Independent Curators International (ICI), a New York-based non-profit organization, announced author Uzodinma Iweala as the recipient of its 2022 Leo Award. with whose team he shares the prize. Under his leadership, the center has worked to change the global understanding of Africa and its diaspora, and the role played by people of African descent. “Iweala and his team have been instrumental in promoting dialogue, breaking down barriers and amplifying the diverse voices of the African continent,” ICI said in a press release. “They transformed the Africa Center into a vibrant celebration of the richness and dynamism of African cultures, and created a new civic model for cultural institutions. Their programming promotes intercultural understanding and collaboration and includes perspectives from the political, economic, literary, culinary and artistic worlds.
“All of us at ICI are thrilled to honor Uzo and his team with ICI’s 2023 Leo Award,” ICI Executive and Artistic Director Renaud Proch said in a statement. “They have been inspiring collaborators. We are grateful for our meaningful partnership with the Africa Center, which will continue to play an important role in shaping our programs for years to come. Uzo’s vision and the values manifested at the center – collaboration, empowerment, global solidarity, generative thinking – resonate in many ways with ICI’s own mission.
Prior to taking up his post at the Africa Center, Iweala was CEO and Editor-in-Chief of Africa Businesses magazine, which he also co-founded. He is also well known for his writings centered on African and diasporic experiences: He is the author of the novel Speak no evil (2018), the story of a young Nigerian American living in Washington, DC, who investigates issues of race, class, gender, sexuality, nationality and diaspora; and non-fiction our kind of people (2012), on AIDS in Nigeria. His debut in 2005, the novel beasts of no nationabout a West African boy forced to become a child soldier, won the Art Seidenbaum Prize for First Fiction, a category of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and was eventually adapted into a film.
Named in honor of the famous art dealer Leo Castelli, the Leo Prize is awarded in recognition of an outstanding contribution to the field of contemporary art. Past recipients of the award include curator Candice Hopkins, collector Dimitris Daskalopoulos, gallery owner Marian Goodman, Los Angeles County Museum of Art director Michael Govan, filmmaker Steve McQueen, fashion designer Miuccia Prada and collector Patrizia Sandretto. Re Rebaudengo.
