Artist Kerim Seiler Presents a Large-Scale Site-Specific Installation for the 74th Locarno Film Festival

Titled Come Together, the playful, multicolored installation takes over the festival’s 100-meter-wide rotunda, bringing together site-specific works by Kerim Seiler spanning various mediums and dimensions. In partnership with la Mobiliare and the Locarno Film Festival, Seiler creates a deeply experiential setting and invites visitors to engage and become part of the artwork, fostering social interaction and cultural exchange.

On view from July 30 – August 14, 2021 | Locarno, Switzerland

Kerim Seiler, Tender is the Night, 2020. Installation for the Locarno Film Festival 2021, in Switzerland. Photograph by Ariel Huber.

July 30, 2021 (Locarno, Switzerland) – Pursuing his longstanding collaboration with the Locarno Film Festival and its main partner la Mobiliare, a Swiss insurance firm, contemporary artist Kerim Seiler (b. 1974, Bern, Switzerland) unveils Come Together, a large-scale site-specific installation at the Locarno Rotonda by la Mobiliare, the sociocultural space of the Locarno74 film festival. A colorful spatial composition, the installation brings together a sampling of new works by Seiler, all part of the la Mobiliare collection, as he revisits the notion of space as a boundless canvas – as well as works by contemporary artists Maya Rochat, Julian Charrière and Ekrem Yalcindag. Prompting countless experiences of the space, the 3,000-square-meter rotunda – a large roundabout well known to Locarno’s inhabitants and visitors – acts as the new social hub of the festival, inviting visitors to engage with a playful composition of art, cinema, music, and hospitality spaces reaffirming the importance of social interaction and cultural exchange that lie at the core of the Locarno Film Festival. 

As part of the fifth iteration of the Locarno Film Festival’s partnership with la Mobiliare, Come Together is in the immediate vicinity of the festival’s main venue, the PalaCinema and the notorious Piazza Grande – one of the world's largest open-air screening venuesseating 8,000 spectators. The multifarious installation of site-specific artistic spaces and artworks is part of Seiler’s Situationist Space Program, an ongoing body of work rooted in the artist’s practice of reappropriation, reiteration, and expansion of past and existing work.

As visitors enter the main circular area, three spaces stand out at its core. The first is an ensemble towered by a vast rectangular tent. Asymmetrically positioned over the space, it converses with a new vibrant 250-square-meter floor painting – a striking assemblage of multicolored wooden boards. Next to it are a wooden bar and circular stage surrounded by Seiler’s 2016 work, Tschutschu, a modular spiral of interlinked tables and benches. Made of wooden boards set on a welded metal structure, it can be assembled and dismantled at will, evoking a whimsical succession of train tracks, hence the name of the piece. 

Analogous to the first, the second area exposes yet another new floor painting, though this time in black and white, playfully mirroring the monumental tent covering it. Adjacent to it, a disjointed structure, at once circular and rectangular, constitutes one of the Rotonda by la Mobiliare’s three bar areas. As for the other two, the structure consists of three basic elements to be arranged, and rearranged, freely. Revisiting his Spazio Cinema installation designed for the festival’s 2017 edition, Seiler repurposes the steamed painted wooden panels that constitute it, once again allowing his art to adapt, expand, and relive in various places.

Kerim Seiler, Aerial view of Come Together, installation for the Locarno Film Festival 2021, in Switzerland. Courtesy of Kerim Seiler.

Opposite the entrance as visitors traverse the space is an anarchic arrangement of artistic and social settings. An expansion of Seiler’s 118 minus 11 (2012) installation at the Zurich Hauptbahnhof, Tender is the Night (2020) consists of four wooden 3 x 2-meter split-screen crosses, each containing a unique-size colored neon tube, creating a profoundly contemplative transitional “non-space.” Taking its name from American author F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1934 novel, it recalls a nightly, near subversive experience of space – and of the mind. A spirited nod to the latter, the NEW/NOW (2017) neon installation is the mantelpiece atop the Rotonda’s bar Bosco. Set on a random timer, the blue and red neon letters flicker from one word to the other, conjuring visitors’ attention to the tension between the now and the new. Calling to the neighboring bosco (forest), they enter in a final visual ricochet with over 100 colorful fluorescent lights dispersed in the trees. Acting as the festival’s annual Kids Town, dedicated to children, this glistening ensemble imagined by Seiler is a versatile platform where young and old, art and film, social and cultural converge. 

Complementing Seiler’s spatial palimpsest, situated at the entrance of the space, Swiss visual artist Maya Rochat (b. 1985, Morges)’s psychedelic video installation is projected on a 100-square-meter screen (20 x 5 meter), set on a scaffolding composition created by Seiler. Activated each night, this magical color bath invites visitors to enter an alternative, seemingly dysfunctional mind space mirrored throughout the rest of the Rotonda. Loans from the la Mobiliare collection, as are several of Seiler’s pieces, Swiss conceptual artist Julian Charrière (b. 1987, Morges)’s sculptures ponder the border between environmental science and cultural history. In a final addition, Turkish artist Ekrem Yalcindag (b. 1964, Gölbasi)’s over 100 specially designed ornamented pillows lie in joyful dialogue with Seiler’s Tschutschu.

An inherently versatile space, the Rotonda by la Mobiliare emerges as a bustling composition, where the plurality of spaces mirrors that of the experiences within it. After a year of isolation, it fittingly brings back and reinforces the essential social dimension of the event – and the social interactions that define it. Seiler explains:

“The composition is rooted in the idea of space as a canvas. I move beyond the canvas, from two to three dimensions, as various planes, proportions, senses, and intensities intersect and interact. The sampling of colors echoes the sampling of spaces, in turn prompting a range of sensorial, conscious and subconscious experiences within the same space – and only with visitors’ engagement does it fully come alive.”

The key marker of Locarno74’s parallel program, the Rotonda exposes once more the festival’s lasting commitment to engaging with its visitors and the social, cultural and political dimension of film. Reflecting Seiler’s emotional bond with the region, growing up not far from Locarno, it is his fourth collaboration for the festival with la Mobiliare’s Social and Cultural Engagement branch, with previous installations at Locarno’s Parco Balli (2017/18) and Castello Visconteo (2019). It also marks the latest of countless partnerships between Seiler and la Mobiliare over the years, among which the notable Pavilion Pollegio at the Gotthard tunnel (2016, Switzerland) and the Llloblyekk && Bboolyekk office furniture installation for the firm’s headquarters (2015, Bern). 

Dorothea Strauss, Head of la Mobiliare’s Social Engagement branch, expands:

“Culture, and in particular film, exerts a deep visionary power. The Rotonda is an ideal meeting place, a space where ideas stimulated by the vitality of the festival converge and develop. Social encounters are essential to the development of not only the individual, but to that of our societies – and in that, Come Together is truly a call-to-action.”

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NOTES TO EDITORS:

About Kerim Seiler:

Kerim Seiler (born in 1974, Bern, Switzerland) has developed a complex, philosophic sculptural approach to working with space. From colourful and inflatable molecule sculptures to permanent neon light installations and architectural performative artworks, Seiler’s visual language merges complex theories of positivism and metaphysics. Through his innovative sculptural concepts for social and urban spaces, Seiler explores and extends the sensible interaction and ambivalent relation between materiality and spirituality.

Seiler completed the Vorkurs at Kunstgewerbeschule, Zurich (1991/92), studied Média Mixtes at the École Supérieure d’Art Visuel, Geneva (1993–1995), and Freie Kunst at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Hamburg (1997–2002). He received his Diploma with Professor Bernhard Johannes Blume, and a Master of Advanced Studies in Architecture from the ETH Zurich with Professor Ludger Hovestadt (2011). Seiler has shown his work in various international exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Marseille, Berlin, Zurich, Moscow, Cracow, Cairo, and Johannesburg. He is represented by Grieder Contemporary in Zurich.

kerimseiler.com/

About Locarno Film Festival: 

The Locarno Festival is an annual film festival held every August in the Swiss-Italian town of Locarno. Founded in 1946, it is one of the longest-running film festivals, and is also known for being a platform for art house films. The festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narrative and documentary, short, avant-garde, and retrospective programs. The festival’s main and widely reputed Piazza Grande section is held in one of the world's largest open-air screening venues, seating 8,000 spectators. Working with numerous public and private partners, the festival has demonstrated an ongoing sense of duty to culture and to the region. The 74th Festival, titled Locarno74, will run from August 4—14, 2021.

locarnofestival.ch

About La Mobiliare:

Founded in 1826 and headquartered in Bern, Zurich and Nyon, Switzerland, La Mobiliare (also known as La Mobilière and Die Mobiliar) is Switzerland’s oldest insurance group. Actively engaged in affirming its cultural and social responsibility, La Mobiliare has acted as the main partner of the Locarno Film Festival for the past four years. As part of the Locarno74 festival, the firm is launching a special cultural project, Come Together, at La Rotonda by la Mobiliare. The venue will bring together art through Kerim Seiler’s large-scale installation with the participation of artists Maya Rochat, Julian Charrière and Ekrem Yalcindag; short films with the Space Explorers: The ISS Experience virtual reality project in partnership with the GIFF and BONALUMI Engineering; music in collaboration with Turba and RSI Radiotelevisione svizzera; a podcast; and panel discussions as part of the Forum and Locarno Talks la Mobiliare projects. La Mobiliare is also a partner of Locarno Kids la Mobiliare.

