Photography exhibition at 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair/ in New York, 3-5 May 2019.

May 2: VIP viewing with two private tours, 11-12pm and 3-4pm.

Saturday May 4: Panel Discussion 6:30 – 7:30 pm

Special Project Booth 26 / Industria, 775 Washington Street, Manhattan.

Isabel S. Wilcox is pleased to announce an exhibition from her collection of the work of the photographer from the Ivory Coast, Paul Kodjo.

Paul Kodjo’s black and white photographs are being shown in the US for the first time.  Working within the tradition of African traditional studio photography but pushing its boundaries, Kodjo photographed his subjects outside of the studio in staged modern domestic indoors and in the streets of Abidjan, creating a unique record of Abidjan during the years of the economic boom of the early post-independence years.

Kodjo used a cinematic approach and introduced movement and dramatic tensions drawing the viewer into his subjects’ lives: their relationships and emotions. He turned to the tradition of the photo-roman/photo-novel that were published in the national periodical Ivoire Dimanchewith wide exposure.  Kodjo’s photographs, which also include candid shots of private events and fashion photography, echo the shifting social and familial dynamics as well as the renewal of the urban landscape shaped by modernist design and architecture.  The exhibition is curated by Isabel S. Wilcox and Lydie Diakhate.

Panel discussion: Saturday May 4^th, 2019/ 6:30 – 7:30 pm.

The cinematic eye of West African photographer Paul Kodjo: The Ivorian Miracle in the 1970’s.

Panelists: Ananias Leki Dago (photographer) and Antawan Byrd (curator and art historian)

Moderator: Claude Grunitzky (media and culture entrepreneur)

Location: Forum Room/1-54 at Industria, Manhattan

UNMASKED: EXHIBITION IN CHELSEA CELEBRATING AXIS GALLERY 20 YEAR OF SHOWING AFRICAN ART

Seminal Cape Town artist, Sue Williamson’s photographic installation, Joyce Seipei – as a mother- Winnie Madikiza Mandela, 1988 at Axis Gallery which addresses the South Africa Truth And Reconciliation hearings is so timely. While it relates to the court appearance of Winnie Mandela and reveals the truth behind the atrocities during Apartheid it points to how facts and statements can be manipulated: Viewers can shuttle fragments of statements within the work, reordering truth and shifting appearance and interpretation. Sound familiar?

Her work is part of a larger exhibition Unmasked curated by Gary Van Wyck and Lisa Brittan for the Axis gallery in New York in honor of the 20^th anniversary of their gallery that includes the work of Theo Eshetu, Jebila Okongwu, Graeme Williams, Sue Williamson and Herve Youmbi.

True to their original stated mission of highlighting the tensions between ‘traditional’ and ‘contemporary’ African art in Western minds they have put together a group of works, largely conceptual, that challenges the West misconception of non western art, its idea of authenticity in African art, and reveals underlying social and economic power dynamics between Third and First World. As if this was not quite ambitious enough they top it all by debunking the idea of the American Dream. Graeme Williams’s triptych, which incorporates photographs of urban and suburban environments with collaged ‘posters’ that reference an idealization of America that excludes its black population, reveal the bleak physical reality of the American dream.

Probing the underbelly beneath surfaces appearances the exhibition includes three stills from Theo Eshetu’s Atlas Fractured, a multimedia installation shown at Documenta 4, that layers images from diverse cultures and periods. Portraits of living people were projected over ethnographic masks. The layered faces are set against a black background in the photographs and gain in intensity. While quite beautiful they are disturbing. Theo Eshetu remarks: “The now is grotesque, uncertain, and burdened by the ghosts of the past. Yet there is also beauty in the present, a vitality for new justices, a search for new harmonies, and, contrary to facile political tendencies, acceptance and desire for hybrid states hitherto unknown.”

