Riason Naidoo

Born in Chatsworth, outside Durban, Naidoo is a curator, researcher, filmmaker and artist.

He is curating a public art project entitled neuf 3 involving African artists that will take place in Parisian suburb of Saint-Denis in 2021. In 2016 Naidoo curated the public art project Any Given Sunday in Cape Town. He curated A Portrait of South Africa: George Hallett, Peter Clarke and Gerard Sekoto (2013) in Paris. While director of the South African National Gallery (2009-2015) Naidoo curated the blockbuster exhibition 1910-2010: From Pierneef to Gugulective (2010). He was co-curator of the 10th edition of Dak’art in Senegal (2012), the biennale of contemporary African art. Naidoo curated exhibitions at the Bamako Encounters photo biennale in Mali (2019 & 2005). He curated exhibitions on Cape Town artist Peter Clarke presented in Paris (2013), London (2013) and Dakar (2012); on Durban photographer Ranjith Kally shown in Cape Town (2011), Reunion Island (2007), Barcelona (2006), Vienna (2006), Bamako (2005), Durban (2004) and Johannesburg (2004).

Naidoo curated The Indian in Drum magazine in the 1950s photo exhibition (2006) from the Drum magazine archives that toured venues in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town between 2006 and 2011; he published the book by the same name in 2008 (Cape Town: Bell-Roberts Publishing).

Inspired by the Drum exhibition and book he co-produced and co-directed, with Damon Heatlie, the documentary Legends of the Casbah (2016) shown at the 33rd Durban International Film Festival and in Paris, Gothenburg, New York, Dubai, et al.

Select artworks from his solo exhibition Bridging the Gap (1997)—held at the Kwazulu Natal Society of the Arts Gallery in Durban—are in the collections of the Durban Art Gallery, University of KwaZulu-Natal, the Pretoria Art Museum et al.

Graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (1996) and Master of Arts (2008) both in Fine Arts from the University of the Witwatersrand, Naidoo is currently engaged in doctoral research in Art History (University of Cape Town).

Naidoo regularly writes on modern and contemporary African art for publications in Johannesburg, Paris, and New York.