About Maya Rochat:

Maya Rochat (b. 1985, Morges) is a visual artist based in Lausanne, Switzerland. She works in the fields of photography, painting, video, performance, and installation. Her work has been presented in major international institutions including Tate Modern (Turbine Hall), London; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Centre d’art contemporain, Geneva; Les Abattoirs, Toulouse; Kunsthaus Langenthal; and FOTOMUSEUM Winterthur. Maya Rochat is a laureate of the 2019 Prix Mobilière (by La Mobiliare), the 2018 Fondation Leenaards Grant; and the 2017 Abraham Hermanjat Grant.

About Julian Charrière:

Julian Charrière is a French-Swiss artist living and working in Berlin. Addressing matters of ecological concern, his work invitescritical reflection upon cultural traditions of engaging with the natural world, frequently stemming from fieldwork in remote locations with acute geophysical. Working across media and paradigms, Charrière collaborates with composers, scientists, engineers, art historians, and philosophers. His work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas (2021); MAMbo, Bologna (2019); Berlinische Galerie, Berlin (2018); among many others. It has been featured in the 57th Biennale di Venezia (2017)and Taipei Biennial (2018), and in group exhibitions including at the Centre Pompidou, Paris (2019); Hayward Gallery, London (2018); and Palais du Tokyo, Paris (2017). Charrière is one of the four nominees for the 2021 Prix Marcel Duchamp, and a laureate of the 2018 Prix Mobilière.

About Ekrem Yalcindag:

Living in Istanbul, Vienna, and Frankfurt am Main, Ekrem Yalcindag (b. 1964, Gölbasi) developed his visual language as a student of Hermann Nitsch and Thomas Bayrle in Frankfurt am Main. His meticulous impasto technique executed with an extremely fine paint brush, demanding vast amounts of time, results in relief-like paintings made ofhundreds of layers, recalling the American Color Field painters. A major figure of the non-European ornamental tradition through contemporary art, his work has been featured across numerous international institutions, including the Saatchi Gallery, London (2011) and the Museum of Modern Art, Istanbul (2010). It is part of major international collections among which the Goetz Collection, Munich, and the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart.

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AFIKARIS Gallery Unveils 'Figures Of Power', a Joint Exhibition of Artists John Madu and Ousmane Niang

Left. Ousmane Niang, Baignoire, 2021. Acrylic on canvas, 140 x 140 cm. Courtesy of AFIKARIS Gallery. Right. John Madu, Sunflowers and man, 2021. Acrylic on canvas, 121 x 121 cm. Courtesy of AFIKARIS Gallery.

Each suggesting his own reading of power, John Madu and Ousmane Niang convey and confront relations of dominant to dominated. By distorting and blurring set roles, they invite viewers to consider new dynamics, and in turn affirm their own, empowered identities. 

July 10 – August 14, 2021

July 6, 2021 (Paris, France) – Following on its very first solo exhibition, the first in France of emerging Cameroonian artist Jean David Nkot (Human@Condition, May 29—July 7, 2021), AFIKARIS Gallery, dedicated to promoting emerging and established artists from Africa and its diaspora, presents Figures of Power, a joint exhibition of rising Nigerian artist John Madu (b. 1983, Lagos, Nigeria) and Senegalese artist Ousmane Niang (b. 1989, Tamba, Senegal). On view from July 10—August 14, 2021, this new exhibition, the first in France for both artists, brings together over 20 all-new works, addressing notions of power and domination as they unfold through gender and political dynamics. Boldly exposing and bridging each artist’s distinct approach to these topics, AFIKARIS once again demonstrates its commitment to propelling the voices of its artists. 

Using their art as a weapon, both artists look back and reappropriate histories governed by the duality between dominant and dominated. Turning to gender dynamics, John Madu overturns traditional clichés on identity in the context of globalization, while Ousmane Niang revisits predetermined social hierarchies. Cuttingly pointing to rampant societal issues, they move beyond raw observation, instead coloring their work with a call for action. 

In his paintings, Nigerian artist John Madu frees his characters from preconstructed social norms as he rewrites a world where individuals are empowered, and free to hail their identities. Whether painting acquaintances or reinventing classics, Madu records his own history – the story of a young Nigerian generation, lulled by a globalized, universal culture, and in which individuality and uniformity attract and repulse each other. His visual universe is marked by endless references – countless nods to the history of art as to Nigerian youth and pop culture.

In these everyday scenes, Vincent Van Gogh, Gustav Klimt and Keith Haring permeate the artwork with their characteristic features, hiding behind a door, or on a pair of shorts, mirroring the plurality of identities that constitute the artist’s world. Exalting his own reality, he blurs the borders of feminine and masculine. Playing with the curves and hair of his models, female and male, woman and man, dominant and dominated intersect. The roles are reversed, exposing instead fluid identities that beg to be released. Calling out a traditionally patriarchal Nigerian society and appealing to women’s empowerment, he diverts Klimt’s The Kiss (1908-1909): under his brush, it is the woman who kisses the man. Ultimately, in bringing to bear the limits of gender, Madu bestows his characters with a new form of power. He explains:

“My art is infused by strong figures that have marked my personal life, and vision of it. Being faced with the many realities and endless conceptions of identity, I seek to blur the set distinctions, in particular as they apply to gender. By switching or reframing gender roles, I play with their symbolic power, and the symbolism of the power they exert.”

John Madu, The Kiss, 2021. Acrylic on canvas, 121 x 121 cm. Courtesy of AFIKARIS Gallery.

As he revisits historical bestiaries, Senegalese artist Ousmane Niang plays with the embodiment of power.  Marking the distinction between anthropomorphic, domesticated, and wild animals, his canvases become the stage for a role-playing game of strong and weak: the human dominates as the animal obeys. The paintings turn to fables – exposing and distorting these shared illustrations of agreed hierarchies. Reflecting his ongoing interest in the pictorial treatment of games in art, Niang’s Jeu de Cartes series (2019-2021) trade the traditional royal figures with these fabled animals. Purposefully engaging with their symbolism, he projects onto them a new, personal meaning: free to fly, swim, and walk, Niang’s bird becomes a symbol of freedom, and a figure of power.

Distinctly adorning these figures, Niang’s stylized dots, characteristic of his art, seize their full meaning. Consistently doubled, they materialize a duality: just as dominant and dominated cohabit in the paintings, problems and solutions emerge. More than a pictorial choice, his dots express the social conflict at the root of his work. Through this technique, the artist offers avenues for reflection – calling his viewers to move beyond contemplation into action, a subtle and empowering echo to the Senegalese youth uprisings of March 2021. Weighing the symbolism in his work, he states:

“Power is a game, and in a game, there is always a dimension of power. In my paintings, I embody the game of power in symbolically charged animal figures, and by doing so, shine a light onto it. Behind each dot, there lies a second dot. In the same way, behind each scene, there lies an alternative scene – and behind each problem, a solution.”

 Ultimately, by bestowing them with a fierce educational virtue, Madu and Niang’s works grow from affronts to alternatives to the status quo – in turn affirming art as its very own form of power.

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NOTES TO EDITORS: 

About John Madu:

John Madu (b. 1983, Lagos, Nigeria) is a multidisciplinary artist living and working in Lagos. With a degree in Policy and Strategic Studies, John Madu is a self-taught artist. 

Conceived mainly with acrylic, his figurative and symbolic paintings deal with questions of identity, social behaviors, and the effects of cultural globalization on individualism. Highly versatile, Madu’s work is nurtured by endless influences, ranging from popular culture and art to African histories and personal experiences. Symbolism is a distinct marker of his work, as a recurring iconography of books, apples, and other recognizable items come to fill his canvases and convey their own meaning. 

 John Madu’s work has been presented in numerous international exhibitions, including in Lagos, London, New York, and Shanghai. Figures of Power is his first major exhibition in France.

About Ousmane Niang:

Emerging Senegalese visual artist Ousmane Niang (b. 1989, Tamba, Senegal) works and lives in Dakar. A graduate of the National School of Arts in Dakar, he works primarily with acrylic. Calling to his personal bestiaries, his paintings, deeply influenced by pointillism, depict scenes of daily life. Addressing notions of power, the human-animal figures that populate his canvases convey the endurance and fragility of social beings in the face of domination – as it governs freedom, tyranny, sharing, traditions, technologies, and family life.  

Ousmane Niang’s works have been showcased across numerous Senegalese institutions (Institut Français de Dakar; Galerie Nationale de Dakar; Biennale de Dakar) and at international art fairs including AKAA (Paris) and 1-54 (London; New York). Figures of Power is his first major exhibition in France. 

About AFIKARIS Gallery, Paris: 

Founded in 2018 by Florian Azzopardi, AFIKARIS Gallery started as an online platform and showroom specialized in the work of both emerging and established artists from African and its diaspora, before opening a dedicated Paris-based gallery space in 2021. Engaged in promoting cross cultural and disciplinary exchange, AFIKARIS acts as a platform for artists to engage with the wider public. A mirror onto and space for reflection on the contemporary African art scene, it provides artists with a space to address the topical local and international issues at the heart of their art.

AFIKARIS’s curated program includes group and solo exhibitions; art fairs; publications; as well as institutional partnerships. 

