Black Cultures Matter

 
Acts of Opening Again: A Choreography of Conviviality, Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), 3.6.2023. Photo: Mathias Völzke/HKW

Haus der Kulturen der Welt

Amplifying the Creative Structures at HKW

Edna Bonhomme examines how a Berlin institution pays tribute to anti-colonial feminists and applauds its new international team.

Blessing Atas, The Egrets. Courtesy the artist.

Tender Photo

Emmanuel Iduma’s Archive Attempts to Hold All That Is Intimate

The artist has created a participatory digital archive around the tenderness in photographs, refusing temporal linearity by drawing out a kinship.

Sasha Huber, Rentyhorn, 2008. Commissioned photography by Siro Micheroli. Courtesy of the artist and the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki.

Ecologies

Sasha Huber Looks at the Uncomfortable

The artist discusses her practice in the context of changing climatic realities and how symbolic actions can have an impact.

Heiko-Thandeka Ncube, The early rains which wash away the chaff before the spring rains, 2023. Video, 12 mins, film still.

Essay

Every Straw Is a Straw Too Much

Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung on the psychological burden of being racialized while doing art.

(Clockwise) Guest Artist Space Foundation in Lagos by Yinka Shonibare; Black Rock Senegal in Dakar by artist Kehinde Wiley; dot. Ateliers in Accra by Amoako Boafo; Lusaka Contemporary Art Centre by Victor Mutelekesha; Nairobi Contemporary Art Institute by Michael Armitage.

African Art Hubs

Institutions Build on Art Scenes that Grew Out of Common Artistic Needs

How do new arts hubs from Accra to Antananarivo relate to ongoing collective efforts that have enabled production in inconceivable circumstances?

Photo: Nappy/Pexels

Contemporary Black Discourses

Navigating Pain and Possibility

Afrofuturism and Afropessimism both seek to step outside of limiting narratives and invite self-awareness into the conversation around Black lives.

Torkwase Dyson, Liquid A Place, 2023. Homme Adams Park 72500 Thrush Road, Palm Desert at Desert X. Photography courtesy of Lance Gerber.

Ecologies

Locating Blackness In Intimate Ecologies

Ama Josephine Budge on how to resist climate colonialism through a capacious, trans-temporal Blackness.

Aria Dean, ABATTOIR, U.S.A.!, Installation view, 2023. The Renaissance Society. Photo: Robert Chase Heishman.

Abattoir, U.S.A!

Aria Dean Conjures a Deathly Spectacle

In Chicago, Dean helps us experience connections between animal slaughter, violence towards Black peoples, and the brutalization of captured bodies.

Amira Hanafi, A dictionary of the revolution. Vocabulary box (2014). Courtesy the Artist.

Casablanca International Bienniale

The Many Languages of Contemporary Art

The biennial explores the links between various art forms and makes way for visual narratives that challenge established storytelling.

Untitled photograph-Old Benoni Location (circa 1950), Torrance Ngilima as part of Eja radini (2019), Madeyoulook.

documenta fifteen

Serine Ahefa Mekoun Dives into the Wisdom and Validity of Works of Art

Our author highlights the inspiring artistic positions of this year’s documenta that took place from 8 June to 25 September 2022 in Kassel, Germany.

Gerard Sekoto, Song of the Pick, 1947, huile sur carton, Courtesy South 32 Collection, dépôt à Javett Arts Centre, Pretoria © ADAGP, Paris 2022

Globalisto: A Philosophy in Flux

Mo Laudi’s Take on Pan-Africanism

The exhibition Globalisto: A Philosophy in Flux at MAMC+ shares observations on translocality and cultural hybridity.

DOXANTU. Performing arts Precy Numbi, Mucyo, Peintre Obu, Laura Nsengiyumva. Production : Isabelle N’diaye.

Dak’art Biennale 2022

Out of the Fire: The Postcolony Will Rise

Isabelle N’diaye on the biennial that aims to create the conditions to forge realms out of fire and in action.

