Creative Advisory Board
Creative Advisory Board
Experienced BOARD
Creative Advisory Board
CCA, Lagos is guided by a global creative board, bringing expertise and vision to the centre, supporting its mission to promote contemporary art in Africa
Antawan I. Byrd
Antawan I. Byrd 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 is a co-curator of Project A Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica. His 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 (2022) and The People Shall Govern! Medu Art Ensemble and the Anti-Apartheid Poster (2019).
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Antawan I. Byrd 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 is a co-curator of Project A Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica. His 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 (2022) and The People Shall Govern! Medu Art Ensemble and the Anti-Apartheid Poster (2019).
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. Byrd serves on the Board of Trustees of the Graham Foundation, Chicago.
He is currently at work on a book project that explores the centrality of sound technologies to the art and politics of the 1960s, focusing on practices across Africa and the African diaspora.
Megha Ralapati
Megha Ralapati is an independent curator and arts leader in Chicago, who seeks to amplify artists’ practice through cultural exchange and transnational dialogue. Most recently as Program Director for CEC ArtsLink, a platform dedicated to international connection and mobility for artists, she oversaw programs and fellowships, as well as led the annually anticipated ArtsLink Assembly, an interdisciplinary convening of practitioners, which has taken place in New York, Warsaw, Chicago and this year in Lviv, Ukraine.
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Megha Ralapati is an independent curator and arts leader in Chicago, who seeks to amplify artists’ practice through cultural exchange and transnational dialogue.
Most recently as Program Director for CEC ArtsLink, a platform dedicated to international connection and mobility for artists, she oversaw programs and fellowships, as well as led the annually anticipated ArtsLink Assembly, an interdisciplinary convening of practitioners, which has taken place in New York, Warsaw, Chicago and this year in Lviv, Ukraine. Prior to this, she developed the international residency program at Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago.
Megha is a well-regarded juror for artist awards and grants, and as a visiting critic, she has engaged with artists of all levels, including at the School of the Art Institute, NYU, and Asiko, an experimental pan-African summer intensive for artists.
Her writing has been included in publications for Documenta 14, Brooklyn Museum, Sharjah Art Foundation, and the Devi Art Foundation, among others. Megha received an MA in Visual Culture from Goldsmiths and a BA in Art History and Anthropology from Columbia University.
She is currently a board member of Artist Communities Alliance, Enrich Chicago, and a member of SpaceShift, an interdisciplinary art collective based in Chicago.
Ayo Adeyinka
Ayo Adeyinka is a London-based art dealer and gallerist.
Since its founding, his gallery TAFETA, has remained a leading purveyor of important 20th century artists of African descent, whilst constantly showcasing new contemporary talent. The gallery, located in Fitzrovia, London, is regularly featured in notable international publications such as the Financial Times, The New York Times, the Art Newspaper and has worked to place contemporary African art in prominent public and private collections…
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Since its founding, his gallery TAFETA, has remained a leading purveyor of important 20th century artists of African descent, whilst constantly showcasing new contemporary talent. The gallery, located in Fitzrovia, London, is regularly featured in notable international publications such as the Financial Times, The New York Times, the Art Newspaper and has worked to place contemporary African art in prominent public and private collections, including the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Arts, Washington D.C, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the House of European History, Brussels to name a few.
With a Bachelors degree from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria and a MSc Finance from Westminster University London, Ayo spent the first 10 years of his professional career in financial services, but over time has gained recognition as a leading specialist in contemporary African arts.
A seasoned cultural entrepreneur, he has acted as a consultant for key art projects globally and was a panelist at The New York Times Art Leaders Network conference in Berlin, Germany.
Emeka Ogboh
Emeka Ogboh is a multidisciplinary artist whose work engages the five human senses – sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch – to explore the interplay between memory, history, and identity.
Through immersive art installations and culinary creations, Ogboh examines how personal and collective experiences are translated into sensory encounters, offering a unique lens to address critical issues such as migration, globalization, and post-colonialism.
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Emeka Ogboh is a multidisciplinary artist whose work engages the five human senses – sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch – to explore the interplay between memory, history, and identity. Through immersive art installations and culinary creations, Ogboh examines how personal and collective experiences are translated into sensory encounters, offering a unique lens to address critical issues such as migration, globalization, and post-colonialism.
