Exhibitions

Jodi Bieber: Between Darkness & Light is still on view at South African National Gallery in Cape Town, South Africa from August 28 until November 19, 2015.

In this exhibition, the critically acclaimed photographer Jodi Bieber explores the twilight that she experienced in the decade following the advent of democracy in South Africa. The exhibition is a mid-career retrospective with a selection of work from 1993 to 2010, primarily revealing Bieber’s rarely seen independent series. The show also includes nearly 100 photographs from eight of Bieber’s key projects as a press photographer. In each case her particular style traverses and ultimately defies the limitations of photojournalism, documentary photography, and visual art. While the years between 1993 and 2004 were all about production and immersing herself in an exploration of her own country, Bieber has more recently had time to reflect on the powerful works that came out of that period.

Festivals

LagosPhoto Festival will take place at several locations in Lagos, Nigeria from October 24 to November 27, 2015.

The sixth edition of LagosPhoto Festival will presents 30 photographers from Africa and the diaspora around the theme Designing Futures. This edition positions the relationships between African design, the design of Africa and our understanding of how we may design Africa, as the platform to discuss our past, present and future intentions. With history, circumstance and fantasy as significant pointers of the lens-based projects exhibited, Designing Futures highlights crucial aspects of ‘making’ that come into play in African signs and design dialogues. The making of image, identity, desire, ecology, and even culture are explored through advertising, textiles, portraiture, factual and conceptual photography; these offer tangible and esoteric backdrops to how we process, navigate and inhabit the realms of a future Africa.

Biennials

Telling Time is the theme of the 10th African Biennale of Photography – Bamako Encounters that will be open to the public at Bamako, Mali from October 31 to December 31, 2015.

The biennale of African Photography will return in November at Bamako, after a hiatus due to political instability in Mali. Inspired by both Mali’s rich cultural traditions of storytelling and the nation’s recent political upheavals, the forthcoming edition questions the methods by which artists narrate real and imagined experiences through different economies of time. In chronicling how artists address the unpredictable relationship between political action, social realities, and aesthetic experience, Telling Time offers a multiplicity of perspectives from which to assess the biennale’s enduring role as an international convener of lens-based practices in Africa. This edition will be directed by Bisi Silva, curator and director of Centre for Contemporary Art at Lagos.

Art Fairs

1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair will open at Somerset House in London, UK, from October 15 to 18, 2015.

Following a successful New York debut earlier this year, 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair will return to London this October to present its most substantial showcase yet. Taking place once again at Somerset House, the fair will feature 38 exhibitors representing more than 150 contemporary artists from Africa and the diaspora. 1:54 is an opportunity to enjoy contemporary African art in mediums including painting, sculpture, photography, video and installation with a cross-section of works from across the continent. The third London edition will be designed by award-winning architectural and design studio RA Projects established in 2009 by architect Rashid Ali. RA Projects will insert a series of richly coloured sculptural interventions across the East, South, and West Wings, while remaining sensitive to the architectural historicity of Somerset House, one of London’s finest Grade I listed buildings.

Auctions

Africa Now contemporary African art auction will be open at Bonhams, London, UK, on October 15 and October 28, 2015.

There has been an explosion of interest in modern and contemporary art from Africa, and Bonhams Africa Now auction remains at the forefront of the market as the only sale of its kind globally. Contemporary art from Africa reflects the complex heritage of this dynamic continent and demonstrates tremendous potential for investment. This month, Bonhams will host two different auctions of African art of which the second comes from the Afren collection.  The sales include a selection of contemporary art from across Africa in various media including painting, drawing, photography, and sculpture. The auction will presents several interesting works from renowned African artists such as El Anatsui, Jane Alexander, Pieter Hugo, David Goldblatt, Kunle Adeyemi, and Cheri Samba, among many others.