Figures of Power | July 10—August 14, 2021

AFIKARIS Gallery

38 rue Quincampoix

75004 Paris, France

info@afikaris.com

www.afikaris.com

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ADA \ contemporary art gallery Presents its Inaugural Group Exhibition 'I No Be Gentleman (at all o)' of Three Emerging Nigerian Artists

Left. Chukwudubem Busayo Ukaigwe, Portrait of Sahar, 2020. Oil on canvas, 152.4 x 92.4 cm. Courtesy of the artist and of ADA \ contemporary art gallery. Right. Matthew Eguavoen Imuetiyan, Cynthia, 2021. Acrylic and oil on canvas, 130 x 100 cm. Courtesy of the artist and of ADA \ contemporary art gallery.

On view from June 30 – August 15, 2021, the exhibition introduces rising Nigerian artists Chukwudubem Busayo Ukaigwe, Matthew Eguavoen Imuetiyan and Emmanuel Amoo’s intriguing new bodies of work in a collective act to ignore and challenge prevalent societal motifs around the African identity, all-the-while interrogating and exposing new conceptions and ideals. 

June 30 – August 15, 2021

June 28, 2021 (Accra, Ghana) – Accra-based ADA \ contemporary art gallery, specialized in the work of emerging artists across Africa and its diaspora, presents its very first group exhibition, following on four consecutive debut solo exhibitions since opening in October 2020. I No Be Gentleman (at all o), on view from June 30 – August 15, 2021, brings together the works of three emerging Nigerian artists Chukwudubem Busayo Ukaigwe, Matthew Eguavoen Imuetiyan and Emmanuel Amoo, introducing a new wave of interest in going against the prescribed status quo and forging a new, broader constellation of African identities and representations.

The title of the exhibition, I No Be Gentleman (at all o) finds its roots in the 1973 Afrobeat album Gentleman, and soundtrack of the same title, by Nigerian bandleader, controversial and disruptive activist, Fela Kuti. The lyrics cheerfully mock the pretensions of a “gentleman” who wears stifling Western clothing under the scorching African sun: “He go sweat all over,” Kuti predicts. Gentleman denounces the legacy of colonialism, European ideals and Westernized constructs and cultures. Kuti’s commentary calls for the African – man and woman – to take possession of his or her own identity and authenticity, and break away from predominantly Westernized indoctrinations.

In their eponymous group exhibition, Ukaigwe, Imuetiyan and Amoo perpetuate artistic practices that attempt to frame their own notion of African aesthetics. Exposing sociocultural identities and economic discrepancies, they point to the effects of neocolonialism and to the resulting politics of material and conceptual decolonization.

Emmanuel Amoo, Waiting to No Awail, 2021. Charcoal, pastels and acrylic on canvas, 152.4 x 121.9 cm. Courtesy of the artist and of ADA \ contemporary art gallery.

Ukaigwe consciously uses a variety of mediums to relay a plurality of ideas at any given time. He views his art practice as a conversation, or a portal into one, and in some instances, as an interpretation of an ongoing exchange in researching semiotic possibilities and diverse mechanisms of meaning. Ukaigwe’s work semantically interrogates contemporary themes and their association to the canon, premising and borrowing his concepts from experimental music, chiefly jazz music. The matrix of his practice is to provide a platform for individual analysis of work or of an idea and for revealing a transcendent relational meaning between multiple works or ideas positioned together in space.

Imuetiyan’s focal concern hangs in the impact of his work on his immediate environment, and on the world at large. Fascinated by individuals’ reactions to their surroundings and how it affects their response to life, his art centers around societal, political and economic imbalances. Imuetiyan’s large-scale portraits hold a strong, striking gaze, as each of his models embody bold, unwavering stares. Through these eyes, the artist projects identity formation, mental health, gender constructs, the societal and governmental impact on both the “common man” and the “affluent.”

Amoo is a contemporary surrealist who specializes in the use of pastels, graphite, charcoal and acrylics. His art is primarily inspired by human emotions and tenderness in an environment that is at once sociocultural and sociopolitical. In his work, Amoo strives to define a new space where self-expression at any given time is acceptable. This new body of work centers around major sociocultural current issues and the pervasive influence of digital, mainly social, media. Ultimately, Amoo’s creative process calls to an attempt to unveil, in his viewers and more broadly, authentic emotions concealed in a society governed by the art of hiding one’s true nature under pressured smiles and forced toxicity.

I No Be Gentleman (at all o) is the first group show in ADA \ contemporary art gallery’s ongoing program of dedicated solo and group exhibitions, off-site projects, talks, creative partnerships and more, launched in October 2020. Previous exhibitions include the sold-out solo shows of emerging Nigerian artists Collins Obijiaku (Gindin Mangoro: Under the Mango Tree, October 15 – November 19, 2020) and Eniwaye Oluwaseyi (The Politics of Shared Spaces, November 27, 2020 – January 10, 2021); of rising South African star Zandile Tshabalala (Enter Paradise, March 4 – April 30, 2021); and of Ghanaian contemporary artist Hamid Nii Nortey (Cross Hatching Affluence, May 6 – June 16, 2021).

This August, ADA will launch its one-month residency program, in partnership with the Noldor Artist Residency, bringing together a local Ghanaian artist and an international artist whose practice is rooted in Africa and its legacy. Cultivating a dialogue between local and international artists, the residency is a manifest to ADA’s engagement in nurturing Ghana and Africa’s emerging art community, while strengthening its ties and influence across global audiences.

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NOTES TO EDITORS:

**Biographies of the artists are available upon request.

About ADA \ contemporary art gallery: 

Based in Accra, Ghana, ADA \ contemporary art gallery specializes in the work of emerging artists across Africa and its diaspora. Established in 2020 by contemporary African art advisor Adora Mba, ADA is committed to nurturing Ghana and the continent’s contemporary art community and to fostering its ties and influence amongst global audiences.

Highlighting individual early career artistic practices, the gallery’s program includes dedicated solo exhibitions; off-site projects and exhibitions; site-specific commissions; talks; creative partnerships and philanthropic activities with local actors; and international art fairs.

In parallel, ADA will inaugurate a one-month residency program, in partnership with the Noldor Artist Residency, in August 2021, bringing together a local Ghanaian artist and an international artist whose practice is rooted in Africa and its legacy. Cultivating a dialogue between the local and the international artists, the residency is a manifest to ADA’s engagement in strengthening these ties and to establishing Ghana’s emerging artistic scene and market internationally. 

ADA \ contemporary art gallery

Villaggio Vista

North Airport Road

Airport Residential Area 

Accra, Ghana

info@ada-accra.com

www.ada-accra.com

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ADA \ contemporary art gallery & House Of Fine Art (HOFA) Present Mother of Mankind, an All-Female Group Exhibition

Left. Marcellina Akpojotor, Set to Flourish II, 2021. Fabric and acrylic on canvas, 121.9 x 152.4 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Rele Art Gallery, Lagos, Nigeria. Right. Sophia Oshodin, While We Wait, 2021. Acrylic on canvas, 91.4 x 91.4 cm. Courtesy of the artist and of ADA \ contemporary art gallery.

On view from July 22 – August 31, this first collaboration between the Accra- and London-based galleries, curated by Adora Mba, founder of ADA, brings together the works of 18 all-female emerging artists. Through their personal experiences and artistic approaches, they jointly deconstruct recurring tropes in the representation of the Black female figure, thereby forging the way for new narratives and identities to emerge.

July 22 – August 31, 2021

HOFA Gallery | 11 Bruton Street, Mayfair, London

Curated by Adora Mba

June 22, 2021 (London, United Kingdom) – ADA \ contemporary art gallery (Accra, Ghana) and HOFA Gallery (London, United Kingdom) have joined forces to premiere an all-female group exhibition, Mother of Mankind, showcasing an international selection of 18 emerging artists. On view from July 22 – August 31 at HOFA’s London space, the exhibition is the first of its kind to be presented by both galleries. Curated by Adora Mba, founder and director of ADA \ contemporary art gallery, Mother of Mankind sheds light on a new generation of rising artists whose work challenges and deconstructs art historical canons of representation – recurring motives which often marginalize and obliterate Black figures, and in particular, the Black female figure. Each artist investigates, in her own unique way, current perceptions of identity, gender, sexuality, family and society, all-the-while bringing forth her personal experience and a distinct visual narrative across a range of media.

Jamilla Okubo, I do not come to you as a reality. I come to you as The Myth (Pentecost), 2021. Mixed media, acrylic on canvas, 183 cm x 244 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Mehari Sequar Gallery.

More than a collection of global female artists, Mother of Mankind is envisioned as a statement, a sisterhood, and an artistic call to arms. Advancing the connection to Mother Earth, Mother Nature, and Mother Africa, the artists portray varied self-definitions of the Black woman, in light of a new approach and artistic contribution to contemporary art. 

Placing her as the central figure, an active participant in their art, they draw upon visual cues from diverse galvanic portraitures to achieve a balance between realism and abstraction, forms and textures, power and vulnerabilities. In the spirit of social change and reform, each brings forth a new position, in lieu of a new definition, of the Black woman. Rather than attributing new roles to this marginalized figure, they establish a new space for existing roles to be unveiled and shared. Director of ADA \ contemporary art gallery and curator Adora Mba explains:

“At a time when singular voices demonstrate their strength when united, I feel privileged to showcase the works of these remarkably talented artists in one of the cities I call home. The women presented in this show are in the early days of their artistic careers, yet already making waves and drawing attention amidst an industry which tends to be more supportive of their male counterparts. In working with ADA, HOFA is lending us a space for their, for our, voices to be heard; our stories to be told; our creative spirits to conceive, unbound, forging our own narratives. Beyond being artists that I personally admire, these women are my sisters, my kin from across the globe.”

