Solo Exhibitions

Osborne Macharia: Stories of the Future Past is still on view at Churchill Classics in New York, United States until August 21, 2020

Osborne Macharia: Stories of the Future Past showcases two distinct and breathtaking series – “Magadi” and “Nyanye” – from Vancouver-based, Kenyan-born Afrofuturist Osborne Macharia. Macharia’s style of photography falls within the genre of Afrofuturism, governed by two key elements – Cultural Identity and Fiction. His unique brand of Afrofuturism suggests not just an attempt at historical revisionism, but a way to draw attention to issues – from gender abuse to female genital mutilation to dwarfism to elderly care – that too often fall out of the limelight. His extraordinary countermove is evidenced in his dreamlike images, where viewers are transported to an alternate realm; where the subject at hand is conveyed without distraction, shedding preconceived notions of what is possible and what is fantasy.

Neo Matloga: Back of the Moon is still on view at Stevenson Gallery in Johannesburg, South Africa until August 22, 2020

Based between South Africa and the Netherlands, Matloga describes his process as straddling choreography, conducting and creation. Inspired by scenes in plays, local soap operas and family albums, he manipulates images taken from books and magazines digitally, then overlays painterly compositions in charcoal, ink and liquid charcoal to produce orchestral combinations he terms ‘collage paintings’. In Back of the Moon, the artist presents large multi-panel works, extending his exploration of the collage technique both on and with the canvas. Matloga attributes his gravitation towards a mixed-media approach to an affection for line drawing and materials with a connection to South Africa’s political past, as well as the conceptual undercurrent provided by rupturing, layering and forming hybridity.

David Huffman: Terra Incognita is still on view at Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco, United States until August 23, 2020

Emerging from Huffman’s lifelong interest in science fiction, formalist abstraction, and social justice movements, the “Traumanauts” are futuristic beings that travel the galaxy in constant search for home. This exhibition showcases the extensive narrative that Huffman has been designing since the early 1990s across a range of media including large-scale canvas, works on paper, ceramics, video, and printmaking. This work explores an Afrofuturistic landscape disrupting the canon of historical narrative painting with otherworldly horizons. Combining his notable abstract, gestural style with a decidedly figurative focus, these works present an imagined and safe interstitial space that plays between these aesthetics. With influences from cartoons, the Black Power movement,and poetics of basketball, Huffman brings us into his celestial world.

Group Exhibitions

Mapping the Collection is still on view at Museum Ludwig in Cologne, Germany until August 23, 2020

The ex­hi­bi­tion Map­ping the Col­lec­tion takes a new look at two in­flu­en­tial de­cades in Amer­i­can (art) his­to­ry: the 1960s and 1970s. The ex­hi­bi­tion pre­sents a se­lec­tion of art­works from the Mu­se­um Lud­wig’s col­lec­tion by fe­male, queer, and in­dige­nous artists as well as artists of col­or who are not rep­re­sent­ed in the col­lec­tion, as an im­pe­tus for a broad­er re­cep­tion of Amer­i­can art. The po­lit­i­cal and so­cial events and de­vel­op­ments of th­ese two de­cades form the back­ground against which our West­ern Eu­ro­pean con­cep­tion and re­cep­tion of Amer­i­can art his­to­ry is crit­i­cal­ly ques­tioned. This ex­hi­bi­tion is the re­sult of the Ter­ra Foun­da­tion Re­search Fel­low­ship in Amer­i­can Art at the Mu­se­um Lud­wig. Over a pe­ri­od of two years, the pro­ject fo­cused on the col­lec­tion of twen­ti­eth­ cen­tu­ry Amer­i­can art at the Mu­se­um Lud­wig and ex­amined it with re­gard to post­colo­nial, femi­n­ist, queer, and gen­der-the­o­ret­i­cal ques­tions.

Biennials

Mercosur Biennial 12 is still open at Fundação Bienal de Artes Visuais do Mercosul in Porto Alegre, Brazil until August 31, 2020

Three months of world-wide isolation have gone by. Museums are closed, as well as biennials and fairs. The Mercosur Biennial, which has been held in Porto Alegre, Brazil, for over 20 years, should have started its 12th edition—Feminine(s): visualities, actions and affections—on April 16, but it has not been possible to install it in the exhibition spaces. The curators decided to organize an online edition, asking artists and the curatorial team to send videos and photographs that would be displayed on the biennial website. They also organized an Educational Program for which 1,400 educators applied to host online classes available for thousands of students across Brazil.