Visiting Critic: Larry Ossei-Mensah

Feb 2 - Feb 7, 2022

Photo Credit: Aaron Ramey

Larry Ossei-Mensah uses contemporary art as a vehicle to redefine how we see ourselves and the world around us. The Ghanaian-American curator and cultural critic has organized exhibitions and programs at commercial and nonprofit spaces around the globe from New York City to Rome featuring artists such as Firelei Baez, Allison Janae Hamilton, Brendan Fernades, Ebony G. Patterson, Modou Dieng, Glenn Kaino, Joiri Minaya and Stanley Whitney to name a few. Moreover, Ossei-Mensah has actively documented cultural happenings featuring the most dynamic visual artists working today such as Derrick Adams, Mickalene Thomas, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Federico Solmi, and Kehinde Wiley.

A native of The Bronx, Ossei-Mensah is also the co-founder of ARTNOIR, a 501(c)(3) and global collective of culturalists who design multimodal experiences aimed to engage this generation’s dynamic and diverse creative class.  ARTNOIR  endeavors to celebrate the artistry and creativity by Black and Brown artists around the world via virtual and in-person experiences.  Ossei-Mensah is a contributor to the first-ever Ghanaian Pavilion for the 2019 Venice Biennial with an essay on the work of visual artist Lynette Yiadom-Boakye.

Ossei-Mensah is the former Susanne Feld Hilberry Senior Curator at MOCAD in Detroit. He co-curated in 2019 with Dexter Wimberly the critically acclaimed exhibition at MOAD in San Francisco Coffee, Rhum, Sugar, Gold: A Postcolonial Paradox in Spring/Summer 2019.    Ossei-Mensah currently serves as Curator-at-Large at BAM, where he curated the inaugural exhibition When A Pot Finds Its Purpose featuring the work of Glenn Kaino at the Rudin Family Gallery. He will be co-curating with Omsk Social Club 7th Athens Biennale in Athens, Greece in 2021. Ossei-Mensah has had recent profiles in such publications as the New York Times, Artsy, and Cultured Magazine, and was recently named to Artnet’s 2020 Innovator List. 

Larry joins us at the Ranch as a Visiting Critic as part of the Oolite Arts “Home + Away” program, where he’ll work with our Oolite Artists-in-Residence.