VICTOR EKPUK’s “Eye See You” on view at Smithsonian Arts and Industry Building for We the People festival in DC

 

 

Please join artist VICTOR EKPUK in conversation while viewing his monumental installation piece Eye See You in Halcyon’s By the People festival in Washington, DC, curated by Jessica Stafford Davis.

Nearly scraping the ceiling of the Arts & Industries Building, Ekpuk’s 18-foot-high “Eye See You” is the most imposing piece he’s ever exhibited in the District. -Mark Jenkins. (The Washington Post)

Sunday June 23, 2019
2:00pm
Smithsonian Arts and Industry Building on the National Mall
Jefferson St, SW Washington DC  

Preview of Morton Fine Art’s Booth at Prizm Art Fair in Miami

 

 

Sneak Preview of Morton Fine Art’s Booth at Prizm Art Fair in Miami Contact the gallery for complimentary passes.

Visit our Website

Morton Fine Art will be closed 12/5-12/8 during our time in Miami, however we are available by phone (202) 628-2787 or mortonfineart@gmail.com if you need to reach us!

OSI AUDU THE TANGIBLE AND INTANGIBLE I explore the light sheen of graphite, the matte, light absorbing quality of black pastel, the white of paper and canvas, as well as the visually affecting interactions of colors to investigate form and its evocative potential to suggest or hint at something about the shape of the head. I am interested in the dualism of form and void, and the ontological relation between the tangible and intangible, something and nothing, light and dark, body and mind, the dual nature of being – the self in portraits. The construction of a sense of self is a very complex process, perhaps even more so in our increasingly global age, in which the boundaries between race, nationality, gender and sexuality are getting more and more blurred. I am interested in issues of self identity, and in concepts of the self rooted in my cultural experiences growing up in Nigeria, as well as global metaphysical, scientific, and social concepts of the self. There is a Yoruba thought that consciousness, referred to as the “head”, has both a physical dimension called the “outer head” and a non-physical one: “the inner head”. It is the visual implications of concepts like this that I find intriguing. The title, Self-Portrait, in my work, is more about the portrait of the intangible self, rather than a literal portrait of the artist. – OSI AUDU COLLECTIONS Smithsonian Museum of African Art The Newark Museum The British Museum Horniman Museum Wellcome Trust Gallery Available Artwork by OSI AUDU

OSI AUDU, Self-Portrait after Dogon Bird Mask II, 2018, 15″x22″, graphite and pastel on paper mounted on canvas OSI AUDU, Self Portrait after Igbo Mask, 2018, 11″x15″, acrylic on canvas

KESHA BRUCE

KESHA BRUCE, The Sky Opened for Her, 2016, 60″x48″, mixed media on canvas KESHA BRUCE, Fight Fire with Fire, 2017, 40″x30″, mixed media on canvas

Artwork is spiritwork. When I pray, I ask my ancestors for the bravery to follow and make manifest the deepest truths and longings of my heart. Every artwork I create is an answered prayer. In this current political and social moment my prayers are especially urgent: Where can Black women feel safe? Where can we feel free? How do we protect our spirits from those who mean to destroy us? As an artist, these questions always lead me back to my work.  In my experience, the most powerful weapon for spiritual warfare is joy. I’m not being hyperbolic when I tell you that the process of making artwork has saved my life many, many times. Art is a refuge for the spirit. It offers us a way to understand and heal ourselves. I am of the mind that something absolutely prophetic can be revealed in both the act of making and the act of looking at art. Art objects embody spiritual power. I believe this so firmly now, that it seems almost surreal to think back to a time, not so long ago, when I was afraid to speak about my work in spiritual terms for fear of being called less serious or less intellectually rigorous. It’s clear to me now that often our fears show us the parts of ourselves that are desperately waiting to be revealed. To be set free. So, I present this new work with the firm knowledge that what I am creating is an important and worthy contribution to the current cultural dialogue. More importantly, I consider my work a part of a strategy for resistance. Even as we steel ourselves for battle ahead, we must remember to leave room for joy. Joy is sacred and so it is worth fighting for. Remember to fight. -KESHA BRUCE SELECTED COLLECTIONS Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (14 pieces), Washington, DC The Amistad Center for Art and Culture, Hartford, CT The Museum of Modern Art, Franklin Furnace Artist Book Collection, New York, NY The University of Iowa Women’s Center, Iowa City, IA The En Foco Photography Collection, New York, NY The Museum of Modern Art/Franklin Furnace Artist Book Collection, New York, NY Available Artwork by KESHA BRUCE

