Simon Njami

Simon Njami is a Paris-based independent curator, lecturer, art critic and novelist. Njami was the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Revue Noire, a journal of contemporary African and extra-occidental art. He served as artistic director of the first Johannesburg art fair in 2008, the Bamako photography biennale for ten years, and the Dak’Art Biennale (2016/2018). He co-curated the first African pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007. Njami was curator of the 2020 Abu Dhabi art fair and co-curator of the Sao Paulo Biennale 2002. He is member of the jury of MAST photography awards in Bologna. 

Njami has curated numerous exhibitions of contemporary art and photography, including Africa Remix (2004/2007) and the first African Art Fair, held in Johannesburg in 2008. The Divine Comedy (2014), at the MMK (Museum fur Moderne Kunst) in Frankfurt, SCAD, Savannah (2014) and The Smithsonian in Washington DC (2015). Xenopolis (Berlin 2015), After Eden, The Artur Walther Collection, (Maison Rouge, Paris, 2015), Afriques Capitales (Paris, Lille 2017), Metropolis(Maxxi, Rome, 2018), I is another (Galleria Nazionale, Rome 2018), Aujourd’hui (National Museum of Cameroon, 2019), The Studio (Kampala Biennale 2019) This space between us (Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno, Las Palmas 2020), Materia Prima (San Gimignano, 2021), A collective Diary (Tunis 2022), Charades (Marrakech 2022). Njami is the chief-curator of the international annual exhibition Something Else, at the Salah Adin Citadel in Cairo (2023). He curated Awakenings Abu Dhabi Louvres (2024) Il Sole Nero, Naples (2025), Maschere Naples (2025)

Njami studied literature, law, and philosophy at the Sorbonne University in Paris.