The Norval Sovereign African Art Prize 2025

Thato Mogotsi (b. 1984, Johannesburg) has curated and collaborated on several artist-led and research informed projects and exhibitions in various South African art institutions including the ohannesburg Art Gallery; the Market Photo Workshop; the Apartheid Museum; Constitution Hill; Wits School of Art; and the Wits Art Museum. In 2019, Mogotsi was a curatorial fellow of the Thami Mnyele Foundation’s Residency Award in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. She has participated in curatorial research excursions and residencies in Belfast, Northern Ireland (invited by the British Council for the 2013 Turner Prize announcement); Switzerland (with Pro-Helvetia for the 2016 Plat(t)form Photography Festival at Fotomuseum Winterthur); the Netherlands (with the Mondriaan Fond in 2017 and 2019); and Vienna (with Phileas: The Austrian Office for Contemporary Art in 2024). In 2022, Mogotsi joined Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) as Assistant Curator where she recently co-curated GILT, a seminal retrospective on the decades-long practice of Nigerian-born, British artist, Mary Evans as well as a survey exhibition on the critical practice of French photographer Mame-Diarra Niang, titled Self as a Forgotten Monument; both presented in 2023. Her ongoing focus as a museum worker is informed by artist-centred exchange within models of institution-building that further complicate notions of curatorial responsibility and authorship.

Born in Zimbabwe, Chikukwa holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Arts and Culture Management from the
University of the Witwatersrand Business School and an MA in Curating Contemporary Design from
Kingston University, which he attained as a Chevening Scholar. Chikukwa is a Museum of
Modern Art (MoMA)/ International Curatorial Institute Centre for Curatorial Leadership (CCL)
2021 Fellow.

Chikukwa joined the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in 2010 as its Chief Curator and is now the
Executive Director and Chief Curator of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe. Before joining the National
Gallery of Zimbabwe, Chikukwa worked for over ten years as an independent curator. Raphael
Chikukwa is the founding Curator of the Pavilion of Zimbabwe at the Venice Biennale, starting from the 54th, up to the 58th Edition. He is committed to a multitude of Committees, among them, High Line
Plinth in New York 2020, DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service), the Delfina Foundation London
UK, the Future Generation Art Prize, and served as juror for the Dakar Biennale in 2018.

Chikukwa has been on various international panels that includes, Art Basel Hong Kong Conversations
in 2019, Art Basel Miami USA 2008, and the Joburg Art Fair. He has contributed to a number of Publications that include, a newly published African Art Reframed: Reflections and Dialogue on
Museum Culture by University of Illinois Press USA, Mawonero/ Umbono: Insights in Zimbabwean
Contemporary Art, Zimbabwe Pavilion Catalogues (Seeing Ourselves 2011, Dudziro 2013, Pixels of
Ubuntu/Unhu 2015, Deconstructing Boundaries 2017 and Soko Risina Musoro – A Tale Without a
Head 2019) Kabbo Ka Muwala: Migration and Mobility Exhibition 2016 etc.

His qualifications and international experience earned his position at the national institution, which he hopes to change the visual arts landscape of Zimbabwe. The 2nd Johannesburg Biennale in 1997 provided an impetus to Raphael Chikukwa’s curatorial career after working as a volunteer guide for the Biennaleunder the watchful eye of the late Okwui Enwezor. He later moved back to his home country Zimbabwe as a process of relocation to his motherland. Some of the major exhibitions he curated include HIFA (Harare International Festival of the Arts) 2000 up to 2004, Lime Transmission Commonwealth Exhibition in Manchester, 2004 Visions of Zimbabwe at the Manchester City Art Gallery and African Heroes in 2006 at the Imperial War Museum North. Chikukwa is a founding Staff member of the PUMA funded Creative Africa Network as an editor and advisor of the project from 2008 – 2009.

b. 1983, Botswana

Same Mdluli is an artist, art historian and curator, and writer living in Johannesburg. She holds a PhD in Art History, MA in Arts and Culture Management from Wits University and a B-Tech degree in Fine Arts (cum laude) from the University of Johannesburg. Professionally she has worked as an assistant and administrator for artists and both private and public cultural institutions such as Goodman Gallery (both Cape Town and Johannesburg) and Wits Art Museum. She has also taught arts at various school levels ranging from primary school to tertiary education. She has participated in various art exhibitions in here capacity as curator or artist and presented papers at various conferences both locally and internationally in addition to awards such as the Arts and Culture Trust Arts Writing Mentorship and Post Graduate Merit Awards. She has also participated in a number of international residencies including as a Junior Research Scholar at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles and as guest researcher at the Institut National d’histoire de l’art (INHA) in Paris for the ‘Culture Profession’ programme under Art and Globalisation. Her research interests are in contemporary African art, black expressive modes and aesthetics as well as the conversations between jazz and visual art. Before she was being appointed curator and manager at the Standard Bank Gallery, she was a sessional lecturer at Wits University in the Art History.

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. Member and spokesperson of the Finding Committee of Documenta 16. 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. In 1998, he created the Pan African master classes in photography, with the Goethe Institute and directed it for over 12 years. He published and edited numerous books among which two biographies, James Baldwin and Leopold Sédar Senghor, and four novels. His latest publication is Stories Histories, the story of Revue noire (2021). Njami studied literature, law, and philosophy at the Sorbonne University in Paris.

Tim Marlow is Chief Executive and Director of the Design Museum in London.

Formerly Artistic Director of the Royal Academy of Arts and Director of Exhibitions at White Cube, Marlow has been involved in the contemporary art world for the past thirty years as a curator, writer and broadcaster.  He has worked with many of the most important and influential artists of our time to deliver wide-ranging and popular programmes and brings a commitment to diverse and engaging exhibitions to his new role showcasing the transformational capability of design.

Marlow sits on the Board of Trustees for the Imperial War Museum, the Design Age Institute and Cultureshock Media. Marlow was awarded an OBE in 2019.