Category: exhibitions

The New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) presents Ancestors of Congo Square: African Art in the New Orleans Museum of Art on May 13 to July 17. In keeping with the spirit of the centennial year, which highlights the museum’s vast and diverse permanent collection, one of the most impressive areas of the museum’s holdings is an extensive African collection. This exhibition highlights the collection as well as the connection between New Orleans and Africa.

For more information, call (504) 658-4100 or visit www.noma.org

On the occasion of the exhibition opening, a 376-page book of the NOMA’s African collection will be available, produced by the New Orleans Museum of Art and published by Scala Publishers of London. Curator and editor William Fagaly, has been the African curator at NOMA for over four decades.

“There are over 225 color illustrations of pieces in the book including a number of field photographs of similar works in their native Africa,” said Fagaly. “This will be one of the first publications to include CT scans and x-rays revealing the contents of African terra cotta sculptures.”

Continue reading “EXH: “Ancestors of Congo Square: African Art in the New Orleans Museum of Art” @NOMA”

An exhibition organized by the Romare Bearden Foundation

Romare Bearden: The Artist as Activist examines how an American artist agitated for change through the power of his art and writing. This show traces Bearden’s evolution into a true master artist whose work changed our ways of seeing the world and thus our readiness for action in it. On display will be original works as well as examples of his magazine covers and editorial cartoons.

Curated by Diedra Harris-Kelley, C. Daniel Dawson and Robert G. O’Meally

This exhibition is on view from April 28, 2011–July 22, 2011

at the Nathan Cummings Foundation.

The Nathan Cummings Foundation

475 10th Avenue, 14th Floor

New York, NY 10018

Opening Reception

Thursday, April 28, 6:00pm–8:00pm

Live music and refreshments

RSVP by April 22 at ncf.events@nathancummings.org

Viewing Hours

9:00am-5:00pm, Monday through Friday, by appointment only.

Please contact Arnita Morabito at 212-787-7300, Ext. 206.

From March 23-April 21, 2011, Brown University, in collaboration with the Rhode Island School of Design and the Waterloo Center for the Arts, will host a multi-venue exhibition of more than 100 works of Haitian art.

In conjunction with this exhibition, titled, Re-Framing Haiti: Art, History and Performativity, Brown will host five visiting Haitian artists, who will present public lectures and workshops.

The exhibition and all artist events will be free and open to the public.

http://brown.edu/web/reframing-haiti/

The Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos
J. D. ‘Okhai Ojeikere
Moments of Beauty
15 April– 27 November 2011

ARS 11
Museum of Contemporary Art, Kiasma
Helsinki, Finland

The Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos presents Moments of Beauty, a groundbreaking exhibition of work by the Nigerian artist J.D. ‘Okhai Ojeikere. Occasionally elegiac, but invariably elegant, the photographs in this exhibition reflect what the artist deems as “moments of beauty,” referring to the ebullience of Nigerian life engendered by independence and decolonisation. The exhibition highlights the breadth and depth of Ojeikere’s practice, chronicling his experiences as a visual artist and commercial photographer by presenting works that cover a range of subjects including architecture, education, fashion, social life and cultural festivals. This first comprehensive survey of Ojeikere’s work to date, with over 150 works, marks the beginning of rigorous scholarship and engagement with the artist’s practice, which spans more than half of a century. As such Moments of Beauty provides in-depth perspectives to the practice of an artist whose formidable archive has become an important anthropological, ethnographic, and artistic treasure.

J.D. ‘Okhai Ojeikere (b. 1930) documented significant moments in Nigerian history with great passion and discernment. Throughout his career, he has focused on the social, political and cultural transformations occurring during Nigeria’s transition from a colonial state to an independent republic. His formal investigations, documentary work and various commercial endeavors captured the unique atmosphere and élan of Nigeria during a period of great euphoria and ambivalence. Practicing since the early 1950’s, Ojeikere is a leading artist of his generation, devoted to the art of image making, the history of his country and the critical possibilities of the photographic medium.

Moments of Beauty is curated by Aura Seikkula and Bisi Silva. Curatorial Assistant is Antawan I. Byrd.

This exhibition has been organised by the Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos in collaboration with Foto Ojeikere. It is co-produced with theMuseum of Contemporary Art, Kiasma as an independently curated part of the ARS 11 exhibition, Helsinki, Finland. ARS 11 is curated by Pirkko Siitari, Arja Miller and Jari-Pekka Vanhala from Kiasma.

A substantial monograph of Ojeikere’s life and work is currently in production and being co-ordinated by CCA, Lagos. The richly illustrated exhibition catalogue of ARS 11 includes an insightful essay on Ojeikere’s practice by Aura Seikkula and Bisi Silva.

Taking “Africa” as its focal point, this year’s edition of ARS 11, Finland’s largest international exhibition of contemporary art will feature work by approximately thirty artists whose practices engage with Africa from various perspectives. Among the participating artists are Georges Adéagbo, El Anatsui, Samba Fall, Laura Horelli, Alfredo Jaar, Nandipha Mntambo, Otobong Nkanga, Odili Odita, Emeka Ogboh, Abraham Oghobaseand Barthélémy Toguo.

For inquiries, please contact info@ccalagos.org or info@kiasma.fi
Antawan I. Byrd
Curatorial Assistant
Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos
Lagos, Nigeria
antawan@ccalagos.org

Art X Detroit is pleased to present a short video by Emmy award-winning filmmaker, Stephen McGee, featuring Kresge Visual Arts Fellow, Senghor Reid. This is the fourth video in a series featuring the 2008-2010 Kresge Arts in Detroit Fellowship Awardees and Eminent Artists. Join us as we feature a new video each day, leading up to the opening night of Art X Detroit on April 6, 2011.

February 12, 2011 – August 7, 2011

Explore the interwoven histories of African Americans and Native Americans with Red/Black: Related Through History. This groundbreaking exhibition is the result of a partnership between the Eiteljorg Museum and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI). Red/Black includes the NMAI panel exhibit IndiVisible: African-Native American Lives in the Americas and portrays the shared experiences of African and Native Americans as allies and adversaries, through images, artifacts, film and more. The exhibition also explores issues of race and identity and the question: “Who am I and who gets to say so?” Red/Black will be supported by performances, genealogy workshops, lectures and other dynamic programming.

http://www.eiteljorg.org/ejm_WhatsHappening/Exhibitions/Details.asp?ID=2916

Until June 2011

True Self: The Search for Identity in Modern and Contemporary Art explores the ways artists have understood and conveyed the essence of the self—through facial expression, body language, dress, and the particulars of setting—in a selection of paintings, sculpture, prints, and photographs. Drawn from MMoCA’s permanent collection, the exhibition lists a broad range of artists, including Thomas Hart Benton, Sonya Clark, Chuck Close, Käthe Kollwitz, Alfred Leslie, Diego Rivera, Cindy Sherman, Hollis Sigler, Raphael Soyer, and Ida Wyman.

True Self is organized by the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art and is on view in the museum’s Henry Street Gallery. Exhibitions in the Henry Street Gallery are generously funded through an endowment established by the Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation.

http://www.mmoca.org/exhibitions/True_Self.php