Solo Exhibitions

Nathalie Boutté: Way Down South will be on view online at Magnin-A Gallery website until July 30, 2020

Contemporary artistic creation is not only concept and protocol. Some artists also draw their energy from the gesture and the work on the material. Nathalie Boutté prefers taking her time rather than the extreme immediacy of a creative act. The artist is interested in ancient photographs, and especially in anonymous portraits. She reinvents the images of the past by thoroughly assembling paper strips one by one, to recreate the portraits. For her first solo show in France, Nathalie Boutté revisits the portraits of African-Americans from the photographic fund of Rufus W. Holsinger, a photographer that settled in Virginia in the USA in 1880. Her work cannot be dissociated from collage and photography and is situated in between these two media, between the creation and the fixation of the image. By looking closer, the eye gets lost in the intertwining of letters. The reconstituted image reveals itself gradually by stepping back from the work, while the eye gets familiar with the collage.

Adolf Tega: Mwana wevhu’ (son of the soil) is still on view online at Gallery MOMO website until July 16, 2020

The exhibition probes a range of themes about the human condition including memories, culture, religion and tradition. Tega tackles identity, global migration and displacement as he explores untapped potential, new beginnings and legacy. There is much cognizance to gain from Tega’s relationship with color. When we view it through his eyes, we discover profound passions, inescapable obsessions and ardent notions about the potency of it. In an attempt to reconcile his multicultural background and life, Tega draws inspiration from Impressionism and Post-impressionism. Tega provides examples of the use of analogous and complementary colors to create energy and bold contrast with a sense of harmony in his visual storytelling. His use of color and form serve to express determination and will, as well as passages of quiet and calmness.

Larry W. Cook will be on view at Weiss Berlin in Germany from July 4-25, 2020

Larry W. Cook’s socially critical work includes photography, video, and conceptual art. It examines African American identity, racial relations, fatherhood and masculinity in the African American context, and American society. “Fatherhood” (2018) is a series of portraits of recently released fathers with their children and deals with one of the most important interpersonal relationships in the context of the prison experience. The theme of fatherhood is also central to “When Dad Comes Home” (2013), where Cook works with archived photos from his family and friends. What possibilities does the absent father have to build up closeness to his children? What does this closeness look like outside the photo?

Group Exhibitions

Have You Seen A Horizon Lately? is still on view at the Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden in Marrakech, Morocco until July 19, 2020

Taking its title from a song by Yoko Ono, the exhibition explores the politics of space and place and is an invitation to see and know the world differently. The exhibition features work from a selection of emerging and established international artists including Yoko Ono (USA), Kapwani Kiwanga (Canada-France), Rahima Gambo (Nigeria), and Amina Benbouchta (Morocco). Whether inspired by architecture, urban archaeology and landscape or personal geographies in relationship to the body and history, the work of these contemporary artists resonates strongly with some of the most pressing issues in the world today. Questions around ecology, the unequal distribution of wealth and power, the colonisation of territories, situations of oppression, and fixed and reductive conceptions of identity are all themes explored in the exhibition.

Talks

Panel Discussion: What is necessary? Responses from the institutions will take place online at RCA School of Arts and Humanities, London, United Kingdom on July 28, 2020

The discussion will explore the current urgency of the arts, examining responses and adaptations from public institutions in terms of addressing the importance and necessity of diversity in the workforce as well as the changes affected by the pandemic. The discussion will be animated by Zoé Whitley, Victor Wang, and Julia Grosse. Zoé Whitley is the Director of Chisenhale Gallery, acclaimed for their contemporary art programmes. Victor Wang is currently Artistic Director and Chief Curator of M WOODS museums in Beijing. Julia Grosse is a journalist, art historian and co-founder of the art magazines Contemporary And (C&) and C& América Latina. The event will be held via Zoom Webinar.