Jade Nair

Co-curator of As Natural As Daylight: Plants, Memory and The Edge of Belonging (Group Show) | 20.11.25 - 24.01.26

Jade Nair is a Cape Town-based curator with over a decade's worth of experience in the arts and heritage sectors. She has contributed to the production of exhibitions, documentary films, digital photographic archives and publications and holds a BA Honours degree specialising in curatorship from the University of Cape Town.

Her research interests are, broadly, the legacies of colonialism and apartheid in South Africa and, more specifically, how those legacies are made manifest through material culture and labour. Her curatorial practice is underscored by giving voice to marginalised communities and histories.

In 2021, she was appointed curator of the Michaelis Galleries, the University of Cape Town’s fine art complex. Here, she produces a diverse exhibitions calendar for the gallery, teaches on the honours in curatorship programme and produces curatorial electives, whilst continuing to work collaboratively with private and public stakeholders in the arts and heritage sectors, including Iziko Museums, NIROX Arts, the District Six Museum, National Arts Festival, Market Photo Workshop and Constitution Hill.

She has been invited to speak about her curatorial practice at Parsons Paris | The New School (2021), the University of Basel (2022), the University of Pretoria (2023), the Progress History Summit, Germany (2023), and UniArts Helsinki (2025).

Her current curated exhibition, The Love Letter, is on show at the Centre for African Studies Gallery, UCT. The Love Letter commemorates the 10-year anniversary of the Movie Snaps project, an exhibition and documentary film on street photography and forced removals in Cape Town. By re-examining this history, we invite contemporary audiences to engage with the lasting and multiple consequences of displacement, while fostering dialogue about memory, justice and freedom in South Africa today.

Instagram: @jadenair.curate