Emmanuel Olunkwa
Born (1994-03-01) March 1, 1994
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Websiteolunkwa.studio

Emmanuel Olunkwa (born 1994, Los Angeles, CA) is an artist, writer, designer, editor, and filmmaker.[1][2][3][4] Olunkwa currently serves as the editor of Pin-Up Magazine.[5] In 2020, Olunkwa co-founded November Magazine, E&Ko., and served as an editor of The Broadcast, a virtual publication by the cultural center Pioneer Works.[6] Olunkwa's work has been published in Artforum, Interview, T-Magazine, Architectural Digest, Maharam, Artek, The New York Times, Museum of Modern Art, Curbed, Remodelista, and the New Museum and he is based in New York.[4]

Early life and education

Olunkwa was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA.[4][7] He took an interest in photography as a teenager in high school. His affinity for design began by looking at his hometown’s real estate and what elaborate remodels were being done.[8]

In 2014, Olunkwa moved to New York and later graduated with a B.A. in Liberal Arts from the Eugene Lang College at the New School with a concentration in Race, Art History, and Architectural Spatiality. During his final year, Olunkwa served as curatorial intern at MoMA PS1 as well as an editorial intern then editorial assistant at Artforum.[9]

In 2021, he graduated with an M.S. in the Critical, Curatorial, and Conceptual Practices program from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, and for his graduate thesis he dissected the spatiality of “Slave Play,” the Tony-nominated production by Jeremy O. Harris about racism and sexual kinks.[3][10][2]

Work

Olunkwa has written features on artists Gaetano Pesce, Kara Walker, David Wojnarowicz, Hito Steyerl, Seth Price, Hamza Walker, John Akomfrah, and Deana Lawson, architects Elizabeth Diller, Mabel O. Wilson, and Mark Wigley, and authors Natasha Stagg, Sarah Schulman, and Andrea Long Chu, amongst others.[11] His photography has been included in Dazed, Garage, Vogue, Cultured, and e-flux and spans across album covers, magazine profiles, and book covers.[12][13][7]

Olunkwa was an editor of Pioneer Works gallery's The Broadcast, a virtual publication spanning art, music, science, and technology.[14]

Olunkwa started E&Ko., a functional furniture line of floral-inspired birch plywood chairs and tables, in 2020.[2][15] The design works have been shown with artists Walter Price, Michael Krebber, Paul Chan, Wade Guyton, and Rachel Harrison and have been shown at galleries like Greene Naftali in East Hampton, N. Y.[2] He showcased a new capsule collection of design work for SSENSE in fall of 2021.[4][16]

That same summer, Olunkwa launched November Magazine, a non-profit dedicated to publishing and programming around contemporary art and culture.[6] The magazine was founded alongside Lauren O'Neill-Butler, and includes Dawn Chan, Aria Dean, and Alec Mapes-Frances as its editors.[6]

In September 2021, Olunkwa was named editor of Pin-Up Magazine, a bi-annual magazine dedicated to architectural entertainment, becoming its second editor ever succeeding its founder, Felix Burrichter, who now serves as the magazine's creative director.[17] “Pin-Up prides itself on its rigorous optimism, so I want to continue complicating what this idea of ‘architectural entertainment’ can mean,” Olunkwa said to The New York Times.[4] The first issue under Olunkwa's leadership centered on the theme of "Radical optimism."[18]

References

  1. ↑ "Emmanuel Olunkwa". The Poetry Project. Retrieved 2021-09-14.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Emmanuel Olunkwa Designs Functional Furniture With His Intuition". Architectural Digest. 2021-06-11. Retrieved 2021-09-14.
  3. 1 2 "Emmanuel Olunkwa". Interview Magazine. 2016-03-24. Retrieved 2021-09-14.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Hawgood, Alex (2021-09-18). "A Multifaceted Designer Gets a New Platform". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-09-20.
  5. ↑ "pioneer works olunkwa - Google Search". www.google.com. Retrieved 2021-09-14.
  6. 1 2 3 "About - November". About - November. Retrieved 2021-09-14.
  7. 1 2 Bull, Marian (2021-10-04). "In New York, a Magazine Editor Who's Also a Furniture Maker". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-11-03.
  8. ↑ Hawgood, Alex (2021-09-18). "A Multifaceted Designer Gets a New Platform". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-02-01.
  9. ↑ Bull, Marian (2021-10-04). "In New York, a Magazine Editor Who's Also a Furniture Maker". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-02-01.
  10. ↑ "This Artist Found His Voice By Digging Past The Surface". UPROXX. 2018-03-05. Retrieved 2021-09-14.
  11. ↑ "November". www.novembermag.com. Retrieved 2021-09-14.
  12. ↑ "Natasha Stagg is Ready". Cultured Magazine. 2019-12-27. Retrieved 2021-09-14.
  13. ↑ "Aria Dean: Production for a Circle / Hannah Weinberger: we didn't want to leave / Giovanni Cioni: Short films - Announcements - e-flux". www.e-flux.com. Retrieved 2021-09-14.
  14. ↑ "Index | The Broadcast". Pioneer Works. Retrieved 2022-02-01.
  15. ↑ "A Designer on the Up: Emmanuel Olunkwa, at Home in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn". Remodelista. 2021-05-24. Retrieved 2021-09-14.
  16. ↑ Spyplane, Blackbird. "Climb under a rock, see yrself more clearly". www.blackbirdspyplane.com. Retrieved 2022-02-01.
  17. ↑ Budds, Diana (2021-11-18). "Emmanuel Olunkwa Wants to Redesign New York City Windows". Curbed. Retrieved 2022-02-01.
  18. ↑ Spyplane, Blackbird. "Climb under a rock, see yrself more clearly". www.blackbirdspyplane.com. Retrieved 2022-02-01.
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