For a long time, abstract work of African American artists was not popular. The art world and the market were not interested. Figuration dominated. That has changed.
Archive: articles
Figuring Blackness: on the blackness of the works of Cinga Samson
Iyabanda Intsimbi / The metal is cold, the South African artist Cinga Samson’s solo exhibition at the FLAG Art Foundation in New York, is composed of a series of (self)portraits and ‘private’ scenes that border on the ritual and funereal. Cinga’s portraits are pensive, sans pupil, cool and casual, confidently posing and adorned in gold. His dark palette of oils sinks his Black figures into ‘their’ world, threatening to disappear them into the Darkness that looms right behind
Vusi Nkomo on the Blackness of the works of Cinga Samson.
Ibhungane 9, 2020
Aaron Samuel Mulenga and Mapopa Hussein Manda
In the end I discovered a show making bold social commentary – speaking to the past, the contemporary and the future of Zambia, if not Africa.
Barnabas Ticha Muvhuti on an untitled exhibition with works of Aaron Samuel Mulenga and Mapopa Hussein Manda
Aaron Samuel Mulenga, I can’t breathe, 2021
Xenson
The work on show is clearly the artist’s response to the covid-19 pandemic. The artist is among the few that have veered away from their usual themes in their works to tackle an immediate issue. He relays in the catalogue under the exhibition brief that when he was going through his sketch book at the beginning of the pandemic, he found sketches of figures wearing masks which he couldn’t remember where the inspiration came from.
Matt Kayem on the work of Xenson
Lumina. 2020
The Art and History of Kwanzaa
At different times throughout the Black community’s history – from the Black Lives Matter movement, Apartheid or police brutality – art in all its forms becomes the mouthpiece of opposition. Thus it is all the more profound that Kwanzaa was born during the Civil Rights movement when the Black community used its voice and artistic power to protest again discrimination.