Unseen Art Scene (mirror)

AMÂNCIO D’ALPOIM (PANCHO) GUEDES a biographical essay - Cedric Green Source:http://www.guedes.info/abcontfram.htm This essay was published in "LISBOSCOPIO" the catalogue of the official Portuguese representation at the 10th International Architecture Exhibition - 2006 Venice Biennale - where Pancho Guedes was chosen, together with Ricardo Jacinto to represent Portugal.. The Catalogue was produced and edited by the Portuguese Institute of Arts. In September 1952, a young Portuguese architect from Mozambique stepped off a Lloyd Triestino passenger ship at Venice, to visit the Biennale at the start of a long and eventful journey through Europe. In his luggage he had designs and photographs of buildings he had already done in Lourenço Marques (now Maputo). He was coming to Europe for the first time since he was 7 years old, when his family moved from Lisbon to Mozambique in 1932. This journey was a kind of pilgrimage to see the originals of the cities, buildings and art that he ...

I do hope that the Dak'Art 2008 Festival makes a huge song and dance over Iba N'Diaye this year. Personally, I wanted to write about the importance of this artist, now in his 80th year. Iba N'Diaye is a National hero in Senegal and a vital part of contemporary African art internationally. I would like to present those interested in contemporary Africa art with the works of this wonderful artist, Iba N'Diaye - the theme of this work is Jazz and Blues.... Here is his biography for all to read. Iba N'Diaye (b.1928) Senegal/France Iba N'Diaye was born in 1928 in Saint Louis, Senegal, which, like all port towns, is a place where many races and cultures meet. At the age of fifteen, when he was a student at the Lycée Faidherbe, he painted film posters for the town's two cinemas. This early familiarity with cinematographic images would eventually influence his painting techniques. By 1949 he was living in Paris, where he studied architecture at the Ecole des Beaux ...

Photo by Chester Higgins Jr. Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/18/books/18cesaire.html?ref=arts April 18, 2008 Aimé Césaire, Martinique Poet and Politician, Dies at 94 By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FORT-DE-FRANCE, Martinique (AP) — Aimé Césaire, an anticolonialist poet and politician who was honored throughout the French-speaking world and who was an early proponent of black pride, died here on Thursday. He was 94. A government spokeswoman, Marie Michèle Darsières, said he died at a hospital where he was being treated for heart problems and other ailments. Mr. Césaire was one of the Caribbean’s most celebrated cultural figures. He was especially revered in his native Martinique, which sent him to the French parliament for nearly half a century and where he was repeatedly elected mayor of Fort-de-France, the capital city. In Paris in the 1930s he helped found the journal Black Student, which gave birth to the idea of “negritude,” a call to blacks to cultivate pride in their heritage. His...

George Hughes | Ghana/USA Originally from Ghana, George is one of the leading Ghanaian artists in the world and lives in Buffalo with his wife and daughter and works as an art lecturer at New York State University. Recently he produced a book of his new works entitled Gatherings. This is a short slide show of artwork by George Hughes | Ghana/USA Here is a message I received this week by email from the artist: Hello friends, My new catalogue containing a selection of recent paintings is available at Blurb! Entitled: Gatherings Please preview and place your order if you're so inclined... It's a book release, and you're invited -- come check out my new book at Blurb: http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/invited/147926/08fec376ea1bd648e4309263d711ff87 Regards, George

Lothar Böttcher | September 2006 Lothar Böttcher, Ignus Gerber & Justice Mokoena “The lighter side” In Lothar Böttcher’s sculptures glass becomes the focal point. Through glass the artist aims to manipulate and in a sense capture light. He attempts to make the viewer aware of the surroundings within the glass. Creating lenses, he offers a point of view (abstractly), changing perspective and observation of the contiguous space. Böttcher asks whether we really observe or understand our role in the world around us due to filters like beliefs and personal experiences. Everybody has a unique point of view. The variables are infinite. “Without light there is no subject. Without subject (particles and waves) there will be no light. Call it the “Ubuntu” of the Universe. There’s a funny side to existence if one thinks of everything as black and therefore invisible, until there’s light! Until it happens…” – Ignus Gerber “Sound is capable to create various environments transporting the liste...

Artist Etona on Exhibit at the Altharetta Yeargin Museum The work of Antonio Tomas Ana, better known as Etona, was featured in an exhibit held November 4 - 12 at the Altharetta Yeargin Art Museum in Houston, Texas in celebration of the 30th anniversary of Angola`s independence. The artist who was present at the opening is well known within his native Angola and has made a name for himself in the international world of art as well. His work has been exhibited in varied venues including the Park of the National Museum and Gallery in England, and the Museum of Africa in Cuba. He has been honored by having his work selected for the Best of African Painters Collection and was awarded The International Prize of Fine Arts by the Aznar Association in Spain in 2005. The work on display at the Altharetta Yeargin Art Museum was made up of the two major media in which he chooses to work, sculpture and painting. His sculpture is primarily in wood with a few smaller pieces in stone while his choice...

The Source: The Weekly Observer http://www.ugandaobserver.com/new/ent/ent2007020112.php A Piece of ‘Sane’ Art For a young artist in Uganda, Eria Sane Nsubuga is doing well. Recently, the 28-year-old held his fourth solo exhibition sponsored by Alliance Française and held at their premises in Kamwokya. Nsubuga does paintings, sculptures and illustration print-making in books or magazines. The exhibition attracted an enthusiastic crowd that included French Ambassador Jeremy Garrancher who bought himself a bicycle made of brass. The jovial Nsubuga began commercial art in 1999 at the age of 20. Nsubuga's work isn't the abstract art that is hard to understand. He says he's inspired by nature and human activity and most of his paintings and sculptures are of flora and fauna. "People here want to buy art pieces that are overtly explainable. It's European customers that want the complicated art work. That's why my art is plain and simple." Gospel music is also pa...

