Christine Eyene is an art critic, independent curator and consultant. She was curator of the African selection of the 3rd edition of Photoquai - Biennial of World Images, Musée du Quai Branly, Paris, Sept. 2011; Gwanza 2011 - Month of Photography, National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare, August 2011; and co-curator of FOCUS11 - Contemporary Art Africa, part of Art|42|Basel's Public Program, June 2011.
Recent exhibitions also include: "Reflections on the Self - Five African Women Photographers", (Hayward Touring Programme), Royal Festival Hall, London and touring the UK (2011-2014); and "[Kaddu Jigeen] La Parole aux Femmes", Galerie le Manege, Dakar and touring (2011-2012).
Her previous projects include "George Hallett: Portraits of Exile - South African Artists in London and Paris 1970s-1980s", Bonhams, London, October 2010; "Uprooting the Gaze: foreign places familiar patterns", Brighton Photo Fringe, Oct.-Nov. 2010; and FOCUS10 – Contemporary Art Africa, parallel event of Art|41|Basel, June 2010.
Prior to working as an independent curator, Eyene was consultant for PUMA from 2008 to 2010. In this role, she developed the initial phase of the website Creative Africa Network and fostered the partnership between puma.creative and the 8th Bamako Encounters (2009).
From 2006 to 2009 she was publishing director of Africultures, journal to which she has been contributing since 2002.
In 2004-05 she developed a number of exhibitions as part of Africa 05. She organised the London touring of "Design Made in Africa" (Brunei Gallery, Oct-Nov 2005) in collaboration with AFAA (currently known as Institut Francais, Paris), curated the Starbucks Africa 05 Festival, a series of multidisciplinary events held in London, Birmingham and Manchester, and "George Hallett - Memories of Exile", Spitz Gallery, London (October 2005).
From 2002 to 2003, she worked with South African artist, curator and editor Mario Pissarra on the Contemporary Africa Database developed by the Africa Centre, London.
Prior to moving to the UK, she was selected for the Programme Young Cultural Professionals of AFAA (Institut Francais) to train with curator Nadine Descendre at the French Institute of Rabat, Morocco. From Sept 2000 to March 2001, she worked on the exhibitions of artists Christian Boltanski, Kazimir Malevitch, Alain Fleischer, Mona Hatoum, Shirin Neshat and designer Pierre Paulin.
She sits in a number of committees including Art Moves Africa (2012-2013), and was a member of jury of the Fondation Blachère Prize awarded at the Dak’Art Biennale in 2010 and 2008, and the Bamako Encounters in 2009 and 2007. In 2006, she was member of the selection committee of the exhibition "Financial Times" by Godfried Donkor, presented at Hackney Museum (London) in 2007, on the occasion of the Bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act. The year before, she acted as a consultant for Hackney Museum's exhibition "Africa in Focus'", a selection from "Africa Remix" then showed at the Hayward Gallery (2005).
As an art critic she has contributed articles to Africultures, Art South Africa, Basler Zeitung, Manifesta Journal, Third Text, and written essays in books and exhibition catalogues. She has been member of the editorial board of Africultures, Paris, since 2002.
She is contributor and co-editor with Katrina Schwarz of "Seeing Ourselves" (Milan: Charta, Art Books, 2011), catalogue of the Zimbabwe Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale.
Christine Eyene holds a D.E.A (Diplôme d'Etudes Approfondies) in History of Contemporary Art, Université Paris 1 – Panthéon-Sorbonne (1999), supervised by art critic and historian Philippe Dagen.