In recent years, Ogboh has expanded his practice into the realm of music, releasing his debut album, ‘Beyond the Yellow Haze’, on the Ostgut Ton sub-label A-TON in 2021. This was followed by his second album, ‘6°30′33.372″N 3°22′0.66″E’, under his self-founded label, Danfotronics, in 2022. These musical projects extend his exploration of sensory perception, using sound to evoke place, memory, and cultural narratives.
Ogboh’s work has been featured in international exhibitions, including documenta 14 in Athens and Kassel (2017), Skulptur Projekte Münster (2017), the 56th Venice Biennale (2015), and the Dakar Biennale (2014). His contributions to contemporary art have earned him accolades, such as the Sharjah Biennale Prize (2019), a nomination for the Hugo Boss Prize (2018), and the Prize of the Böttcherstraße in Bremen (2016).
By blending sensory art, music, and culinary practices, Ogboh invites audiences to experience the world in profoundly new ways, challenging conventional understandings of reality and identity.
Odun Orimolade
Odun Orimolade PhD is an artist, researcher, academic, curator and cultural practitioner whose open practice and research embraces experimental and trans-disciplinary approaches.
She explores space, overlapping realities, plausibility, and the intangible in relation to human behavior, interaction and navigation mechanisms alongside other participatory practices mentorship and collaborations on different issues. She contributes to various fields of creative activity in addition to community projects and workshops.
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Odun Orimolade PhD is an artist, researcher, academic, curator and cultural practitioner whose open practice and research embraces experimental and trans-disciplinary approaches. She explores space, overlapping realities, plausibility, and the intangible in relation to human behavior, interaction and navigation mechanisms alongside other participatory practices mentorship and collaborations on different issues.
She contributes to various fields of creative activity in addition to community projects and workshops. She has presented her creative work in several spaces. Orimolade lectures at the Yaba College of Technology. She has served as coordinator for the UNESCO/UNEVOC Center for Research and Sustainable Development, Sub-Dean of the School of Art, Design, and Printing, and curator of the Yusuf Grillo Gallery.
She also served as founding curator for the new Yusuf Grillo Museum, Lagos and Research Fellow of the College of Human Sciences, University of South Africa.
She currently serves as the Curatorial Director of the Yaba Art Museum.
She is strongly committed to collaboration for creative development and civic responsibility. She is fellow of the Lagos Studies Association, she is also fellow of the Society of Nigerian Artists. She is a member of the Arts council of the African Studies Association and the Common Wealth of Learning. She is also member of the Out of Site Performance Initiative, Chicago amongst other engagements such as organizing the Annual Performance Art Intensive Workshop in Lagos.
Wura-Natasha Ogunji
Wura-Natasha Ogunji is a visual artist and performer. Her works include, paintings, videos and public performances. She is deeply inspired by the daily interactions and frequencies that occur in the city of Lagos, Nigeria, where she currently lives. Ogunji’s performances explore the presence of women in public space; these often include investigations of labor, leisure, freedom and frivolity.
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Recent exhibitions include A World in Common: Contemporary African Photography at Tate Modern, 2023-24; rīvus, 23rd Biennale of Sydney, 2022; Diaspora at Home, Kadist Foundation, Paris, 2021; and The Power of My Hands: Afrique(s) artistes femmes, Museum of Modern Art, Paris, 2021. Ogunji was an Artist-Curator for the 33rd São Paulo Bienal where her large-scale performance Days of Being Free premiered. She has also exhibited at: Palais de Tokyo; The Lagos Biennial; Kochi-Muziris Biennale; Stellenbosch Triennale; Seattle Art Museum; Brooklyn Art Museum; and Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark. Ogunji is a recipient of the Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship and has received grants from The Pollock-Krasner Foundation; The Dallas Museum of Art; and the Idea Fund.
Ogunji’s works are in the collections of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden; The Baltimore Museum of Art; Smithsonian National Museum of African Art; International African American Museum, Charleston; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark; North Dakota Museum of Art; The University of Texas at Austin; Marieluise Hessel Collection, Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College; and Kadist Foundation.
She has a BA from Stanford University (1992, Anthropology) and an MFA from San Jose State University (1998, Photography). She resides in Lagos where she is founder of the experimental art space The Treehouse.