Show
me your
shelves!

“Show me your Shelves!” brought together artists, young art journalists and librarians to reflect on existing common structures, experiences, as well as differences between Afro-German and African American perspectives. In this frame it also challenged the question of how libraries can expand on becoming open spaces of encounter and knowledge regarding the connections of African Diasporas. This happened in three workshops and two exhibitions in Detroit and Houston as well as a special C& Print Issue.

It was funded by and took place within the framework of the campaign Wunderbar Together – The Year of German-American Friendship.

 

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.

Amelia Umuhire, King Who, 2019. Video. Photo: Ronald L. Jones

Show Me Your Shelves!

Amelia Umuhire: Unpacking Hidden Rwandese Stories

Show Me Your Shelves! was a two-city exhibition featuring Black artists from Germany…

Tay Butler, RE.Migrant 2.5. Photo: Ronald L. Jones

Show Me Your Shelves!

Tay Butler: Connecting to the Past via Fiction

Show Me Your Shelves! was a two-city exhibition featuring Black artists from Germany…

Detroit movement artist Jennifer Harge engaged the Parkman Library through performative reading groups for youth and adults. Harge activated texts by authors Virginia Hamilton, Saidiyah Hartman, alexispauline gumbs, and Audre Lorde through group discussions and movementresponses.

SHOW ME YOUR SHELVES!

Jennifer Harge: The Home as a Site of Pleasure

Show Me Your Shelves! is a two-city exhibition featuring Black artists from Germany…

C& Center For Unfinished Business, Installation view. Copyright: C&. Photo: Florian Bong-Kil Grosse

Exhibitions

SHOW ME YOUR SHELVES!

The African American Library at Gregory School
Houston, TX

Janine Jembere, to cite: diaspora, sound installation, 37:06 minutes, paper prints, 2019.

SHOW ME YOUR SHELVES!

Janine Jembere: Citing as an Act of Connection

Show Me Your Shelves! is a two-city exhibition featuring Black artists from Germany…

Nelbia Romero, Sin titulo (Untitled), 1983. Silk screen, 40 x 29 cm. © Hammer Museum 2019.

C& Special Edition #Detroit

Imagining a Way Out: Dystopia and Dictatorships

Felix Jordan Rucker looks into artistic ways of subverting the control of oppressive…

(left) Photograph of Benjamin Patterson’s Variations for Double-Bass. Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York. Acc. n.: 2642.2008. ©2019 Digital image, The Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, Florence; (right) Portrait of Mildred Thompson, c.1960s © The Mildred Thompson Estate, Courtesy of Galerie Lelong & Co., New York

C& Special Edition #Detroit

Why They Left America

Mearg Negusse on the self-imposed exiles of US artists Mildred Thompson and Ben…

Illustration by Edson Ikê, inspired by self-portrait images from Khadija Saye’s Venice Biennale series Dwelling: In This Space We Breat

C& Special Edition #Detroit

On Death, Loss, And Processing A (Black) Archive

Curator, writer, and artist Legacy Russell ponders the possibility of materializing a Black…

Carl Nielbock and Asmaa Walton. C.A.N. Art Handworks, Inc. 2019. Photo: Anthony Parker

C& Special Edition #Detroit

An Afternoon at C.A.N. Art Handworks

Asmaa Walton speaks to metalsmithing artist Carl Nielbock on his life-changing journey from…

Oliver Harrington, ... And the philosophy of this administration is if it aint broke dont fix it, 1980s. Benday, ink, paper, blue pencil. Courtesy of Dr. Helma Harrington; The Ohio State University, Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum

C& Special Edition #Detroit

Bring the Pain!

Mearg Negusse portrays the American cartoonist Oliver Harrington and his struggle for liberation.

Images courtesy of James Gregory Atkinson. Photos by Paul-David Raerick

SHOW ME YOUR SHELVES!

A Black Gay Read in Detroit with James Gregory Atkinson

Show Me Your Shelves is a two-city exhibition featuring Black artists from Germany…

C& Center For Unfinished Business, Installation view. Copyright: C&. Photo: Florian Bong-Kil Grosse

C& Focus

Show Me Your Shelves!

