africanah.org

“Contemporary Art even today is still an activity for the elite in Brazil. The elite are a small group of people that descents from and still owns former plantation properties and/or the fruits of that today. Brazil is a class system, 80% poor people, the “one per centers” and a very small middle class. That with a very poor education system makes that only a few can afford to have good private education in and outside of Brazil. The descendents of the enslaved Africans are still the poor people of today in Brazil. This is even more the case if you talk about the 7% black (preto) people”.

Sasha Dees is looking for black artists in Rio de Janeiro.

Read more »

“The fact that Other cultures have been left out of the Stedelijk museum up to the 21st is actually very striking. The museum doesn’t harshly confront itself or the visitor with this disclosure. Instead it moves around the painful stuff, and just plainly states that it is now for the first time looking for art from other places, from the rest of the world. And that is perhaps a missed chance to make a strong statement about museums, colonialism and our heritage.”
Jesse Vissers writes a critical essay on the exhibition ‘How Far How Near’ in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.

Picture: Billie Zangewa, Midnight Aura, 2012.
Read more »

“Historically, feminist spirituality in art and thought (including cultural feminism) has searched for a language to counter patriarchal violence enacted upon female bodies. At a time of continued violence, MaÏmouna’s work invites a process of re-visiting these histories, and their significance to artists working currently, across generations and geographies.”
Yvette Greslé in her essay on Patrizia Guerresi Maïmouna.

Read more »

“You allow me to glare into your eyes, with your hands steady on the table. You are calling for attention, not to your ego, but to your eyes, the window into your soul, as fractured as it is.”
Emmanuel Iduma speaks to Carrie Mae Weems.

Read more »

“Sirmans has created a carefully composed biennial. The selected artists ‘serve’ his concept, their work is linked to the ‘character’ of the environment in which they are exhibited, without becoming exclusively local or national. In the themes they are talking about – Sirmans uses the word ‘conversation’ a lot – they often meet each other, not in the least because of the thoughtful installment of Sirmans.”
Rob Perrée on Prospect 3 in New Orleans.

Herbert Singleton, Angola, 1990’s.

Read more »