• Friday, March 29, 2024
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BusinessDay

Peju Oshin – Associate Director at the Gagosian Gallery

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If art mavens, Bisi Silva and Okwui Enwezor had a love child, that child would look a lot like multi-hyphenate, Peju Oshin, curator, writer and lecturer.

Oshin was recently appointed Associate Director at the Gagosian Gallery following her departure from Tate where she worked as Curator: Young People’s Programmes.

Peju’s position in the art world as curator and tastemaker has placed her squarely at the intersection of art, style and culture, with a focus on what she describes as “liminal theory through working with visual artists, brands and people globally.”

With her focus on the “marginalised” in a sector which she has described as “having a heritage that is typically very white, middle class”, she can be seen to be continuing in the steps of Bisi Silva who as founder and artistic director of the Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos (CCA, Lagos) Lagos, helped introduce fresh new talents and voices, and also stepping into the shoes of Okwui Enwezor, whose giant strides in the curatorial space saw him as the first black non-European artistic director of Documenta 11.

A statement from the Gagosian Gallery had praise for Oshin, “Peju joins after four and a half years at Tate…while at Tate, she delivered exciting and ambitious projects in support of young and emerging artists, as well as cultural leaders across the arts community… In her new role at the gallery, Peju will continue her work promoting the visibility of artists from both the global majority and those who identify as people of colour through our own programming as well as within the greater arts ecosystem in London.”

Speaking on her practice, Oshin has noted that “my work is about connecting people to art, cultural and educational experiences through working with artists, archives and cultural artefacts. I have and continue to work with amazing brands, organisations, institutions and collaborators across the visual arts and media.”

Oshin’s move from the Tate, an institution that houses the United Kingdom’s national collection of British art, as well as international modern and contemporary art to the Gagosian Gallery, which exhibits and provides space to some of the most influential artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, is testament to her talent and experience.

Peju Oshin will be tapping into decades of experience and a world of contacts and connections to make her a cultural powerhouse to expand opportunities for artists of colour, and those from the global south.

Peju Oshin who was shortlisted for the Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe list in the Arts & Culture category (2021), has a background in architecture and completed her PgCert in Academic Practice in Art, Design and Communication at University of the Arts London in 2019, and in that same year became an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA). She is an Associate Lecturer at Central Saint Martins and was a visiting critic at the Royal College of Art for the School of Paintings 2020 Graduate show.