David’s relationship with photography began in his early teens. Before taking this medium on as his own creative outlet, he found refuge in others sharing photographs of themselves and aspects of their everyday life online. Observing this freedom built up his own desire to experiment with self-portraiture. Falling in love with the process of constructing images, he began to collaborate with others. This early exploration of self-portraiture influenced his view of photography as an artistic medium, embracing its archival functions within his practice. The intimacy of moments are transferred into his images, with the emotions revisited every time they are reviewed in his creative process. The evolution of practice and self discovery comes from this cataloging and sitting with feelings at different points in the development of work. 

In conversation with David I am able to see how meditation and repetition become important cyclical patterns in his work process. Meditation on ideas and possible visualisations of work, and later, repetition in the form of revisiting images through selection, reflection and play in postproduction. This carrying of ideas and work in progress forms impressions in each image; emotive translations of David’s thoughts, movements and feelings at different moments in their creation. This allows viewers to feel the relationship between the meditative and repetitive in David’s process. It is here where his distinct affective imprint finds breath. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has made space for a kind of noiselessness and reflection, opening up a way to process slowing down of what was everyday life, and David’s own slowing down within his practice. Able to hear his own thoughts more clearly, David has begun a lot of writing and developing film projects, in particular an autobiographical project which unpacks his relationship with his father. Revisiting his childhood and teenage years becomes another avenue for self-discovery as well as a nod to a thread woven into aspects of this past work; the idea that the personal is political. 

Folded, and sometimes outstretched bodies live in uncluttered natural landscapes. Sand and water are recurring components. The boundaries between the protagonists in David’s visual narratives and their surroundings fall away, melting the bodies into their environment. Stripped down characters and landscapes mirror each other’s emotions. The nakedness, contortions and openness might be assumed to stir a sense of uneasiness within viewers. However, David’s work is cunning in that there a calmness that takes over as you absorb the work.

The body of work Drown In My Magic speaks to the melting of body and nature in a illusionary manner, and displays how David plays with digital imagery and manipulation. Shot in Senegal, viewers are faced with Black people who can transform into surreal water creatures. These characters are shown to be emerging from the water. In the same way that the figures blur the human and non-human through their hybridism, their coastal environments exist as transitional terrains, a meeting between land and water.

Drown In My Magic primarily explores the link between water and Blackness; how historically and contemporaneously a Black body emerges from the water and is considered dangerous, monstrous and invasive. The decision to morph the figures into a form that is new and extraordinary connects to ideas around empowerment and the potency of ambiguity in forcing one to rethink how bodies are read.

Compositional choices present multiple offerings for the figures to be seen as graceful, angelic and having strong expressive qualities, prompting one to read each image with feeling more than with sight. This work is an extension of David’s overarching thematic interests; the questions of belonging and the process and experience of being othered. “Where do I belong? Where can I make myself belong? How do I construct spaces in which I feel at ease and just be?”  David expresses in our conversation. Photography acts as a tool and a partner in these explorations, helping in his creation of these spaces in which his characters can exist on their own terms. 

The digital is always kept in mind when conceptualising work. It allows for the transcendence of location, time, budget and reality. In Drown In My Magic one sees how postproduction was used to push the figures presented in the images. This second half of David’s creative process is where critical amalgamation and selection decisions are made, with his ritualistic revisiting and micro analysis of images adding the digital and temporal layers that come across in final works. 

The evolution of David’s practice combined with our current circumstances sees him holding on to ideas longer, marinating in their possible manifestations, and drawing closer to what ignited his passion – the intimate and the self-reflexive. 

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Gently nostalgic, the timeless images of Youssef Nabil transport us to a distant reality. These photographs depict the Egypt of legend that is fading while evoking the troubles affecting the Middle East today. The multi-layering of inter- pretations and the interplay of description, symbolism and abstraction make up the richness of Youssef Nabil’s work, which poetically charts his journey as a personal diary.

