27 February 2020, Drawn from archival photographs, memories, and imagination, Cassi Namoda’s family portraits emanate warmth and comfort by Lizzy Vartanian Collier.
27 February 2020, Contemporary African art has never yet found a place at Tefaf Maastricht, but Tafeta is changing all that by Melanie Gerlis.
24 February 2020, While some fear foreign speculators will snap up major works cheaply, others look to the growing number of African collectors and their private museums by Naomi Rea.
11 February 2020, “Culture and art are absolutely crucial to the health of a nation,” says Prince Shyllon, one of the country’s biggest collectors, by Rebecca Anne Proctor.
20 January 2020, Headed by Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung and featuring a curatorial team including Aziza Harmel, Astrid Sokona Lepoultier, and Kwasi Ohene-Ayeh; as well as artistic advisors Akinbode Akinbiyi and Seydou Camara; and scenographer Cheick Diallo, the 12th Bamako Encounters is one of the largest to date. The artist list is equally expansive, with 85 artists and collectives who reflect a truly global and complex African experience and culture. Bamako-based Malian writer Ousmane Diarra comments on the particularities of this edition.
22 January 2020, Siddhartha Mitter on the 12th Rencontres de Bamako.
23 January 2020, The Benin Bronzes, some of Africa’s greatest treasures, were looted in 1897. After a chance encounter, two men made it their mission to return them by Alex Marshall.
17 January 2020, The 2010s not only saw the rise of new and urgent social movements – #BlackLivesMatter, Occupy, #FeesMustFall, Extinction Rebellion, #MeToo – it also witnessed the emergence of a generation of bold artists, new art fairs, photo-sharing apps and a journey’s end for this short century’s most thrilling curator, writes Sean O’Toole.
16 January 2020, In the wake of initiatives to repatriate Africa’s stolen property, the author of this letter asks the French President to repair what his ancestors have broken, before attempting to restore the war trophies of colonial conquest by Manthia Diawara.