The backs of two painted African figures, an elder man and a younger boy, can be viewed on the large tapestry-like work of Kenyan artist Kaloki Nyamai in the Kenyan Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. The father-and-son-like rendering captures the pair in what seems to be a session of quiet contemplation, almost meditative. In some ways that is the experience desired after arriving by foot to Fabrica 33, the site of an old carpenter’s workshop in Calle Larga dei Boteri in the Cannaregio district of Venice where the Kenyan Pavilion is located. It is situated far away from the Arsenale and Giardini—the main attractions of the 59th Venice Biennale The Milk of Dreams curated by Cecilia Alemani. This year marks the fourth time Kenya is participating at the prestigious art world event, in which Africa, a continent that has garnered great attention from the international art world over the last decade, is still very much underrepresented. 

Kenya’s first and second national pavilions at the Venice Biennale pavilion, in 2013 and 2015, caused widespread controversy when they were curated by a team of Italians and showed works by Chinese and Italian artists and only one to two Kenyan artists. The serene feeling one receives while entering into Fabrica 33 is synonymous to the solid representation of the East African nation in Venice after two disastrous showings. When Kenyan Jimmy Ogonga came on board as the curator for the country’s pavilion in 2017 and its showing this year, an exhibition representative of the nation’s art scene was finally had.

This time the East Africa nation is presenting itself in a much sleeker way and with three prominent Kenyan artists—Dickens Otieno, Wanja Kimani and Nyamai—curated by Kenyan Jimmy Ogonga. It is titled Exercises in Conversation and explores the dynamics between participants in a conversation and how such a complex relationship can affect history It was commissioned by Dr. Kiprop Lagat, Kenya’s Minister of Sport, Culture and Heritage. The works, placed around the subtle setting of the Fabrica 33, are hung on the wall like Otieno’s seemingly sparking rendition of the pandemic hazmat suit made from African textile or hung across the room like Kyambi’s textile work that also refers to her Namibian heritage. 

Despite the international art world’s fixation on African contemporary art over the past decade, African representation at the Venice Biennale has been greatly lacking, due predominantly to the dearth of funding and resources, and oftentimes also from a lack of interest from respective governments. In 2007 there was only one African pavilion, and now, this year there are nine. Gradually, there has been increased visibility in recent years, particularly in 2015 when the late Nigerian curator, art critic and educator Okwui Enwezor (1963-2019) was curator. Countries that have previously participated, such as Angola, which won the Golden Lion for best national participation in 2013 for its pavilion Luanda, Encyclopedic City, Madagascar, Mozambique and Seychelles, are not present this year. 

This year nine nations out of the 55 member States that represent all countries on the African continent showed at the Biennale—out of 80 national participants that are present at the historic Pavilions at the Giardini, in the Arsenale and throughout the city of Venice. The African nations present include Egypt, Namibia, Ghana, Cameroon, Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Ivory Coast. Out of these three participated for the first time: Namibia, Cameroon and Uganda, with the latter being awarded a “Special Mention” by the jury of the Venice Biennale. 

“The Biennale Internazionale dell’Arte di Venezia is a stage offering an opportunity for a multiplicity of artistic narratives to be presented and heard,” said Neri Torcello, founder and director of the African Art in Venice Forum (AAVF), which staged its third edition during the opening preview this year. “As the Biennale is perceived by its audience as a global platform, accessibility and representation become even more vital to promote an inclusive creative dialogue in a just society. AAVF, with its discursive, and content partnerships based format is an agile platform to allow this to happen, exactly when  the hearts of those sensitive to artistic expression are tuned in to the frequencies of the Venice Biennale.”

This year, in Cecilia Alemani’s The Milk of Dreams, the Biennale’s central exhibition occupying the Arsenale and the Giardini di Castello, 12 artists were chosen from the African continent out of the 213 artists from 58 countries that Alemani selected. These included South African Igshaan Adams, Sudanese-Danish Monira Al Qadiri, Ibrahim El-Salahi from Sudan, Kudzanai-Violet Hwami from Zimbabwe, South African Bronwyn Katz, Antoinette Lubaki from the Democratic Republic Congo, French-Egyptian Amy Nimr, Kenyan Magdalene Odundo, Ethiopian Elias Sime and Portia Zvavahera from Zimbabwe.

