AUCKLAND.- Professor Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, highly regarded curator and author, has been appointed as the judge for this year’s Walters Prize, Aotearoa New Zealand’s leading contemporary art award.

Currently the director and chief curator of Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) in Berlin, Germany, Professor Ndikung has recently been appointed as the chief curator for the 2025 Bienal de São Paulo.

He has previously gained critical attention for his roles as artistic director of SAVVY Contemporary in Berlin; artistic director of sonsbeek 2020–2024, in Arnhem, the Netherlands; curator-at-large for Documenta 14, Greece and Kassel, guest curator of the Dak’Art biennale in Dakar, Senegal, artistic director for the 12th and 13th editions of the Bamako Encounters African Biennale of Photography in Mali, in 2019 and 2022; and curator of the Finnish Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale, 2019.

Tātaki Auckland Unlimited Director of Auckland Art Gallery Kirsten Lacy says she is delighted Professor Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung will be judging the 2024 Walters Prize.

“We’re honoured to announce Professor Ndikung as the esteemed judge for this year’s Walters Prize. Professor Nidkung has a distinguished reputation and extensive knowledge of contemporary art from around the world.”

The finalists for the Walters Prize are selected for their outstanding contributions to contemporary art in New Zealand in the preceding years.

The Walters Prize 2024 exhibition showcasing the work of this year’s finalists – Juliet Carpenter, Owen Connors, Brett Graham and Ana Iti – opens this Saturday 6 July at Auckland Art Gallery. Entry is free.

Professor Ndikung will announce the winning 2024 Walters Prize artist at an event at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki in October after viewing the finalist’s work.

The Walters Prize 2024 is running alongside a new contemporary art triennial for New Zealand, Aotearoa Contemporary.

Professor Ndikung is a professor in and head of the faculty of Spatial Strategies Master’s program at the Weissensee Academy of Art in Berlin, and was previously a guest professor in curatorial studies and sound art at the Städelschule in Frankfurt. He was the recipient of the first OCAD University International Curators Residency fellowship in Toronto in 2020. His published works include, inter alia, The Delusions of Care (2021), An Ongoing-Offcoming Tale: Ruminations on Art, Culture, Politics and Us/ Others (2022) and Pidginization as Curatorial Method (2023).

In addition, Professor Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung is a curator, author and biotechnologist, currently serving as director and chief curator of Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) Berlin, Germany. He is the founder and was artistic director of SAVVY Contemporary in Berlin, as well as the artistic director of sonsbeek 2020–2024, a quadrennial contemporary art exhibition in Arnhem, the Netherlands.

He also worked as curator-at-large for Adam Szymczyk’s Documenta 14 in Athens, Greece and Kassel, Germany in 2017 and was guest curator of the Dak’Art biennale in Dakar, Senegal, in 2018.

Additionally, he served as the artistic director for the 12th and 13th editions of the Bamako Encounters African Biennale of Photography in 2019 and 2022. Together with the Miracle Workers Collective, he curated the Finland Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale, 2019.