Expanding on this idea of the hybrid, the masks included in Herve Youmbi’s multi-media installations entitled Visages des Masques/Faces of Masks combine diverse cultural sources. They are a hoot: One of them includes the Halloween Ghostface mask from Wes Craven’movie Scream. They debunk the Western popular notion of clear stylistic distinction in the African masking tradition or tribal styles.

I was particularly intrigued by this body of work. Youmbi initially in 2013 commissioned Bamileke craftspeople from Cameroon to create a Ku’ngang mask incorporating the face of a Dogon mask from Mali. The mask was later activated during a ritual ceremony and thereby accepted by the Bamileke leaders. Youmbi filmed the ceremony and the video was included in the original installation. I had already encountered the notion of hybridity in the Yoruba masking tradition when I had done s research on the subject years ago during my post graduate studies. Indeed Yoruba masking has shown itself to be open to innovation and able to integrate elements from Islam, Christianity and the Western world, thereby keeping it relevant to the new generations. The Gelede mask includes modern day motifs such as motorcycles, planes, and other mass-produced items such a sneakers, Halloween latex masks. Youmbi expands on this phenomenon more recently with these masks that incorporate, or should I say, appropriate western elements.

A lot is happening on the Africa front. I went to Kenya for a couple of weeks this summer and spend a few days in Nairobi interviewing  a few key players and artists in an emerging East African art scene that is gaining momentum. I will report on this in my November Newsletter. In the meantime I have joined the Tate Modern African Acquisition committee so here I am off to the Netherlands and Belgium to visit several African artists studios. I will then go to London to see the third edition of the African fair 1:54. I plan to go home soon after that and not leave New York city for a bit because the jet lag is getting to me. Unfortunately I will miss the first edition of the new African Fair in Paris in November (Akaa fair) . No worries because next March at Art Paris, Africa is  the guest of honor !! I am really thrilled that African art is getting so much attention and that main stream galleries are increasingly taking African artists on. The talent is there though it may require one to open up to some new perspectives.

In the meantime here is a long list of exhibitions showing African artists in New York and London that you might want to check out if you find yourself in either city in September and October.

NEW YORK

The Expanded Subject: New Perspectives in Photographic Portraiture From Africa (Sammy Baloji, Mohamed Camara, Saidou Dicko and George Osodi).

Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Gallery, Columbia University

September 7 – December 10, 2016

 Meleko Mokgosi

Jack Shainman, 513 West 20^th Street

September 8 – October 22, 2016

 David Goldblatt

Pace/ MacGill Gallery

32 East 57^th Street

September 14 – October 29, 2016

 Recent Histories: New Photography from Africa

Walther Collection

526 West 26^th Street, Suite 718

September 22 – December 17, 2016

 Julie Mehretu

Marian Goodman

24 West 57^th Street

September 22 – October 29, 2016

LONDON

Samson Kambalu

Kate MacGArry

27 Old Nichol Street, E2 7HR

September 9 – October 15, 2016

 Lynette Yiadom-Boakye

Corvi-Mora

1A Kempsford road, SE11 4NU

September 9, 2016 onwards

Virginia Chihota

Tiwani Contemporary

16 Little Portland Street W1W8BP

September 16 to October 29, 2016

William Kentridge

Whitechapel Gallery

77-82 Whitechapel High Street, E1 7QX

September 21, 2016 to January 15, 2017

 Yinka Shonibare

Stephen Friedman

25-28 Burlington Street, W1S3AN

September 28 to November 5,2016

Njideka Akunyili-Cosby

Victoria Miro

16 Wharf Road, N1 7RW

October 4- November 5, 2016

 Emo de Medeiros

50 Goborne

50 Golborne Road, W10 5PR

October 5 –November 20, 2016

 Romuald Hazoume

October Gallery

25 Old Gloucester Street, WC1N3AL

October 7 to November 26, 2016

Joel Andrianomearisoa

Tyburn Gallery

26 Barrett St, W1U

October 4 – December 23, 2016