NATHANIEL DONNETT African textiles, Gee’s Bend Quilts, and the everyday aesthetic within the historic African American neighborhoods of Houston, Texas inspire “Boom”. This work acts as a reminder to the extrinsic value of these neighborhoods through the lens of its spatial geography and relationship to gentrification, along with objects and form in terms of cultural iconography, and the everyday aesthetic. Drum notations and Houston’s hip-hop car culture formulate the abstract patterns. These patterns act as a response to the marginalization of Black American identity, the black spatial imaginary, and contemporary art. During the times of American slavery, it was said that southern quilts communicated warnings to the slaves. Although this was found to be a myth, this contemporary makeshift quilt does communicate moments of neighborhood erasure and the silencing of its cultural contributions. It also simultaneously celebrates the neighborhood’s cultural socio- consciousness and overall complexity. -NATHANIEL DONNETT MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS The Ulrich Museum, Wichita, KS The McColl Center, Charlotte, NC The American Museum, Washington, DC The Kemper Contemporary Arts Museum, Kansas City, MO The Theresa Hotel, Harlem, NY Harvey B Gantt Art Center for African American Arts and Culture, Charlotte, NC The Community Artist’s Collective The Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury CT The Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Houston, TX Project Row Houses, Houston, TX The University Museum, Houston, TX The New Museum, New York, NY

NATHANIEL DONNETT, Boom, 2018, 40″x46″, duct tape, plastic and photographs on paper Available Artwork by NATHANIEL DONNETT

VICTOR EKPUK VICTOR EKPUK, Head 4, 2015, 45″x48″, acyrlic on panel VICTOR EKPUK, Mask Series 1, 2018, 24″x18″, acrylic on canvas

Victor Ekpuk is a Nigerian-American artist based in Washington, DC. His art, which began as an exploration of nsibidi “traditional” graphics and writing systems in Nigeria, has evolved to embrace a wider spectrum of meaning that is rooted in African and global contemporary art discourses. Guided by the aesthetic philosophy nsibidi, where sign systems are used to convey ideas, Ekpuk re-imagines graphic symbols from diverse cultures to form a personal style of mark making that results in the interplay of art and writing. Ekpuk’s art reflects his experiences as a global artist. “The subject matter of my work deals with the human condition explained through themes that are both universal and specific: family, gender, politics, culture and Identity” -Victor Ekpuk COLLECTIONS Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture Smithsonian Museum of African Art Brooks Museum Krannert Art Museum Arkansas Art Center Fidelity Investments Newark Museum The World Bank University of Maryland University College Art Collection The U. S. Department of State Available Artwork by VICTOR EKPUK

MAYA FREELON Maya Freelon is an award-winning visual artist whose work was described by the late poet Maya Angelou as “visualizing the truth about the vulnerability and power of the human being.” Cosmopolitan Magazine featured her in June 2015 in “Art Stars” calling her one “of the most badass female artists in the biz.”  She was commissioned by Google to design original art for their OnHub router, by Cadillac to create a live-sculpture for their Dare Greatly creative campaign, and by the North Carolina Museum of Art to create a collaborative tissue paper sculpture celebrating the opening of their African Art wing. Her unique tissue paper art, praised by the International Review of African American Art as “a vibrant, beating assemblage of color,” has been exhibited internationally, including shows in Paris, Jamaica, Madagascar, and Italy. She was selected by Modern Luxury Magazine as Best of the City; by Huffington Post as “Black Artists: 30 Contemporary Art Makers Under 40 You Should Know”; and by Complex magazine as “15 Young Black   Artists Making Waves in the Art World.”  Maya has completed residencies at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine, the Korobitey Institute in Ghana, and the Brandywine Workshop in Philadelphia. She earned a BA from Lafayette College and an MFA from theSchool of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. COLLECTIONS U.S. State Department U.S. Embassy in Madagascar U.S. Embassy Swaziland U.S. Embassy Rome The University of Maryland (David C. Driskell Center) Johns Hopkins University Rocketship Rise Academy; The Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists The Reginald F. Lewis Museum The School of the Museum of Fine Arts The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Lafayette College The Brandywine Workshop The Experimental Printmaking Institute The Williston Northampton School The Kokrobitey Institute Lewis Tanner Moore Dr. Maya Angelou Available Artwork by MAYA FREELON

photo credit: Christopher Charles MAYA FREELON, Compression, 2017, 44″x34″, tissue ink monoprint MAYA FREELON, Intuition, 2017, 46″x44″, tissue ink monoprint

