Unseen Art Scene (mirror)

Damien Hirst: For the Love of God  This work is so bold and has a Hogarth flavour about it as it seems to put up a huge mirror to those within the Art World in general. This work is multi-layered like Sol LeWitt and I smile as I hear the artist being interviewed.  An interviewer asked Damien:  How do you want to be remembered?  Damien answered; "Great in bed!"   ------- For the Love of Damien Hirst.... Why did the artist use diamonds?  Why place a huge diamond from  Angola  in the Centre  of the World's  most expensive  artwork?  Where is this work being shown  and by whom? Who can afford such a  blinding skull? Who exactly is buying  this  glorious  work of Art? Now valued at 50 million pounds  Sterling  and  raising.  Maybe it is to talk about those  that cut  the diamonds  in India, China,  Europe  and America... anywhere  and everywhere  but  Africa?  Africa is shaped as an uncut  diamond  but the stones are  worthless,  as  it  is  the  people  that  sparkle.  Let th

Artist | Paa Joe Fantasy Coffins Teshey, Accra *N.B. See previous post for the interview -  http://africanartists.blogspot.com/2010/11/art-out-of-africa-bill-karg-being.html I have enormous admiration for Bill Karg, his attitude and adoration of artists from Africa is second to none. He has championed the ideas of the Continent and shared his extensive knowledge with Art Collectors, Artists, Critics and school children in NYC and beyond. I tend to disagree with Bill, but then again, I disagree with everybody. I think the Art World is a cold fish. A total nonsense and a foolish Boss. Following fashion is a mugs game! Don't play to the Market, create it through being sincere and having a genuine passion. Artists are artists worldwide. Do you really think the Seneg alese don't want to celebrate their football stars that play in the English Premiership? They are more part of Senegal in England than they ever were in Dakar. Bill, we are born on a tiny boat with broken oars and are a

Source | http://mantlethought.org/content/art-out-africa An interview with Bill Karg, founder of the Contemporary African Art Gallery, New York City Bill Karg founded the Contemporary African Art Gallery in New York City in 1987, where he has exhibited internationally recognized African artists for more than twenty years with the aim of changing perceptions about the continent’s contemporary art. At present, the gallery represents over thirty artists from ten African countries. Karg has lived in Africa for extended periods and has worked on a range of development projects in various capacities for the World Bank, USAID, the United Nations, and a number of African governments. Currently, Karg's Contemporary African Art Gallery is exhibiting the work of the Senegalese mixed-media artist Viye Diba. Born in Dakar, Senegal in 1954, Diba studied art education at the National School of Fine Arts in Dakar and went on to receive a PhD in urban geography from the University of Nice, France.

This is such a brilliant idea founded by Lauren Jones, a family friend and a jolly good egg. I adore the energy behind this project and think this is the perfect way to have your artwork seen and cared about rather than placing such monetary value on works of Art. This project needs funding and this is a truly worthy cause and could even change the Art World completely. Art Barter has such integrity and foresight behind it, I am proud to donate and hope you do the same.

You are invited to join us for a glass of wine and to celebrate the opening Greg Constantine's Exhibition |  Kenya's Nubians: Then & Now .  From 6:30pm  Thursday the 18th November . Exhibition Dates: 17 - 26 November 2010 Kenya’s Nubians: Then & Now is the first exhibition in London for photographer Greg Constantine (USA, b. 1970).  The Nubian community has lived in Kenya for over 100 years.  Incorporated into the British Army in the late 1880s and brought to Kenya from Sudan by the British at the turn of the century, Nubians served for the British in the King’s African Rifles during WWI and WWII and were vital to the development of Kenya and East Africa.  They held British colonial passports and birth certificates that stated their nationality as British.  Unable to return to their homeland, the British designated over 4000 acres of land for the Nubians and their families to settle on.  The Nubians named the land, Kibra or ‘land of forest’.  After Kenyan Independence,

Atta Kwami is exhibiting in New York this week at the Howard Scott Gallery. New York is in for a real treat. Kwahu, 2010 Here is an African Artist who really knows how to play the game. His work is screaming out to be seen on an International level. Atta is one of Africa's Greatest treasures, he has educated himself to such a high level and has a real grasp and deep understanding of what it is to be an artist. Words from the Artist: "The qualities I seek on my work are: clarity, simplicity, intensity, subtlety, architectonic structure, musicality (rhythm and tone), wholeness and spontaneity. So many strands inevitably manifest themselves in painting: jazz, the timbre of Ghanaian music (Koo Nimo), improvisation, arrangements of merchandise and so forth. I also see corresponding aesthetic commonalities with wall paintings and music from northern Ghana, the limited range of earth colors and the pentatonic scale of the xylophone. Poetry is able to sustain the life of language thro

Purple Rain by Andrew Njoroge  Andrew had this idea a number of years ago but I'm delight to see that he has finally put his camera into action and made a beautiful album of photographs of the Jacaranda trees in Nairobi, Kenya. Nairobi is a city that lies near the equator and is the hub of East Africa. It has no real season to speak of but this marvellous, exciting, dangerous city that some refer to as Nairobbery almost changes overnight. In mid-October the place is awash and comes into bloom, with vivid purple Jacaranda leaves. A stunning sight for all to see, they seem to grow almost everywhere.                                                      "The Jacaranda Season", as Andrew likes to call it.  This is a wonderful display of sensitivity.  A photographer truly at his best and looking at his city with renewed vision.  A positive expression from a world far too often seen as full of anger, hatred and ugliness. What a refreshing sight for sore eyes. With the greatest r

My problem today is Pigozzi. Jean Pigozzi, Johnny to his friends. Now the principle of the Pigozzi Collection sourced by Andre Magnin was that they would choose artists that were untrained, unaffected by the ugly Western World. Well, Cheri Samba is far from unaffected he is obviously copying our friend Mister Escher. So the Collection falls apart and the principles behind the Collection seem to have more holes in than Swiss Cheese. The truth be told, Jean Pigozzi is the right man for Africa, it's just he hasn't thought it through with his choice of artists. Africa needs to be seen as progressive it needs a Collector that is in it for the long-term. It needs so desperately the Jean Pigozzis of this world, not for their money but for their influence around the globe. Africa has such little support from the truly powerful amongst us...with the obvious exception of me, of course. The idea to ask an artist to stay primitive is I am afraid boys and girls, asking far too much. Nobody