Adéọlá Naomi Adérè̩mí, Aurélie, 2021. Courtesy the artist.

In Conversation

Adéọlá Naomi Adérè̩mí: I Am Afro Greek

The filmmaker upholds experiences of being Black and Greek and creates an archive for the community and for generations to come.

Concerned Members of the Namibian Arts Community: It is a One-dimensional Problematic Pavilion

In Conversation

Concerned Members of the Namibian Arts Community: It is a One-dimensional Problematic Pavilion

We talked to the collective that is questioning the selection process and intentions…

Les ateliers de la Pensée @ Dakar Museum of Black Civilizations. Photo: Guillaume Bassinet

Les Ateliers de la Pensée

Forging Ecologies of Knowledge, in Between Arts and Sciences

The 4th Les ateliers de la Pensée brought together artists and intellectuals from Africa and the Diaspora at the Dakar Museum of Black Civilizations

Carrie Mae Weems, The Push, The Call, The Scream, The Dream, 2020. Installation View at Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart, 2022. Photo: Hans D. Christ

The Evidence of Things Not Seen

Carrie Mae Weems Investigates US History through James Baldwin

The US artist’s first solo and retrospective exhibition in Germany takes the name of a Baldwin essay and features a variety of media.

Rosa-Johan Uddoh, Brown Paper Envelope Test, 2021, HD Video, 7mins 36 secs.

In Conversation

Tobi Alexandra Falade: Inspired From (Un)Usual Spaces

The curator tells C& about an exhibition of Rosa-Johan Uddoh’s films, libraries as exhibition spaces, and Britain’s colonial legacy.

Installation View

When Rain Clouds Gather

Archives of Womanhood and Blackness in South Africa

This exhibition at Norval Foundation shows a detailed history of pioneering Black South African female artists from 1940 to 2000.

Glenn Ligon, Installation View at 16. Istanbul Biennale. Short film

Looking Back

James Baldwin in Istanbul: Art and Activism in Exile

While in Istanbul Baldwin used fierce artistry to unmask the USA’s façade as the custodian of freedom and democracy, explains curator Gürsoy Doğtaş.

Clockwise: Kyle Malanda, Who Will Bury You? III, 2018. Courtesy the artist; Ja’Tovia Gary, Image from Giverny I (Négresse Impériale), 2018. Courtesy the artist; kate-hers RHEE, And then there were none. ©2013, performance HD video and C-Print photography, courtesy of the artist.

From the Archive

Black (Art) History Month

From the reenactment of art conferences in Africa to South-South collaborations, we revisit articles that examine Blackness in a global art context.

Jepchumba, Practicing some digital painting (Detail), 2021. Courtesy the artist.

In Conversation

Nandi: An African-Made NFT Marketplace For the World

Nandi’s aim is to enable economic participation and cultural preservation of African creative content in the age of non-fungible tokens.

Videostill, enorê. Courtesy of the artist.

In Conversation

Brazilian Artist enorê Explores the Creative Language of Data

enorê, whose work challenges the idea of fluidity by connecting digital and non-digital art, speaks to C& about visible and invisible realities.

Billie Zangewa, An Angel at My Bedside, 2020. Hand-stitched silk collage, 31.89 x 46.06 inches. Courtesy of Sangbeom Kim and Sunjung Kim.

Thread for a Web Begun at MoAD

Billie Zangewa: The Domestic Is Political

The Malawi-born, Johannesburg-based artist creates scenes of the domestic to celebrate the feminine and the unseen.

The Red Affair (Detail), 2020, John Baptist Sekubulwa, Courtesy of artist.

Artist Portrait

Ugandan Artist John Baptist Sekubulwa Links Historical And Contemporary Pain

Relentlessly questioning political power relations, Sekubulwa chooses the image of the human brain to depict postcolonial vulnerability – and hope.

