africanah.org

“The historical definitely has much to teach us today, in fact sometimes far more than the contemporary”, says art critic Athi Mongezeleli Joja. A recent exhibition of the Johannesburg Art Gallery – All Your Faves Are Problematic – proves that using history not always works out in the way he has in mind. “Most of the work shown in the exhibit coalesces around the voyeuristic and primitivistic impulse of the white artist, which over the last century has constructed black bodies as objects of anthropological and artistic fascination.“

Poster image of the exhibition

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Oswald Dennis’ work is usually characterised by intricate topographical images that discourse the impact of colonialism on the African continent. In the ‘Options’ exhibition the artist showed that he is concerned with the impact of colonialism on the existential and ontological space. Intricate works or drawings also characterise this show, but their relationship with text is characterised by words that denote prepositions, text that articulate a sense of relevance in the protracted post-colonial present.
(text on home page)

Themba Tsotsi on the work of the South African artist Nolan Oswald Dennis

Options, 2018

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Two artists from different generations, different parts of the continent but speaking the same language- pop! Their union was lively one, a much-needed one for a scene that is not used to such vibrancy.

Artist and critic Matt Kayem on the Afro-Pop of Evans Mbugua and Dennis Osadebe

Dennis Osadebe, Gentleman on a Hors Indoors, 2018

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So how are artists representing identity in a space between cultures relevant to our time? They are more than ever needed, for they push forward new ways of thinking, new rules, and a new world where different ways of thinking are merged and accepted. They hold several emics within them. They are pioneers, recreating histories and allowing it to flow through different paths never questioning its different authenticities, because it knows all is possible. They are the product and the answer to our globalized multicultural world.

Ghanese-Dutch artist Marijke Everts on identity and home in multi cultural world.

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The Bedworks are drawings made with colored pencils in a bed, so in an extended position. It was a way for me to reposition my work, putting away the studio work with all that it evokes as an imaginary of the virile artist working in a technical space. In short it is a work that wants to be domestic; it takes place in this space dedicated to women in art history.

Karima Boudou in conversation with the Moroccan artist Soufiane Ababri

Bedwork, 2016-2018, colored pencils on paper

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