Standout pavilions this year included Ivory Coast, participating for the second time since its debut in 2013. It showed Dreams of a Story, a presentation of ethereal works oscillating between a surrealistic dream world and everyday life in the West African nation, with the participation of artists such as Aboudia, Armand Boua, Frédéric Bruly Bouabré, Aron Demetz, Laetitia Ky and Yeanzi. Curated by Italians Massimo Scaringella and Alessandro Romanini with support from the Ministry of Culture and Arts and Entertainment Industry of Ivory Coast and the Italian Embassy of Ivory Coast, the heightened abstract mixed media canvases of Boua, with their inclusion of newspaper clippings, hang next to the abstract lightboxes of Yeanzi replete with depictions of various local icons and symbols as well as captivating profiles of unknown figures. Pulsating with movement, color, brushstrokes and lines are the abstract expressionist canvases of Aboudia , one of the nation’s most recognizable stars. His canvases document the street scenes of his hometown of Abidjan with graffiti-like renderings of daily life, people and children, and include his recurring skull, bullet and soldier motifs that point to violence and trauma—a nod to post-election conflict that took place in the capital in 2011. The works are assertive, strong and vulnerable in ways that speak to an Africa in crisis and to the fraying of the continent’s social fabric in its post-colonial years. 

Zimbabwe, by contrast, is participating for the sixth time at the Biennale. Yet its pavilion, titled i did not leave a sign?,  and featuring four artists— Kresiah Mukwazhi, Wallen Mapondera, Terrence Musekiwa and Ronald Muchatuta—features a loosely held together show that is disappointing in formal content and themes. Curated by Fadzai Veronica Muchemwa and commissioned by Raphael Chikukwa, Mukwazhi’s expansive abstract expressionist work with its vibrant hues and animated series of figures  prompts the spectator to stay for a while and ponder the rhythmic movement and figures depicted. It is the star of the show.  In other rooms, mixed media installation works, some including figurines made of pink, cream and white bras holding Kalashnikovs or large phantom like figures in another room made of dozens of old black wires, give off an unsettling and  incomplete feel. The goal of Muchemwa is to explore tales of dispersion and migration,  knowledge, science and technology, as ways to rebel against the uncertainties of organized religion.

A gem at the biennale this year was Uganda’s pavilion, making its debut in Venice, and for which it received a “Special Mention” for national participation from the Biennale’s jury. Titled Radiance – They Dream in Time, the exhibition was curated by The Ministry of Gender, Labor and Social Development, which officially supported the pavilion.  Juliana Naumo Kuruhiira served as the pavilion’s commissioner, with Tanzanian-born British taking up the role curator, Shaheen Merali, and features works by Kampala-based artists Acaye Kerunen and Collin Sekajugo. Tradition and contemporary culture are elegantly paired in dialogue through the two artists’ work. Sekajugo’s paintings  portray poignant subjects in rich hues in everyday and public settings, whereas Kerunen’s work resurrects local Ugandan craftsmanship and heritage in her contemporary installations made of natural and reusable materials such as swamp grown fibers and polyethene bags. Their work, when paired side by side, introduces the diversity in heritage and contemporary culture in present-day Uganda.

“Uganda has barely been represented on the international art stage,” said Sekajugo. “A country whose people I personally consider resilient and persevering, has seen so many ups and downs during its artistic revolution. From the country’s turbulent past to present day sociopolitical struggles, creative production has taken different shapes where platforms for self-expression have often been limited to a few brave practitioners. I strongly believe that this showcase will only open more doors for our creativities.” 

While Namibia’s first-ever pavilion was embroiled in scandal a week before the Biennale opened, with its main sponsor, luxury travel operator Abercrombie and Kent, and its patron Monica Cembrola pulling out because of  what they viewed as a misrepresentation of the Namibian art scene (the pavilion features the work of one artist who is making his debut in Venice and goes by the pseudonym RENN), the Egyptian pavilion, which focuses on digital art and features work by Mohamed Shoukry, Weaam El Masry, and Ahmed El Shaer, curiously remained closed during the first few days of public viewing due to technical difficulties. 

For Cameroon’s first-ever pavilion, which took place in two locations, within the loggia of the Liceo Artistico Statale Michelangelo in the Guggenheim Museum in the Dorsoduro district of Venice and at the Palazzo Ca’ Bernardo. The former presents IRL (“in real life”) art by four Cameroonian (Francis Nathan Abiamba, Angéle Etoundi Essamba, Justine Gaga, and Salifou Lindou) paired with four international artists (Shay Frisch, Umberto Mariani, Matteo Mezzadri, Jorge R. Pombo). The works, done in a variety of media, including photography, installation, painting and sound, offer an eerie portrayal of the west-central African nation. While the works of Douala-based Salifou Lindou standout for their technical precision, color and movement, in the center of the loggia is Transfiguration (2022) by Justine Gaga, a Cameroonian sculptor and video artist. Her haunting installation consists of a group of metal rods akin to totem poles with circular metal objects as heads and long patterned scarves hanging from the top. On the metal rods are written words in French such as liberalism, violence, capitalism and fiction. 