Elio D’Anna, co-founder and director of HOFA, pursues:

“This exhibition is the first of its kind at HOFA Gallery, and we are honored to showcase powerful and norm-defying visual narratives of Black femininity as told by Black female artists. Brought together through the lens of a Black female curator, Mother of Mankind engages boldly and critically with international events and discussions over the past few months, making it a particularly relevant, momentous exhibition in London this year.” 

Moving the dialogue away from a normative femininity, Mother of Mankind places the frame on the specific Black experience, by showcasing artists whose construct of femininity is conceptualized in its application to women from Africa and its diaspora. Hailing from a range of countries, from Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa to Canada, the US, the UK and France, the participating artists consciously reject and redefine traditional standards of beauty, perception and representation – thereby reclaiming ownership over their narrative and elevating a Black female consciousness and identity.

Participating artists:

Jamilla Okubo

Adebunmi Gbadebo

Emma Prempeh

Ekene Maduka

Ayobola Kekere-Ekun

Muofhe Manavhela

Mookho Ntho

Cece Phillips

Alexandria Couch

Sola Olulode

Marcellina Akpojotor

Cinthia Sifa Mulanga 

Chinaza Agbor

Damilola Onosowbo Marcus

Tobi Alexandra Falade 

Dimakatso Mathopa

Sophia Oshodin

Bria Fernandes

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NOTES TO EDITORS: 

About Adora Mba:

Adora Mba (b. 1986, London) is the founder and director of ADA \ contemporary art gallery, a commercial art space based in Accra, Ghana, committed to representing emerging artists across Africa and its diaspora. Raised in London, Accra and Lagos, Mba spent her formative years cultivating a dialogue between her African roots and European education. Her extensive travels led her to develop a keen interest in contemporary art, and in particular the African art scene. An art advisor, collector and writer, Mba’s experience working in the contemporary African art industry nurtured her expertise on the continent’s artistic scene. 

Starting her career in cultural journalism and public relations, she soon relocated to Ghana where she acted as art consultant for various actors of the cultural sector (Ghana Ministry of Culture; Adjaye Associates). In 2017, she launched The Afropolitan Collector, an art advisory platform specialized in the acquisition and promotion of contemporary art and design from Africa. Throughout her career, Mba witnessed a bounded African artistic scene, lacking the infrastructure necessary to achieve its full potential. Responding to this need and to her desire to support emerging artists, she founded the ADA \ contemporary art gallery in 2020 in Accra.

About ADA \ contemporary art gallery: 

Based in Accra, Ghana, ADA \ contemporary art gallery specializes in the work of emerging artists across Africa and its diaspora. Established in 2020 by contemporary African art advisor Adora Mba, ADA is committed to nurturing Ghana and the continent’s contemporary art community and to fostering its ties and influence amongst global audiences.

Highlighting individual early career artistic practices, the gallery’s program includes dedicated solo exhibitions; off-site projects and exhibitions; site-specific commissions; talks; creative partnerships and philanthropic activities with local actors; and international art fairs.

In parallel, ADA will develop a residency program starting in the Summer 2021, bringing together a local Ghanaian artist and an international artist whose practice is rooted in Africa and its legacy. Cultivating a dialogue between the local and the international artists, the residency is a manifest to ADA’s engagement in strengthening these ties and to establishing Ghana’s emerging artistic scene and market internationally. 

ADA \ contemporary art gallery

Villaggio Vista

North Airport Road

Airport Residential Area 

Accra, Ghana

info@ada-accra.com

www.ada-accra.com

About House of Fine Art (HOFA):

HOFA Gallery (House of Fine Art) specializes in contemporary art by established and emerging international artists. HOFA is determined to feature a multitude of artistic disciplines with an intent focus on exceptional talent, diversity and cultural relevance. Dedicated to supporting rare talent and making their work globally accessible, the gallery works closely with all of its artists to ensure the highest level of excellence and integrity across its locations in London, Los Angeles and Mykonos.

With a unique selection of highly collectable artworks of appreciative value and an uncompromising dedication to art world innovation, the gallery is committed to its mission in cultural leadership. Using new technologies and digital innovations, HOFA pledges an accessible entry point to the market and inclusivity to art collectors on all levels.

House of Fine Art (HOFA)

11 Bruton Street, Mayfair

London W1J 6PY

United Kingdom

www.thehouseoffineart.com

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AFIKARIS Gallery Opens a New Paris Space and Presents First Major Solo Show in France of Cameroonian Artist Jean David Nkot

Jean David Nkot, ##@tiredbody##, 2021. Acrylic, posca, collage and silkscreen printing on canvas, 200 x 300 cm. Courtesy of AFIKARIS Gallery.

Inaugurating its very first gallery space, Paris-based AFIKARIS Gallery presents rising Cameroonian artist Jean David Nkot’s first extensive solo exhibition in France. On view from May 29—July 7, 2021, Human@Condition portrays the individuals behind Africa’s pervasive mining industry, pursuing the artist’s ongoing exploration of the human condition and notions of resilience.

May 29 – July 7, 2021

May 25, 2021 (Paris, France) – Marking its move from an online platform and showroom to its very first physical gallery space in Paris, AFIKARIS Gallery, dedicated to promoting emerging and established artists from Africa and its diaspora, presents Human@Condition, the first major solo exhibition in France of rising Cameroonian artist Jean David Nkot (b. 1989, Douala, Cameroon). Mirroring the artist’s longstanding ties with the gallery since its creation in 2018, the exhibition is also the gallery’s very first solo show, featuring a newly edited monograph of Nkot’s work, following on a continuous program of curated group exhibitions and off-site projects presented in its previous Paris showroom, online and at international art fairs. 

On view from May 29—July 7, 2021, the all-new series – a continuation of Nkot’s signature hyperrealist portraits over mapped backgrounds – will take over AFIKARIS’s vast 130-square-meter space in the heart of Paris’s Marais district, with works ranging from large-scale 2 x 3-meter canvases to smaller, intimate formats. Addressing Africa’s pervasive mining industry, Nkot superimposes his portraits onto a complex layering of maps, economic data and geopolitical norms, thereby focusing on the individuals at its roots. Freeing them from the weight of a mapped human condition often defined by hardship, he instead brings to bear an affirmed sense of resilience, and of hope.

Previously focused on the topic of migration, Nkot expands on his exploration of the human condition, examining its ties to the physical landscape through the lens of mining in Africa. Shedding light on ubiquitous systemic issues – African states’ subversive dependence and control over their wealth, and the consequences on their populations – the artist brings a localized focus onto them. He traces how they materialize in the exploitation of raw materials: in particular, through the extraction of minerals in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda. Continuously searching for the human dimension, he mirrors the exploitation of the soil to that of the individuals involved, bringing to the forefront their shared resilience in the face of adversity. All-the-while deploring the destruction of the natural environment, he gives way to the “workers in the shadows,” contrasting them with those who benefit from a pernicious industry, and ultimately honoring their strength and sense of ownership over their existence.

“I looked to the young people in my neighborhood as models for both my art and broader existence. As a witness each day of their vitality and joy, I wanted to push away common depictions of sorrow and suffering, instead shedding light on their strength and sense of hope, showing smiles and firm postures to expose a resilient body, undeterred by difficulty.” – Jean David Nkot

Left. Jean David Nkot, www.look of hopes@.com #4, 2021. Acrylic, posca and silkscreen printing on canvas, 65 x 50 cm. Courtesy of AFIKARIS Gallery. Right. Jean David Nkot, P.O.Box.Tarification #Cobalt #Cuivre.org, 2020. Acrylic and posca on canvas, 206 x 174 cm. Courtesy of AFIKARIS Gallery.

Attesting to Nkot’s evolving technique, Human@Condition builds on the artist’s signature play with transparency. At once pure and complex, the aesthetics and composition of his works reflect the extensive research that feeds into them, bringing to light Nkot’s highly analytical practice. Creating what he calls “maps molécules,” or “molecule maps,“ he superimposes three informational planes – a broad cartography; a network of data; and, in sharp contrast with their surroundings, his human subjects.

“The concept of maps molécules is inspired by the maps created by Thomas Hirschhorn. Like him, I circle keywords and link them together. I call them maps molécules because their structure reminds me of molecules and atoms. By creating a network of data, with information gravitating around a central word, I want to show that they are all connected, that no simple notion stands alone, and that one seemingly straightforward issue can pave the way for a broader debate. At first sight, this mass of information can seem incoherent, senseless – only to reveal the hidden complexity that lies behind it.” – Jean David Nkot

Faces, routes, dates, quantities, prices, ores, countries and economic plans coexist, as Jean David Nkot notes, annotates, links and questions. Putting aside any geographical realism, the data adorning the cartography gains precedence over the mapped territories. As do the notions they depict, the three planes that constitute his works engage in a continuous power struggle. A provocative and striking rendering of pervasive economic and political stakes, Human@Condition sheds light on the systemic control over both natural and human resources. Yet, outlining the complexity of these stakes as embodied in the endless data, he mocks their very transparency: does the prevalence of this data in the works truly make it clearer – and stronger? Or does its meaning remain obscure, only to fall short of a resilient, fierce humanity?  

