African Judges Biographies
Riason Naidoo
Riason Naidoo was born in Chatsworth, Durban in 1970. He has BA and MA in Fine Art from University of the Witwatersrand. He has curated photographic exhibitions on the work of photographer Ranjith Kally and on the themes of memory, identity and race that have been shown in South African museums and in Mali, Austria, Spain and France. He is also author of The Indian in DRUM magazine in the 1950s published in 2008. Riason most recently directed the South Africa-Mali Project: Timbuktu Manuscripts for the South African Presidency and the Department of Arts & Culture (2003-2009), also NEPAD's first cultural project. He has previously been coordinator of artistic projects for the French Institute of South Africa (IFAS) in Johannesburg; taught drawing and painting at the University of Witwatersrand; and worked as education officer at the Durban Art Gallery. He is currently director of the South African National Gallery & Old Town House, part of Art Collections department at Iziko Museums. He has also worked as an artist in painting and new media and his work is represented in public art collections around the country.