Freies Museum, Berlin; Stephen Friedman Gallery and Berlin Art Projects, among other venues. She lives in Lagos with her young family. [email protected]
Bisi Silva was raised in the UK and attended the Royal Academy of Art in London. She returned to Lagos in 2008 and founded the Center for Contemporary Art Lagos, arguably the most significant catalyst for contemporary art in Nigeria. Championing photography, installation, and other new media that were not popular within the Nigerian visual art sector at the time, she consciously created platforms for artists working in these mediums. She curated numerous exhibitions at the CCA Lagos including El Anatsui, Playing with Chance (2014); Like a Virgin (2009), featuring the work of Lucy Azubuike and Zanele Muholi; George Osodi, Paradise Lost: Revisiting the Niger Delta, (2008); and Ndidi Dike, Waka-into-bondage: The Last ¾ Mile (2008). She was co-curator of the transcontinental exhibition The Progress of Love, (2012–2013) and of J.D. 'Okhai Ojeikere: Moments of Beauty (2011), along with a monograph on Ojeikere's work. She was one of the curators for the Dakar Biennale in Senegal (2006) and served as co-curator for the second Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, Greece in 2009. She died at the age of 56 of breast cancer in February 2019.
Temitayo Ogunbiyi, Bisi Silva; Bisi Silva. African Arts 2021; 54 (1): 72–81. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/afar_a_00569
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