Short Course Hail the Dark Lioness

Renée Mussai is a London-based independent curator, writer and scholar with a special interest in Black feminist and queer visual arts practices. Formerly Senior Curator at Autograph, her award-winning books include the artist monographs Lina Iris Viktor—Some Are Born to Endless Night (Autograph, 2020) and Zanele Muholi: Somnyama Ngonyama: Hail, the Dark Lioness (Aperture, 2018 / 2024); and the forthcoming volumes Eyes That Commit—A Visual Gathering (Prestel, 2025) and Black Chronicles—Photography, Race and Difference in Victorian Britain (Thames & Hudson / Autograph, 2025). She has curated more than thirty solo and group exhibitions during the past two decades, and lectures internationally on visual activism and curatorial care. In 2023 Mussai was co-curator for R/evolutions, the 14th edition of Photo Ireland, and Artistic Director of The Walther Collection. She is currently Senior Research Associate at VIAD, University of Johannesburg, and Associate Lecturer at University of the Arts London, as well as guest Curator at The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, USA.