Renée Mussai (she/her) is an independent curator, writer and scholar of visual culture with a special interest in Black feminist & intersectional practices. For more than two decades, she was senior curator and head of collection & curatorial at London-based arts charity Autograph where she organised numerous critically acclaimed public programmes of exhibitions, commissions and publications. Between 2022 – 23 she acted as artistic director of The Walther Collection, supporting the foundation’s publication, acquisition and exhibition programmes. In 2025 she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of the Arts in recognition of her sustained curator – and scholarship in the field of photography and lens-based media.

Mussai curates, lectures and publishes internationally on visual and curatorial activism, with a focus on contemporary artists whose work addresses decolonial, archival and remedial politics. She is currently senior research associate at the Visual Identities in Art and Design Research Centre (VIAD), University of Johannesburg, SA; guest curator at the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, USA; lecturer at Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London and serves as chair of the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation’s advisory council, amongst other academic and institutional affiliations. Her most recent publications include 'Black Chronicles: Photography, Race and Difference in Victorian Britain' (2025) and the forthcoming sole-authored 'Eyes That Commit – A Visual Gathering’ (2026), alongside several award-winning artist monographs such as 'Zanele Muholi: Hail, the Dark Lioness' (2018 / 2024) and 'Lina Iris Viktor: Some Are Born to Endless Night – Dark Matter' (2021).