Here’s our round up of September exhibitions and shows around the world you might want to see this month.
Meleko Mokgosi Democratic Intuition, Lerato: Philia I, 2016.
Two panels: oil on canvas. 96 x 198 1/2 inches.
© Meleko Mokgosi.
MUSEUMS
CAMEROON
Aujourd’hui (translated from French, Today), National Museum of Yaounde ; An exhibition curated by Simon Njami. Until 20 September 2019
A poetry from here, today and tomorrow. Njami asks to a selection of 30 Cameroonian artists, the question: what is TODAY? In a word TODAY is about transition. It’s important for the world and for the African continent to take part in this transition. Their response is the testimony of an established artistic modernity and a liberation of expression.
US & CANADA
The Way She Looks; A History of Female Gazes in African Portraiture, Photographs from The Walther Collection, Ryerson Image Centre, Toronto, Canada
11 September – 8 December 2019
Photographs from The Walther Collection. Exhibition features contemporary works by female artists, including Yto Barrada, Jodi Bieber, Lebohang Kganye, Zanele Muholi, Grace Ndiritu, and Nontsikelelo “Lolo” Veleko alongside 1950s studio portraits by such important historical figures as Malick Sidibé and Seydou Keïta, and nineteenth-century prints, cartes de visite, postcards, and albums. LINK
Africa State of Mind, Museum of African Diaspora, San Francisco, USA
4 September – 15 November 2019
Africa State of Mind, curated by Ekow Eshun with NAE, explores the work of an emergent generation of photographers from across the African continent. 16 artists from 11 different countries interrogate ideas of 'Africanness' through highly subjective renderings of life and identity on the continent, along the way revealing Africa to be a psychological space as much as a physical territory; a state of mind as much as a physical location. The exhibiting artists are: Emmanuelle Andrianjafy, Sammy Baloji, Raphaël Barontini, Neil Beloufa, Girma Berta, Eric Gyamfi, Kiluanji Kia Henda, Lebohang Kganye, Namsa Leuba, Michael MacGarry, Sabelo Mlangeni, Mimi Cherono Ng'ok, Musa N Nxumalo, Ruth Ossai, Athi Patra Ruga and Michael Tsegaye. LINK
I Am…Contemporary Women Artists in Africa, Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington, USA
20 June 2019 – 15 March 2020
Taking its name from a 1970’s feminist anthem, I Am… Contemporary Women Artists of Africadraws upon a selection of artworks by women artists from the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art’s permanent collection to reveal a more contemporary feminism that recognizes the contributions of women to the most pressing issues of their times. With experimental and sophisticated use of diverse media, the 27-featured artists offer insightful and visually stunning approaches to matters of community, faith, the environment, politics, colonial encounters, racism, identity, and more.
GALLERIES
SOUTH AFRICA
Meleko Mokgosi
Objects of Desire, Addendum, at Stevenson Gallery: Exhibition : 7 – 25 October 2019
Objects of Desire, Addendum exists as a postscript to Mokgosi’s acclaimed, long-standing visual essay, Democratic Intuition, of which Comrades, exhibited at Stevenson, Cape Town, in 2016, was the second of eight chapters. Comprising painting and sculpture, Democratic Intuition questioned how one can approach the conceptual promises of democracy in relation to the daily lived experiences of the subjects that occupy southern Africa.
https://www.stevenson.info/gallery
Adolf Tega
Africa Without Borders, at MOMO Gallery : Exhibition : 15 August – 14 September
The paintings in this series speak to utopias both real and imagined. Mwanawehvu (Son of the Soil) and After the Step Down commemorate Robert Mugabe’s resignation after three decades in power. This historical moment sparked a spontaneous sense of unity across Zimbabwe and its diasporas.
UNITED KINGDOM
Boris Nzebo
Le Monstre de Nkolbong, at Jack Bell Gallery Exhibition : 6 – 20 September 2019, Private view : Thursday 5 September
Peju Alatise
Memoirs of the forgotten, at Sulger-Buel Gallery: Exhibition : 12 – 13 Oct