Art in Africa
African artists have now taken and secured their seat at the dinner table. It’s about time one acknowledgesnot only the growing impact of contemporary African art on the American creative epicenter of New York, but also the kinds of identity politics that affect the ways we view and interact with the global art world.
Etched in their individual works are the intimate contexts that motivate their creative preoccupations, as well as the internationalism of their individual practices. Such contexts bear the markers of what is increasingly being referred to as global contemporary. Indeed, their works spans both geography and media.
We are therefore happy to feature six painters and photographers born in countries throughout Africa, others being of African descent or having spent chunks of their childhood on the continent.
The real unifying characteristic that threads these works together is a penchant for using local experiences and histories as a lens through which we can view global issues. Their individual works address Africa, but is also a vehicle with which they contemplate our changing times.
Ephrem Solomon (b, 1983, Ethiopia)
Aida Muluneh (b. 1974, Ethiopia)
AmaliaRamanakarihina (b. 1963, Madagascar)
ChikeObeagu (b. 1975, Nigeria)
Gopal Dagnogo (b. 1973, Ivory Coast)
Beatrice Wanjiku (b. 1978, Kenya)