AMBER ROBLES-GORDON AMBER ROBLES-GORDON, Awakening the Matrilineal: Calling in the West, 36″x36″, mixed media on canvas AMBER ROBLES-GORDON, Awakening the Matrilineal: South and of the Fire, 2016, 34″x35″, mixed media on canvas

Awakening the Matrilineal “My artwork is a visual representation of my hybridism: a fusion of my gender, ethnicity, cultural, and social experiences. I impose colors, imagery, and materials that evoke femininity and tranquility with the intent of transcending or balancing a specific form. I associate working with light, color, and energy as a positive means to focus on the healing power found in the creative process and within us all. It is my belief that colors have both feminine and masculine energies and each color represents a specific aspect of nature.” -Amber Robles Gordon COLLECTIONS Judith A. Hoffberg Archive Library University of California, Santa Barbara, CA Masterpiece Miniature Art Exhibition, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Capital One Bank, Mc Clean,Virginia District of Columbia’s Art Bank, Washington, D.C. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York, NY The Gautier Family Collection, Washington, DC Available Artwork by AMBER ROBLES-GORDON

NATE LEWIS In continuing my work with black figures I sculpt in unseen tensions of the past present and future on bodies with the idea of utilizing diagnostic lenses and contrast dyes to reveal erased and unknown histories and patterns. Through the use of presence, absence, distortion and illusion and while in a time when the digital world has severe control of our information feeds I aim to challenge our lens’, the powers that hold our attention, and create opportunities for questioning and perspective alteration. In my time working as a critical care nurse, we would use a multitude of lenses to gain a broad understanding of what is going on with any given situation to find homeostasis. While facts and diagnostic information can inform us of any given situation, without empathy and perspective alteration, our hearts will remain unchanged. – NATE LEWIS Nate Lewis grew up in Beaver Falls, near Pittsburgh, Pa. He graduated from VCU with his BSN and was a practicing critical care nurse for five years as well as professional fine artist. He has been awarded prestigious residencies at Pioneer Works and Dieu Donne in NYC, Agora Culture on Martha’s Vineyard and won a number of artist fellowship grants from the DC Commission of the Arts and Humanities. Available Artwork by NATE LEWIS

NATE LEWIS, Spirit Suite, 2018, 21.5″x26″, hand sculpted photo paper print NATE LEWIS, Traverse Suite, 2018, 26″x26″, hand sculpted photo paper print

About Morton Fine Art Founded in 2010 in Washington, DC, Morton Fine Art (MFA) is a fine art gallery and curatorial group that collaborates with art collectors and visual artists to inspire fresh ways of acquiring contemporary art. Firmly committed to the belief that anyone can become an art collector or enthusiast, MFA’s mission is to provide accessibility to museum-quality contemporary art through a combination of substantive exhibitions and a welcoming platform for dialogue and exchange of original voice. Morton Fine Art 52 O St NW #302 Washington, DC 20001 (202) 628-2787 mortonfineart@gmail.com www.mortonfineart.com For further information and images, please contact Amy Morton: mortonfineart@gmail.com #

Morton Fine Art participates in Prizm Art Fair in Miami December 3 – 9, 2018

 

Prizm Art Fair 2018

December 3rd – December 9th | Open Daily: 10 am – 6 pm

PRIZM is the producer of a cutting-edge cultural platform that is multidisciplinary in scope. Our goal is to expand the spectrum of exhibiting international artists from the African Diaspora and emerging markets.

Our mission is to promote the work of artists from Africa and global African Diaspora, who reflect global trends in contemporary art. Workshops and special events are organized throughout the year to advance critical dialogue and sharpen the lens through which we view and understand contemporary art. We are committed to the Miami cultural community and will work to expand its visual arts landscape, nurture and educate its constituents and provide forums for cross cultural exchange.

​

Prizm exhibits a dynamic group or contemporary artists during Art Basel/Miami Beach and beyond. Salient works are presented that highlight the diversity evident in contemporary visual art practices today, including painting sculpture and mixed media installations.

Prizm Art Fair

Morton Fine Art will be featuring the artwork of internationally renowned contemporary artists OSI AUDU, KESHA BRUCE, VICTOR EKPUK, MAYA FREELON, AMBER ROBLES-GORDON and NATE LEWIS.