Jennifer Packer: Confronting the Complex, the Ugly, and the Forbidden

The Eye Is Not Satisfied With Seeing

Jennifer Packer: Confronting the Complex, the Ugly, and the Forbidden

The US painter uses the symbolism of flowers to remember violent losses within the Black community and create tender moments that embody the senses.

Exhibition view

In Conversation

Rafiki Arts Initiatives: Building Bridges Between Norway and Africa

We spoke to Nicole Rafiki, the artist behind a series of actions that…

Sandra Mujinga, Mísató, 2020 Mítáno, 2020 Mínei, 2020 Míbalé, 2020. Photo: Jamila Moroder

Make Techno Black Again

The Exhibition TECHNO Reveals Institutional Blind Spots

Art historian Jamila Moroder argues that an exhibition in Bolzano, Italy, disconnects techno…

Detail from Black Noise #4 (installation of aquariums, sea water, iron, metal, steel, stones with sound). Photo by Lena Bergendahl.

Black Archives Sweden

Ina Nian Investigates The Weight of Silence

The artist explores Sweden’s iron production and its connection with the transatlantic slave…

Noemi Weber, Milena Weber, SchwesterInnen touchdown, 2020. At Mouches Volantes, Cologne from 19 November 2020 - 6  Februar 2021. Courtesy the artists. Photo: Dirk Rose

“Auf Deutsch”

Noemi and Milena Weber Explore Common Spaces

With C&, the sisters based in Amsterdam and Düsseldorf spoke about communal processes in their art.

Alma Thomas, Air View of Spring Nursery (Detail), 1966. Acrylic on canvas. The Columbus Museum

Inventing Your Own Game

Alma W. Thomas and the Treasures of the Natural World

In the “post-war” period, many pioneering Black artists were largely neglected by the…

Deborah-Joyce Holman, Unless (2021), Film Still. Yara Dulac Gisler & Deborah Joyce Holman. Courtesy of the artists

"Auf Deutsch"

Deborah Joyce Holman – Unless: The Potential of Subtle Acts of Refusal

We spoke to Swiss artist Deborah Joyce Holman about the key aspects of her poetic docufiction work.

Colectivo Hilando Paz, Mochilas Útero Cultural. Photo: Carlos Perdomo. Courtesy of Minga Prácticas De-coloniales.

Minga Decolonial Practices, Colombia

Creation as a Collective Process

Minga Prácticas De-coloniales (Minga Decolonial Practices) is an interdisciplinary collective that wants to…

Critical Minded Convening @ 2017 Critical Minded | Photo by Ed Marshall Photography

In Conversation

Rashid Shabazz: Introducing Diversity into Art Criticism

As the executive director of the Critical Minded initiative, Rashid Shabazz hopes to…

A Bavarian Intergenerational Exchange

"Auf Deutsch"

A Bavarian Intergenerational Exchange

Malcom Ohanwe sat down with artist Ransome Stanley to discuss and compare Afro-German…

AfroDiaspora 2.0// e.V. : Creating Safer Spaces

“Auf Deutsch”

AfroDiaspora 2.0// e.V. : Creating Safer Spaces

For centuries there has been Black cultural production from countries where German is…

Karimah Ashadu, Film still -

In Conversation

Karimah Ashadu: Labor as a Practice Towards Independence

We spoke with artist Karimah Ashadu about artistic mediums’ own sense of curiosity,…

Belinda Kazeem-Kamiński: Looking As an Act of Knowledge Production

“Auf Deutsch”

Belinda Kazeem-Kamiński: Looking As an Act of Knowledge Production

For centuries there has been Black cultural production from countries where German is…

Afro-Lusophone Artists Grapple with Memory in New Book

Are We Not Makers of History?

