David A. Bailey

David A. Bailey MBE (born 1961) is a British Afro-Caribbean curator, photographer, writer, lecturer, and cultural facilitator based in London, recognised for advancing discourse on black representation in photography, artists' film, and performance art, with a focus on diaspora themes.

Bailey rose to prominence in the mid- to late 1980s as part of a new generation of black photographers in the UK, contributing exhibitions such as Third World Within at Brixton Art Gallery in 1986 and editing key publications like Shades of Black: Assembling Black Arts in 1980s Britain (2005). He co-curated landmark exhibitions including Rhapsodies in Black: Art of the Harlem Renaissance at the Hayward Gallery in 1997 and Back to Black: Art, Cinema and the Racial Imaginary at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in 2005, alongside roles as advisor to Autograph ABP and Iniva from 1994, co-director of the African and Asian Visual Artists Archive (1996–2002), and curator of the Remember Saro-Wiwa Living Memorial (2005–2011). In 2007, he received the Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to art, and he founded and directs the International Curators Forum (ICF), overseeing projects like the Diaspora Pavilion at the 2017 Venice Biennale. Bailey has also served as acting director of the National Art Gallery of the Bahamas (2009–2010) and trustee of the Stuart Hall Foundation, with his writings appearing in catalogues addressing race, difference, and desire in visual culture.