Fascinated from an early age by cinema, Youssef Nabil began his photography career in 1992 by staging tableaux in which his subjects acted out melodramas recalling film stills from the golden age of Egyptian cinema. Later in the 1990s, while working as a photographers’ assistant in studios in New York and Paris, he began photographing artists and friends, producing both formal portraits as well as placing his subjects in the realms of dreams and sleep, on the edge of awareness, far from their daylight selves.

On his return to Egypt in 1999 he further developed his hand-painted photography, with portraits of writers, singers and film stars of the Arab world. In these years, and especially since returning to Paris and New York, he started producing self-portraits that reflect his dislocated life away from Egypt. This series that has evolved over the past fifteen years is characterised by li- minal scenes in which he lingers between worldly realities and serene dreams, loneliness and fears of death.

The artist’s photographs are based on a traditional photographic technique that was widely used for family portraits and the movie posters that adorned the streets of Cairo in the 1970s and 1980s. Nabil’s distinctive technique of hand-coloring silver gelatin prints removes the blemishes of rea- lity. Nabil disrupts prevalent notions of color photography and painting, as well as assumptions about the aesthetic sensibilities associated with art and those identified with popular culture. His hand-colouring evokes a sense of longing and nostalgia and allows his photographs to flicker between our time and another era.

But the work of Youssef Nabil cannot be reduced to formal factors concerning the choice of the techniques or even the esthetic in which his work is inscribed. His works, whether photographic or cinema- tographic, mainly give us a prodigious narrative of the artist’s life, his sensibility, passions, disap- pointments, and expectations. They are his very flesh and soul. 

Conceived as a narration, ‘Once upon a Dream’ is an initiatory story, somewhere between fiction and reality, where each theme has both a universal bearing and personal resonance. The search for landmarks in our identity; contemporary ideological, social and political concerns; and the melancholy of a bygone era, are issues that all of us feel, and that Youssef Nabil’s photographs highlight during his journeys.

“Nabil’s work comes from somewhere. It is, as we have seen, deeply rooted. However, it is not im- prisoned by any restraints. It is a free work, a work that fixes its project on all possible horizons. It is, therefore, an oeuvre that is already rich though far from being concluded. The exhibition at the Palazzo Grassi thus bears magnificent witness to this, while offering us a progress report”.

 —Jean-Jacques Aillagon

Curated by Matthieu Humery and Jean-Jacques Aillagon, the exhibition brings together more than 120 works which traces the route travelled by the photographer, and gives us insight into his vision for his future work. Each thematic section comprises works from his youth along with more recent work. ‘Once upon a Dream’ shows his film work, without reference to chronology, with the screening of his three films: Arabian Happy Ending, I Saved My Belly Dancerand You Never Left. 

Although the exhibition covers Youssef Nabil’s entire career, it should not be seen as a simple monograph. It gives a voice to the artist, enabling him to offer a profound insight into his aspirations and his involvement in the art world of the 21st century.

Youssef Nabil: Once Upon a Dream

Palazzo Grassi

July 11, 2020 – March 21, 2021

San Samuele 3231

30124 Venise, Italie

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A black lifestyle photographer

It’s the first major survey of British-Ghanaian photographer James Barnor, whose career as a studio portraitist, photojournalist and Black lifestyle photographer spans six decades and records major social and political changes in London and Accra.

Born in 1929 in Ghana, James Barnor established his famous Ever Young studio in Accra in the early 1950s, capturing a nation on the cusp of independence in an ambiance animated by conversation and highlife music. In 1959 he arrived in London, furthering his studies and continuing assignments for influential South African magazine Drum which reflected the spirit of the era and the experiences of London’s burgeoning African diaspora. He returned to Ghana in the early 1970s to establish the country’s first colour processing lab while continuing his work as a portrait photographer and embedding himself in the music scene.

Advertising: Collect Fine Art Photography from Africa on artskop.com

The 91st birthday of this pioneering photographer was celebrated on 6 June 2020 with #StillEverYoung, an online exhibition of his work.

