African art - from Joburg to London
A few examples of African art and culture references to remember this season
Dear friend and readers,
As spring settles in Europe, it’s autumn in Johannesburg, and I was lucky enough to meet some incredibly courageous artists busy with events for the season.
One is an amazing jazz musician, multi-instrumentalist and band leader: Sipho Mabuse, who played with Miriam Makeba and Hugo Masekela, among many others.
The other is the painter Sam Nhlengethwa, introduced to me by the Goodman Gallery.
Sam Nhlengethwa
The creative collage artist and the co-founder of Bag Factory Artists' Studio was born in 1955 and live outside Johannesburg.
His most recent exhibition was held at the Goodman Gallery Johannesburg in the summer:
Art Meets Fashion
02 December - 20 January 2024
Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg
Sipho Mabuse
Sipho Cecil Peter Mabuse, known professionally as Sipho "Hotstix" Mabuse, was born in 1951. The singer-songwriter grew up in Soweto and still live there, in an incredible house dedicated to music, as you’ll see in my next video report.
His mother was Zulu and his father Tswana. Sipho and his band Hotstix toured the whole of Southern Africa, from Lesotho to Botswana, in the 1970s and 1980s, despite apartheid.
Sipho is still touring and had a big concert a few days after I met him…
More on them both in my next stories, and following posts to this newsletter.
Meanwhile, the Johannesburg space of the Goodman Gallery is currently hosting a show by the Dutch artist from Surinam Remy Jungerman, whose practice is really worth digging.
Born in 1959, Jungerman attended the Academy for Higher Arts and Cultural Studies in Paramaribo, Surinam, before moving to Amsterdam to study at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy.
His work explores the heritage of Surinamese Maroon culture, but also some of the larger African diaspora, also inspired by 20th century modernism.
With this show, Jungerman presents a “peripheral vision” that both “enriches and informs our perspective on art history”:
Remy Jungerman | Still Waters
04 May - 15 June 2024
Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg
Meanwhile, African art is shining beyond Southern Africa this season, and especially in Dakar and London.
Just a few recommendations…
The Whole World Smiles with You
OPERA GALLERY LONDON
29 May - 26 June 2024
Opera Gallery London is pleased to present ‘The Whole World Smiles with You’, a group exhibition running on dates 29th May – 26th June. Curated by Alayo Akinkugbe, the exhibition features works by Aboudia, Derrick Adams, Noel Anderson, Amoako Boafo, Gerald Chukwuma, Bouvy Enkobo, Jazz Grant, John Madu, Kimathi Mafafo, Simphiwe Ndzube, Chris Ofili, Anya Paintsil, Deborah Roberts; Collin Sekajugo, Thelonious Stokes, Adjei Tawiah, Awodiya Toluwani and Kehinde Wiley.
‘The Whole World Smiles with You’ interrogates various modes of figuration by contemporary Black artists. The exhibited artists challenge the Western canon by overtly reconfiguring renowned paintings to include Black protagonists or, more covertly, portraying figures in poses reminiscent of pre-twentieth-century European portraiture. Certain works also demonstrate a tendency among Black artists to distort, simplify, or caricature the image of a Black person – either to draw attention to negative stereotypes or to imagine Black bodies extending beyond imposed limitations.
In the wake of the Black Lives Matter Movement in 2020, the exhibition places importance on voices that have historically been disregarded. Although figuration has been constant throughout art history, figurative work by Black artists only recently rose to prominence. Such work contributes to the understanding of racialised experiences and the diverse self-perceptions of Black people.
This exhibition contributes to the ongoing conversations around the position of figuration by Black artists. Curator, Alayo Akinkugbe, states that “it is crucial to acknowledge that this exhibition doesn’t exist in isolation but is, in part, a response to events leading up to and since 2020 which have opened up more space for dialogues around Blackness.” Opera Gallery invites you to take part in this critical conversation with ‘The Whole World Smiles with You.’
OM234 presents 'Oliver Enwonwu: A Continued Legacy'
Mall Galleries, London
Dates: 24 May to 1 June 2024
This is a joint exhibition of paintings, drawings, and sculpture by Oliver Enwonwu and his father, Prof. Ben Enwonwu, MBE, NNOM (1917 – 1994) at Mall Galleries.
