Born in Ghana, Gideon Appah is a visual artist best known for his expressive paintings and drawings that bring together personal experiences, historical references and mythology. Presented at the Institute for Contemporary Art — Virginia Commonwealth University — Forgotten, Nudes, Landscapes is Appah’s first institutional solo exhibition that coalesces diverse mediums to register and reflect…
Curated by Joseph Gergel, Crossed Looks includes approximately 90 works from the Guinean Swiss photographer Namsa Leuba‘s initiatives in Guinea, South Africa, Nigeria, Benin and Tahiti. The Halsey Institute presented Crossed Looks from August to December 2021 — being Leuba’s first solo exhibition in the United States. Namsa Leuba moved to Guinea Conkary, her mother’s…
In their seminal book, Biennials, Triennials, and Documenta: The Exhibitions that Created Contemporary Art, Anthony Gardner and Charles Green trace the history of mega exhibitions and consider their impact on the art ecology. Through this lens, they provide a reading of the “biennialization” of the art world. Gardner and Green argue that biennales have “brought…
“Everything can be used. Except what is wasteful. You will need to remember this when you are accused of destruction.” Audre Lorde I was having a conversation with a friend about art — wondering out loud — what is this for? What does it do? Why do we do all of this stuff? Nothing more…
From witnessing his 2021 exhibition, Garage-ism, right through to viewing the impact of his most recent solo exhibition, Monochrome Paintings, here in Johannesburg – Zander Blom’s work has always left me enthused and enthralled. From the plethora of contemporary artistic influences and references which Blom draws from, this artist has managed to forge his own…
Our relationship with the spaces that surround us is first personal by nature. Where we come from, how we grew up, what we see and experience — the ways we live. A great sequence of verbs in the past tense. There are histories which tell stories of our origins, locations, languages and habits. We are…
Neoliberalism and all his children, such as The American Dream and all its variations, would have many Black African artists spending their nights conjuring up dreams of achieving excellence via Western standards. In line with a culture of celebrating and uplifting our people, we would cheer on when one of our own local artists is…
Made to Fall in Love, is a short film that captures the spirit of Afro Caribbean people and their relationship with love throughout the diaspora. The purpose of NoHa Collective’s first official initiative is to present Black love in a new perspective. “What does your relationship with love look like?” The collective inquires. In most…
*This essay forms part of Bubblegum’s Collaboration with Bag Factory and their visiting curator from Uganda, EM Mirembe. It is the second part of Joburg based art critic and Azanian Philosophical Association member Athi Mongezeleli Joja’s reading of apartheid former president, F.W. de Klerk, pre-recorded “last message” video. Read the first part here. The metaphor of home instantiates more than just notions of…
*This essay forms part of Bubblegum’s Collaboration with Bag Factory and their visiting curator from Uganda, EM Mirembe. It is the first part of Joburg based art critic and Azanian Philosophical Association member Athi Mongezeleli Joja reading of apartheid former president, F.W. de Klerk, pre-recorded “last message” video. Those who have wronged must be ready to make amends they can. They…
It must have been a random evening of mindless scrolling through my Instagram gallery when I suddenly received one of those incredibly annoying notifications of a livestream by someone I forgot I followed. Except, this time, I clicked in with full excitement after noticing that it was a SCCA Tamale live. The Savannah Centre for…
I’ve been thinking a lot about the work of Igshaan Adams in relation to Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx. Using abstraction to guide him, Marx became well known as one of the most influential architects but for his work as a painter, ecologist and naturalist in the region. The patterns and intricate images of…