It is the pavilion’s second location at the Palazzo Ca’ Bernardo that is perplexing. It presents an NFT show, arguably the first at the Venice Biennale, organized by Global Crypto Art DAO, a new collective that raises money to support artists making the transition into the world of crypto. Featured are works by artists from over 20 countries, notably Germany, China, and the US, but not Cameroon. 

Stationed prominently within the Arsenale, one of the biennale’s most coveted venues, is the Ghana Pavilion. Its exhibition Black Star – The Museum as Freedom follows the West African nation’s acclaimed debut in 2019 and features the work of Ghanaian artists Na Chainkua Reindorf and Afroscope and Brazilian Diego Araúja who is interested in the connections between Ghana and his homeland. It has the same curator as the 2019 pavilion, Nana Oforiatta Ayim, who is also the director of ANO Institute of Arts and Knowledge in Accra and director-at-large of Ghana’s Museums and Cultural Heritage.

While underwhelming compared to the size, vision and quality of works shown at Ghana’s first presentation in Venice, what is notable is the theme and the diversity of mediums used—from works on canvas to technology and installation. The works on display support the idea of the Black Star that symbolizes Ghana through its flag and most important monument, the Black Star Gate, part of Accra’s Independence Square now known as the Black Star Square, which is topped with the Black Star of Africa—a five-pointed star that represents the continent with a particular nod to Ghana, which in 1957 was the first Sub-Saharan country to break free from colonial year when it declared independence from Great Britain. The Black Star, as the exhibition further emphasizes, also connects Africa with its diasporas through Jamaican political activist Marcus Garvey’s Black Star Line and his resulting Back-to-Africa movement. The Black Star now goes beyond Ghana: it is symbolic of all people of African descent wishing to make their way home to the continent. 

“Last year we showed the superstars of the Ghanaian art scene and this time I really wanted to look at the future-builders,” said Oforiatta Ayim. “These artists for me are ones that are creating new models through language, narratives and technology. Last time we looked at the legacies of the past on the present and this one is much more looking at how we create new futures.”

While Africa might not yet have an adequate representation of the richness of its evolving art scenes through a more prominent showing of national pavilions at the Venice Biennale, an increase in the showing of artists from the continent and its diasporas at the world’s most prominent art event tell of a new chapter on the horizon for art from the continent on the international stage. Still, much work needs to done.

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This year, EPI features 17 finalists from 8 African countries. Due to travel restrictions across Africa, the 2020 edition will be taking place from the 12th to the 19th of October 2020 as an online exhibition project supported by a programme of talks, studio visits and interactions. The EPI winners will be announced on the 19th of October with the first prize sponsored by South Africa’s leading auction house Strauss & co and additional cash, residency and exhibition prizes awarded with support from the Emerging African Art Galleries Association members.

Works of the finalists will also be presented by Strauss & co as a special session in their October online auction which opens 12th of October and closes at 8.00 pm on the 19th of October 2020.

Finalists are: 

Agnes Waruguru (Kenya); Dorra Mahjoubi (Tunisia); Elias Mung’ora (Kenya); Emna Kahouaji (Tunisia); Eyasu Telayneh (Ethiopia); George Masarira (Zimbabwe); Kirubel Abebe (Ethiopia); Kylie Wentzel (South Africa); Lincoln Mwangi (Kenya); Lwando Dlamini (South Africa); Peteros Ndunde ( Kenya); Sejiro Avoseh (Nigeria); Selome Muleta (Ethiopia); Willy Karekezi (Rwanda); Tashinga Majiri (Zimbabwe); Thebe Phetogo (Botswana); Yolanda Mazwana (South Africa)

“While contemporary African art has been on the rise internationally, developing skills and engaging the international art world is still a challenge for many young painters on the continent” says Valerie Kabov, EAAGA Chair. “EPI intends to help motivate, support and develop the practices and careers of young African visual artists. Supporting emerging painters is not just enormously significant culturally, it is to ensure the economic sustainability of local art sectors. EPI was developed with a holistic vision for art on the continent”.