Afro-Lusophone Artists Grapple with Memory in New Book

A publication featuring artists in Portuguese-speaking countries suggests distinct artistic approaches to dealing…

Fatimah Tuggar: Not Reactive, but Curious

Africa2020 Season

Fatimah Tuggar: Not Reactive, but Curious

Fatimah Tuggar’s work is included in the exhibition Beyond what we see at…

A Roundtable with Emerging Artists Working with NFTs

Cryptoart

A Roundtable with Emerging Artists Working with NFTs

Four artists speak to Tash Moore about the opportunities of digital art.

Adjaye Associates has designed the Edo Museum of West African Art

The Benin Bronzes Restitution

A View from Nigeria

We asked 9 art professionals from the Nigerian art scene for their thoughts…

Tarek Lakhrissi: Staging Melancholy, Finding Inspiration in Other People’s Words

In Conversation

Tarek Lakhrissi: Staging Melancholy, Finding Inspiration in Other People’s Words

Tarek Lakhrissi’s solo show Perfume of Traitors opened at VITRINE gallery in London…

Installation View

Invisible Inventories

Absent Figures: The Difficult Questions Restitution Raises

Being asked to call something an object can be troubling, as evidenced in…

Christopher Ulutupu, Treadmill, 2021. Video Still. Courtesy the artist.

Over the Radar

Christopher Ulutupu: Fantasy, Desire, and Indigeneity

Despite having had limited cultural exchange, the continents of Africa and Oceania are…

View of the the New Entrance. Photo: 32°East | Ugandan Arts Trust

In Conversation

Uganda’s New Arts Center is One Step Closer to Completion

With its fundraising campaign ongoing, 32º East | Ugandan Arts Trust is nearing…

ruby onyinyechi amanze, astral planes [only kin keeps us warm], 2020, Ink, graphite, colored pencils, photo transfers on four sheets of paper. Courtesy Mariane Ibrahim

In Conversation

ruby onyinyechi amanze: Drawing the Elements, Choreographing Freedom

ruby onyinyechi amanze crafts intricate collaged drawings that look like moments of choreographed…

Latifah Idriss, Photograph awall drawing, © Latifah Idriss

Design in Westafrica 

Worldforming by Ghanaian Women in Architecture

For three generations of women born between Ghana’s independence in 1957 and the…

Janine Jembere, to cite: diaspora, sound installation, 37:06 minutes, paper prints, 2019, Photo: Kashira Dowridge

Good to Hear

These Are the Podcasts You Need to Follow

Knowledge production has never been so swift, intersectional, and accessible. And much of…

Rashid Johnson, Antoine’s Organ, 2016. Black steel, grow lights, plants, wood, shea butter, books, monitors, rugs, piano, 189 x 338 x 126 3/4 in (480 x 858.5 x 322 cm). © Rashid Johnson. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

Okwui Enwezor's last exhibition

Black Grief and White Grievance

At New York’s New Museum, the last exhibition conceived by Okwui Enwezor functions…

Euridice Kala, detail of I, the Archive, Villa Vassilieff, Paris, 2020. Photo by Aurélien Mole

In Conversation

Euridice Kala: Rethinking the Archive

The Mozambican artist spoke to Sean O’Toole about her personal approaches to archives,…

Some of the pioneering Women. (Clockwise) Safi Faye, during the shooting of

Celebrating Female Pioneers

Where are the Women Image-Makers in African History?

On the occasion of International Women's Day, our author Ethel-Ruth Tawe looks toward…

Image above: Marsha P.Johnson (left) and Sylvia Rivera (right) at Gay Pride Parade, 1973. Photo: Leonard Fink. From the film

White Label

How Warhol Erased the Identity of His Black Trans Sitters

Art historian Gürsoy Doğtaş analyses the power imbalances between Warhol and his BIPoC queer and trans sitters of lower Manhattan

Pintei o Éden de Preto, 2020. Courtesy of the David Zwirner Gallery

In Conversation with Maxwell Alexandre

“There is a Future Changing the Imagination of Subalterity”

The boy who was born in 1990 stepped into his inline “blades” for…

Kawira Mwirichia posing with her Kenya Kanga Flag, 2019. Quote by Ivy Gatibaru “Penzi Langu Halali,” meaning “My love is valid” in Swahili. Image from the artist’s Instagram.