Confronting personal stories, economic data and geopolitical norms, the paintings emerge as deeply and proudly human works. Ultimately, Nkot’s subjects arise from the paintings, affirming their resilience and ownership over an existence from which they are seemingly dispossessed.

Presented in tandem with the exhibition, AFIKARIS Gallery unveils its first artist monograph, Human@Condition, retracing Jean David Nkot’s career and work as “painter of the human condition.” The eponymous show will be on view at AFIKARIS’s Paris space from May 29—July 7, 2021.

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NOTES TO EDITORS: 

Published on the occasion of the exhibition, Human@Condition, the first monograph of Jean David Nkot’s work, will be available for purchase at AFIKARIS Gallery and online at www.afikaris.com. 

About Jean David Nkot:

Jean David Nkot (b. 1989, Douala, Cameroon) is a visual artist who works and lives in Douala. A graduate from the Institute of Artistic Training (IFA), Mbalmayo, Cameroon (2010), he subsequently joined the Institute of Fine Arts, Foumban, where he obtained a degree in Drawing and Painting. In 2017, he took part in the Moving Frontiers post-Master’s Degree, focused on the topic of borders, organized by the National School of Arts, Paris-Cergy, France.

Working primarily with acrylic and posca, he continuously seeks to revisit his pictorial language and often experiments with other techniques, including silkscreen printing. His highly characteristic signature style places hyperrealist portraits over complex cartographies. A “painter of the human condition,” his artworks expose faces submerged by inscriptions, depicting characters both reflective of and reflected upon their physical and geopolitical context. Moving away from the personal identities of his subjects, Nkot draws attention to the embodied turmoil inhabiting them – in a manner reminiscent of Zhang Dali, Francis Bacon, and Jenny Saville.

Jean David Nkot’s work has been presented in key international institutions including: Institut des Cultures d’Islam, Paris, France; SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin, Germany; Doual’art, Douala, Cameroon; National Museum of Cameroon, Yaounde. Human@Condition presented at AFIKARIS Gallery, Paris, from May 29—July 7, 2021, is the artist’s first major solo exhibition in France.

About AFIKARIS Gallery, Paris: 

Founded in 2018 by Florian Azzopardi, AFIKARIS Gallery started as an online platform and showroom specialized in the work of both emerging and established artists from African and its diaspora, before opening a dedicated Paris-based gallery space in 2021. Engaged in promoting cross cultural and disciplinary exchange, AFIKARIS acts as a platform for artists to engage with the wider public. A mirror onto and space for reflection on the contemporary African art scene, it provides artists with a space to address the topical local and international issues at the heart of their art.

AFIKARIS’s curated program includes group and solo exhibitions; art fairs; publications; as well as institutional partnerships. 

Human@Condition | May 29—July 7, 2021

AFIKARIS Gallery

38 rue Quincampoix

75004 Paris, France

info@afikaris.com

www.afikaris.com

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CHYBIK + KRISTOF ARCHITECTS Unveil Completed Zvonarka Bus Terminal | Preserving Brutalist Architectural Heritage and Advocating Positive Social Change

Exterior view of the Zvonarka Central Bus Terminal, Brno, Czech Republic. Photograhy by alex shoots buildings. Courtesy of CHYBIK + KRISTOF Architects & Urban Designers.

Initiated by the architects in 2011, the redesign of Brno’s Zvonarka Central Bus Terminal brings to light the site’s original Brutalist identity – and CHYBIK + KRISTOF’s longstanding engagement in preserving architectural heritage. Receptive to the station’s central role in the city’s social fabric, the architects demonstrate their responsibility and commitment to driving constructive social change.

May 6, 2021 (Brno, Czech Republic) – CHYBIK + KRISTOF ARCHITECTS & URBAN DESIGNERS announce the completion of the redesigned Zvonarka Central Bus Terminal in Brno, Czech Republic. Self-initiated in 2011, this redesign and restoration project saw the architects actively engage in preserving the existing Brutalist structure – a steel supporting frame and concrete roof – and its original architectural identity, reflecting CHYBIK + KRISTOF’s commitment to perpetuating architectural heritage. Stressing the station’s central role in the city and region’s sociocultural fabric, they address the urgency to rethink the use of a decaying transportation hub and public space. Placing transparency, and access, at the root of their design, they have transformed the bus terminal into a functional entity adapted to current social needs. Underlining the social awareness that consistently informs their projects, CHYBIK + KRISTOF affirm architects’ responsibility in acting as agents for positive social change. 

Akin to the internationally renowned Hotel Praha and Transgas buildings in Prague, Brno’s Zvonarka Central Bus Terminal, built in 1988, has long been considered one of the notable remaining examples of the Czech Republic’s Brutalist architectural heritage. Dominating much of post-war architecture, Brutalism or “béton brut” – referring to the exposed concrete architecture that simultaneously celebrates progressiveness and experimentalism – has long polarized architects and scholars alike, among whom CHYBIK + KRISTOF. Like notable figures from Zaha Hadid to Kengo Kuma, they have consistently advocated for the preservation of Brutalist architectural heritage, citing its intriguing aesthetic and raw material qualities. With many such structures demolished or threatened in recent years – among which the now demolished Hotel Praha (2014) and Transgas (2019), the controversial Robin Hood Gardens (2017) in London and the Burroughs Wellcome Building (2021) in the United States, CHYBIK + KRISTOF affirm their engagement for their protection, placing the Brutalist Zvonarka Bus Terminal building as a local case-in-point of such circumstances. 

“Demolitions are a global issue,” explains co-founding architect Michal Kristof. “Our role as architects is to engage in these conversations and demonstrate that we no longer operate from a blank page. We need to consider and also work from existing architecture – and gradually shift the conversation from creation to transformation.” **

Interior view of the Zvonarka Central Bus Terminal, Brno, Czech Republic. Photograhy by alex shoots buildings. Courtesy of CHYBIK + KRISTOF Architects & Urban Designers.

Designed in 1984 and built in 1988, the Zvonarka Central Bus Terminal has continuously acted as the region’s main bus station for intercity transport. In 1989, the building was privatized, with only the first phases of construction complete, and resuming its role as a bus station. Recognized as a Brutalist heritage site, its high maintenance costs led to little upkeep, driving to its gradual deterioration. 

In 2011, CHYBIK + KRISTOF grew aware of the station’s decaying conditions. Eager to advance a positive alternative to a seemingly irrecoverable space, they reached out to its private owners with an elementary redesign proposal. Drawing wide public attention through social media, their initiative prompted a conversation between local private stakeholders and public authorities – and after a four-year-long collaborative exchange, the required funding was attained in 2015, notably through the project’s recognition as a European funds project. In 2021, ten years later, the architects now unveil the restored and redesigned transportation hub and public space – a preserved Brutalist heritage site and reconfigured functional space, attentive to both its history and to evolving social needs.

The Zvonarka Central Bus Terminal mirrors CHYBIK + KRISTOF’s profound social awareness in conceiving their projects. First identifying the ongoing social dynamics, they engage with diverse stakeholders – architects, public entities and private partners, local and external. Adopting a holistic sociocultural and technical approach, they ultimately bring forward a user-centered, conscious design – one that moves beyond the mere construction process. Stressing the station’s role as the point of entry into and departure from the city, they outline the significance of this transitional space, as transportation hubs increasingly come to act as windows onto cities. All-the-while conceiving a functional redesign receptive to users’ needs, the architects cultivate the station’s essence as the city’s social nerve, envisioning how to further integrate it in the surrounding urban fabric and invite new social dynamics within it.

“The role of the architect begins prior to the first sketches. Fully understanding the social dynamics at play in every project is at the heart of our practice,” states co-founder Ondrej Chybik. “With this in mind, we as architects assume a crucial role in both the inception and materialization of a project – we are here at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end. Instigating a dialogue; resolving the existing shortfalls – social, economic, cultural, and deeply political; bringing forward innovative and inclusive solutions – it is our responsibility to step out of our studios and onto the streets.”

Original drawing of the Zvonarka Central Bus Terminal, 1984.

True to these two engagements, CHYBIK + KRISTOF position themselves as both architects and citizens of this urban space. In doing so, they consider the inherent relationships, nuances and synergies between the existing and the envisioned, the public and the private, the function and the experience – all-the-while stressing the station’s primary role as a transportation hub, through which over 820 regional, national and international connections and 17,000 passengers transit each day. 

Transparency is at the root of their new design. Paying homage to its original architect Radúz Russ, they proudly expose the station’s characteristically raw Brutalist elements – a steel supporting frame and concrete roof – contrasting their angularity with an organic wave that mirrors the seamless flow of vehicles and passengers. They also turn to structural transparency, removing walls and favoring light as evocative of access, safety and comfort. Following the original square floorplan, they reconfigure the main hall as an open structure devoid of walls. A two-sided roof, the inner space houses the individual bus stops while the outer area serves as a parking space for buses. Eager to open up the terminal onto the city, the architects remove the temporary structures added in the 1990s and erect a second entry to the station at street level. Adding new light fixtures onto the main worn-down structure, which they repaint in white, they introduce a new information office, ticketing and waiting areas, platforms, and an orientation system accessible to the disabled. Through this design, CHYBIK + KRISTOF transform the building into a dynamic, functional and intrinsically social hub, channeling an unrestricted flow of locals and passengers alike.

