1. Ekow Eshun was born on 27 May 1968 and is a British writer, journalist, broadcaster, and curator.
20 Facts About Ekow Eshun
1. 2.
Ekow Eshun was the first Black editor of a major magazine in the UK and continued to break ground as the first Black director of a major arts organisation, the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London.
3.
Ekow Eshun curated In the Black Fantastic at London's Hayward Gallery in July 2022, a landmark exhibition of visionary Black artists exploring myth, science fiction and Afrofuturism.
4.
Ekow Eshun attended Kingsbury High School in North West London, later reading history and politics at the London School of Economics.
5.
Ekow Eshun was the director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London from 2005 to 2010, during a period of turmoil for the organisation.
6.
Ekow Eshun has appeared as a critic on Saturday Review on BBC Radio 4 and formerly on BBC Two's The Review Show.
7.
Ekow Eshun appeared in 2009 in the television advertisements for Aviva.
8.
Ekow Eshun has often appeared on More4's topical talk show The Last Word.
9.
Ekow Eshun is the younger brother of writer Kodwo Eshun.
10.
Since 2015, Ekow Eshun has worked as an independent curator working internationally on shows which often focus on race and identity.
11.
The Time is Always Now is a show that Ekow Eshun curated for the National Portrait Gallery, opening in February 2024.
12.
Ekow Eshun curated In the Black Fantastic at the Hayward Gallery in London in July 2022, a landmark exhibition of visionary Black artists exploring myth, science fiction and Afrofuturism.
13.
The exhibition, curated by Ekow Eshun, won Time Out Londons Sustainable Event of the Year prize in 2021.
14.
Africa State of Mind was the name of a book of African photography that Ekow Eshun published with Thames and Hudson.
15.
Ekow Eshun wrote an essay for Seeing by Duro Olowu.
16.
Ekow Eshun focuses on Olowu's role within Britain's black and Afro-Caribbean creative community.
17.
Ekow Eshun is an influential writer delivering timely, insightful analysis of complex issues of culture, art and identity.
18.
Ekow Eshun writes for publications including The New York Times, The Financial Times and The Guardian, and has been a Contributing Editor at Wallpaper.
19.
From his early days as the Assistant Editor of iconic style magazine The Face, and then editor of Arena men's magazine, Ekow Eshun has written influential thought pieces exploring style, masculinity, race and the changing face of modern Britain, and has interviewed iconic figures from Prince and Bjork to Neneh Cherry and Hilary Mantel.
20.
In early autumn 1996, Ekow Eshun interviewed Prince at his Paisley Park complex outside Minneapolis.