The 2026 Sovereign African Art Prize

Azu Nwagbogu is an internationally acclaimed curator, interested in evolving new models of engagement with questions of decolonization, restitution, and repatriation. In his practice, the exhibition becomes an experimental site for reflection, civic engagement, ecology and repatriation – both tangible and symbolic. Nwagbogu is the Founder and Director of African Artists’ Foundation (AAF), a non- profit organisation based in Lagos, Nigeria. He also serves as Founder and Director of LagosPhoto Festival, an annual international arts festival of photography held in Lagos. He is the publisher of Art Base Africa, a virtual space to discover and learn about contemporary art from Africa and its diasporas. In 2021, Nwagbogu was awarded “Curator of Year 2021” by the Royal Photographic Society, UK, and also listed amongst the hundred most influential people in the art world by ArtReview. In 2021, Nwagbogu launched the project “Dig Where You Stand (DWYS) – From Coast to Coast” which offers a new model for institutional building and engagement, with questions of decolonization, restitution and repatriation, the exhibition took place in Ibrahim’s Mahama’s culture hub SCCA in Tamale, Ghana. In 2023, Nwagbogu was appointed “Explorer at Large” by National Geographic Society to serve as an ambassador for the Organization and receive support to continue his storytelling work across Africa and globally, a title bestowed on a select few global change makers. Most recently in 2024, Nwagbogu curated the first ever Benin Pavilion at the 60th edition of the Venice Biennale. Nwagbogu’s primary interest is in reinventing the idea of the museum and its role as a civic space for engagement for society at large.

A native of France and Cameroon, Janine Gaëlle Dieudji is an independent exhibitions maker and producer living between Florence and Marrakech where she served as Director of Exhibitions at the Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden (MACAAL) for four years.

Past and current experiences include exhibitions and projects in collaboration with institutions such as Le Murate Art District, American Academy in Rome, Villa Romana, Gallerie degli Uffizi as Co-director and Vice-president of the association BHMF (Black History Month Florence), as well as Co-founder of The Recovery Plan cultural center in Florence, Italy.

Riason Naidoo is a curator, writer, researcher and artist. He curated neuf-3, a public art project in the Parisian suburb of Saint-Denis (2021-23); Any Given Sunday in Cape Town (2016); retrospective exhibitions on the work of Cape Town artist Peter Clarke in Dakar, London and Paris (2012-2013); A Portrait of South Africa: George Hallett, Peter Clarke and Gerard Sekoto in Paris (2013) as part of the South African Season in France; the ambitious 1910-2010: From Pierneef to Gugulective—that comprised 580 artworks from 49 collections and reflected on a century of South African art—at the South African National Gallery (2010); The Indian in Drum magazine in the 1950s shown across South Africa (2006-2011); 7 exhibitions on the work of Durban photographer Ranjith Kally in Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town, Bamako, Barcelona, Vienna and Reunion Island (2004-2011). In 2002 he worked with French activist artist Ernest Pignon-Ernest on ‘Soweto-Warwick’—a public art project that took place in Durban and Johannesburg. He was co-curator of the 10th edition of the Dak’art biennale in Senegal, and he curated exhibitions at the 2005 and 2019 Rencontres Africaines de la Photographie in Mali.

Naidoo directed the South African National Gallery (2009-2015); directed the ‘South Africa-Mali Project: Timbuktu Manuscripts’ (2003-2009); managed artistic projects for the French Institute of South Africa (2001-2003); lectured in drawing and painting at the University of the Witwatersrand (1999-2000); managed the art education programme at the Durban Art Gallery (1996-1999).

In 2016 the French Ministry of Culture decorated him with the title of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters). Living in Paris for 5 years from 2018-2023, Naidoo was curator and writer in residence at the Cité Internationale des Arts (2018-2020). He was a research fellow at the Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art (INHA) in 2020-21. Following this INHA invited him to convene a conference, that he titled Pioneers of Contemporary African Art, for which he invited 22 experts from 10 countries to Paris in 2022. Naidoo has published widely on modern and contemporary South African and African art.

Richard Mudariki is a Zimbabwean-born artist and cultural producer based between Cape Town and Harare. A painter with over two decades of practice, his work engages with contemporary African life, politics, and identity through a distinctly narrative and satirical visual language. His paintings are held in major private and public collections internationally and have been exhibited at leading art fairs and institutions including 1-54 London and New York, AKAA Paris, Investec Cape Town Art Fair, and the National Gallery of Zimbabwe.

Beyond his studio practice, Mudariki is the founder of artHARARE, a contemporary art gallery and project space dedicated to showcasing modern and contemporary art from Zimbabwe and its diaspora. He is also the founding director of the Cape Town Studio Museum, an artist residency and research initiative fostering cross-cultural exchange across the continent.

Through these platforms, Mudariki has become a key advocate for the visibility of African artists globally, curating exhibitions, initiating residency exchanges, and developing projects that bridge art, design, and cultural entrepreneurship. His work as both artist and producer reflects his belief in the transformative power of creativity and the philosophy of Ubuntu.

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.