James Barnor

Serpentine Galleries

Exposition d’art contemporain

London W2 3XA

Royaume-Uni

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Antwaun Sargent is an art critic and writer who has contributed to the publications of numerous magazines such as The New York Times and The New Yorker. He is also the author of essays for museum and gallery publications on Ed Clark, Mickalene Thomas and Arthur Jafa, as well as other artists.

He recently published his first book, The New Black Vanguard: Photography between Art and Fashion (Aperture), which highlights a new international photographic movement led by a group of young black photographers including Tyler Mitchell, Campbell Addy, Micaiah Carter, Dana Scruggs, Quil Lemons, Renell Medrano and Awol Erizku.

Confronted with the conventions of fashion photography, these young image creators have conceived a new language that challenges representation, race, beauty and sexuality through unconventional styles.

“Antwaun Sargent is at the forefront of an international photography movement,” Paris Photo director Florence Bourgeois and artistic director Christoph Wiesner said in a joint statement. “As we approach the launch of Paris Photo New York, we are thrilled to introduce a new sector that highlights emerging photographers that may have otherwise been overlooked, and we look forward to the vitality that Antwaun will bring with him.”

Paris Photo New York

Presented with the Association of International Photography Art Dealers (AIPAD), the new fair will create a transatlantic hub between the two historic centers for photography – Paris and New York thus forming a collective voice and international reference for the photographic medium. The new fair will capitalize on the strength of the American photography market by expanding and diversifying the fair’s representation of international and cutting-edge galleries and invigorating the community of curators and art professionals throughout the Americas and beyond. 

Drawing from the city’s thriving arts scene and rich network of museums and organizations, the New York edition will highlight their indelible impact on the history of the medium and the recognition of its artists. Invited guest curators will organize programming, including exhibitions, conversations, to connect international leaders in the field and advance the understanding and appreciation of fine art photography. 

Paris Photo New York will open its doors to the public from 2 to 5 April 2020 at Pier 94.

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A major new exhibition celebrating the past 50 years of Black creativity in Britain and beyond.

This summer, Somerset House London celebrates the impact of 50 years of Black creativity in Britain and beyond, with a landmark exhibition showcasing art, film, photography, music, literature, design and fashion.  It is the first time that this distinguished group of approximately 100 artists are represented together, with their work articulating and addressing the Black experience and sensibility, from the post-war era to the present day. Historic artworks and new commissions sit alongside items from personal archives, much of which has never been seen by the public before. Through these original photographs, letters, films and audio clips, the exhibition connects the creative, the personal and the political, reflecting how artists have responded to the issues of our times.

Curated by acclaimed artist Zak Ové, Get Up, Stand Up Now begins with the work of his father, Trinidadian Horace Ové, credited as the creator of the first feature film by a Black British director, and his pioneering peers who were part of what is now known as the Windrush generation, such as Armet Francis, Charlie Phillips and Vanley Burke.  During the 1960s and 1970s, they developed a new creative model for modern multicultural Britain, paving the way for the next generation of artists, such as John Akomfrah, Sonia Boyce and Steve McQueen, who all contribute to the exhibition.

Get Up, Stand Up Now extends to works from today’s brilliant young Britain-based talent too, including photographer Ronan McKenzie, fashion designer Mowalola Ogunlesi and musician Gaika, who interrogate identity in innovative ways.  Carrying forward the line of enquiry and internationalist ambition established by Horace Ové and his dynamic creative circle, a number of renowned contemporary diasporic artists also participate in the exhibition, including David Hammons, Carrie Mae Weems and Sanford Biggers.

Curator Zak Ové has invited each artist to exhibit on account of their significant contribution to shaping our cultural landscape.  All the artists’ trailblazing work transforms their local experiences into a global, universal language, which challenges the systems of power and representation and continues to change the consciousness of society today.

Numerous works will be created especially for the exhibition, championing the wealth of Black creative talent working today. Highlights confirmed include an original soundtrack by Trinidadian DJ, producer and member of Major Lazer, Jillionaire, which will be streamed throughout the exhibition space. Participating Somerset House Studios residents, including artist Larry Achiampong, musician Gaika and filmmaker Jenn Nkiru (who worked on Jay Z’s and Beyoncé’s APESH*T), will also present new pieces for the show.