“Abstract Minded” Curator Soiree with OSI AUDU & LAURIE ANN FARRELL at N’Namdi Center for Contemporary Art

Next Saturday, November 18th join us at a special reception for Abstract Minded.   ​ Abstract Minded Curator Soiree with Osi Audu, exhibition curator & Laurie Ann Farrell, curator of contemporary art at the DIA  Date:  Saturday, November 18, 2017 Time: 2:00pm – 5:00pm Location: Detroit, MI – The N’Namdi Center for Contemporary Art, 52 E. Forest Ave. Abstract Minded curator and artist Osi Audu and the Detroit Institute of Arts’ curator and department head of contemporary art, Laurie Ann Farrell discuss the artists, exhibition, and influence of the African Diaspora on contemporary art at this intimate afternoon event. Refreshments will be served. Abstract Minded: Works by Six Contemporary African Artists” showcases explorative works by Osi Audu, Nicholas Hlobo, Serge Alain Nitegeka, Odili Donald Odita, Nnenna Okore, and Elias Sime that thematically or conceptually connect to the continent of Africa by pursuing the use of abstraction as a way of engaging the broader conversation about art. The exhibition will be on display through January 6, 2018. Osi Audu Osi Audu is a Nigerian born artist whose work explores the intersections of scientific, cultural and philosophical ideas about the nature of consciousness. His work, which has been shown in numerous international exhibitions including the Kwangju Biennale in Korea, the Africa Africa exhibition in Japan, and the Museum of the Mind exhibition at the British Museum in London; has also been collected by a number of public institutions such as the Newark Museum in New Jersey, The National Museum of African Art in Washington DC, the British Museum, and the Horniman Museum in London. He has presented papers and talks about his work at several international conferences such as the 16th ACASA International Triennial Symposium on African Art at the Brooklyn Museum, New York; The Human Image conference at the British Museum in London, Conversations with a Continent: FIVE AFRICAN ARTISTS at Columbia University in New York; and Next Wave Nigeria: Artists Dialogue at the Newark Museum. His article –Yoruba Concept of the Mind was published in the 2nd edition of The Oxford Companion to The Mind, edited by Richard Gregory. He was a lecturer in Painting and Drawing at the University of Benin for 9 years, and the Head of Art and Design at Sir Joseph Williamson’s Mathematical School in the UK for 11 years. He received an MFA degree in Painting and Drawing from the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia.  He lives and works in New York. Laurie Ann Farrell Farrell came to the DIA in 2016 in from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) where she was executive director of exhibitions initiatives. She directed exhibition programming for the SCAD Museum of Art and SCAD FASH, its museum of fashion and film, as well as the university’s galleries in Atlanta, Hong Kong and Lacoste, France. Farrell is currently an art consultant for the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium Art Collection in Atlanta and curator of the first Rolls-Royce art program in North America. Farrell has curated exhibitions of work by a diverse group of prominent contemporary artists, among them Marina Abramovic, Doug Aitken, Carrie Mae Weems, Yinka Shonibare, Alfredo Jaar, Michael Joo, Sigalit Landau, Stephen Antonakos, Cao Fei, Kader Attia and Yeondoo Jung. Farrell was curator of contemporary art at the Museum for African Art in New York City from 1998 to 2007, where she curated the exhibitions “Personal Affects: Power and Poetics in Contemporary South African Art” and “Looking Both Ways: Art of the Contemporary African Diaspora.” In 2006, Farrell organized American participation at Angola’s inaugural Trienal de Luanda with support and funding from the U.S. Department of State. Farrell received the Abraaj Capital Art Prize with artist Kader Attia in 2010, the ArtTable New Leadership award in 2011 and the Southeast Museum Conference 2015 Museum Leadership Award. Farrell is widely published in art journals and has lectured throughout the Americas, Africa and Europe. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in art history from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a Master of Fine Arts in art history and theory from the University of Arizona. Osi Audu’s curatorial abstract:  “Abstraction is as indigenous to African visual culture as it is to other parts of the world. The exploration of purely formal elements is not only readily evidenced in the rich traditions of textile designs and other decorative practices from the continent, but is also present in the stylizations of much figurative work from Africa. The six artists in this exhibition, all born and, or raised in countries in Africa, produce work thematically or conceptually connected to the continent by pursuing the use of abstraction as a way of engaging in a broader conversation about art. In our increasingly global existence of the 21st century the world is becoming less and less exotic, and is being experienced more as a sphere of commonalities of being, dreams, fears and aspirations. Cultural ideas once thought as discrete are now being understood as archetypical, having resonances across the wider world. Aesthetic engagement with form is as important a part of the content of these artists’ works as is their symbolic, historical, socio-political, or conceptual significance. Among the many questions raised by this exhibition, the overarching one must be the dialectical question: what is contemporary African art? Abstract Minded: Works by Six Contemporary African Artists is not simply about looking for the African in African art, it is also about taking a look at what some African artists are doing today in order to get a fuller sense of the current ‘state of things’ in contemporary African art.”  – Don’t miss the Curator Soiree happening next Saturday, beginning at 2:00pm at the N’Namdi Center! The N’Namdi Center for Contemporary Art presents diverse, multi-disciplinary and engaging art experiences. It serves to promote and perpetuate the cultural legacy of African-American and African diasporic art, along with art from diverse cultures. Since its conception in 2010, the N’Namdi Center has contributed to the Detroit arts scene by presenting art exhibitions by nationally and internationally renowned artists as well as local and emerging talent. The N’Namdi Center’s work is based on two core beliefs: that the arts can play an integral role in the revitalization of Detroit, and that a thriving creative community depends upon the participation of a diverse group of artists, organizations and individuals. The N’Namdi Center builds on these beliefs by acting as a catalyst in the development of Detroit’s creative ecosystem, with a continuing focus on African American art and community engagement through the arts.

