Unseen Art Scene (mirror)

Ablade Glover Red Market , 2003. Oil on canvas, 102 x 102cm. In his 75th Anniversary show, Ablade Glover, one of Ghana’s foremost painters, will exhibit a selection of work revealing his lifelong passion for life, activity and colour. Using warm pigments expressive of the sun and heat of his country, Glover depicts vibrant scenes that mirror the exuberant variety of Africa; the bustling market stalls, the brightly-attired crowds and all the energy of Ghana. Glover insists that oil painting has an integral part to play in the contemporary arts of Africa, both as a means of individual expression and as a potent medium in which to record and celebrate the visual richness of the continent. In the New African Life (Dec 1995) magazine, Anver Versi had this to say of a visit to Glover’s studio in Accra, “…there, hanging on the wall, was the whole market painted in throbbing, bright colours. When you looked at it for some time, the painting seemed to resolve into three dimensions and you could...

In a time when the Americans are moving out of Iraq I want us to remember what occupation of another Nation really means and the scars they leave behind. I wrote this piece just over 2 years ago but I am reminded of how upset I was when I wrote it and how powerful art can be... Love it or hate it....just don't ignore it. ---------- Meeting the Artists in Tunisia Last week I was in Tunisia after deciding last minute to take a short break to start out the New Year. Forever dreaming of seeing more of Africa I thought it best to bite the bullet and hook up with some remarkable African artists. Of course I was thrilled and excited by the prospect of being on African soil again. Once more living amongst the Creatives, those known and unknown, all working tirelessly, struggling to be heard. I found, to my delight, that it was a fantastic choice and finally I was living amongst the original, "Vandals" of North Africa. They made me feel truly at home. The original inhabitants of T...

N.B. Please enjoy the photographs and take what has been written with a pinch of salt.....it is for the Daily Mail reader and of course we know better....Look and smile at the perfect examples of what fantastic art is all about. Out of Africa: The incredible tribal fashion show inspired by Mother Nature By MARCUS DUNK With colourful make-up of bright yellows, startling whites and rich earth-reds, flamboyant accessories and extraordinarily elaborate decorations, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the designs in these images originated in the fevered mind of some leading fashionista. Yet far from the catwalks of New York, London or Paris, these looks are the sole creation of the Surma and Mursi tribes of East Africa's Omo Valley. Inspired by the wild trees, exotic flowers and lush vegetation of the area bordering Ethiopia, Kenya and Sudan, these tribal people have created looks that put the most outlandish creations of Western catwalk couturiers to shame. Here, a leaf or root is...

Arise Africa Fashion Awards: African Fashion Celebrates Talent Last night more than 1000 fashion insiders and their guests descended on the Sandton International Convention Centre in Johannesburg to celebrate the fashion talent of Africa at the inaugural Arise Africa Fashion awards. Walking away with the joint top prize of Designer of the Year was South African David Tlale and Nigerian Tiffany Amber. They both win a place on the catwalks of Mercedes Benz New York Fashion Week in September of this year, as part of the Arise African Fashion Collective show. As hosts, Dr Precious Moloi Motsepe, from African Fashion International (AFI), and Nduka Obaigbena, Arise founder and THIS DAY GROUP chairman, said their welcome speech, "change in Africa will not come through politics, but through the people." This was a theme of the evening that was echoed in the moving speech by former first lady of France, Cecilia Attias, who spoke of her belief that women will offer the real solutions t...

African Abstraction | Zimbabwean Art Movement Zimbabwean stone sculpture is such an interesting aspect of contemporary South Eastern African art. It emerged in the 1980’s as the country became the last African nation to gain independence. The word Zimbabwe means great stone house so it is apt that stone sculpture is the art that most represents modern Zimbabwe. Sylvester Mubayi Bernard Matemera Nicholas Mukomberanwa The Art Movement of the 1980’s spearheaded by Tom Blomfield was known as the Shona Movement and the original founders were Sylvester Mubayi, John Takawira, Nicholas Mukomberanwa and Bernard Matemera. All were austere proud men, each in turn, laying down stringent guidelines on how the work was to be created, the tight meticulous subject matter with clear references to the stones themselves. This uncompromising approach to the subject of art was destined to be short lived and after a while a new breed of vibrant, intelligent arti...

Here are some interesting examples of how patterns have moved from contemporary African ceramics onto hairstyles and may have even inspired crop circles?

Here are some wonderful examples of "African Abstraction" from Ghana in West Africa. This style of textile is known as Kente Cloth. I would like to blend the ideas of a British Artist, Bridget Riley amongst the textiles of Ghana - Kente Cloth - and see how Bridget's approach to colour and shape differs.

In the Presence of Leaves, constitutes a wonderful body of drawings that are elegies for our times: tributes to the beauty and symbolic value of trees and their threatened position through environmental exploitation. Karel Nel has travelled extensively to remote parts of the world, collecting some of the largest leaves in existence. From the famous Coco de Mer palms on the Seychelles to Baobab fibres found in Morandava in Madagascar, and the Pandanus leaves of Rabal, New Island, in Micronesia, these exquisite specimens have been taken to Nel's studio in South Africa to become the very substance of his investigations into nature and the ecological conundrums of our time. The new drawings evoke the simple life on North Island, a beautiful uninhabited island in the Seychelles where over the past four years Nel has explored and had the opportunity to work for specific periods. With a lean-to made of a huge palm leaf for shelter, and later in the exquisitely designed structures by Silvi...

TITLE OF SCULPTURE: 'Ungayithenga inhlizyo nomongo wami - (African curios)' The former portion of the title is in Zulu and translates into English as 'You can buy my heart and my soul' MORE ON THE TITLE "In African mythology the elephant reincarnates carrying the soul of a murdered God. It is thus the embodiment of the transmigration of souls. It is also the metaphor for the world's preoccupation with Africa as an exotic location. The elephant thus embodies the world's romanticism with Africa. In part it is the Colonial panacea: wildness can be contained, civilised and taken back to the ballrooms of the First World as a trophy." Andries Botha © Andries Botha 2009. site by pilotfish

Artist | Colleen Madamombe Colleen Madamombe one of Zimbabwe's best known and much loved sculptors died earlier this week. Born in 1964, Colleen was one of only a few female sculptors in Zimbabwe and certainly the best known. Her work added a new dimension to the complexity of modern Zimbabwe. She boldly tackled the issues within society and purely by the nature of her craft and the use of the heavy “Spring Stone” denoted a sea change in the possibilities for women in Southern Africa. Colleen was considered a creative portal and clearly opened up real opportunities for future generations of female stone sculptors. It is only recently that women have even attempted to work with the hard and heavy stone. Spring stone has a rich outer "blanket" of reddish brown oxidised rock and emerges from the quarry like natural sculptures and this is often a source of inspiration to the artists. There are a few mines where this stone is found, but Guruve, in the north, is the preferred ...