In Memory of Rosemary Namuli Karuga and Kawira Mwirichia

The Legacies of Two Pioneering Female Artists Help Us Fill Kenya’s Historical Fractures

In the past few months two pioneering female Kenyan artists from different generations…

Alisha B. Wormsley, There Are Black People in the Future. Part of Manifest Destiny, curated by Ingrid LaFleur. Image by Alessandra Ferrara, Courtesy of Library Street Collective, Detroit.

Black (Art) History Month

Looking at The Intersection of Time

While questions around time are currently occupying many, we rummaged through our archives…

Installation View DMSUBM. Photo: Hannah Aders

In Conversation

Anta Helena Recke and Joana Tischkau on the German Museum for Black Entertainment and Black Music

C& spoke to the two founders of a new institution dedicated to Black…

Installation view ‘Diaspora At Home’ exhibition at CCA Lagos. Photo: CCA Lagos

In Conversation

Oyindamola Fakeye – the New Creative Director of CCA Lagos

Obidike Okafor spoke to the creative producer about the legacy of founder Bisi…

Victor Ekpuk, Shrine to Wisdom, Installation view at the exhibition Get Up, Stand Up Now at Somerset House from 12 Jun – 15 Sep 2019. Courtesy the artist.

In Conversation

Victor Ekpuk: Confronting the Beast Through Art

The Washington, D.C.-based artist spoke to Sharon Pendana about his multidisciplinary practice committed…

Nuno Silas, from the series The Intensity of Identity, 
2019-2020. Courtesy the artist.

In Conversation with Nuno Silas

The Intensity of Identity of a Diasporic Artist

We spoke to the Maputo-born artist Nuno Silas about his work in the…

D'Angelo Lovell Williams The Lovers, 2017. Pigment print
20 x 30 in. © D’Angelo Lovell Williams, Courtesy of the artist and Higher Pictures

Collectors' View

Intersecting Patronage, Family and Community with Bernard Lumpkin

After a decade of collecting artworks by artists of African descent with his…

Mia Imani Harrison, Soil is an inscribed body. On Sovereignty and Agropoetics. Exhibition at SAVVY Contemporary e.V. Photo: Raisa Galofre/ Savvy Contemporary.

In Conversation with Bola Juju

Dreaming up Radical Resistance

Artist Mia Imani Harrison uses her dreams to envision new forms of collectivity.…

Mupfure Church Hand, courtesy of the artist.

Marechera’s The House of Hunger

The Novel that Almost Shaped a Postmodern Postcolonial Africa

Artist Santiago Mostyn revisits The House of Hunger by Zimbabwean writer Dambudzo Marechera…

GURUMBÉ: 
AFRO-ANDALOUISIAN MEMORIES, Filmstill. A film by Miguel Angel Rosales, Spain/Mexico/Portugal/Senegal, 2016, Documentary, 72 min.

Will Furtado on Global Diaspora

Broadening the Spectrum

Notes on how a wider scope of Blackness is taking center stage in mainstream media

The Metropolitan Museum of Art
© The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Institutional Critique

When Artists Speak

Art has the power to speak or even “think” for us by giving…

Elisia Nghidishange in her studio, Courtesy of StArt Art Gallery.

Contemporary Namibian Art

Finding Power in Hidden Structures

In StArt Art's exhibition Finding Power, the work of artists Elisia Nghidishange, Nicky…

Renell Medrano, Sienna, 2019. Courtesy the artist.

In Conversation with Antwaun Sargent

Tearing Down Borders Between Magazines and Museums

Still fresh from publishing his first edited photography book, The New Black Vanguard,…

Townhouse Gallery Cairo.  Courtesy the gallery.