GET UP, STAND UP NOW ARTISTS INCLUDE:
A Guy Called Gerald, Abe Odedina, Adjaye Associates, Ajamu, Alexis Peskine, Althea McNish, Anthea Hamilton, Anthony Joseph, Armet Francis, Aubrey Williams, Barbara Walker, Barby Asante, Barkley L. Hendricks, Benji Reid, Beteye Saar, Black Audio Film Collective – John Akomfrah, Bradford Young, Caleb Femi, Campbell Addy, Carrie Mae Weems, Charlie Phillips, Che Lovelace, Chris Leacock (Jillionaire/Major Lazer), Chris Ofili, Cooly G, Cosmo Whyte, David A. Bailey, David Hammons, Deborah Roberts, Dennis Bovell, Denzil Forrester, Derrick Adams, Don Letts, Ebony G. Patterson, Elizabeth Colomba, Emheyo Bahabba ‘Embah’, Errol Lloyd, Faisal Abdu’Allah, Franklyn Rodgers, Gaika, Gary Simmons, Glenn Ligon, Gordon Parks, Grace Nichols, Grace Wales Bonner, Hank Willis Thomas, Hassan Hajjaj, Helen Cammock, Hew Locke, Horace Ové, Hurvin Anderson, Ishmahil Blagrove, Jay Bernard, Jazzie B, Jenn Nkiru, Julie Mehretu, Kehinde Wiley, Keith Piper, Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle, Larry Achiampong, Lavar Munroe, Lezley Saar, Libita Clayton, Lina Iris Viktor,  Linton Kwesi Johnson, LR Vandy, Lubaina Himid, Marlene Smith, Marlon James, Martine Rose, Maud Sulter, Mickalene Thomas, Mowalola Ogunlesi, Nari Ward, Neil Kenlock, Nick Cave, Niyi Olagunju, Normski, Patrick Betaudier, Paul A. Smith, Paul Maheke, Pauline Black, Peter Doig, Phoebe Boswell, Rashid Johnson, Rhea Storr, Richard Mark Rawlins, Ronald Moody, Ronan McKenzie, Sanford Biggers, Satch Hoyt, Selina Nwulu, Shabaka Hutchings, Sonia Boyce, Stephen Burks, Steve McQueen, Taliwoah, Thick/er Black Lines, Thomas J. Price, Umar Rashid (Frohawk Two Feathers), Vanley Burke, Victor Ekpuk, Yinka Shonibare CBE, Young Fathers, Zadie Smith, Zak Ové, Zanele Muholi, Zoe Bedeaux

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Covering the career of the legendary photographer Gordon Parks, and unveiling the incredible private collection of one of the most famous couples in the music industry, the exhibition “Gordon Parks: Selections from the Dean Collection” is this spring’s event.

Presented at the Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African and African American Art at Harvard University’s Hutchins Center, co-organized by the Gordon Parks Foundation in cooperation with consulting curator Dr. Maurice Berger.  The exhibition “Gordon Parks: Selections from the Dean Collection” features for the first time a range of works from the collection of Kasseem Dean and Alicia Keys, who own the largest private holdings of photographs by Gordon Parks.

“Gordon Parks was a major artist of the 20th century, whose work, with its journalistic precision and sublime artistry, shines a light on individuals and stories that were—and still are— too often hidden and overlooked.”— said, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research

Bestselling author of novels and memoirs, deceased on 7 March 2006.  Gordon Parks has directed television programs, Hollywood movies, and composed film scores. But arguably it was his photographs that made the greatest cultural impact. Born into poverty and segregation in Kansas in 1912, Parks was drawn to photography as a young man when he saw images of migrant workers published in a magazine. After buying a camera at a pawnshop, he taught himself how to use it and despite his lack of professional training, he found employment with the Farm Security Administration (FSA), which was then chronicling the nation’s social conditions.

