Exhibitions

Theaster Gates: Black Madonna is still on view at Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland until October 21, 2018

The creative practice of Theaster Gates ranges from urban interventions and performance pieces to pottery. In his exhibition at the Kunstmuseum Basel, which is spreading out across two of the museum’s venues, Gates explores the cult of the Black Madonna, examining both its significance in the history of religion and its aesthetic and metaphorical tenor. The presentation at the museum’s New building displays his work, some of it created specifically for the occasion. He has built a shrine of sorts to the Black Madonna that enters into a critical dialogue with the venue’s architecture and the art in the collections. By contrast, the installation at the museum’s Gegenwart turns its space into a site of creative production. The artist has set up a temporary sound studio and printing workshop, where he is working with his personal archives, with a focus on the photography archives of Ebony and Jet Magazine, two iconic publications that have been vital media of black culture in America.

Ex Africa will be on view at the Banco do Brasil Cultural Center in Brasilia, Brazil until October 21, 2018

After Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, and Belo Horizonte, the largest exhibition on art from African perspectives held in Brazil is open in Brasilia. Ex Africa brings together 18 artists from eight African countries that arouse great international attention. They are joined by two Afro-Brazilian artists, Arjan Martins and Dalton Paula. The touring show is presenting sculptures, photographs, installations, performances, paintings, and videos around four themes: echoes of history, bodies and portraits, urban drama, and musical explosions. Ex Africa reveals the history and the current moment of a continent that, while trying to rebuild itself from the wound caused by centuries of slave trade and colonization, is expanding its colors and culture to other borders.

African Metropolis is still on view at MAXXI – National Museum of XXI Century Arts in Rome, Italy until November 4, 2018

Through the intensity and the richness of African art, the exhibition highlights the beauty and the contradictions of the cities and the world of today. More than 100 works by 34 African artists become elements of an imaginary city, of an exploration that through photography, installations, sculptures, fabrics and videos, recreates the chaos, the wealth, the multi-faceted nature of the contemporary African and global identity. Wandering, Belonging, Recognising, Imagining and Reconstructing are the metropolitan actions identified by the curators to describe this imaginary city, and to interpret the physical space of the cities we pass through during the course of our existence and the mental space defined by the sensations and emotions they reawaken in us. The artworks are installed as elements of a city skyline, the fruit of a continual stratification of interventions, defining a layout in which visitors may lose, recognise and imagine themselves.

Biennials

FotoFocus Biennial 2018 is still open at various venues in Cincinnati, OH, United States until October 30, 2018

FotoFocus is the largest photography and lens-based biennial in America. In 2018, more than 200 artists, curators, and educators are collaborating with FotoFocus – as curator and supporter – to present photography and lens-based art across 70 museums and galleries in Greater Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky, and Dayton and Columbus, Ohio. Each Biennial is structured around a unifying theme; for 2018, that theme is Open Archive – an exploration of how we organize and care for the unruly abundance inherent in lens-based art. “This edition of the FotoFocus Biennial addresses an aspect of photography that has been central to the medium since its invention: its unruly abundance,” says Kevin Moore, FotoFocus Artistic Director. “How do we organize and care for so much imagery? Open Archive explores the terrain, both old and new, of a classic photo topic.”

Auctions

Modern and Contemporary African Art will open at Sotheby’s in London, United Kingdom on October 16, 2018

Sotheby’s Modern and Contemporary African Art will present a selection of exceptional works from across the African continent. The season’s sale will feature standout pieces by leading artist in this category, including Cheri Samba, Bodys Isek Kingelez, Ouattara Watts, El Anatsui, Marlene Dumas, David Goldblatt, and Pascale Marthine Tayou. Sotheby’s has consistently achieved outstanding results for artists in this category. Since debuting in 2016, Sotheby’s Modern and Contemporary African Art sales have broken over 35 artists’ records and have attracted collectors from 33 different countries around the world.