Townhouse Gallery Cairo

The End of Many Endings?

The Townhouse Gallery in Cairo is closing down again and continues its struggle…

Bartolina Xixa, Ramita seca la colonialidad permanente (Dry Twig, The Permanent Coloniality), video, 2019. Courtesy of Maximilano Mamani/Bartolina Xixa.

magazines

“Creating Art from a Precarious Position Is a Challenge and an Opportunity”

Maximiliano Mamani is an artist from the Argentinean Andes who gives life to…

Renee Gladman, One Long Black Sentence, 2020. Courtesy and © Renee Gladman and Image Text Ithaca Press

One Long Black Sentence

Queering the Line with Renee Gladman & Fred Moten

nan collymore dives into the still and sophic work of Renee Gladman.

Oluwatoyin Salau by yungjake

Black Internet

yungjake: The Artist Memorializing Black Lives with Emoji Portraits

As emojis have begun to reflect our identities, Los Angeles artist and rapper…

On Anti-Blackness: An Open Letter to Swiss Institutions

In Conversation with Deborah Joyce Holman and Jasmine Gregory

On Anti-Blackness: An Open Letter to Swiss Institutions

We spoke to two of the 50 Black artists and cultural workers in…

Art gallery empty 3d room with white walls, illumination lamps and blank banners hang around perimeter. Museum interior for presentation, photography contest exhibition hall, Realistic vector mock up

#changethemuseum

Hypocrisis

Countless voices of persons currently working in the cultural field find a platform…

Laura Nsengiyumva, Peopl, 2018. Installation view at Nuit Blanche BXL 2018. The immense ice sculpture was meant to melt throughout this event to reflect on the slowly but gradually mental decolonisation process.

No Justice No Peace

WE ARE.

In this current moment, which ferociously amplifies the uncertainty, pain, and disruption caused…

Installation view Frida Orupabo, Untitled, 2020, HERE AND NOW at Museum Ludwig: Dynamic Spaces, Museum Ludwig, Cologne 2020, © Contemporary And, photo: Rheinisches Bildarchiv Köln, Cologne / Nina Siefke

HERE AND NOW: Frida Orupabo

Understanding the Self through Depictions of the Black Female Body

Having formed her visual language after discovering the internet in her twenties, Frida…

Köln, Museum Ludwig, Sammlung Fotografie, Inv.-Nr. ML/F 2013/0074 (PJ-11494), Free Huey Rally/ Kathleen Cleaver and Black Panthers, Bobby Hutton Memorial Park, Oakland, CA, Aufnahme: 1968.09.22, 2012, Silbergelatine, 40,64 x 50,80 & 50,88 x 71,12 (mit Rahmen) cm

In Conversation with Janice Mitchell

Why German Museums Need to Catch Up

A museum’s collection mirrors power: it shows the taste and assessment of directors…

 Sambiência, Juliana dos Santos, 2018, (credits: Gabriel Oliveira) originally featured in

Sensuous Knowledge: A Black Feminist Approach for Everyone

The Forgotten Social History of International Blackness

For people of Black African heritage, identifying with Blackness is the glue that…

Installation View, Exhibition Bergen Assembly 2019. The creators of Oi! (Arsiema Z. Medhanie, Ayan Mohamed Moalim Abdulle, Cynthia Njoki Kangethe, Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa, Gift H. Solhaug, Hamisi Adam Moshi, Hinda Sheikh Ibrahim Farah, Malebona Maphutse, Mamadee King Kabba, Naomi Niyo Bazira, Omar Farah, Sheila Feruzi Kassim, Shelmith Mwenesi Øseth, Simnikiwe Buhlungu, Sufian Mulumba), Oi!, 2019. Risograph prints on paper, dimensions variable.

The Nordics: Out of the Shadows

Is There Room for All of Us?