Parks quickly developed a style that would make him one of the most celebrated photographers of his age, allowing him to break the color line in professional photography while creating remarkably expressive images that consistently explored the social and economic impact of racism. Using his camera as his “weapon of choice”as he called it, to combat injustice. Armed with astonishing talent, a keen eye, and a limitless capacity for empathy, he created images that alter the way we view one other and, ultimately, ourselves.

Dr. Maurice Berger, the consulting curator, writes in the exhibition’s introductory text: “’People need to see this type of greatness to inspire themselves,’ Kasseem Dean has said of Parks’ work. It is fitting that the Deans have embraced his photographs. In their own work—as musicians and producers—they exemplify the power of art to transform, motivate, and enlighten. Gordon Parks: Selections from the Dean Collection attests to the photographer’s transformative role in 20th-century art, as a master storyteller who helped change the world, one commanding image at a time.”

The Dean Collection’s holdings span Parks’ entire career—from his civil rights era images to fashion photography to portraits to lesser-known works. For several years, Keys and Dean have served as co-chairs of the annual Gordon Parks Foundation Awards Gala, and at last year’s event they announced this incredible acquisition of 80 works by Gordon Parks in their private collection.

Founded by Kasseem “Swizz Beatz” Dean and his wife Alicia Keys in 2014, “The Dean Collection” is a contemporary family collection and cultural platform that organizes artist support initiatives such as the No Commission art and music festival and TDC 20, both designed to fund artists’ practices and projects. The collection actively acquires, and commissions, work by contemporary visual artists such as Derrick Adams, Nina Chanel Abney, Jordan Casteel, Nick Cave, Arthur Jafa, KAWS, Deana Lawson, Ebony G. Patterson, Kehinde Wiley, and many others. The collection of the two celebrities has grown steadily and has become even more prestigious by becoming the largest privately-owned body of work by Gordon Parks.

The current exhibition thus presents for the first time, a wide range of the works acquired by the couple. Among the exhibits are several portraits of artists and prominent personalities, such as Langston Hughes and Alberto Giacometti, as well documentation of historic civil rights protests, including the 1963 March on Washington; intimate scenes from everyday life, images of the daily rituals and challenges of a Harlem family, snapshots of the life of a 12-year-old boy struggling to survive in a ramshackle favela in the hills outside Rio de Janeiro; or the fascinating visual retelling of Ralph Ellison’s epochal novel “Invisible Man”, as well as images of life in Jim Crow-era rural Alabama, fashion pictures, and documentary photographs, along with many lesser- known images.

 

“The Deans have been important champions of the work of Gordon Parks, and this exhibition is an opportunity to share his work with a broader audience through the outstanding platform offered byHarvard University,” said Peter W. Kunhardt Jr., Executive Director of the Gordon Parks Foundation.“The exhibition additionally builds on the Foundation’s strong history of collaborative programming with leading institutions in the mounting of exhibitions, conferral of scholarships, and mounting of public programs that engage the public with Parks’ legacy.”

With this new major exhibition, the Gordon Parks Foundation once again confirms its mission to permanently preserve Gordon Parks’ work, to make it available to the public through exhibitions, books, and electronic media, and support artistic and educational activities that advance what Parks described as “the common search for a better life and a better world.” With an exhibition space in Pleasantville, New York, The Gordon Parks Foundation presents focused presentations of Parks’ photography, as well as the work of other artists influenced by his legacy.

 
 
 

The exhibition “Gordon Parks: Selections from the Dean Collection” is on view through July 19, 2019

More details HERE

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Ornate 19^thcentury combs from the Democratic Republic of the Congo on loan from a renowned African art dealer. Art direction by the visionary curator of a young contemporary art gallery; photography by one of the rising stars she represents. Three models and one inspired winter day in a Paris studio.

These creative and material forces come together in “Kisanola by Djeneba Aduayom,” a riveting series of portraits, four of which debut this week at the Brafa Art Fair in Brussels. Black models with crowns of natural hair radiate a deep and knowing power: each is adorned with the combs and shiny gold objects, looking love-ready, battle-ready, ceremony-ready, world-ready. The images are ethereal, at once vintage, contemporary and futuristic.

