Art
Unboxing the Origins of Civilization
With cardboard paintings, Omar Ba honors African cultures and challenges the Eurocentric view of history.
African Art
Art
Photography From Africa that Refuses Easy Narratives
Africa State of Mind does not pander to expectations audiences might have or desire of African artists, instead allowing for these artists from 11 different countries to devise their own frameworks for understanding the places they are from.
Art
A New Curatorial Vision Disrupts Inherited Ideas of Regional Identity in African Art
Laura De Becker's first major exhibition at the University of Michigan Museum of Art puts its expansive historical African art holdings in conversation with contemporary art of the continent.
Art
In Paris, a Museum of African Art Brings Out Its Jewels
PARIS — In his prescient book Black Sculpture (1915), Carl Einstein describes certain transcendent examples of African sculpture as a form of “fixed ecstasy.”
Art
British Museum’s First Commissioned Caribbean Sculptures Tower Over Its Great Court
Wander into the British Museum’s Great Court these days, and you’ll encounter two large, black and gold Moko Jumbie sculptures guarding the staircases on either side.
News
US Customs Officials Confiscate Sculpture Made of Weapons
A legal battle is brewing over a sculpture by Mozambican artist Gonçalo Mabunda after customs officials, considering it a weapon, confiscated it from its owner.
Art
Artists of African Descent Don Disguises in the Digital Age
SEATTLE — The Seattle Art Museum (SAM) attempts to confront the nuanced subtext of its vast collection of African masks in the ambitious and delightful exhibition Disguise: Masks and Global African Art.
Art
African Artists Take a Seat at the Table
Boundary lines make up much of the Richard Taittinger Gallery’s current exhibit, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? — lines that, like borders, criss and cross, divide and obscure.
Art
A Contemporary African Art Fair Arrives in New York
It may at first thought seem odd that the newest addition to Frieze Week in New York is a fair devoted to contemporary African art.
Art
Landmark African Art Exhibit Is Reassembled, but Mystery of Its Origin Remains
When a dozen weather-worn wood sculptures from southeastern Nigeria debuted in a Paris gallery in 1974, they were radically different from any African art that had been exhibited in the West.
Art
Is Wikipedia the Next Frontier for Museums?
Last year, Alexandra Thom spent ten illustrious months on Wikipedia. Thom, with a grant from the Kress Foundation, helped fill the gaps about art and culture on Wikipedia using the collection of the Brooklyn Museum and the expertise of its curatorial department.
Art
A Performance Artist's Tribute to Nelson Mandela
On December 11, performance artist and sculptor Angela Freiberger offered a succinct and touching “Homage to Mandela” at the Tambaran Gallery.