African Art Outlook for September

African Art Outlook for September

Posted in Events

As interest in contemporary African art continues to grow, we identified several events that are worth visiting in September. From Chicago to Johannesburg, we’ve got you covered with a quick guide of what to discover this month. So, we’ve rounded up our favorite events of September featuring African and Africa related art practices and projects.

Exhibitions

The Measure of All Things: On the (In)Human is still on view at the Lunds konsthall in Lund, Sweden until September 22, 2019

The exhibition brings together the work of four artists, all with a strong connection to the Swedish and regional art scene and who through their practice explore questions about the human body, politics and subjectivity: Ulrika Gomm, Hanni Kamaly, Santiago Mostyn and Sandra Mujinga. In Sandra Mujnga’s work, this happens in the encounter between the augmented human body, technology, fashion and digital media. Both Hanny Kamaly and Santiago Mostyn allude, in their sculptures, videos and installations, to repressive strategies limiting the scope of human action and thereby excluding individuals and groups from the communal. Ulrika Gomm engages with the theme of the exhibition through two of her installations departing from Swedish governmental attitudes towards bodies and individuals and from different notions of democracy in today’s authoritarian China.

Virgil Abloh: Figures of Speech is still on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago in Chicago, IL, United States until September 29, 2019

Abloh cultivated an interest in design and music at an early age, finding inspiration in the urban culture of Chicago. While pursuing a master’s degree in architecture from the Illinois Institute of Technology, he connected with Kanye West and joined West’s creative team to work on album covers, concert designs, and merchandising. In 2013, Abloh founded his stand-alone fashion brand Off-White™ in Milan, Italy, and in 2018 assumed the position of Men’s Artistic Director of Louis Vuitton. Set in an immersive space designed by Samir Bantal, the Director of AMO, the research studio of Rem Koolhaas’s renowned architectural firm OMA, the MCA exhibition will offer an in-depth look at defining highlights of Abloh’s career including a program of cross-disciplinary offerings that will mirror the artist’s range of interests across music, fashion, architecture, and design.

Candice Breitz: Labour will be on view at the Neue Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.) in Berlin, Germany from September 12 to October 25, 2019

Candice Breitz is an influential chronicler of the contradictions that haunt popular discourse. She is best known for a practice that analyzes the dynamics of identity formation via multi-channel video installations, which are either shot fresh or composed from existing images, video clips and material drawn from mainstream media. Labour is a new work commissioned by Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, which will receive its world premiere in this solo exhibition and will remain in the collection of the n.b.k. Video-Forum. Across her oeuvre, Breitz addresses the entanglement of personal and political struggles, as these are played out in the public sphere. Recently, her work has reflected on a media-saturated culture in which identification with fictional characters and celebrity figures runs parallel to widespread indifference to the plight of people facing real world adversity.

Art Fairs

FNB Art Joburg 2019 will open at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa from September 13-15, 2019

The FNB JoburgArtFair has been renamed FNB Art Joburg after it was officially acquired by its former director Mandla Sibeko, taking over from previous owners Artlogic. This year, the first-of-its-kind Gallery Lab will be a 600 sqm pavilion where galleries and hybrid spaces from the continent and beyond gather for an annual conference of collaboration, discussions and sharing of best practices. They will make up an active hub set up for workshops, talks and informal gatherings that focus on specific professional practice topics such as artist relationships, web design, art fair applications and financial management and other wider themes affecting the contemporary African creative economy. Also new to the fair this year is the MAX section – a first in Africa – which will exclusively be dedicated to displaying large-scale installations that might typically be challenging to exhibit in a fair setting.

Latitudes Art Fair 2019 will open at the Nelson Mandela Square in Johannesburg, South Africa from September 13-15, 2019

Latitudes Art Fair is a new alternative art fair focusing on contemporary art from the African continent. The fair aims to expand and strengthen audiences for contemporary African art and to create a richer understanding of African cultural production globally. “By African, we mean anyone who has a meaningful connection to Africa and the diaspora, and by international, we mean the endless permutations of trans-geographic relationships – rather than the reinforcement of values entrenched in European and American economic centres,” says Executive Director, Lucy MacGarry. Latitudes will bring together a curated selection of galleries, independent platforms, artisanal studios, and artists from the African continent and diaspora. Developed in close conversation with several African galleries, the fair sets out to serve the diverse needs in the contemporary art sector throughout the Majority World.

 

Posted in Events  |  September 07, 2019