africanah.org

Arena for Contemporary African, African-American and Caribbean Art

Archive: articles

Collage Broadly Defined, groupshow in Afriart, Kampala

MattCover

Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso who gave the medium its first kick would stare in awe if they visited Afriart gallery today as each of these young artists demonstrates a deep understanding of how to ‘cut and paste’ which form the core of the discipline

Matt Kayem on the groupshow Collage Broadly Defined in Kampala
Gael Maski, Personal Tansition Series, 2019

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Irene Reece

Reece strangefruit2

‘I want to do projects that uplift the communities I belong to by using positive imagery. I want to cherish Black and Brown beauty, celebrate our heritage in a way that fights a system that establishes one-way of life and tells what and how things and people must be.’

Afro-Mexican artist Irene Reece about The Family Album as a Source for Activism

Strange Fruit 2, courtesy of the artist

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Ramón Rik Singley II: Tattletale

Ramon1

The ten steps we’ve taken forward we now have taken back with the tragic events of 2020. Every incident we see is pushing our society further and further from the idea of a happy place. A place where the scales of wealth and the weight of society are more evenly distributed, suggesting a change has taken place.

Ramón Rik Singley II about being black in America

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Jennie Baptiste

JBPinky

Black art has always been around, like the Harlem Renaissance which came about in the 1920s. We have always existed within this creative space and will continue to do so.”

Jennie Baptiste in coversation with Christabel Johanson
Pinky, 2002

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Stary Mwaba: There is no interest in our wellbeing

ScaryChineseCabbage2014-2015

We had to navigate our way around, we had to prove ourself. There is less of that now, you can be here in Zambia and you have a thousand followers on one of your social networking sites who are interested in what you do. But yeah, I think it’s about having the interest in something and following it through, It is…..I hate to use the word…… passion.

Matt Kayem in conversation with the Zambian artist Stary Mwaba
Chinese Cabbage, 2014-2015 (detail)

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