Meet the RMB Latitudes CuratorLab Mentors and Guest Speakers for 2026

Bongani Njalo (photo credit Noncedo Gxekwa), Danniel Tostes (photo credit Fausto Brigantino), Renée Eisen-Khonat, Suzana Sousa, Dr. Thabang Monoa, Alexandra Martinez, Dr. Portia Malatjie (images courtesy of the mentors)

Bongani Njalo

Bongani Njalo is an artist, curator, project manager, TEDx speaker and cultural programs coordinator of the Goethe-Institut South Africa, where he specialises in visual arts. Njalo has over 15 years’ experience as a cultural practitioner for various organisations operating across Sub-Saharan Africa. He is a recipient of the David Koloane Award 2014, was named one of the Top 200 Young South Africans by the Mail & Guardian (2015), and is also a Mandela Washington Fellow (2017) and a Chevening Scholarship Award recipient (2020). Njalo serves as a board member for the UNISA Art Gallery as well as an expert advisor for the European Institute of Innovation and Technology - Culture & Creativity.

Njalo holds a National Diploma in Fine Arts majoring in Stained Glass from Nelson Mandela University as well as an MA in Arts Policy and Management from Birkbeck University of London – awarded with merit.

Danniel Tostes 

Danniel Tostes is an independent curator, art writer and mentor from Rio de Janeiro, based in Geneva. His practice explores storytelling as a curatorial tool for fostering cross-cultural and transgenerational exchange through exhibitions, writing, and collaborative research. Currently working with institutions in Brazil, Switzerland, Italy and South Africa, he develops projects that connect artists, institutions, and audiences across different contexts. His research focuses on underrepresented narratives in art history, examining how exhibitions, archives, and artistic practices can expand historical perspectives and create new forms of collective memory. Through his curatorial work, he creates spaces for dialogue between historical and contemporary artists, fostering meaningful exchanges across cultures, generations, and artistic contexts.

Renée Eisen-Khonat

Renée Eisen-Khonat is the founder and director of ReCurate, an independent curatorial and art consultancy practice based in Botswana. A Summa Cum Laude graduate in Animation Arts (BSc Hons.) from Woodbury University, Los Angeles, she has over 20 years of experience across Botswana's creative industries as an artist, gallerist, educator, facilitator, arts advocate, and independent curator.

Her practice is driven by a commitment to strengthening Botswana's contemporary art ecosystem through artist development, mentorship, and market growth. Recognising the historical underrepresentation of women in the country's visual arts, Renée's curatorial work places particular emphasis on amplifying female and feminist voices while championing emerging contemporary artists. Through strategic mentorship, curation, and advocacy, she seeks to expand the visibility and international reach of Botswana's artists.

Suzana Sousa 

Suzana Sousa is an art curator and researcher interested in developing narratives and producing knowledge through collaboration and experimentation. Over the past decade, her work has explored themes of contemporary African art, cultural politics, and the construction of nationalisms and national discourses through culture and the visual arts. She is a lecturer at the Faculty of the Arts at the University of Luanda in Angola and is currently completing a PhD at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa, focusing on nation-building processes in Angola within the context of museums and the visual arts since 1975.

Recently, she curated the exhibition The Power of My Hands with Odile Burluraux that was shown at the Modern Art Museum in Paris, the Natural History Museum in Luanda and last year at SESC São Paulo.

Dr. Thabang Monoa 

Dr. Thabang Monoa’s research interests are rooted in art history, aesthetic theory, art criticism, Black studies, curatorial practice, and cultural studies. Monoa’s textual production finds expression through academic journals, book chapters, art catalogues, and popular publications. He has recently joined the South African Institute of Architects (SAIA) as an editorial board member and is a co-convenor of the Gerard Sekoto Winter/Summer School, which is administered through the Johannesburg Art Gallery. In his current capacity as a senior lecturer in art history at the University of Cape Town’s Michaelis School of Fine Art, Monoa continues to produce work dealing with themes in modern and contemporary art and Black intellectual traditions.

Alexandra Martinez (Guest Speaker)

Alexandra Martinez is a curator and cultural producer working at the intersection of contemporary art and interdisciplinary collaboration. Her practice spans institutions and independent platforms with a dedicated focus on ambitious, culturally resonant cultural applications. With a particular interest in conservation, archaeology, and cultural memory as expressed through public space, she is drawn to projects that cultivate critical dialogue and support artists and thinkers in meaningful ways.

Dr. Portia Malatjie (Guest Speaker)

Dr. Portia Malatjie is a curator and Senior Lecturer at the University of Cape Town and holds a PhD in Visual Cultures from Goldsmiths University of London, where she was an associate lecturer. Malatjie was Adjunct Curator of Africa and African Diaspora at Tate Modern (London), and Adjunct Curator at Norval Foundation (Cape Town). She has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals, exhibition catalogues and public platforms. Malatjie was Head Curator of Brundyn+ Gallery, Director of the AVA Gallery, and curator at Tiwani Contemporary, London. Her curated exhibitions include When Rain Clouds Gather: Black South African Women Artists, 1940 – 2000 (2022), as well as Ecologies of Elsewhere (2023, Cincinnati Contemporary Art Centre, US). She is a recipient of numerous awards, including the UCT College of Fellows, and she was a visiting fellow at Yale University. Her visual, cultural and curatorial research explores Blackness through the intersection of sound, spirituality, ecologies and Black feminism. She was the curator of the South African Pavilion at the 2024 60th Venice Biennale with an exhibition titled Quiet Ground.