In a rare constellation “Show me your Shelves! Libraries as spaces of encounter”…

Skillman Library: Bree Gant, Otherlogue, 2019, glass jars, mussels, iron, resin, bees, cowries. Designed and produced on behalf of ifa with support of Contemporary And (C&) and in the in the framework of the German campaign Wunderbar Together – The Year of German-American Friendship https://wunderbartogether.org/about/ , initiated by the German Federal Foreign Office (AA), the Goethe-Institut, and supported by the Federation of German Industries (BDI). Photographer: Kashira Dowridge

SHOW ME YOUR SHELVES!

Bree Gant: Studying Old Conversations with Ancestors

Show Me Your Shelves is a two-city exhibition featuring Black artists from Germany…

Howardena Pindell, Untitled, 1972. Acrylic on canvas, 174.3 x 267.3 cm; 68 5/8 x 105 1/4 inches
© Howardena Pindell. Courtesy the artist, Garth Greenan Gallery, New York and Victoria Miro, London/Venice

Inventing Your Own Game

The Consistency in Howardena Pindell’s Art and Defiance

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

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…

A Woman Waiting in the Doorway, Harlem, NY, 1976. Photograph by Dawoud Bey

In Conversation with Dawoud Bey

Seeing Deeply

Seeing Deeply is an essential monograph that covers four decades of celebrated photographer…

Installation View, Frank Bowling at Tate Britain (31 May - 26 August 2019), Tate Photography, Matt  Greenwood

Inventing Your Own Game

Frank Bowling at Tate: Redefining the British Art Canon

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

Installation view Collection Contemporary Art, Museum Ludwig, Cologne 2018 © of the artists
Photo: Rheinisches Bildarchiv Köln, Rico Burgmann; art works (f.l.t.r.): Kerry James Marshall, Vignette #15, 2014 / Zoe Leonard, Tree, 1997/2011 / Cady Noland, Log Cabin Roof [Blockhausdach], 1990 / Cady Noland, Truck Rack Blank [Leeres Lastwagengestell], 1991 / Cady Noland, Chainsaw Cut Cowboy with Baked Beans [Kettensägeschnitt-Cowboy mit gebackenen Bohnen], 1990 /Seth Price , Digital Video Effect:

In Conversation with Yilmaz Dziewior

Museum Ludwig: In Search of a Broader Audience in Cologne

In recent months, museums, particularly throughout the United States, have begun to reassess…

 Installation View: Robert Reed: San Romano Series, Pilar Corrias, London. 12 April – 18 May 2019. Courtesy of the Robert Reed Estate and Pilar Corrias, London. Photo: Damian Griffiths.

Inventing Your Own Game

Robert Reed: Re-entering the US American Art Canon

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

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…

Anna Martine Whitehead. Image credit: the artist

In Conversation with Anna Martine Whitehead

“The world needs more embodied people”

Anna Martine Whitehead is an interdisciplinary artist and dancer who is interested in…

Chioma Ebinama, Chi Doll. Courtesy the artist and Boys’ Quarters Project Space

In Conversation with Zina Saro Wiwa

Re-Imagining Her World

Zina Saro Wiwa has many talents. Working between New York and Port Harcourt…

Dawoud Bey, Untitled #14 (Site of John Brown’s Tannery), 2017. Courtesy the artist and Art Institute Chicago.

In Conversation with Dawoud Bey

Safe Spaces in the Dark

The essence of night is a central figure in Dawoud Bey’s latest exhibition.…

Allison Janae Hamilton, Scratching at the wrong side of firmament., 2015
Archival pigment print
40 x 55 inches. Courtesy of the artist

In Conversation with Larry Ossei-Mensah

Traveling Through Unknown Territories

Larry Ossei-Mensah’s reputation in the US art scene is rapidly growing. With three…

 

C& SPECIAL EDITION #DETROIT

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