Exhibitions

Yinka Shonibare MBE: Pièces de résistance is still on view at DHC/ART in Montreal, Canada, from April 29 to September 20, 2015.

DHC/ART Foundation for Contemporary Art presents Pièces de résistance, the first major solo exhibition in Canada by British artist Yinka Shonibare MBE. Born in London of Nigerian heritage, Shonibare moved to Lagos, Nigeria with his family at young age, returning to Britain later to study art. He has become known worldwide for his use of Dutch-wax fabric as a formal vehicle to evoke the complexity of concepts such as identity, ethnicity, and representation in all of his work. Shonibare employs multiple strategies including humour in combination with art historical and literacy references, to deliver a body of work that is simultaneously seductive and subversive. The survey exhibition presents seminal and more recent artworks across painting, photography, film, and sculpture.

Yinka Shonibare MBE: Colonial Arrangements is still on view at Morris-Jumel Mansion in New York, United States, from May 1 to August 31, 2015.

Elaborate, colorful, seductive and quizzical, Yinka Shonibare's renowned, textile-based art has been the focus of several solo museum and gallery exhibitions worldwide. Colonial Arrangements places Shonibare’s work, both new and established, inside the beautifully rooms of Morris-Jumel Mansion, Manhattan’s oldest house. It’s a fitting match, with the Mansion’s lovingly preserved 18th- and 19th-century interiors set to serve as a baroque backdrop for Shonibare’s extraordinary sculpture, including an entirely new, never-before-seen work commissioned by the Mansion. It’s the most ambitious art show in Morris-Jumel history. It started in May with a two-tiered opening reception and will continue this summer with exciting theme events.

Festivals

Les Rencontres d’Arles 2015 will open at several locations, day and night, in Arles, France from July 6 to September 20, 2015.

Les Rencontres d’Arles (Arles Encounters) is an international festival of photography founded in 1970 by French photographers and photography enthusiasts that offers several art events focussing on emerging and established photographers. Les Rencontres d’Arles are echoing and promoting artistic practices both historical and contemporary in a festive, educational way. A place of exchange with artists, between professionals, and especially with the public, the festival maps the whole terrain of photography. Opening week brings together all the photographers and exhibition curators on the programme and offers panel discussions, projections at night, book signings, and encounters open to all.

Art Fairs

Design Tokyo 2015, the 6th Tokyo design products fair will open at Tokyo Big Sight in Tokyo, Japan from July 8 to 10, 2015.

Design Tokyo is Japan’s leading trade fair for marketable design products. Only the products which passed the screening by designers and stylists will be on display. It has welcomed key buyers coming in flocks to find new vendors and see what’s fresh in the design and lifestyle fields. Design Tokyo provides the opportunity to enter the design conscious market of Japan.

Conferences

Africa Acts: Performance Arts from Africa and the Diaspora will take place in several locations across Paris, France from July 5 to 12, 2015.

ECAS (European Conference on African Studies) is an interdisciplinary platform dedicated to the exchange of knowledge on Africa. The 6th edition is organized around the theme “Collective Mobilisations in Africa: Contestation, Resistance, Revolt” in Paris by IMAF (Institut des mondes africains) and LAM (Les Afriques dans le monde) from July 8 to 10, 2015. Alongside the ECAS colloquium, IMAF and LAM are organizing Africa Acts, a weeklong event dedicated to the arts of performance in Africa and the Diaspora. The event will offer ambitious and innovative programming focused on the work of artists at once highly original and deeply engaged. Choreographers, playwrights and actors, poets, composers, filmmakers, street artists, DJs and VJs hailing from cities across the globe will meet and collaborate.