Three Women Artists As Jurors for EPI 2020

This year, three remarkable women artists are designed as Jurors for EPI 2020: Dorothy Amenuke, sculptor and lecturer at the Department of Painting and Sculpture of the Faculty of Fine Art, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) (Kumasi, Ghana), Amel Bennys a painter and sculptor, based in Tunis and Paris, Tunisia and Florine Demosthene, a painter who is based between Accra, Haiti and New York.

This year’s Juror Amel Bennys notes that the value of EPI as a project is to enable artists: “Not to be trapped in a stereotype that critics, curators, and others in the art world, non-African, even African, expect from us, us African artists or of African origin.” Dorothy Amenuke adds that the pan-African nature of EPI is a way of ‘Nurturing what is your “own” inadvertently implies building “the Self” for the sake of “the Whole”!!! EPI 2019 Juror Maja Maljevic states “EPI is an excellent forward thinking initiative. The future of art, and especially painting, from the continent deserve to take their rightful place on the international stage”

Speaking about their experiences, 2019 EPI winners had the following to say:

“I am very happy not just for myself but also to represent emerging artists in Mozambique. The group of artists I met through EPI are now part of my community of peers and this is wonderful. I have also met a lot of professional supporters and fans of my work, which is important for my career going forward and my artistic practice”(Nelly Guambe, Mozambique, 1^st prize).

“The experience was informative in the sense of mixing with different cultures and ideologies behind the work production processes. Winning the second prize is most important for the opportunity which comes with it, to improve my production and production space” (Epheas Maposa, Zimbabwe, 2^nd prize).

“It’s a great honour to be the third prize winner among these amazing talented artists.  I observe that all finalists have their own unique styles and deep potentials. It has been a pleasure to meet them and to have useful conversations with them. I want to acknowledge all the EPI team and artists for your true hospitality, sharing,  experiences and the great exposure you create for all of us!”(Surafel Amare, Ethiopia, 3^rd prize).

To be eligible for EPI, artists must be under 30 years old, living and working on the continent, and have painting as their primary discipline. On the EPI committee are included:  Gilles Dusabe (Kigali), Elia Gemuce (Arte de Gema, Maputo), Valerie Kabov (First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare), Daudi Karungi (Afriart, Kampala), Dominick A. Maia Tanner (Espaço Luanda Arte, Luanda), Sonia Ribeiro (THIS IS NOT A WHITE CUBE, Luanda), Marc Stanes (Ebony Curated, Cape Town), Julie Taylor (Guns & Rain, Johannesburg), Janire Bilbao (Movart, Luanda), Robel Temesgen (Lecturer, Fine Arts, University of Addis Ababa), MJ Turpin (Kalashnikovv, Johannesburg), and EPI 2019 Finalists.

Sponsors for the second edition of EPI are Strauss & Co, Art Africa Magazine, Emerging Africa Art Galleries Association, Pro Helvetia Johannesburg/Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), The African Arts Trust, First Floor Gallery Harare, Artfundi, Kalashnikovv Gallery, Angola Air, Guns & Rain.

For further information please contact Valerie Kabov

eaaga2016@gmail.com

www.emergingpaintinginvitational.com

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Aspire Art Auctions and the French auction house Piasa collaborated for a second time to present a large scale auction of Modern and Contemporary African art – this time in Paris

A healthy and stable market

The auction took place last night, Wednesday 24 June, and although the fallout of COVID-19 has resulted in extraordinary social and economic changes and challenges the world over, the resounding strength of the auction demonstrates that despite present difficulties, the art market remains robust. Although the bullish prices that have peppered the market on occasion have declined, and which often obscure readings of the sector’s actual standing, the sale’s sturdy results indicate a healthy market holding steady. Moreover, it demonstrates that art trading has resumed successfully, and that borders reopening and restrictions being relaxed globally bodes well for the future of the market.

Aspire and Piasa have put together an impressive collection of 173 artworks by 85 artists from 19 African countries that went under the hammer last night.  

At a time when the world seems to be larger and more divided than before, this auction is a crowning example of what can be accomplished in these trying times, especially by virtue of innovation and collaboration. Not only did it grow Aspire’s reach and status as the first auction house on the African continent to champion modern and contemporary art from Africa in Europe, but also provides an unmistakable reminder that top-quality art remains resilient in the face of adversity.

