Exhibitions

Alexis Peskine: Power Figures is still on view at the October Gallery in London, United Kingdom until October 21, 2017

October Gallery presents a new exhibition of works by Alexis Peskine. This will be his first solo exhibition in London. Growing up in Paris, Peskine speaks of witnessing institutional racism and a severe lack of multi-cultural representation in the media and public sphere. His practice, reflective of this, focuses on the complexity of themes impacting people from the African Diaspora. His signature pieces are large-scale portraits rendered by the painstaking process of hammering nails of different lengths and diameters, with pin-point accuracy into wood to create breath-taking composite images. The base of each work is made of wooden planks stained with coffee and earth giving a silhouette to each portrait. Then by embedding the differently sized nails at precisely controlled depths, Peskine creates a three-dimensional contouring to his images. Finally, gold and silver-leaf overlays colour the heads of the embedded nails, adding further subtle qualities to the intricately organised optical illusion.

Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power is still on view at Tate in London, United Kingdom until October 22, 2017

What did it mean to be a Black artist in the USA during the Civil Rights movement and at the birth of Black Power? What was art’s purpose and who was its audience? Tate Modern presents Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power, a landmark exhibition exploring how these issues played out among and beyond African American artists from 1963 to 1983. At a time when race and identity became major issues in music, sport and literature, brought to public attention by iconic figures like Aretha Franklin, Muhammad Ali and Toni Morrison, ‘Black Art’ was being defined and debated across the country in vibrant paintings, photographs, prints and sculptures. Featuring more than 150 works by over 60 artists, many on display in the UK for the first time, Soul of a Nation is a timely opportunity to see how American cultural identity was re-shaped at a time of social unrest and political struggle.

Biennials

Lagos Biennial 2017 will open at various locations throughout Lagos, Nigeria from October 14 to November 22, 2017

The Lagos Biennial sets out to position Lagos on the map as a major art capital on the African continent. Given the immense talent generated by its contemporary artistic energy, its illustrious history, its burgeoning population and economic clout, such a major international event is just waiting to happen. “Lagos should be a hub for critical thought and international artistic exchanges. The city should embody a more globalized approach to the subject of art and should not just be driven by Afrocentric ideologies but rather it should embrace the unifying simplicity of the human experience.” says Folakunle Oshun, the founding artistic director of the Lagos Biennial. The theme of the biennial “Living on the Edge”, which coincidentally was also the title of the exhibition by the Mozambican artist Mario Macilau in 2012, seeks to interrogate the experiences of contemporary artists in and around crisis situations. The theme also hopes to explore contemporary realities of the thematic interpretations opened up by the works to be exhibited, pushing the idea of “the edge” to its broadest geographical and psychological limits.

5th Lubumbashi Biennial, Picha Encounters will open at various locations throughout Lubumbashi, DR Congo from October 7 to November 12, 2017

Under the theme Éblouissements which refers to bedazzlements, glares, or even astonishments offered by the current state of the world, this edition evokes how limitless and how vivid the artistic creation is in DR Congo. In his book, L’impérialisme postcolonial (2015), Joseph Tonda evokes the violence of the imaginary, which exerts itself on contemporary life by way of what he calls Eblouissements: stunning and being stunned. Multiple meanings that point the overwhelming, the seductive, the fascinating, and the blinding which, under special circumstances or in situations of brutal change and upheaval, or in ritual experiences of transition, cause visions, hallucinations, illusions that seem thoroughly real to those who live them. This fifth edition of the Lubumbashi Biennial will turn the mining town into a crossroad for contemporary art. With its status of first visual art biennial in Central Africa, the Lubumbashi Biennial offers a large choice of artworks: from those testifying the current situation of artistic practice in DR Congo to the productions of invited artists from different geopolitics places.

Art Fairs

1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair is opened at Somerset House in London, United Kingdom from October 5-8, 2017

1:54 strives to promote a diverse set of African perspectives from around the world and has carefully selected 41 leading galleries – including 18 galleries from Africa, specialising in contemporary African art from 18 countries across Europe, Africa, the Middle East and North America. The fair will showcase the work of more than 130 emerging and established African and African diaspora artists, working in a wide variety of mediums and from a spread of geographical backgrounds comprising 32 countries. Several artists will be presented at the fair for the first time, including: Cameroonian photographer Samuel Fosso, recognised as a master of studio portrait photography; Somali-Swedish mixed-media artist Ayan Farah, celebrated for her formally minimal, yet materially complex paintings; South African artist Buhlebezwe Siwani, who places the body at the centre of her performance, sculpture and installation works; and French-Algerian artist Zineb Sedira whose photographic and video work explores the consequences of cultural displacement and migration.