MAYA FREELON ASANTE featured in Callaloo Art & Culture in the African Diaspora

We are proud to announce that artist MAYA FREELON ASANTE has been prominently featured in the journal – Callaloo Art & Culture in the African Diaspora – published by  The Johns Hopkins University Press. Founded in 1976 by Editor Charles Henry Rowell, this renowned journal celebrates 40 years in print.

MAYA FREELON ASANTE’s feature can be found in Volume 38, Number 4, Pages 801-804 and 896-898. Some of you may recognize your acquisitions featured!

Please click HERE to view available artwork by MAYA FREELON ASANTE.

Contact Morton Fine Art for the full pdf version. 

Morton Fine Art

1781 Florida Ave NW

Washington, DC 20009

(202) 628-2787

mortonfineart@gmail.com

http://www.mortonfineart.com

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VICTOR EKPUK solo “Hip Sistas in Flux : The Visual-Lingual Braid” at Morton Fine Art

Hip Sistas in Flux: The Visual-Lingual Braid

A solo exhibition of new artworks by VICTOR EKPUK

Friday, May 1st- May 21st, 2015

OPENING DAY RECEPTION 

Friday, May 1st, 6pm-8pm

The artist will be in attendance.

Asian Uboikpa (Hip Sista) Series #10, 2015, acrylic on canvas, 60″x48″

EXHIBITION LOCATION

Morton Fine Art (MFA)

1781 Florida Ave NW (at 18th & U Sts)

Washington, DC 20009

HOURS

Tuesday – Saturday 11am – 6pm

Sunday 12pm-5pm

Victor Ekpuk has a concurrent museum solo exhibition titled

Auto-Graphics : Works by Victor Ekpuk running from April 18th – August 2nd, 2015 at the Hood Museum of Art in Hanover, NH. 

 

Hood Museum of Art

Dartmouth College

Hanover, NH 03755

603.646.2808

About VICTOR EKPUK

The central theme of Ekpuk’s work is the exploration of the relationships, challenges and responses to changes that characterize the human condition. Of particular interest to his artwork is Nsibidi, an indigenous African system of writing that employs graphic signs, and codes to convey concepts. Inspired by this ancient writings, forms in his works are reduced to basic essence resulting in new symbols or codes in script-like drawings that are used to express contemporary experiences. When combined with Nsibidi signs, these “scripts” also provide the background narrative to his compositions. Most often these narratives are better perceived when they are felt rather than read literally.

 

Victor Ekpuk’s artwork can be found in the permanent collections of the following noteworthy institutions:

Smithsonian Institution Nation Museum of African Art, Washington DC

The Hood Museum, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH

Newark Museum, New Jersey

The World Bank, Washington DC

University of Maryland University College Art Collection

The US Department of State

 

 

About Hip Sistas in Flux: The Visual-Lingual Braid

Asian Uboikpa (Hip Sista) series is an engagement of the aesthetics of women of African descent. This series of paintings and drawings started as exploration of the art of hairstyles and body markings: a form of self-expression among young women of southeastern Nigeria. It has expanded to acknowledge similar attitude towards body image and self-expression among young black women in the Diaspora. Asian Uboikpa in Ibibio language references proud young women or virgins, while Hip Sista is an African American idiom used to describe a highly fashionable woman.

