Tiera Ndlovu

Tiera Ndlovu is a published art historian and curator devoted to celebrating lesser-known histories through creative methodologies. Her current focus lies within Contemporary Art and Photography.Founder of Baha Archives, the first photographic archive dedicated to Black Bahamian history, Ndlovu frequently curates digital and in-person experiences, both independently and alongside institutions.Ndlovu currently serves as Curatorial Manager at Madison Square Park Conservancy in New York. Her previous appointments and partnerships include the Norton Museum of Art, The University of the Bahamas, Women Photographers International Archive (WOPHA), The Bunker Artspace, and the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas (NAGB).Ndlovu has been recognized internationally through fellowships and awards including, most recently, the Professional Alliance for Curators of Color (PACC) Fellowship organized by the Association of Art Museum Curators (AAMC).

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© Tiera Ndlovu 2024. All rights reserved.

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Origin Stories: Photography of Africa and Its Diaspora
September 24, 2021 - July 4, 2022
Norton Museum of ArtCurated by: Tiera Ndlovu“Is there such a thing as pure origin? For those of the post-colonial generation, this is a very difficult question.” – Yinka Shonibare CBEWith Shonibare’s reflection as a catalyst, Origin Stories: Photography of Africa and Its Diaspora confronts the intertwined relationship between identity and colonialism in communities across the African continent and throughout the African diaspora.Featuring works primarily from the Norton’s collection, this selection of works offered perspectives from celebrated photographers working in Africa, the Americas, the Caribbean, and Europe such as Les sœurs Chevalme, Delphine Fawundu, Ana Mendieta, Malick Sidibé, and Carrie Mae Weems.

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Nora Maité Nieves: Clouds in the Expanded Field
December 23, 2023 - July 7, 2024
Norton Museum of ArtCurated by: Arden Sherman
With support from: Tiera NdlovuUtilizing everyday architectural materials as inspiration, Nieves focuses on abstracting tropical aesthetics, particularly with “breeze blocks,” a concrete ornamentation block found across locales in the Caribbean and its diaspora.A major inspiration for the exhibition's title, Nieves also reflects on the natural environment, noting that “clouds are ephemeral and not bound by anything, they move freely without borders in the landscape.” Nieves’ practice wholly embodies this unbound nature. Her oeuvre of painting, sculpture, and now, video acts as a connector between two worlds: a space that marries fragments from her past with new moments of her present.

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Lalla Essaydi: Un/Veiled
July 23 - November 6, 2022
Norton Museum of ArtCurated by: Tiera Ndlovu
With support from: Pamela SolaresThis installation highlighted the work of Lalla Essaydi, a Moroccan photographer who captures large-scale intimate portraits of Arab women. Boldly feminist at its core, Essaydi’s oeuvre invites the viewer to resist stereotypes and instead, celebrate the dynamic experiences, identities, and cultural histories of her sitters.

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Picasso in Warmer Climes: Works on Canvas, Clay, and Paper
May 28 - August 28, 2022
Norton Museum of ArtCurated by: Robert Evren and Tiera NdlovuPicasso claimed that pastoral and bucolic themes only came to mind when he visited the south of France, which he found particularly inspiring during spring and summer. Through this exhibition, viewers explored recurring outdoor motifs such as fauns, bulls, birds, and figural scenes across a selection of the artist’s paintings, prints, and ceramics, including a large, unique painted terracotta relief, Picnic on the Grass, inspired by the famous Édouard Manet painting of the same title.

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Form Forward: Brett Weston and Photographers of Things Unseen
November 19, 2022 - March 5, 2023
Norton Museum of ArtCurated by: Tiera NdlovuIn 2021, the Christian Keesee Collection in collaboration with the Brett Weston Archive donated a suite of photographs Weston to the Norton. Over a nearly 70-year career the artist gained critical acclaim for his bold, high-contrast abstractions that include panoramic landscapes and highly detailed images of natural textures. With the recent gift of Weston’s work as a catalyst, Form Forward explores how photographers since the 1930s have engaged with forms distilled from our natural environment.
Expanding beyond Weston’s compositions, this exhibition featured photographers who experiment with landscapes to find abstract forms. The installation illuminates not only the beauty, but also the significance, of objects, places, and histories that we often leave unseen.

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Akin: Capturing Human Intimacy and Tenderness
April 1 - July 23, 2023
Norton Museum of ArtCurated by: Tiera NdlovuSince the medium's inception, the camera has uniquely captured the delicate bonds between individuals, both within and outside the family unit. From 19th-century ambrotype portraits to posed family portraits and abstracted figurations that evoke companionship, this grouping highlights the photographer's desire to document our innermost relations. Featuring approximately 30 photographs from the permanent collection, spanning over 100 years, this exhibition traced the various ways intimacy manifests in our interpersonal relationships.

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Past Lives: Performance Art Through the Camera
August 5 - December 3, 2023
Norton Museum of ArtCurated by: Tiera Ndlovu
With support from: Sarah BassPerformance art emerged as early as the 1910s, with Futurist and Dada productions, and gained wider recognition post-World War II alongside the rise of conceptual art. Unlike traditional art forms, performance does not rely on a specific medium or format; rather, artists use the movement of their bodies and environment to engage viewers. Although typically presented live, performances are captured through photos and videos, preserving the lifespan of the work for a broader audience.Past Lives: Performance Art through the Camera featured a selection of influential performance artworks from the 1980s to the early 2000s. In showcasing these works from the Museum’s holdings, the exhibition underscored the significance of performance as a fine art form, while also highlighting the strength of Asian and Asian-American artists in the field.

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