Exterior view of the Zvonarka Central Bus Terminal, Brno, Czech Republic. Photograhy by alex shoots buildings. Courtesy of CHYBIK + KRISTOF Architects & Urban Designers.

Reflecting on this reconstruction and urban renewal project, Ondrej Chybik and Michal Kristof state: 

“While our familiarity with the city of Brno proved to be a real asset, our engagement for this project resonates with architects internationally. Beyond a functional concern, the architects’ role is rooted in understanding, deconstructing and responding to the shortcomings that often form our social structures – that is, our role is intrinsically social, based on ‘people.’ Ultimately, by revisiting the past, engaging with the present and projecting to the future, architects can, and must, be catalysts for change.”

In addition to the redesign of the Zvonarka Central Bus Terminal and of its surrounding areas to unfold gradually in the coming years, CHYBIK + KRISTOF have initiated several redevelopment projects in Brno. Among these, the Mendel Square and Mendel Greenhouse projects, to be completed in 2022 in homage to the notorious scientist and father of modern genetics on the 200thanniversary of his birth, will in turn revisit the existing space, a distinct heritage site, as an open transportation hub – rooted in Brno’s longstanding history and responsive to its evolving social dynamics.

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NOTES TO EDITORS:

**Mirroring their ongoing engagement in safeguarding historical structures, CHYBIK + KRISTOF have completed numerous restoration and repurposing projects in recent years, among which the House of Wine (2019, Znojmo), a revived disaffected brewery and 1970s storage space, and the Gallery of Furniture (2016, Brno), a former car showroom acting as the new MY DVA Group headquarters, notorious for its repurposed plastic chair façade.

About CHYBIK + KRISTOF
CHYBIK + KRISTOF is an architecture and urban design practice founded in 2010 by Ondřej Chybík and Michal Krištof. Operating with 50+ international team members and offices in Prague, Brno and Bratislava, the practice aims at creating bridges between private and public space, transcending generations and societal spheres. Taking into account local histories and environmental specificities, the studio works on a wide array of projects, ranging from urban developments to public and residential buildings. Recent projects include: Gallery of Furniture (Czech Republic), the Czech Pavilion at Expo 2015 (Milan, Italy) and Lahofer Winery (Czech Republic). The studio has been awarded a number of prizes including the 2019 Design Vanguard Award from Architectural Record, and was recently amongst the European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies’ 2019 40 Under 40 Award winners.
https://chybik-kristof.com/

Zvonařka Central Bus Terminal
Zvonařka 411
617 00 Brno
Czech Republic

Project Team: Ondrej Chybik, Michal Kristof, Ondrej Svancara (Project Leader), Ingrid Spacilova, Adam Jung, Krystof Foltyn, Martin Holy, Laura Emilija Druktenyte.

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ADA \ contemporary art gallery Presents "Cross Hatching Affluence" by Emerging Ghanaian Artist Hamid Nii Nortey

Left. Hamid Nii Nortey, “Deep Summer is when laziness finds respectability,” 2021. Acrylic on canvas, 48x40 inches. Courtesy of the artist and of ADA \ contemporary art gallery. Right. Hamid Nii Nortey, “Build an empire, leave a legacy,” 2021. Acrylic on canvas, 42x60 inches. Courtesy of the artist and of ADA \ contemporary art gallery.

On view from May 6 – June 16, 2021, Hamid Nii Nortey’s new series of glamorous urban scenes bear witness to Africa’s transforming urban landscape and to its burgeoning middle classes, thereby reclaiming ownership over prevailing narratives of poverty and war.

May 6 – June 16, 2021

April 22, 2021 (Accra, Ghana) – Accra-based ADA \ contemporary art gallery, specialized in the work of emerging artists across Africa and its diaspora, unveils its fourth consecutive debut solo exhibition since opening in October 2020 – Cross Hatching Affluence, an exhibition by emerging Ghanaian artist Hamid Nii Nortey (b. 1987). On view from May 6 – June 16, 2021 in person and online, the selection of 20 new figurative paintings acts as a mirror onto the Ghanaian capital’s fast-evolving urban and social landscape, thereby reappropriating a narrative long dominated by socioeconomic and political hardship. 

An emerging artist based in Accra, Hamid Nii Nortey has stood witness to the city’s considerable transformation in recent decades – one that has materialized in its expansion and architectural development and in the social dynamics that have emanated from it. Looking to the inhabitants of the city as reflections of these changes, Cross Hatching Affluence is a visual snapshot onto the growing middle- and upper-class elite that has come to represent an increasing share of Accra, as well as Ghana and the broader African continent’s population. A testament to the extensive socioeconomic and industrial development of post-Independence Ghana, the paintings move away from prevailing tropes of war, poverty and disease as they often relate to the continent. Shifting from the less fortunate to the flourishing middle class, Nortey reclaims ownership over this visual narrative, thereby leading the way for new voices and narratives from the continent to emerge.

At once mimicking and interpreting the rich fabric of Accra’s cityscape, Nortey’s paintings depict sweeping urban scenes of expansive buildings and interior scenes. Fascinated by the spatial structures, Nortey indulges viewers into experiencing physical space on a flat surface – rendering exterior and interior architecture as a pivotal structural element to his work. Adopting an architectural lens, he investigates the peculiar language of composition through lines. With a complex interplay of linear contrast and harmony, and with parallel lines converging in a vanishing point, Nortey builds on perspective as a crucial element in bringing the works to life and emulating the city’s bustling urban life.

Mirroring the works’ many compositional lines, Nortey’s hatching technique – consisting of closely spaced parallel and crossed lines which he uses to add texture and dimension – echoes his desire to communicate the beating heart of the city: this time, by breathing life into his characters. Reflective of his pursuit for realism in detail, Nortey seeks inspiration from Dutch post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh. Creating a visual link with the latter’s rough brushstroke treatment, best embodied in his notable Starry Night (1889), Nortey covers the skin of his figures with his characteristic drawing and painting crosshatching technique. Contrasting the artist’s broad and smooth Impressionist color palette, from sienna brown to burnt sienna, the close-knit parallel lines, varying in spacing and width, create a rough, loose organic texture, conveying the at once visual and tactile qualities of natural skin. Meticulous and playful sketches, his portraits grow into lifelike, and lively, visual impressions. 

Weaving his figures into his dazzling urban landscapes, Nortey invites his viewers to step into the lush narratives of the glamorous and successful – to, as quite literally depicted in Build an Empire, Leave a Legacy (2021), climb onto a Victorian staircase or go for a ride in a classic vintage car. In shedding a light onto the physical landscape and material markers of Ghana’s evolving society, they become the basis for the artist’s visual storytelling, at the border between the physical, the real, and the story and broader narrative, the fictional. Beyond their referential and decorative role, the complex cityscapes come to embody the artist’s conscious approach to image-making. Offering a new display of the “spectacle of Black wealth” as Nortey states – a cross-hatching of Ghanaian and African affluence – his paintings restructure prevailing visual narratives of the continent, hereby reclaiming ownership over them and affirming a sense of both pride and hope.

Cross Hatching Affluence is the fourth iteration of ADA \ contemporary art gallery’s ongoing program of dedicated solo and group exhibitions, off-site projects, talks, creative partnerships and more, launched in October 2020. Previous exhibitions include the sold-out solo shows of emerging Nigerian artists Collins Obijiaku (Gindin Mangoro: Under the Mango Tree, October 15 – November 19, 2020) and Eniwaye Oluwaseyi (The Politics of Shared Spaces, November 27, 2020 – January 10, 2021), and most recently of rising South African star Zandile Tshabalala (Enter Paradise, March 4 – April 30, 2021).

This Summer 2021, ADA will also launch a residency program bringing together a local Ghanaian artist and an international artist whose practice is rooted in Africa and its legacy. Cultivating a dialogue between local and international artists, the residency is a manifest to ADA’s engagement in nurturing Ghana and Africa’s emerging art community, while strengthening its ties and influence across global audiences.

—

NOTES TO EDITORS:
About Hamid Nii Nortey: 

Hamid Nii Nortey (b. 1987) is a Ghanaian artist whose compelling and colorful figurative portraits delve into Ghana and the African continent’s fast-evolving social landscape – shedding a light onto its diverse generations and social classes. Inspired by Dutch post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh, Nortey’s works are characterized by the signature cross-hatching technique which he applies onto the skins of his figures. In contrast with the smooth flesh tones rendered by his subtle and wide-ranging color palette, from sienna brown to burnt sienna, his parallel lines, varying in spacing and width and across multiple areas, allude to natural skin tones, all-the-while bringing life to his characters and urban sceneries.

Cross Hatching Affluence, presented at ADA \ contemporary art gallery, Accra, from May 6 – June 16, 2021, is the artist’s debut solo exhibition.

About ADA \ contemporary art gallery:
Based in Accra, Ghana, ADA \ contemporary art gallery specializes in the work of emerging artists across Africa and its diaspora. Established in 2020 by contemporary African art advisor Adora Mba, ADA is committed to nurturing Ghana and the continent’s contemporary art community and to fostering its ties and influence amongst global audiences.

Highlighting individual early career artistic practices, the gallery’s program includes dedicated solo exhibitions; off-site projects and exhibitions; site-specific commissions; talks; creative partnerships and philanthropic activities with local actors; and international art fairs.