Pieter Hugo: Portraits 30 May - 5 July 08 Open Eye Gallery is proud to present the first substantial UK exhibition by South African artist Pieter Hugo. Self-taught photographer and film-maker Hugo makes documentary projects in locations around the world but has a particular interest in developing countries. This exhibition focuses on three bodies of work, all of which use portraiture to call into question our understanding of who we are and how we see others. Hugo's portraits of people with albinism were created between 2002 and 2005 as part of a wider project about people whose appearance is in some way unusual or unfamiliar. Albinism (from the Latin albus, "white") is an inherited condition characterized, usually, by a lack of melanin pigment in the eyes, skin and hair. Hugo's closely-framed, uncompromising portraits explore our responses to physical difference and the meanings we attach to the terms 'black' and 'white'. Hugo's portraits of judge...

El Anatsui is an artist that has been championed by the October Gallery in London - www.octobergallery.co.uk for over a decade and also by the British Museum. His works are featured in Chris Spring's book "Aganza Afrika". El Anatsui's work is about recycling, materialism, consumerism and in his most recent works looks at the versatility of metal, subverting our common held belief that metal is stiff and rigid and converting it into pliable, even a soft material. Between Heaven and Earth sees El Anatsui mounting his work at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Here is a short piece about El Anatsui work:

Chris Ofili an artist that needs no introduction who became famous with his elephant dung featured at the Sensation Exhibition at the Royal Academy in the 1990's. The first English artist to source his material from London Zoo, Regents Park, London. Chris Ofili is amongst the artists featured in Chris Spring's book "Aganza Afrika". What is interesting about Chris' work is that it is not voyeuristic but more participatory; similar to the idea of Byzantine art of the 12th Century where the work was produced in order to include the audience Chris is making the transition away from the Renaissance view, which leads the audience to view works as if through a window and consequently becomes more dictatorial. In many ways Chris' work has a social inclusion about it and can be enjoyed by all. Here is a short interview with Chris Ofili about his work entitled, The Upper Room.

Ingrid Mwangi and her husband Robert Hutter work together as video artists and performance artists. Based in Germany their work plays with strong visuals and intense sounds, which is a powerful mix. Ingrid is originally from Kenya and moved to Germany when she was a teenager. Ingrid and Robert often travel to Kenya and try to encourage artists to take up the ideas of video art as a form of self-expression. Their works are featured in Chris Spring's new book "Aganza Afrika" and their contribution to contemporary Africa is yet to be truely recognised but the issues that they have tackled over the past decade have included race, sex and relationships and their work is extremely important to the development and understanding of contemporary Africa. Here is a piece produced in March 2008 as part of the Khoj Studio Live.

Here are a series of interviews with Yinka Shonibare MBE shot by the BBC. Yinka's work is featured in the new book, "Aganza Afrika" by Chris Spring and more of his work can be seen at the Stephen Freidman's Gallery. Born in London in the early 1960's he and his family moved to Lagos, Nigeria where he spent his formative years. He has an interesting perspective on contemporary Africa and wonderful ideas of a West African aesthetic as woven through African material often produced in Asia and the Netherlands. His work is full of irony and questions the idea of what exactly is contemporary Africa. Although Yinka is regarded as part of the British Art Movement his works are paramount to the greater understanding of contemporary Africa today. Flower Time Interview 1 Flower Time Interview 2 Here is a short 10 minute film about Yinka's work produced by Alice Standish found on Youtube.

Marlene Dumas is probably the best known South African artist and her work is featured at the MoMA in NYC and the Tate Modern in London and also in many other important Museums around the world. Here is an interesting video combining Massive Attack and Marlene's work, which works really well. Many thanks to ART POPULUS from YouTube for producing this video. Wonderful work!!

Here is a short video showing the artist Julie Mehretu one of my favorite artists of all time. She won the genius prize in the States and once you see and understand her work it's not difficult to see why. Originally from Ethiopia, Julie now lives and works in NYC and is a one of the leading artists in the art world. Her works are featured in Chris Spring's "Angaza Africa".

Here are a series of animations by William Kentridge of South Africa entitled Felix in Exile and Journey to the Moon: Journey to the Moon

L'Oracle by Charly D'Almeida France/Benin I feel this painting by Charly D'Almeida works excellently with the poem, The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe. Charly is originally from the Republic of Benin, the centre of African voodoo and this aspect of mysticism is central to Charly's early works. If you would like this poem read to you then hear this poetry on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FID1CiB4bcU otherwise read below. The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe [First published in 1845] Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore, While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. `'Tis some visitor,' I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door - Only this, and nothing more.' Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December, And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor. Eagerly I wished the morrow; - vain...

What an amazing evening last night? I met Chris Spring from the British Museum, Elisabeth of the October Gallery and Yinka Shonibare MBE. Yinka has such kind eyes and thick dreadlocks. I stood in front of him, nervous and not knowing what to say....beside him was a beautiful woman who cared for him so compassionately, they looked the best of friends. He wore a fashionable blue pinstriped suit and calmly walked around the gallery whispering to his partner. I wanted to say so much but ended up talking rubbish. There must have been about 1,000 people there last night. The actor from Holby City who plays the doctor opened the show with a speech about Ghana and his childhood. Being in the crowd I was taken aback about how gentle, generous and attractive everybody looked. The room was filled with a mixed bag, some black some white, some old some young but we were all there to support the idea of contemporary Africa. This was a little gathering of those that wanted to see some form of change ...