Unseen Art Scene (mirror)

A visionary modernist Source:  http://www.newafricanmagazine.com/special-reports/other-reports/154-contemporary-african-art-fair/a-visionary-modernist One of the Sudan’s greatest cultural ambassadors, the majestic Ibrahim El-Salahi, is also one of the continent’s greatest contemporary artists, as Beverly Andrews discovered at a recent one-man show. 1:54  reports The Sudan has a rich history which dates back to antiquity where its fortunes were very much intertwined with that of ancient Egypt. The country was in ancient times the home of the great Nubian and Kush empires but much of the Sudan’s contemporary history has been mired in conflict. Two successive civil wars have plunged the region into armed chaos but with the peaceful succession of South Sudan there are now hopes that the country can once again be celebrated for its rich cultural life, and Ibrahim El-Salahi is at the forefront of this renaissance. London’s prestigious Tate Modern is now playing host to a long overdu...

New African 1:54 Special – Newfound Visibility Source:  http://1-54.com/newfound-visibility/ Posted on  29.09.2013 Abidjan   Congo   Côte d’Ivoire   Cotonou   Dae es Salaam   Dakar   Kinshasa   Lagos   Maputo Morocco   South Africa The art dealer  André Magnin  has played a pivotal role in the dissemination of African contemporary art outside Africa. In 1989, he co-curated the global art exhibition Magiciens de la terre in Paris, after which he became director of the well-known Pigozzi Collection for 20 years. In 2009 he founded  Magnin-A , his eponymous agency which represents a diverse array of artists including Frédéric Bruly Bouabré, Romuald Hazoumè, Chéri Samba, Kura Shomali and Billie Zangewa. He explains to  Olivier Coutau  how the African art market has evolved from a situation of relative non-existence in the 1990s to a situation of newfound visibility. Photo: Mart Engel Olivier Coutau:  You fi...

White Mischief DEBATE Source:  http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/white_mischief/ Issue 7   November-December 1992 'Out of Africa' The story begins one day in 1989 when an idiosyncratic and disillusioned European art collector visits an exhibition. The artists have unpronounceable names, they speak in languages unknown to the collector’s ears and they live in distant locations which he cannot find on his big plastic globe. It is like no exhibition he has ever seen before and he falls in love with it. Unable to buy what he sees, which already belongs to a big corporation, the collector engages the services of a young curator. He sets him the task of researching and acquiring new art from the most exotic places in the world. Gradually the collector’s dream comes true and before long the young man has returned with hundreds of works by artists from Africa. Delighted with the marvels he has brought home, the collector proudly displays his treasures to his friends. An exhibition i...

SLIDESHOW Why does the artist do this? Cover herself in mud...so primitive the artist is in Uganda. So close to nature are the Bugandans and those found in the capital, Kampala. Have they all lost their way? Given up trying....leaving those running to be more like the Europeans well alone, and instead bathing in pools of mud like elephants in salt marshes. Look how the artist plays, like a child in a sandpit. See how happy she is being backward, primitive and honest. Watch her gleeful smiles that encourage the viewers to giggle, courting our attention with her native loveliness. Is the artist wanting to be exotic? I don't think so. Not for one moment as this is well orchestrated art, with an attention to the details. It is constructed with intent and full of positive meaning; some may say we are witnesses to a moment of deconstruction and a going backwards, desperately trying to understanding the past and all that has gone before. A returning to the earth and a break from all proto...

Naomi Wanjiku Gakunga,  Mũgogo – The Crossin g, 2012. Recycled cans, stainless steel wire, galvanized steel wire and paper, 178 x 127 cm. Photo Lee Bennack. Naomi Wanjiku Gakunga,  Folklorico III , 2010. Stainless steel wire and fabric, 94 x 76 x 61 cm. Photo Lee Bennack. Naomi Wanjiku Gakunga,  Magetha ma Mwere - The Small Harvest,  2010.Stainless steel wire, woven kiondo basket strips and texas mountain laurel tree seeds, 213 x 91 cm. Photo Lee Bennack. Naomi Wanjiku Gakunga: ITUIKA - TRANSFORMATION October Gallery is pleased to present a new exhibition of works by Naomi Wanjiku Gakunga. This will be her first solo exhibition in London. Naomi Wanjiku Gakunga (b.1960), grew up among the Kikuyu people of Kenya. She first studied Art and Design at the University of Nairobi, Kenya, before continuing her studies at UCLA, USA. She now lives and works in San Antonio, Texas. Gakunga has displayed works in numerous exhibitions in the USA, France, Brazil and Poland. The exhi...

GUEST PROJECTS AFRICA Following the success of the Royal Opera House  Africa Weekend  curated by Yinka Shonibare MBE, Guest Projects has launched Guest Projects Africa. Showcasing cutting edge African Art forms, Guest Projects Africa creates a platform for African artists of all disciplines including spoken word, dance, fashion, architecture, visual arts, and more. Source:  http://guestprojects.com/gp-africa/re-introducing-oshun/ Re-introducing Oshun October 7-17 2013 Re-Introducing Oshun , is an interdisciplinary project using photography, film, prose and objects to re-discover black women’s bodies as sacred places of intimacy, sensuality and beauty. Oshun  is a West African Orisha from the Yoruba faith and culture whose role concerns, intimacy, beauty and diplomacy. We will be bringing this deity to life, through the approach of ‘visual rhetoric.’ The intention is for us to have the power, control and ownership to create our own representation. We are a collective ...

Oche Onodu (Couch), 2012, plastic bags, bottles, metal, cans, wood, yarn, 68"x27"x128"     Ifeoma Anyaeji Transmogrification   September 26th - November 2nd, 2013    Skoto Gallery is pleased to present  Transmogrification , an exhibition of recent mixed media sculpture by the Nigerian-born artist Ifeoma Anyaeji. This will be her first solo show at the gallery. The artist will be present at the  reception on Thursday, September 26th, 6-8pm.   Ifeoma Anyaeji’s recent sculpture employs a virtuosic ability to create elegant forms drawn from architecture and domestic furniture design through the reconstruction of found objects such as the ubiquitous plastic bags and bottles. She utilizes a process that is physically and conceptually steeped in memory, history and the passage of time to create work that radically put into question conventional notions of what sculpture is. Using hair plaiting technique known as  Threading  from her homeland, s...