ICI (Independent Curators International) has developed its first touring curatorial conversation in the U.S. with Bisi Silva, an independent curator and the founder/director of the Centre for Contemporary Art in Lagos, Nigeria. At the New Museum the conversation will explore the growing impact of transnational practice, using Silva’s extensive curatorial experiences across Africa, Asia, and Europe as a starting point for discussion. Looking at the potential for new dynamic forms of exhibition-making and cultural exchange, Silva will present her research into artists, as well as her perspectives on the expansion of curatorial networks and emerging collaborative institutional models around the world. ICI’s executive director Kate Fowle will moderate.

Bisi Silva is an independent curator and the founder/director of the Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos (CCA, Lagos), which opened in December 2007. She was co-curator of the 2nd Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, Greece, “Praxis: Art in Times of Uncertainty” (September 2009), as well as “Maputo: A tale of One City” (February 2009). In 2008 she was co-selector with Portuguese curator Isabel Carlos for the international Artists’ Prize, Artes Mundi 3. In 2007 Silva co-curated “Contact Zone: Contemporary Art from West and North Africa” at the National Museum of Mali, as well as “Telling… Contemporary Finnish Photography” at the 7th African photography biennale in Bamako. As director of CCA, Lagos, she has curated “Fela, Ghariokwu Lemi and The Art of the Album Cover” (2007); “Ndidi Dike, Waka-into-bondage: The Last ¾ Mile” (2008) and “George Osodi, Paradise Lost: Revisiting the Niger Delta” (2008) as well as “‘Like A Virgin...’, Lucy Azubuike (NIG)” and “Zanele Muholi (SA)” (2009). In 2006 Silva co-curated the Dakar Biennale in Senegal. Other recent curatorial projects include “In the light of Play” at Durban Art Gallery and Johannesburg Art Fair (March/April 2009) and “Chance Encounters’,Seven Contemporary Artists from Africa” at Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, India (April/May 2009) and Sakshi Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan (Aug/Oct 2009). Silva has written for international art magazines and journals such as Artforum, artinfo.com, Art Monthly, Untitled, Third Text, M Metropolis, Agufon, and for Nigerian newspapers such as ThisDay and 234Next. She is on the editorial board of N Paradoxa, an international feminist art journal.

ICI (Independent Curators International) produces exhibitions, events, publications, and training opportunities for diverse audiences around the world. A catalyst for independent thinking, ICI connects emerging and established curators, artists, and institutions, to forge international networks and generate new forms of collaboration. Working across disciplines and historical precedents, the organization is a hub that provides access to the people, ideas, and practices that are key to current developments in the field, inspiring fresh ways of seeing and contextualizing contemporary art.