About Me

Costa Petridis                                                                                                                     

 Costa Petridis, curator of African Art, was born and educated in Belgium.  He holds a M.A. in Art History and Archaeology specializing in Ethnic Art (1991) and a Ph.D. in Art History (1977), all from Ghent University in Belgium. Petridis graduated summa cum laude with both degrees.

Petridis joined the Cleveland Museum of Art in 2002 as an assistant curator of African Art. He was promoted from assistant curator to associate curator in 2003, and currently holds the position of full curator of African Art. Petridis also teaches in the Art History and Art Department at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

Recognized for organizing acclaimed exhibitions including Frans M. Olbrechts in Search of Art in Africa (Antwerp, 2001-02) and Face of the Spirits: Masks from the Zaire Basin (Antwerp and Washington, D.C., 1993-94). Petridis is also an international lecturer who has had speaking engagements in places such as Iowa City, Toronto and Antwerp. He has written extensively about sub-Saharan African Art. His writing has taken on a variety of forms, ranging from catalogues to essays to books, including Art and Power in the Central African Savanna in 2008 and South of the Sahara: Selected Works of African Art in 2003. Petridis not only writes but is also a Consulting Editor for African Arts, a journal published by UCLA, and an advisor for Art in Translation, an e-journal published by the University of Edinburgh (UK).

Along with his duties at CMA, Petridis is a consulting curator at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada, for the installation of the Frum Collection of African Art. The youngest scholar to hold this honorary title, Petridis has been a corresponding member of the Royal Academy of Overseas Sciences in Belgium since 2003.