In parallel, ADA will develop a residency program starting in the Summer 2021, bringing together a local Ghanaian artist and an international artist whose practice is rooted in Africa and its legacy. Cultivating a dialogue between the local and the international artists, the residency is a manifest to ADA’s engagement in strengthening these ties and to establishing Ghana’s emerging artistic scene and market internationally. 

ADA \ contemporary art gallery
Villaggio Vista
North Airport Road
Airport Residential Area
Accra, Ghana
info@ada-accra.com
www.ada-accra.com

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Le Sirenuse in Positano Celebrates 70 Years

View of Le Sirenuse terrace and pool. Photography by Brechenmacher & Baumann. Courtesy of Le Sirenuse.

March 24, 2021 (Positano, Italy) – In 1951, the four Sersale siblings – Paolo, Aldo, Franco and Anna – opened their holiday villa in the Italian seaside village of Positano to visiting guests. They called the small hotel Le Sirenuse, after the “mermaid islands” of the same name that shimmered on the horizon. Over the years, it would become a lifestyle icon, while retaining the intimate feel of a family home.

Careful evolution, rather than abrupt change, has always been Le Sirenuse’s watchword, as befits a hotel that has remained a family business for seven decades. Nevertheless the last several years have brought significant novelties aimed at reinventing and reaffirming Le Sirenuse’s style paradigms for the 21st century including the opening of Franco’s Bar, launch of the seasonal fitness and detox retreat Dolce Vitality, and growth of the Artists at Le Sirenuse program. Launched in 2015 and curated by Carla and Antonio Sersale in collaboration with British curator Silka Rittson-Thomas, it reflects Positano's close connection to creativity and, at the same time, the passion for collecting that has always distinguished the hotel. Every year, an artist is invited to create a work in the hotel in dialogue with the environment and spirit of the place. Previous commissions include Rita Ackermann, Caragh Thuring, Matt Connors, Alex Israel, Stanley Whitney and Martin Creed.

View of Positano. Photography by Brechenmacher & Baumann. Courtesy of Le Sirenuse.

Now, as Le Sirenuse prepares to celebrate its 70th anniversary in 2021, a new generation of the Sersale family has come on board to steer the hotel into the future, all the while maintaining the inimitable style, service standards and cultured dolce vita ambience that have always marked out the 58-room Amalfi Coast resort.

Born a year apart in September 1992 and 1993, Aldo Sersale and his younger brother Francesco have both recently returned from the United States to work alongside their parents, Antonio and Carla, bringing with them new millennial energies and perspectives to the management and strategic vision of Le Sirenuse and its associated fashion and lifestyle brand Le Sirenuse Positano.

Due to officially open this summer and situated in one of the elegant lounges of the 18th century family villa around which the hotel flourished, the Don’t Worry Bar is a revamp of a classic watering hole, a snug speakeasy for old-school hotel bar aficionados, where impeccably dressed barmen mix classic cocktails. The bar area itself is an antique jewel in gold leaf, walnut, brass and precious onyx, sensitively restored and restyled by interior designer Annalisa Bellettati, but its name pays tribute to a more recent work of art that hangs from the ceiling of the adjacent room: Martin Creed’s neon installation Don’t Worry.

View of Franco’s Bar. Photography by Brechenmacher & Baumann. Courtesy of Le Sirenuse.

Under chef Gennaro Russo, the hotel’s elegant, romantic La Sponda restaurant, with its breathtaking view of Positano, will present a new seasonal menu called Vesuvio that makes a virtue of simplicity and reflects the vibrant farming and fishing culture, age-old culinary traditions and rich biodiversity of the region that stretches from Mount Vesuvius to Naples and the Amalfi Coast.

Lastly, true to its remit as a display case and seedbed for contemporary art as well as traditional arts and crafts, Le Sirenuse asked British painter and artist Lucy Stein, whose work already features in the hotel’s collection, to create a celebratory 70th anniversary logo. Le Sirenuse is the alternative name of Li Galli, the “islands of the mermaids” that glint in the sea beyond the bay of Positano, and mermaids have long been a presence in Stein’s work. This synchronicity led Stein to come up with a delightful sketch of two dolce vita mermaids, a lecherous moon, champagne stars and a sun that seems to be getting hot under the collar. Stylish, playful and warm, it sums up lo spirito delle Sirenuse.

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NOTES TO EDITORS
About Le Sirenuse
Le Sirenuse opened in 1951, when the Sersale family turned their Amalfi Coast summer house in Positano into a stylish small hotel. Today the 58-room resort is considered one of Italy’s leading seaside luxury hotels, though it still retains the intimate, cultured atmosphere of a private home. The rooms are contemporary but reminiscent of a glamorous bygone era. It may have renowned La Sponda restaurant and spa designed by architect Gae Aulenti, but Le Sirenuse is still very much a family affair. Second-generation co-owner Antonio Sersale looks after the day-to-day running of the hotel, while his wife Carla oversees the boutique Emporio Sirenuseand designs beach-oriented fashion collection Le Sirenuse Positano. Le Sirenuse has won numerous awards and is internationally renowned for the quality of its services.
For more information, please visit www.sirenuse.it/en

Facebook | Instagram | @lesirenuse

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Salon Berlin – Museum Frieder Burda Unveils the First Institutional Solo Exhibition in Germany of Reputed Paris-Based Artist Matthew Lutz-Kinoy

Installation view: Matthew Lutz-Kinoy. Window to the Clouds; Salon Berlin, Museum Frieder Burda: Matthew Lutz-Kinoy, An opening of the field, 2020. Wool. Courtesy of the artist; The Ray, 2019. Acrylic on canvas, 260 x 170 cm. Private Collection. Courtesy of the artist; Photo: Thomas Bruns.

MATTHEW LUTZ-KINOY WINDOW TO THE CLOUDS
MARCH 19 – JUNE 5, 2021
Artist video

March 16, 2021 (Berlin, Germany) – On view from March 19–June 5 at Salon Berlin, the Berlin-based project and exhibition space of the internationally renowned Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden, Window to The Clouds presents Paris-based artist Matthew Lutz-Kinoy’s first institutional solo presentation in Germany. Mirroring Salon Berlin’s engagement for diverse potentialities in contemporary artistic creation, Lutz-Kinoy embraces the full dimensionality of the exhibition space as he conceives an immersive and sensorial environment for visitors, that sheds light on his deeply spatial approach to painting, rooted in the body and performance. Comprised of recent paintings, ceramics and a site-specific sculpture, the exhibition imagines a series of contemporary landscapes as painterly reflections that look at — and through — various architectures, historical paintings and current events. These environments act as stages for worlds of shared experience, human presence and touch.

Entering Salon Berlin, visitors pass through an immersive sculpture of pink pompoms and a soft pink carpet that spatialize Lutz-Kinoy’s interest in artistic transformation and spiritual transitions. The pompoms, a pluralistic form, at once connote costuming and flowers while also performing as a filter through which other works can be seen. Bodies, sacred and profane, appear in several of Lutz-Kinoy’s paintings in Window to The Clouds. A string of these reference the French sculptor Auguste Rodin’s La Porte de l’Enfer (1880–1917). Rodin’s dramatic bronze gate cites the epic poem Inferno, Dante Alighieri’s 14th-century meditation on the rejection of sin as the soul journeys toward the divine. Over one hundred and eighty figures jostle and writhe within its monumental frame. In Exhausted Angel Receives an Announcement in Rodin’s Garden (2019), Lutz-Kinoy depicts a cherub, rendered in the color of a blush, gazing upwards. Two shadowy arms reach down toward the weary figure from outside the composition’s edge. The garden scene, framed by a bushy rococo evergreen, is a painterly contemplation upon the porousness between interior and exterior environments. Like a window, a painting can invite a viewer beyond the present. In dialogue with Wings of Flamingos, Camargue (2020) — a large, site-specific ceiling painting in an adjacent gallery that calls to the figure of the exhausted angel — the lush floor covering directs attention to the theatrical possibilities of architecture, and to the activation of a room through ornamentation.

Matthew Lutz-Kinoy echoes this thematic generosity in his painting technique, which evokes printmaking. The artist’s additive application of acrylics, his gestural brushwork, and his overlapping, translucent colors offer an exploration of depth, both pictorial and spiritual. In Lombardy Capriccio (2020), a cloud of blue-green landscape is portrayed below a curving, embellished arch alluding to a section of ceiling molding in the artist’s home. The scene quotes Francesco Guardi’s Fantastic Landscape (ca. 1765) in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, an imaginary idyll of classical ruins that was sized to fit into a now absent decorative plaster surround. In other paintings, Lutz-Kinoy removes details from their surroundings in order to resituate them and to look at them anew, such as in Lectures of Burle Marx (2020), a portrait of a wild orchid found on a Rio de Janeiro sidewalk. Plants and flowers are often protagonists in Lutz-Kinoy’s work, appearing as companions to or extensions of the body. In each of these paintings, the frame is an active space where relationships can be recalibrated, transience articulated, and a field defined for the viewer to be absorbed in.

