Qatar Museums (QM) has appointed Nigerian curator Azu Nwagbogu as the artistic director of the fourth Tasweer Photography Biennial, slated to open in Doha in April 2027.

Nwagbogu brings nearly two decades of leadership experience to the role. He is the founder and director of the nonprofit African Artists’ Foundation (AAF) in Lagos, and established the LagosPhoto Festival in 2010, marking Nigeria’s first international exhibition dedicated to photography. His curatorial practice centers on marginalized histories, interrogating Western-centric narratives while exploring questions of repatriation and decolonial identity. In 2017, Nwagbogu joined the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) in Cape Town as curator at large of photography, later serving as the institution’s interim director and chief curator from 2018 to 2019. 

Beyond curating shows at AAF and Zeitz MOCAA, Nwagbogu has overseen projects at various institutions across the globe, from the Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels and the Rencontres d’Arles to the Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art in Tamale. In 2024, he led Benin’s inaugural pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale, which featured four artists examining spirituality, Pan-Africanism, and ecological fragility. He is also the recipient of the Royal Photographic Society’s 2021 Curator of the Year Award and was named a 2026 Art Basel Medalist in the Curator category. 

In a press release, Nwagbogu expressed his gratitude over the appointment, noting, “Images have always shaped our perception of the world; what is new is the speed and scale of their circulation, and the new ways they ask us to look, remember, and interpret. Tasweer creates an important space to engage and host that changing visual language with ethical and intellectual courage.”

Launched by QM in 2021 under the auspices of QM chairperson Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Tasweer is a leading platform for emerging and established lens-based practitioners from West Asia and beyond. The 2027 edition is the first to be presented under QM’s forthcoming Art Mill Museum. 

Eva Brank is an editorial intern at ArtAsiaPacific.