Top lots

The auction was led by the cover lot; William Kentridge’ s important 1989 drawing from Johannesburg, 2nd Greatest City after Paris (Soho Eating) which sold for €234,000. Another mixed media work by Kentridge Electrical Industries (Rodchenko), Alphabet Coloré sold for €18,200, almost three times its high estimate.

Joseph Ntensibe’s large-scale dreamlike depiction of tropical greenery stole the show when it sold for more than double its high estimate at an impressive €67,600, the second highest price achieved at auction for this artist. The Ugandan artist’s concern with ecology and the changing environment, and in particular the disappearing forests in rural Uganda, resonated with many bidders.

Irma Stern’s exquisite 1943 portrait of Dora Sowden, the eccentric music and arts critic for the Johannesburg-based progressive newspaper The Rand Daily Mail during the 1940s and 1950s achieved €182,000. A rare and early bronze sculpture by Edoardo Villa, Figure with Drapery, attracted substantial interest realising a stellar €54,600 – a historic record for a work by this artist sold in his native Europe.

Records

A new world auction record (for a single work) by David Goldblatt was achieved for a rare platinum print – A miner waits on the bank to go underground, City Deep Gold Mine, 1996 – which sold for €32,500.

Zimbabwean artists fared well too. Kudzanai Chiurai’s mixed media work Untitled VIII (Auto and the Workers Movement) sold for €22,100 and Fountain by painter Misheck Masamvu, an artist relatively new to the secondary market, sold for €20,800, toppling his previous auction record also set by Aspire.

Highlitghs

Peter Clarke’s powerful triptych, The Crossing from 1987, impressed serious collectors and achieved a firm €37,700. This was the first time that a work by this prominent South African artist appeared on auction in mainland Europe.

Paintings by renowned Congolese painter Chéri Samba sold well – Lutte Contre Les Moustiques sparked competitive bidding and achieved €58,500 – almost double the high estimate.

Young starEddy Kamuanga Ilunga (from the DRC) proved that he remains one of the artists to watch when his impressive large scale painting sold for €50,700.

Contemporary African Art auction

On June 24th

Piasa Paris VIEW THE FULL RESULTS

118 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré

Paris, France

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It is with a deep sadness that we heard the death of Okwui Enwezor at 55. He had been battling cancer for years. Among the first to share news of his passing was the Venice Biennale, whose 56th edition he curated in 2015.

Okwui Enwezor was a Nigerian curator, art critic, writer, poet, and educator specialized in art history. In 2014, he was ranked 24 in the ArtReview list of the 100 most powerful people of the art world. He was also known for his incisive, free-thinking, great eloquence and his more inclusive and less Eurocentric, curatorial focus on a more international view of contemporary art and art history.

Enwezor was the first African-born curator to organize the Venice Biennale, a show that began in 1895, and the first non-European to oversee Documenta, the every-five-years show in Kassel, Germany, which he staged in 2002. That latter show, Documenta XI, defined his curatorial sensibilities: venturesome, unabashedly intellectual, and intent on rethinking how institutions operate.

In the run-up to the opening of Documenta in June of 2002, Enwezor staged what he termed platforms—conferences, seminars, and other projects—in Berlin, Vienna, New Delhi, St. Lucia, and Lagos, Nigeria, and for the main exhibition showcased artists from beyond Europe and the United States, areas that had historically dominated the show.

“When I started, I always had what I thought was a change agenda,” Enwezor told Melissa Chiu in an interview at the Asia Society in New York in 2014.

“The art world was very Eurocentric and very Western-centric, and it needed strong curators to change it,” Els van der Plas, the general director of the Dutch National Opera & Ballet, told the Wall Street Journal in 2014. “Enwezor positioned several projects in a very strong way, which gave a different view of the world and different views on the history of post-colonialism, of what Africa contributed to the world’s development, and of how different countries in Africa are positioned in the world debate.”

Venice and Documenta were but two in a long string of prestigious, closely watched shows he presented—a list that also includes the 1996 Johannesburg Biennale and the 2008 Gwangju Biennale in South Korea.

From 2011, he was director of the Munich Haus der Kunst for 7 years. In June 2018, he signed a operation agreement there, three years before the end of his original term. Last August, in the  Conversations e-flux, Enwezor talked about his departure from the Munich Haus der Kunst by saying “(…) But even if I had been healthier, I would probably have missed what the perspective in Munich was. Because, yes, I got the impression that I was no longer wanted. You know, as the director of such an institution, you need not only financial but also moral support….”

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