Yesomi Umolu (born 1983 or 1984)[1] is a British curator of contemporary art and writer who has been director of curatorial affairs and public practice for the Serpentine Galleries since 2020.
Umolu has published works in publications such as Art in America and Afterimage, and has written and spoken on issues surrounding diversity and structural racism in museums.
[4] After practising as an architect for a couple of years, Umolu pursued art curation due to an interest in the "discourse and social relations that the built environment generates".
[4] In her early career, Umolu contributed to programming at Tate Modern and Iniva and held positions at the European biennial of contemporary art Manifesta 8 and the Serpentine Gallery.
Other exhibitions include Focus: Pao Houa Her (2015), The Land Grant: Forest Law (2014), and Revelations: Examining Democracy (2013).
[7][12] In June 2020, Umolu published an Instagram post entitled "14 Points on the Limits of Knowledge and Care" on the direct historical connection of museums to the "colonial impulse to collect"; how these institutions could acknowledge this condition; and "seek to build anew along antiracist and decolonized lines" amidst protests against systemic racism towards black people.