Norway portrays itself as an open, liberal, and tolerant country, says C& writer…

Emeka Okereke, Light Switch, 2015. Printed on Canson rag photographic 40 x 60 cm © Emeka Okereke

Lumières d’Afriques

Light in Times of Growing Uncertainty

The touring exhibition Lumières d’Afrique stops off in Johannesburg amid a global pandemic…

Leticia Contreras, Estría Sagrada. Vertigios Preciosos (Sacred Striation, Precious Traces) installation view. Project Row Houses, Round 49: Penumbras: Sacred Geometries, 2019. Photo by Alex Barber.

In Conversation

Leticia Contreras on Art in the Age of Social Emergency

Texan native Leticia Contreras builds landscapes in her art. To C& she spoke about the exchange and her role as an artist, activist, and teacher.

Sasha Huber, Glacier I (left) and Glacier II (right), 2020. Installation View at Lokal Helsinki. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Katja Hagelstam/LOKAL

The Nordics: Out of the Shadows

Sasha Huber: Honoring Lost Memories

Despite their colonial history, the Nordic countries don’t have as large communities of…

Kiluanji Kia Henda: Memorial to Enslaved People, Lisbon. Foto: Kiluanji Kia Henda

In Conversation with Beatriz Dias

Memorial in Lisbon: Recovering History That Was Made Invisible

"Plantation – Prosperity and Nightmare,” a project by the Angolan artist Kiluanji Kia…

Ivy Mutuku, Practicing my serve. Courtesy the artist.

Over the Radar

Ivy Mutuku: “The world hasn’t tasted the sauce we have yet!”

Despite having had limited cultural exchange, the continents of Africa and Oceania are…

Numero Unoma, Reach for the stars, 112×76cm mixed media (acrylic, aquarelle & oil pastel) on cotton paper, 2017. Courtesy the artist and SMO Contemporary Art.

States of Mobility

The Politics of Belonging

Mobility in the arts, geographical or otherwise, is often seen as almost a…

Meschac Gaba, Citoyen du Monde, 2012. Courtesy Meschac Gaba, Stevenson, Cape Town/Johannesburg, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York, Lumen Travo Gallery, Amsterdam, Galerie In Situ, Paris © Meschac Gaba

Covid19-Comment

WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER NOW

C& is in solidarity with all the artists, independent curators, writers, other cultural…

Untitled #1, from the series, Mama's Clothes, 2015, by Keisha Scarville. Courtesy of the artist.

States of Mobility

Those Who Leave and Those Who Are Left

Mobility in the arts, geographical or otherwise, is often seen as almost a…

Guy Wouete, 'Next Week', Multimedia-Installation, 2010. © Guy Wouete

States of Mobility

“The passport that does not pass ports”

Mobility in the arts, geographical or otherwise, is often seen as almost a…

Santu Mofokeng, Rister Mkansi in the family kitchen Dan location, Tzaneen, Limpopo, South Africa Black and white, 35mm film, 2007.

Santu Mofokeng (1956 -2020)

A Vision from a Mystical Source

The late Santu Mofokeng was one of the few artists who managed to…

Photographer: Henry Chan - Location: Dinner between Rashid Johnson's Anxious Audiences at the Power Plant Gallery - 2019

Black Curators Forum Toronto

A Black Curator is Never Just a Curator

The first Black Curators Forum took place in Toronto, Canada, towards the end…

Betye Saar, I’ll Bend But I Will Not Break, 1998. Mixed media tableau: vintage ironing board, flat iron, metal chin, white bed sheet, six wooden clothespins, cotton, clothesline and one rope hook, 80 x 96 x 36 in (203.2 x 243.8 x 91.4 cm), Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Gift of Lynda and Stewart Resnick through the 2018 Collectors Committee, © Betye Saar

Inventing Your Own Game

Betye Saar: The Majesty She Holds In Her Hands

In the post-war period, many pioneering Black artists were largely neglected by the…

Maggie Laubser, Born 1886, Malmesbury, Western Cape. Died 1973, Strand, Western Cape, Original title: Wasmeidjie on farm Oordmanspos, Changed to: Washerwoman on a farm in Oortmanspoort, Oil on board1925

Debate

How do we (not) Speak About Art and Violence?

