Unseen Art Scene (mirror)

Artist Educator led creative workshops for Early Years to KS3 May 19th – June 30th This exhibition brings together major works by 12 artists who best represent the innovative and dynamic artistic practices across the African continent and the African diaspora and launches Chris Spring’s book, Angaza Afrika ( translated from the Swahili to mean ‘Shed light on Africa’ or ‘Look around Africa’), published by Laurence King. Amongst others, the exhibition will include works by Romuald Hazoumé, El Anatsui, Rachid Koraïchi and Owusu-Ankomah. Our creative artist-led workshops will be a unique opportunity for pupils to explore the diversity of Africa and challenge ideas of what ‘African art’ is. By discovering a variety of mediums and materials, which fuse traditional and contemporary artistic practices, pupils will create their own responses, whilst investigating issues of culture, identity and stereotypes. Workshops take place at the gallery from 10.00am—12.00pm at a cost of £70 per group, o...

The Africa in Motion film festival(AiM) PRESS RELEASE – April 2007 Africa in Motion festival launches new short film competition for emerging African filmmakers across the continent The Africa in Motion film festival (AiM), which takes place annually in October at Edinburgh Filmhouse, is officially inviting African filmmakers to submit short films for a new AiM competition. In order to target the competition specifically towards young and emerging African talent, filmmakers who enter a film for consideration must not have completed a feature-length film previously. Films entered must have been completed in 2005 or after, and must be no longer than 30 minutes. The competition winner will be selected from a shortlist of films and will be announced at an awards ceremony at the third successive Africa in Motion festival in October 2008. The winner will have the opportunity for their film to be screened at AiM 2008 as well as the chance to win a significant cash prize. A selection of o...

Source: Mail & Guardian South Africa | http://www.chico.mweb.co.za/art/2008/2008mar/080307-artfair.html Image: The Jo’burg Art Fair’s Ross Douglas. (Photo: Lisa Skinner) The Art of Selling Art Anthea Buys speaks to Ross Douglas about the commercial possibilities of the country’s first art fair It is not uncommon to find contemporary South African artists and critics who are still suspicious of the infiltration of money into the local art scene. Perhaps this is why it has taken the initiative of entrepreneur Ross Douglas, who lacks purist artistic commitments, to realise an event such as the Jo'burg Art Fair, a local art-buying initiative at the Sandton Convention Centre for three days next week. Douglas is the producer of the first-ever Jo'burg Art Fair, which also claims the accolade of being the first entirely privately funded art-buying fair on the African continent. The fair will take place from March 14 to 16, but will be cushioned by a programme of non-commercial even...

Source | Mail & Guardian Online | http://www.chico.mweb.co.za/art/2008/2008mar/080314-njami.html As Njami Likes It Simon Njami on the show he has curated for the Jo'burg Art Fair and why he has called it As You Like It In an interview, the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat responded to a critic who tried to ascribe his interpretation to one of his own canvases. He said: "As you like it." Basquiat's answer is charged with irony. He uttered it at a time when his career had impressively shot up. He had left the New York subway, the walls of which bore his signature, having been invited, along with two other very young artists, to Documenta in Kassel, Germany, where his work was very successfully received. In New York, he became the new idol. At the time when he spoke these words he had moved beyond the phase of empathetically wanting to impose his own interpretation as the only possible one. Even better, he understood how the art world worked and set himself apart through ...

Jo'burg Art Fair Stirs Up Debate Celean Jacobson | Johannesburg, South Africa 14 March 2008 04:04 The first fair in Africa to focus on selling contemporary African art offers plenty of work reflecting the continent's war, disease and poverty: sculptures of guns with spikes; dark, bloody etchings; installations on the dangers of unprotected sex. Masks, fetishes and the odd protest poster from South Africa's resistance art movement also are on display. But so is art with more universal themes, such as a wistful sculpture of mother and child. Other work is irreverent, pop and cheeky. The kaleidoscope of images and themes is a fitting backdrop for the debate the Jo'burg Art Fair has sparked about what it means to be African and an artist. The fair also has the art world buzzing about tensions between art and commerce. "Whatever we call African art, I think the African artist exists," said Simon Njami, a Cameroon-born, Paris-based curator who spoke at Thursday...

Image: African Graffiti by Joe Pollitt 1949 - First Published West African Pilot, May 1949 THE EVOLUTION, HISTORY AND DEFINITION OF FINE ART Author: Ben Enwonwu I should ask the gods of my ancestors to tell me what art is and for what purpose it exists. It is easy to talk about painting and sculpture, or architecture, music and other forms of art but it is not so easy to discuss fully what constitute their natures and qualities. The question What is Art? has been widely discussed by artists, philosophers, and art critics but many aspects of it have merely been explained away. It is also a question for which no cut-and-dry definition has yet been offered, nor would any if offered, be adequate. Through aesthetic experiences and constant application of thought to art, writers on art have been able to offer different aspects of the answers which may serve as an adequate definition of art. LANGUAGE OF ART But very often the language of art employed is misunderstood, or else, taken for grant...

I wanted to post this article today at the end of Feburary 2008 and ask the question how have things really changed in the last 50 years...? 1956 - First Published in Paris Paris: Editions Presence Africaine PROBLEMS OF THE AFRICAN ARTIST TODAY Author Ben Enwonwu The problems which face the African artist of our generation are many and difficult. They may be classified as political, cultural, educational and social, and even emotional problems. I should, however, like to introduce a few thoughts on some aspects of these problems that may throw light on the inevitable causes, in the hope that some solution can be found. Perhaps, the most pressing among these problems and therefore one which I feel personally, should be given first attention is the political. The cause of the political aspect of these problems can be envisaged and considered by the extent to which Art has been accorded its proper place in the political life of the African peoples. It is a common assumption that Art has n...