Bio

David Frohnapfel studied art history, comparative literature, and religious studies at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich and at the Universidad de la Habana in Havana. He received a Ph.D. degree from Freie Universität Berlin for his dissertation Disobedient Musealities. His research focuses on decolonial theory, critical race theory, queer theory, affect theory, socially-engaged art, and Caribbean Studies. Frohnapfel has previously taught at Free University Berlin, University of Zurich, University of Applied Sciences Graz, and University of Lucerne.

He worked as curator of The 3rd Ghetto Biennale in Port-au-Prince together with Leah Gordon, André Eugène, and Jean Herald Celeur, and curated the exhibition NOCTAMBULES on queer visualities on the occasion of Le Forum Transculturel d’Art Contemporain. Frohnapfel is also the author of Alleviative Objects. Intersectional Entanglement and Progressive Racism in Caribbean Art (2021) and has been part of the curatorial team of the exhibition Love? (2022) for the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum in Cologne.

Sommersemester 2023

Dezentralisierung und die Kunst der Moderne

Seascapes of Undrowning. Das Meer in der Kunst und Visuellen Kultur

Dekoloniale Theorie und zeitgenössische Kunst

Forschungskolloquium zur Kunst Afrikas

Wintersemester 2022/23

"Who More Sci-Fi Than Us?” Karibische Kunst der Moderne und Gegenwart

Intersektionalität als Methode: Strategien gegen Epistemische Ungerechtigkeit

Die Performativen Künste des Schwarzen Atlantiks

Forschungskolloquium zur Kunst Afrikas

Research Interest

African Diaspora Art History, Caribbean Studies, Intersectionality, Decolonial Theory, Critical Race Theory and Critical Whiteness Studies, Socially-Engaged Art, Queer Studies, Affect Theory and Performance Art

Publications

Monograph

Alleviative Objects. Intersectional Entanglement and Progressive Racism in Caribbean Art, Transcript Verlag: Bielefeld, 2021.

Articles

Forgetting as a Queer Archival Practice, in: Inward Outward: Critical Archival Engagements with Sounds and Films of Coloniality, ed. by Rachel S. Miles, Eleni Tzialli, and Alana Osbourne, Hilversum, 2020.

Classed Femininity and Imaginaries of Decolonial Solidarity: The Performance Art by Barbara Prézeau Stephenson, in: Prézeau: Le Cercle Atlantique, January 2020.

Notes on How to Irritate A Group Of Committed Artists: Politics of Emotions at the Ghetto Biennale in Port-au-Prince, in: Space & Culture, Special Issue: Slum Tourism in the Americas, ed. by Rivke Jaffe and Eveline Dürr, 2019.

Unbecoming Woman: Dark Phoenix & the Dethronement of the Wealthy White Male Hero, Popmatters.com, 2019, https://www.popmatters.com/dark-phoenix-simon-kinberg-2639789255.html

Anticipations of Alterity: The Production of Contemporary Haitian Art through Inter-Class Encounters, in: Reshaping (G)local Dynamics of the Caribbean, ed. by Natasha Ueckman and Anja Bandau, 2018.

Tessa Mars, artist introduction for the exhibition catalogue of the 10th Berlin Biennale 2018, ed. by Gabi Ngcobo and Yvette Mutumba, Berlin, 2018.

Récits de Friction de Classe: La Manière dont Commissaires et Chercheurs Blancs Produise de l’Autorité Discursive sur l’Art Contemporain d’Haiti, ed. by Sterlin Ulysee and Jean Erian Samson, DO KRE I S, Vol. 1, Port-au-Prince, 2017.

Monstrous Orders: Atis Rezistans and the Practice of Subaltern Museality in Port-au-Prince, in: Kritische Berichte, Special Issue: Kapitalisierungen des Marginalen, ed. by Léa Barbisan, Camille Boichot, and Séverine Marguin, Vol. 43, No. 3, Marburg 2015, pp. 55-66.

Reviews

Transmoderne. Eine Kunstgeschichte des Kontaktes (Christian Kravanga, b_books), in: Sehpunkte 19, No. 11, 2019, link: http://www.sehepunkte.de/2019/11/31165.html.

10th Berlin Biennale: We Don’t Need Another Hero, PREE. Caribbean. Writing, No 2: Pressure, ed. by Annie Paul, 2018. The 3rd Ghetto Biennale 2013: Decentering the Market and Other Tales of Progress, in: Artlink, Issue 34, No. 1, Sydney 2014, pp. 81-82, online version: https://www.artlink.com.au/articles/4089/the-3rd-ghetto-biennale-2013-decentering-the-marke/

Interviews

Radical Reformulation of Relationality and Intersectional Solidarities, Interview for Kisito Assagni’s series Curating as a Phenomenological History of Everyday Life, Arshake.com, September 17th, 2022, link: https://www.arshake.com/en/interview-david-frohnapfel/

Photographing Queer Life in Port-au-Prince: A Conversation with Photographer Josué Azor, in: Hyperallergic, 25. Juni 2015, link:https://hyperallergic.com/217688/photographing-queer-life-in-port-au-prince.