After graduating, Nzewi traveled internationally for six years as an independent artist and curator, and was involved in the curation of three iterations of the Afrika Heritage Biennial. In 2006, Nzewi moved to
Cape Town, South Africa, where he worked on a yearlong postgraduate program in Museum and Heritage Studies at the
University of Western Cape while serving as an
artist-in-residence at the Greatmore Studio in
Woodstock, Cape Town. The next year, 2007, Nzewi moved to
Atlanta, Georgia, and began a doctorate degree in art history at
Emory University. During his doctoral years, he curated at Atlanta's
High Museum (2009) and received
Robert Sterling Clark and
Smithsonian fellowships. He wrote his dissertation on the
Dak'Art biennial's influence on contemporary African art, and graduated in May 2013. As an artist, Nzewi has participated in shows and residencies in Africa, Europe, and the United States. He has collaborated with
Emeka Ogboh, whom he met in college. Under the moniker One-Room Shack, the pair prepared an installation for the
Watermans Arts Centre in 2012 in which visitors walk through interconnected letters that spell "UNITY", a reflection on the
Olympic spirit. In August 2013, Nzewi became the
Dartmouth College Hood Museum of Art's first curator of
African art, where he mounted shows on
Eric Van Hove and
Ekpe textiles. After four years, Nzewi left Dartmouth to become the
Cleveland Museum of Art's curator of African art. In addition, Nzewi served among the three curators of the 2014 Dak'Art biennial, which focused on themes of globalization (expressed through African ideas of communalism) and anonymity. Dak'Art had served as important link between the African and international
art world, and Nzewi helped to situate the show's own role in developing "
pan-African internationalism". In mid-2015, Nzewi curated a monthlong survey of African art at the
Richard Taittinger Gallery in New York. The show was named after the 1967 comedy-drama film ''
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner''. In late 2016, Nzewi served as a guest curator at the
Shanghai Biennale.
MoMA, 2019–present In 2019, Nzewi was appointed Steven and Lisa Tananbaum Curator in the Department of Painting and Sculpture at the New York
Museum of Modern Art. In 2023, Nzewi was part of the selection committee that nominated
Zasha Colah as artistic director of the
Berlin Biennale in 2025. Among his considerations as a curator, Nzewi cites the importance of art history and his curiosity in how artworks reveal collective
social imagination through expression and interpretation. He has expressed interest in learning from the
creative process as artists make intellectual decisions about their work on reflection of how it will be received by others and the market. He has published essays in multiple academic art journals, contributed to
Grove Art Online, and co-edited a volume on independent African art initiatives. == References ==