Pelumi Odubanjo

Pelumi works with photographic archives, artists and cultural artefacts to create and explore dialogues across global Black diasporas and geographies. Her research and curatorial practice build on theories of racial, gendered and diasporic praxis, and consider anti-colonial and indigenous communicative practices as a form of exhibition-making which forge new spaces for encounter, knowledge, and pluralities.

Pelumi is currently a PhD candidate in History of Art at the University of Glasgow and a recipient of the James McCune Smith Scholarship, where she is researching the role of vernacular photographs within women’s collective social histories, focusing on West African geographies from the 1980s to today. Pelumi has a BA from Newcastle University in Fine Art, and an MA from Goldsmith’s, University of London in Contemporary Art Theory.

Pelumi most recently worked as the Assistant Curator for Glasgow International, having previously held positions as a Curatorial Assistant at the Serpentine Galleries, and Studio and Programmes Assistant at V.O Curations. Pelumi has curated for festivals and institutions including Photo50 at the London Art Fair, Photo Oxford, Tate Exchange at Tate Modern, Brighton Photo Fringe, and the Black Cultural Archives, amongst others. Her writing on contemporary photography, art, and culture has appeared in FOAM Magazine, 1000 Words, Magnum Photos, Photoworks Annual, and New Contemporaries, amongst others. She has also been a panel selector for Photography Festivals and Organisations including Photo|Frome (2023) and Source Photography (2022).