Perhaps this attitude of proudly inviting a public gaze by being hip through changing one’s body image with elaborate hairstyles and body adornments is no coincidence. Through genetic memory, these African cultural practices continue to find expression among women of the African Diaspora.

The perpetual flux of the old and the contemporary, of Africa and the Diaspora and the persistence of cultural memory are the main considerations in these works.

-Victor Ekpuk

About Morton Fine Art

Founded as an innovative solution to the changing contemporary art market, Morton Fine Art (MFA) is a fine art gallery and curatorial group that collaborates with art collectors and visual artists to inspire fresh ways of acquiring contemporary art. Firmly committed to the belief that anyone can become an art collector, MFA’s mission is to provide accessibility to museum-quality contemporary art through a combination of innovative exhibitions and a new generation of art services.

NATHANIEL DONNETT founder of “Not That But This” Houston-based art and culture webzine

Not That But This is a Houston-based webzine, created out of necessity, by artists and various creatives, that seeks to showcase and celebrate contemporary art and culture created by people of color throughout the African diaspora.

Not That But This strives to be an expressive, critical, and experimental platform for the investigation, interpretation and freeform exploration of the contemporary art world, as well as the everyday aspects of modern life.

This artist collaborative provides a crazy, rigorous, outlandish, and dope collection of thought provoking positions on the arts and our world. It has been said, “That if you want something done you should do it yourself” and “any real change implies the breakup of the world, as one has always known it.” This is that something and that is this change.

http://www.notthatbutthis.com/

Not That But This Art and Culture is made possible with the support from the Idea Fund, a re-granting program administered by DiverseWorks, Aurora Picture Show, and Project Row Houses and funded by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

Nathaniel Donnett – founder
Jamal Cyrus– contributing founder
Kenya Evans- contributing founder
Autumn Knight– contributing founder
Robert A. Pruitt– contributing founder
M’Kina Tapscott– contributing founder

VICTOR EKPUK in “Africa Now – Political Patterns” at Seoul Museum of Art in Korea

Africa Now: Political Patterns at The Seoul Museum of Art in Korea on until February 15th

On December 16^th 2014, the Seoul Museum of Art premiered its first major exhibit in Korea featuring over 20 African artists in, “Africa Now- Political Patterns”. This marks it as the first museum in Korea to introduce contemporary African Art. One could say that this exhibit serves as a platform to bridge the gap of representation of the Diaspora in the realms of a socio-political statement. The exhibition features an array of artists like Yinka Shonibare, MBE and Kehinde Wiley that examines how identities are shaped by intersectional patterns of race, gender and socio-political economics. It also conveys an immigrant experience of living in North America or Europe.

Yinka Shonibare MBE’s contributes a variety of art froms, sculptures, installation as well as photography. His sculpture, Earth (2010) is a life-sized mannequin that will make you stop in your tracks due to the striking stance, which is donned in the vibrant Dutch fabrics of Europe but immensely associated with African identity. The globe enhances the theme of cultural discovery and education implicating a bridge of cultures in one figure by itself. The piece stands out due to its striking complexity grounded in nature, masculinity and globalization and maybe even appropriation.

In Kehinde Wiley’s work, his most popular themes are examining masculinity in history from painting mostly men in grand historical portraits with flower- patterned background. In Africa Now, two portraits stand out, Kingston parade: Alexander I, Emperor of Russia, after Gerard’s 1817 painting and Urban identity: another new painting by Wiley of China Samantha Nash where he continues to challenge the faces of history in western paintings by replacing them with faces of color and instead of women it’s men. It is clear that he is challenging the roles of race and class in regards to how people of color are represented. He consistently plays with power juxtapositions by stretching the cultural and political implications while craving out an array of identities.

In whole, this exhibit seeks to examine the scope of the African Diaspora through slavery and imperialism, and attempts to question postcolonial concepts. This exhibit is extremely important right now due to its awareness of issues that stem socio-politically in global market in Korea.

Africa Now: Political Patterns is on view at the Seoul Museum of Art until February 15^th 2015.

 

To view the article in full please visit: http://aadatart.com/africa-now-political-patterns-seoul-museum-art-korea-february-15th/