The idea for the photo-series came from Brussels-based curator Marie Gomis-Trezise. She recently founded Galerie Number 8, which represents emerging artists whose work examines identity, representation and the human condition. While browsing at Brafa last year, she came across the vast collection of Didier Claes, owner of the eponymous gallery celebrated for its exquisite collection of African art. A revelation begat a vision.

“I had an aversion to African antiques because I associated them with the colonial grab in Africa and had seen them bastardized so often in popular culture,” Gomis-Trezise explains. “But when I saw Didier’s collection, I was stunned. The beauty and power of the objects is overwhelming.” 
She knew immediately that she wanted to work with him on a series of images shot by a contemporary photographer, using traditional African art. She approached Claes, who loved the idea and proposed using combs from the DRC for the shoot.

“I couldn’t say no to this adventure. My personal collection also includes works by contemporary artists that meld seamlessly with the older pieces. I feel strongly that the mixing of ancient and contemporary art is logical and wise. It is a surprising combination that works perfectly.” Claes remembers.

For the shoot, Claes chose several combs in the Chokwe, Yaka, Luba and Lélé styles from Central Africa. The intricate carvings atop the combs reflect their prestige and the elaborate tastes and customs of the members of high society who used them. Carved from a single piece of wood, they feature decorative motifs, figurative themes and symbolism. For example, the number of teeth indicate the status of the society with which the comb is associated, and geometric incisions and engraved patterns carry coded messages.

“Kisanola by Djeneba Aduayom” celebrates the combs as instruments in the keeping of those cherished exchanges and of the culture hair upholds.

The choice of combs for the shoot – as opposed to masks or other traditional African objects – was significant. In many African societies, the doing of hair is highly important and involves an intimate exchange between the stylist and the styled. And the hairstyle itself is as much about beauty as it is about identity, culture and status. “Kisanola by Djeneba Aduayom” celebrates the combs as instruments in the keeping of those cherished exchanges and of the culture hair upholds.

“My vision was to create something sculptural and modern using these amazing artefacts. I was inspired by the details in the wood figures. The combs are part of a rich, ancient cultural tradition and I wanted to add a modern twist to the mix.” Djenaba Aduayom

The photostory takes its name from kisanola, the Lingala word for comb, and its French-Togolese photographer, Djeneba Aduayom. A former dancer, Aduayom’s photographs maximize the expressive power and beauty of the human figure. For Kisanola, her eye for mood and grandeur defines each image. Aduayom recalls, “My vision was to create something sculptural and modern using these amazing artefacts. I was inspired by the details in the wood figures. The combs are part of a rich, ancient cultural tradition and I wanted to add a modern twist to the mix.”

It was Aduayom who introduced the metal wire to the models’ styling “to create simple structures with the hair and combs, securing the combs, but also creating a ‘sculptural cage’ for them,” she said. “The metal adds shine and sophistication because gold is by nature associated with prestige, elegance, something of value.” She also liked the contrast created by the wood of the combs and the metal.

“For me personally though, the project became a kind of reconciliation with African antiques.” Marie Gomis-Trezise

Aduayom has always had a very personal and contextual relationship to African artefacts that shows in the honorific way she incorporated them into the portraits. She grew up surrounded by her mother’s extensive collection of African objects and knew intimately the history, provenance and significance of each. “African objects are a part of my heritage,” she says.

For Gomis-Trezise that emotional connection was forged in producing the shoot. “The idea was to make something beautiful, a sort of rediscovery and reconsideration of things that have always been around us,” she said. “For me personally though, the project became a kind of reconciliation with African antiques. It gave me a chance to interact with their beauty and culture and appreciate up close how important they are and how crucial it is to protect them, even return them to Africa.”

Although all parties to the collaboration set out foremost to make something beautiful, they have given us far more than that. Kisanola is an artistic testament to the timelessness and staying power of a people and a culture. As Claes notes: “Although African art was established years ago, it continues to inspire us.”

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