Solo Exhibitions

Judy Bowman: Gratiot Griot is still on view at The Museum of Contemporary Art in Detroit, United States until March 25, 2023

Gratiot Griot is the first solo museum exhibition of mixed-media collage artist Judy Bowman. This exhibition presents new works alongside older collages by the artist that invite viewers to engage with the rich cultural tapestry of life across the African diaspora. Born and raised in Detroit’s legendary Black Bottom neighborhood, just off of the iconic Gratiot Avenue, Bowman creates visual works inspired by stories of African American life. Collaged images depict and highlight the intimate landscape of neighborhoods, homes and gathering places – the iconic Belle Isle, cozy and colorful living rooms and popular street corners filled with small local businesses – that encouraged Bowman’s development as a griot. In West African tradition, a griot is a storyteller who, through creative performance, preserves and shares the cultural legacy and histories of their people. Gratiot Griot highlights Bowman’s extensive career as a storyteller.

Sasha Huber: You Name It is still on view at Autograph Gallery in London, United Kingdom until March 25, 2023

Sasha Huber explores how colonial histories are imprinted into the landscape through naming and acts of remembrance – asking what actions it might take to repair the inherited traumas of history. Huber’s artworks present a vision for the ways we can tenderly, and with care, refute the damage already inflicted by history. In challenging the terms by which we remember, the artist asks who and what we memorialise, and more importantly, how we do so. You Name It brings together over a decade of Huber’s work, prompted by the campaign Demounting Louis Agassiz. Initiated in 2007 by Swiss historian and activist Hans Fässler, the campaign seeks to redress the legacy of the Swiss-born glaciologist and racist Louis Agassiz (1807–1873). Huber’s desire to use art to heal colonial and historic traumas can be seen throughout the exhibition. The artist uses a staple gun to symbolically stitch wounds together, creating visually arresting portraits.

William Kentridge: In Praise of Shadows is still on view at The Broad in Los Angeles, United States until April 9, 2023

William Kentridge’s studio practice is inherently collaborative and expansive, spanning drawing, filmmaking, printmaking, sculpture, theater, opera, and installation. Surveying 35 years of the celebrated South African artist’s practice, this landmark exhibition includes all 18 works from the Broad collection with substantial loans from across the United States and South Africa. Curated by Ed Schad, the exhibition is organized both thematically and chronologically throughout the museum’s first-floor galleries. A highlight of the exhibition is The Broad collection’s 30-minute five-channel video and multimedia installation The Refusal of Time (2012). Highlights of newly announced public programming will connect live musicians, poets, writers, and performers with the underlying themes of Kentridge’s work, such as the legacy of colonialism, racism, and building resilience against these historical structures.

Group Exhibitions

Sem Sombras (Unshadowed) is still on view at apexart in Maputo, Mozambique until March 25, 2023

Sem Sombras (Unshadowed) is an exhibition that focuses on the work of queer and trans Mozambican artists of various disciplines, including sound, visual and performance art. The works presented illuminate the lived realities and creative expressions of queer and trans Mozambicans and other Africans, often targeted by institutions and erased from mainstream culture. The exhibition showcases the survival and thriving of creatives who have carved their own way of being and dare to be their full selves without fear. It explores what it means to be queer in relation to the self, the other, space, time, language and the State. The exhibition features selected African artists who are engaged in transformative cultural production and socio-political activism through creative mediums.

Times Are Changing is still on view at GR Gallery in New York, United States until March 26, 2023

Times Are Changing is an extensive duo exhibition featuring the latest production of Nigerian artists David Olatoye Babatunde and Victor Olaoye, integrated in the same event for the first time. The show reveals 18 acute artworks, executed with the artists’ signature techniques and expressly created for this occurrence, designed to guide the visitor into a rare cultural journey represented by noble characters, inspired by the artists’ personal involvements and akin by colorful and aesthetically sophisticated traditional ensemble. Victor Olaoye and David Olatoye have been good friends for very long time and almost grew up together, they’ve been influencing each other practice during the years and this close relationship strongly inspired the duality of the show.