On October 1st 2019 SWEAT (Sex Workers Education & Advocacy Taskforce) publicly called for…

Installation view, Heji Shin, Kunsthalle Zürich, 2018. Photo: Annik Wetter.

C& Special Edition #Detroit

This Is Not About Kanye

“Oh, hey Kanye, what’s up?” Literally the first thing I’m thinking when I…

Covers from books

Art and Stereotypes

Playing with Race

We are still stumbling across curated incredibilities taking place in museums and art…

Akosua Adoma Owusu, Welcome to the Jungle, 2019; installation view, CCA Wattis Institute;

Akosua Adoma Owusu: Welcome to the Jungle

Beauty and Power in Black Hair Culture

Interweaving different narratives such as hair salon dynamics and fallen celebrities, Akosua Adoma…

Jack Whitten, Quantum Wall, VIII (For Arshile Gorky, My First Love in Painting), Detail, 2017. Acrylic on canvas, 122,6 x 122,6 cm © Courtesy the Jack Whitten Estate and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Genevieve Hanson

Inventing Your Own Game

Jack Whitten: A Painter’s Painter Gets His Long-Overdue Recognition

In the “post-war” period, many pioneering Black artists were largely neglected by the…

Charl Landvreugd, Performance

The Netherlands: Untold Tales

Dutch Afro Subjectivities: In a State of Becoming “Black”

The Netherlands was one of the most belligerent European colonial empires. Driven by…

Kevin Osepa, Wowo, from the series ‘Mester Blousé’, 2017. Courtesy the artist.

The Netherlands: Untold Tales

Kevin Osepa: The Curaçao Artist Exploring Afro-Caribbean Spiritual Culture

Inspired by the “magical thinking” of his native Curaçao, Kevin Osepa uses photography…

Akinola Davies Jr, HOD_ , 2018. Installation view. Courtesy of Artist and Sketchedspace. Exhibition Design by Joseph Bond Studio. Photo by Ahad Subzwari

In Conversation with Akinola Davies Jr.

“Colonialism in Britain is felt through the diasporas”

Entitled HOD, Akinola Davies Jr’s recent exhibition assembled a series of nonlinear films…

Diedrick Brackens stiches

In Conversation with Diedrick Brackens

“I embody identities that defy narrow definitions”

Los Angeles-based artist Diedrick Brackens is a rarity in the growing virtual spheres…

Sara Blokland, Home, Installation, video and photography wallpaper , 11×3 meter, 2004. Courtesy LMAK Gallery NY

The Netherlands: Untold Tales

Sara Blokland: “Who is allowed to be in the picture?”

The Netherlands was one of the most belligerent European colonial empires. Driven by…

boychild. Foto credit: Inès Manai

In Conversation with Wu Tsang

Rethinking the Museum of Tomorrow

Who does the museum appeal to, who does it welcome, and who does…

Image from Bag Factory work shop MOTHERS TONGUE. Photo: Lungile Hlatshwayo

In Conversation with Thuli Mlambo-James and Libita Clayton

“We’re all in this together”

A year ago, Thuli Mlambo-James was appointed new director at Johannesburg’s renowned Bag…

Keyezua, Fortia - Sailing Back to Africa as a Dutch Woman 02, 2017. Courtesy Investec Cape Town Art Fair and the artist.

In Conversation with Keyezua

Bringing Ritual Back to the Mask

For 2018’s Cape Town Art fair, Luanda-based artist Keyezua will show a series…

A Visionary Whose Aim Is to Transform Culture

32nd Bienal de São Paulo

A Visionary Whose Aim Is to Transform Culture

Acclaimed South African painter Helen Sebidi, who is showing at the 32nd Bienal…


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