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Arena for Contemporary African, African-American and Caribbean Art

Archive: articles

On Meeting Toni Morrison

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Toni Morrison (1931-2019) was one of the most important American writers. She inspired many fellow authors and also artists. She won the Nobel Prize for Literature and emphatically made her voice heard in discussions about race, feminism and Black Lives Matter. She was a novelist of the black experience.

Sarah Ladipo Manyika had the chance to meet her. In this article she gives an extensive, personal report of her meeting. Read more »

Dada Khanyisa: Good Feelings

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She makes use of what we could call ordinary materials such as wood, plastic glass, mirrors, record cases, and so on; as well as creatively abstract instances of black people inside bars, restaurants, shebeens, homes, and different kinds of interiorities, with great humor and play.

Athi Mongezeleli on the new works of Dada Khanyisa
precoital convos, 2019, all works courtesy Stevenson Gallery, SA.

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Devan Shimoyama: The Black Queer Male Body

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Devan Shimoyama is a young artist from Philadelphia, living in Pittsburgh. He explores the depictions of the black, queer, male body. He is one of the BLOOM generation as presented in TELL ME YOUR STORY. 100 years of storytelling in African Amerikan art. Kunsthal KAdE in Amersfoort, The Netherlands, until May 17, 2020.

Rob Perrée writes on his work
Countdown, 2019

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Philip Balimunsi. New curator of Uganda’s national gallery

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Artist/curator Philip Balimunsi has been appointed curator of Nommo National Gallery, Uganda’s national gallery of art. What are his motives, his plans, his future projects? How important is the Nommo National Gallery for the art scene in Uganda?

Matt Kayem interviews him.

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TELL ME YOUR STORY. 100 years of storytelling in African American art

In the context of The Netherlands, where African American art has never had a dedicated solo show, I appreciate that the way the show was thought and how it is laid out responds to a rather didactic curatorial approach: the works are displayed in a loose chronological order, the wall-texts, although in Dutch, provide with a light contextual socio-political explanation of the time, they are accompanied by cultural artefacts that informed the visual arts and reinforced the mood of the time such as music, printed materials, and videos.

Raquel Villar-Pérez on TELL ME YOUR STORY, 100 years of storytelling African American art
Charles White, The Bridge Party, 1938

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