To coincide with the 30th anniversary of Ben Enwonwu’s passing, the exhibition is conceived as a conversation between both artists exploring their shared depiction of femininity as a symbol of indigenous aesthetic and primordial feminine power.
The exhibition venue pays homage to Ben Enwonwu’s 1985 exhibition ‘Dance Theme’ also staged at Mall Galleries.
For ‘A Continued Legacy’, Oliver Enwonwu has created new paintings that “deviate from his father’s aesthetic to unpack ideas of nationhood, the female body, gesture, and symbolism,” he said.
With a focus on the movement, hair, and clothing of his sitter’s Enwonwu depicts “strategy of resistance” emphasising “the self-assertiveness of his subjects.”
Enwonwu also engages with the works of other modern masters and their “sources of inspiration” in the geometric shapes of African masks and sculpture: particularly, he has reinterpreted Picasso’s ‘Les Desmoiselles d’ Avignon’ in a new work titled ‘Were God to be a Woman’. This painting asks us to reimagine “the role of the women depicted by artists such as Picasso” and to “celebrate indigenous African power over objectivity and colonialism.”
Oliver Enwonwu will be in conversation with British-Nigerian curator, writer and lecturer Péjú Oshin on Thursday 30 May, 2pm at Mall Galleries.
‘Contact Zone’
Cromwell Place, London
3 June – 9 June 2024
‘Contact Zone’ is the inaugural exhibition of PieceUnique, including work from artists Oluwole Omofemi, Blebo and Elfreda Fakoya.
PieceUnique, a new artist agency co-founded by celebrated Nigerian artist Oluwole Omofemi, wants to be dedicated to supporting and empowering African artists through mentorships, training programmes and curated exhibitions, both in and out of Africa.
Oluwole Omofemi, Oju oge (Beauty), 2023, Oil on canvas. Courtesy the artist and PieceUnique
The London exhibition will delve “into the concept of intersubjectivity”, exploring “the intersections of an artist’s experience, sentiments, perspectives of the world they live and create in,” the material and the spiritual.
Omofemi, Fakoya, and Blebo’s works want to relate both to individual self and to a “conservation of collective identity”.
Aline Motta for the Fondation Dapper in Gorée, Dakar
Finally, one last suggestion.
The Fondation Dapper, an institution that has been committed for over 35 years for Sub-Saharan Africa’s artistic heritage and contemporary art from Africa and their Diasporas, has also opened a new exhibition on Gorée island, in Dakar, Senegal, on 18 May, curated by Aline Motta:
BRAZIL AND AFRICA, A SHARED HISTORY
It presents the work of Brazilian visual artist Aline Motta who addresses the contemporary consequences of the transatlantic trade and colonisation.
The event was originally conceived for the Dakar Biennale 2024, which has been postponed to November.
Aline Motta’s visual narratives “offer a psychoanalytical dimension as they explore the familial ties and roots of the Brazilian artist through the prism of resistance to colonial past,” the foundation wrote.
They also reflect, more broadly, on the shared history of an entire Afro-descendant diaspora and other stakeholders of the transatlantic trade, “inviting us all to reflect on our identity, our relationship with the past, and today's world with an undercurrent of hope we are able to reconstruct ourselves differently.”
And I’ll come back to say more about it soon.
Key elections
Finally, back to politics, as elections approach in South Africa, where I was to report, a last series of articles and videos until next week:
Parties woo South Africa's poorest voters with promise of basic income
Corruption a big worry for young South Africans voting
South Africans lose faith in ruling ANC as income inequality grows
The ruling party in South Africa, the African National Congress, announced on 23 May that it would put in place a basic income if reelected on 29 May. With a third of the population unemployed, poverty has dramatically increased in the past five years, and millions are dependent on grants. I met with South African beneficiaries and experts campaigning for the introduction of a basic income:
More of my work here on South Africa.
Thanks for reading, as usual.
More soon on art, history, and African-Western relations.
With my best regards,
melissa
-
Melissa Chemam
Journalist & Writer
Podcast: Spotlight on Africa
Words: RFI English, New Arab, ART UK, Byline Times...
TikTok Channel: https://www.tiktok.com/@melissaontheroad
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXE4ofFjz0lsRzemjdmFf7w