Exhibitions

Making Place: The Architecture of David Adjaye will be on view at Art Institute of Chicago, United States from September 19, 2015 to January 3, 2016.

With over 50 built projects across the world, David Adjaye is rapidly emerging as a major international figure in architecture and design. Rather than advancing a signature architectural style, Adjaye’s structures address local concerns and conditions through both a historical understanding of context and a global understanding of modernism. The first comprehensive museum survey devoted to Adjaye, this exhibition offers an in-depth overview of the architect’s distinct approach and visual language with a dynamic installation design conceived by Adjaye Associates. Capturing a significant moment in Adjaye’s career, this exhibition spans projects from furniture and housing to public buildings and master plans and features drawings, sketches, models, and building mock-ups.

In and Out of the Studio: Photographic Portraits from West Africa is still on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, United States from August 31, 2015 through January 3, 2016.

In and Out of the Studio presents 100 years of portrait photography in West Africa through nearly 80 photographs taken between the 1870s and the 1970s. The exhibition seeks to expand our understanding of West African portrait photographs, by rendering the broad variety of these practices and aesthetics. It juxtaposes photographs, postcards, real photo postcards, and original negatives taken both inside and outside the studio by amateur and professional photographers active from Senegal to Cameroon, and from Mali to Gabon. Curated by Yaëlle Biro and drawing upon original research by specialist Giulia Paoletti, the exhibition demonstrates that, contrary to common assumptions, photography in Africa was not the monopoly of Europeans.

Biennials

The 14th Istanbul Biennial is opened at Kadıköy Haldun Taner Stage in Istanbul, Turkey from September 5 to November 1, 2015.

The 14th Istanbul Biennial Is curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev under the theme “Saltwater: A Theory of Thought Forms”. The salt water theme is multilayered in its meaning, drawing on salt water as a metaphor that ranges from the sea and the Bosphoros of Istanbul to the flow of peoples across the world, the waves of history and trauma in the world, and in the history of the ancient city of Istanbul. This international exhibition of art will present new works by over fifty visual artists and other practitioners, including oceanographers and neuroscientists, in a city-wide project on the Bosphoros that considers different frequencies and patterns of waves, the currents and densities of water, both visible and invisible, that poetically and politically shape and transform the world.

Photoquai 2015 will open at Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, France from September 22 to November 22, 2015.

Since its inception in 2007, the photography biennial Photoquai continues to raise awareness and promote worldwide artists whose work remains largely unpublished and unknown in Europe. The artistic direction of the 5tht edition of Photoquai has been entrusted to Frank Kalero who will open up the geographical scope and expand the selection to diasporas. This year, Photoquai presents works by 40 contemporary photographers from around the world, drawn from the regions represented in the collections of the Musée du Quai Branly. Around the theme “We are family”, the 400 selected photographs will be on display day and night for two months, along the banks of the Seine.

Art Fairs

FNB Joburg Art Fair will return to the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa from September 11 to 13, 2015.

The 8th edition of the FNB Joburg Art Fair will showcase nearly 50 exhibitors from 8 countries organized around different categories for the presentation of their artworks. ‘Galleries’ is the main exhibition sector for established galleries, while ‘Young Galleries’ is the category for new galleries younger than 3 years old. ‘Art Platforms’ focuses on not-for-profit arts entities and educational establishments and ‘Gallery Special Projects’ offers exhibitors the opportunity to present a curated project. This includes presentations by a single artist, multiple artists within a singular curatorial concept, or exceptional art historical material. This year, the programme turns its focus to the role of contemporary performance art, staged live or recorded through the medium of film.