Yesomi Umolu facts for kids

Yesomi Umolu (born in 1983 or 1984) is a British expert in contemporary art. She is a curator, which means she plans and organizes art exhibitions. She is also a writer. Since 2020, she has been a director at the Serpentine Galleries in London.

Before joining the Serpentine Galleries, Yesomi worked at other important art places. These included the Walker Art Center and the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum. She also worked at the Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago. In 2019, she was the artistic director for the Chicago Architecture Biennial.

Yesomi Umolu has written for magazines like Art in America. She often writes and speaks about important topics. These include diversity and structural racism in museums. She wants museums to be fair and welcoming to everyone.

Yesomi Umolu's Early Life and Education

Yesomi Umolu was born and grew up in Lagos, Nigeria. Her mother was an English teacher. Her father worked for the government. When she was ten years old, Yesomi moved to London. As a teenager, she was part of an art group at the famous Tate Modern museum.

She studied architectural design at the University of Edinburgh. She earned a master's degree there. After working as an architect for a few years, Yesomi decided to focus on art curation. She was interested in how buildings and spaces affect people and society. In 2010, she earned another master's degree. This one was in contemporary art curating from the Royal College of Art.

Yesomi Umolu's Work as a Curator

Early in her career, Yesomi helped with programs at Tate Modern. She also worked at Iniva and the Serpentine Gallery. In 2012, she became a special curator at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, USA. There, she organized the first solo exhibition in the U.S. for artists Karen Mirza and Brad Butler. She also worked on many other art shows.

Next, Yesomi became an assistant curator at the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum. This museum is at Michigan State University. She planned programs that showed art from all over the world. In 2014, she organized John Akomfrah: Imaginary Possessions. This was the first U.S. museum show focusing on the recent work of British artist John Akomfrah.

Other exhibitions she worked on included Focus: Pao Houa Her (2015). She also curated The Land Grant: Forest Law (2014) and Revelations: Examining Democracy (2013). Her last project at the Broad Museum was Material Effects. This show looked at the art of six artists from West African countries. Art critics praised her work, saying she brought the art and artists of Africa to Michigan.

In 2015, the University of Chicago chose Yesomi Umolu as the exhibitions curator for its Logan Center for the Arts. Besides her curating work, she also taught about modern visual art. In 2016, she received a special award from the Andy Warhol Foundation.

Her 2018 exhibition, Candice Lin: A Hard White Body, a Porous Slip, was very successful. It was named one of the top 20 U.S. exhibitions of the year. In 2019, Yesomi became the artistic director of the Chicago Architecture Biennial. She worked with other curators to create a program. It featured works from over eighty art groups and firms. These were shown in forty different places across Chicago. People said the biennial showed how architecture and design connect with power, racism, and inequality.

In 2020, Yesomi Umolu became the director of curatorial affairs and public practice for the Serpentine Galleries in London. In this role, she works to make the Serpentine's programs more welcoming and open to everyone.

Yesomi Umolu's Writing

Yesomi Umolu's writing has appeared in many journals. These include Art in America and Afterimage. She has also written and spoken about important topics. These include diversity and structural racism in museums.

In June 2020, Yesomi shared an Instagram post. It was called "14 Points on the Limits of Knowledge and Care." In it, she talked about how museums are connected to the past. She explained how museums could recognize this history. She also wrote about how they could rebuild to be more fair and anti-racist. She wrote a similar article for Artnet News later that month.