Exhibitions

Mary Evans: Gilt is still on view at Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town, South Africa until November 19, 2023

The title of the exhibition is a play on the words gilt and guilt. While the former refers to something that resembles gold laid on a surface, the latter suggests the feeling of inadequacy and, in the context of the Black experience, what may be a consequence of surviving the historical wounds of slavery, colonialism, apartheid and even late-stage capitalism. A central motif of Evans’ decades-long practice is that of the life-sized silhouette. She assembles many silhouetted figures in a narrative form, which she calls history paintings. The large-scale works act as a type of glyph or coded visual language that counters difficult Black histories. The figures function as a familiar device to provide viewers with an entryway into the artist’s work.

Ken Nwadiogbu: Fragments of reality is still on view at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery in London, United Kingdom until November 25, 2023

A series of figures – rendered in a blazing colour palette of red, orange and yellow – emerge from or descend into textured, abstract backgrounds. These are the personal memories of the London-based, Nigerian artist Ken Nwadiogbu – portraits of ephemeral moments that have burnt themselves into his mind and continue to shape his perspective of the world around him. Fragments of reality, Nwadiogbu’s first solo exhibition at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, reflects on the artist’s experiences of adjusting to life in London, of building a sense of community and longing for home. His paintings speak specifically to the everyday experience of Black immigrants in the UK, but they also remind us of shared humanity.

Deborah Joyce Holman: Living Room is still on view at Kunsthalle Bern in Bern, Switzerland until December 3, 2023

For Living Room, Deborah Joyce Holman’s largest solo exhibition to date, the artist centres their attention on the anti-spectacular. Building on their previous works’ explorations of the durational, this presentation engages non-performance and minimal narrative structure in newly commissioned moving image works installed across the rooms of Kunsthalle Bern. Operating through the lens of film, the artist manipulates interior and the exterior worlds and their material articulations, bringing them into sharp focus through stagings of the mundane. Traditionally, these scenes are deployed as transitional and contextual.

Biennials

18th Venice Architecture Biennale is still open at various locations in Venice, Italy until November 26, 2023

The 18th International Architecture Exhibition, titled The Laboratory of the Future, is curated by Lesley Lokko, a renowned architectural academic, educator and best-selling novelist. It will be the first major exhibition in this discipline to test in the field the process to achieve carbon neutrality, while furthermore reflecting upon the themes of decolonisation and decarbonisation. “For the first time ever, the spotlight has fallen on Africa and the African Diaspora, that fluid and enmeshed culture of people of African descent that now straddles the globe,” stated Lesley Lokko. “What do we wish to say? How will what we say change anything? And, perhaps most importantly of all, how will what we say interact with and infuse what ‘others’ say, so that the exhibition is not a single story, but multiple stories that reflect the vexing, gorgeous kaleidoscope of ideas, contexts, aspirations, and meanings that is every voice responding to the issues of its time?”

Art Fairs

Art X Lagos is still open at The Federal Palace in Lagos, Nigeria from November 2-5, 2023

In this eighth edition entitled The Dialogue, the fair will propel audiences to take the time and find the space for dialogue, to share and inspire one another through art, against a backdrop of challenges being experienced in Nigeria, with political and socio-economic difficulties across Africa and further afield. The theme of the fair seeks to elicit reflection, conversation, discussion and negotiation, to shift knowledge –moving towards seeing beyond the dilemmas we experience, to ways that encourage us to imagine the here and now differently. This event will host special exhibitions and a varied programme including ART X Talks – a lively panel discussion series; ART X Live! – a one-of-a-kind live music and art experience; as well as ART X Cinema – a new screening program of artists’ films and documentaries. These programmes will feature an array of emerging and established African artists represented by 10 galleries.