Turning seasons and fleeting clouds convey change and the passage of time. For Lutz-Kinoy, time is neither a linear nor singular concept. “Futurity can be a problem,” wrote the performance theorist José Esteban Muñoz in the influential book Cruising Utopia(2009), from which Lutz-Kinoy draws. In his argument, Muñoz critiques “straight time,” his term for conventional investments in the future. Time is straight, it follows, when the future is foreclosed on by the present. Heteronormativity is not, therefore, just a sexual relation, but is a mode of social production. Yet rather than contending that there is consequently — or even radically — no future, Muñoz celebrates the existence of many potential futures in the present. Futures are created on the dance floor, the stage, and elsewhere that queer worlds are enacted. In these places, a re-vision of the future is seen through the window of queered performativity.

“In this time, we are prompted or provoked to produce alternatives to structures, to levels of participation, systems of sharing. Looking inward, I knew that if I was able to make this show it would need to be soft, blush, tactile and responsive. Perhaps what happened in my studio, over the past year was a production of an potential reality; a frame through which I could find connections, describe the trials of these years and look out onto an endless stream of clouds.” – Matthew Lutz-Kinoy

Patricia Kamp, founder and artistic director of the Salon Berlin, expands, “Experience lies at the heart of Matthew Lutz-Kinoy’s artistic practice. By employing the entire materiality of the works, he engages with visitors’ multiple senses, inviting them to deeply engage with the space, both physically and intellectually. At a time when we eagerly miss shared moments and interactions, Window to The Clouds unfolds as an experiential, sensorial expanse in which we are immersed – nurturing, liberating, hopeful, like clouds in the sky.” She adds, “As the artist playfully appropriates the space on many levels, his works come to embody a vision which he and Salon Berlin share – one that continuously engages with the endless potentialities in contemporary artistic creation and human existence.”

In the interventions in this exhibition, which blend the languages of representation and performance, Lutz-Kinoy explores spaces beyond hereditary or inherited time. As views of a present not indebted to the future, these intimacies gift openings into heaven — or, as Muñoz names it, ecstasy — on earth.

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NOTES TO EDITORS:

About Salon Berlin – Museum Frieder Burda:

Opened in 2016, Salon Berlin is the Museum Frieder Burda’s Berlin-based exhibition and event space. Closely linked to the museum in Baden-Baden, the Salon accompanies and conveys the museum’s program and internationally-renowned Frieder Burda Collection – an archive of over 1,000 paintings, sculptures, photographs and works on paper retracing masterworks of Classical Modernism and contemporary art. Under the artistic direction of Patricia Kamp, who founded the Salon as part of the generation change at the foundation is dedicated to the promotion and mediation of new forms of artistic expression.
Past exhibitions included the first institutional solo exhibitions of Sonia Gomes or Bharti Kher in Germany as well as thematic exhibitions that brought into dialogue works by artists, such as Alicja Kwade, Candice Breitz, or Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg with artworks by Sigmar Polke, Gerhard Richter, William Copley or Willem de Kooning from the Frieder Burda Collection.
www.museum-frieder-burda.de

Opening hours
Tuesday–Thursday, 3pm–6pm, Friday–Saturday, 12pm–6pm
Please book your time slot and free ticket for your exhibition visit by phone (+49 (0)30 24047404) or on the museum website.

Window to the Clouds, Matthew Lutz-Kinoy
Curated by Patricia Kamp
Salon Berlin – Museum Frieder Burda, Berlin
March 19 – June 5, 2021

Impressionism in Russia – Dawn of the Avant-Garde
Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden
March 27 – August 15, 2021

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Noldor, Ghana’s First Independent Artist Residency, Grows into a Thriving Artistic Hub as it Unveils Annual Senior and Junior Fellowship Programs

Noldor announces extensive expansion plans, as the residency grows to include additional warehouse spaces to further engage and support contemporary artists from Africa and its diaspora. The new junior and senior fellowship programs welcome leading Ghanaian artist Gideon Appah and emerging local artists Abigail Aba Otoo and Joshua Oheneba-Takyi.

View of Noldor Artist Residency, Labadi, Accra, Ghana. Courtesy of Noldor Artist Residency.

March 9, 2021 (Accra, Ghana) – Inaugurated in November 2020, the Noldor Artist Residency is Ghana’s first independent arts residency and fellowship program for contemporary African artists, located in Accra, Ghana. Founded by contemporary African art specialist, social entrepreneur and philanthropist Joseph Awuah-Darko, Noldor is excited to announce the expansion of its existing programming and warehouse spaces. The new senior and junior fellowship programs extend Noldor’s continuous support to contemporary artists from Africa and its diaspora. 

In addition to its annual four-week artist residency, Noldor unveils a year-long program for senior and junior fellows to take place in its newly renovated 700-square-meter warehouse spaces. Forging a flourishing artistic commune, the new initiatives invite artists to collaboratively extend and deepen their practices. The very disposition of the warehouse space encourages this artistic experimentation. A U-shaped structure with connecting footbridges and exposed to extensive light, it is divided into several broad volumes adapted to a variety of formats and mediums.

Set in Accra’s blooming Labadi district, the residency is rooted in the seafront area’s fervent cultural life, nourished by a growing creative community that brings together artist studios, cultural centers and social venues as well as reputed Ghanaian artist Ablade Glover’s Artists Alliance Gallery, the largest art gallery in Sub-Saharan Africa. 

While the artist residency and fellowships provide the tools for the artists to develop themselves creatively, the program as a whole ensures and fosters a fruitful exchange between them, all-the-while placing Noldor at the heart of a broader local and global artistic ecosystem. 

“The notion of the artistic commune is a recurring theme throughout art history,” explains Noldor’s founder and director Joseph Awuah-Darko. “These often-repurposed industrial spaces, among which Beijing’s reputed 798 art district, have acted as havens for some of the most iconic artistic production in history. By revisiting these decaying warehouses – once a vast pharmaceutical factory complex – we envisioned and seized their full potential at a time when access to artistic infrastructure and resources is extremely limited in Ghana. Beyond the material support to its artists, Noldor mirrors the organic and collaborative dynamics that characterize past and current artist communities – establishing it as a thriving hub for contemporary art, committed to nurturing its artists’ creative process.”

Joshua Oheneba-Takyi in the Junior Fellow studio space. Courtesy of the artist and of Noldor Artist Residency.

Senior Fellowship

Only a few months after the inaugural artist residency of emerging Ghanaian artist Emmanuel Taku, Noldor welcomes its first senior fellow, prominent Ghanaian artist Gideon Appah (b. 1989, Accra). Appah has been invited to take over Noldor’s extensive fellow studio space for the coming year. In a continuous exchange, Appah will act as a mentor and experienced resource, all-the-while focusing on his studio work and on producing a dedicated portfolio ahead of a private showing at the end of the fellowship.

Through his use of mixed media, from thick, rough applications of acrylic to collaged layers of personal posters, prints and photographs, Appah materializes his strong emotional bond to these elements. He alludes to the organic transformation of memories and recollections over time – invoking important familial figures, luscious landscapes, prevalent architecture, folklore and daily rituals from his upbringing​. In the Noldor space, his first studio in Ghana, Appah returns to the very root of his work, his childhood in Ghana, plunging into the rawness and intimacy of his surroundings after several years abroad.

Aimed at mid-career artists from Africa or its diaspora, whose practice reflects Noldor’s affirmed African identity and vision, the senior fellowship ensures the representation of an experienced artist within its community – and the benefits of this presence to Noldor’s emerging participants.

Abigail Aba Otoo, She Rides and Reigns, 2021. Mixed media on canvas, 72 x 72 x 72 cm. Courtesy of the artist and of Noldor Artist Residency.

Junior Fellowship

Working alongside the annual artist resident and senior fellow, Noldor’s inaugural junior fellows, emerging Ghanaian artists Abigail Aba Otoo (b. 1997, Accra) and Joshua Oheneba-Takyi (b. 1997, Kumasi) will set their studios in the adjoining building, accessible through a connecting bridge and recently renovated as a shared warehouse space topped by designated studios for each fellow. 

Aimed exclusively at emerging artists living and working in Ghana, the junior fellowship offers year-long access to Noldor’s artistic resources and spaces where, in close contact with the other inhabitants of the space, the participants are encouraged to challenge their visual language as they work on creating a full portfolio of work. Upon completion, Noldor’s goal is to launch the junior fellows into the primary art market in partnership with a commercial gallery. 

The residency’s first female participant, emerging mixed media artist Abigail Aba Otoo delves deeper into her study of existential themes around the Black female form, addressing both the universal female identity and mental health. Her junior fellow counterpart, self-taught artist Joshua Oheneba-Takyi pursues his exploration of notions of displacement, all-the-while expanding on the use of the chair as metaphor for the latter throughout his drawings and paintings. 

The new fellowships further solidify Noldor’s goal to support African artists – both local and global, emerging and established – through their creative process, while acting as a pillar for their introduction and development within the Ghanaian and global contemporary art scenes. Marking Noldor’s inauguration in November 2020, the first artist residency welcomed an emerging African artist with previous technical training, but limited access to infrastructure and material resources. Produced throughout the program, Taku’s new painting series, Temple of Blackness – It Takes Two, was exhibited at Noldor from December 4, 2020 – January 17, 2021. Once again attesting to Noldor’s durable engagement for its artists, Taku’s solo debut exhibition, The Chosen Few, which builds on his residency series, will be presented at Maruani Mercier Gallery in Knokke, Belgium, from April 3 – May 15, 2021.

Establishing itself as a stepping-stone for African artists both locally and internationally, Noldor advocates for a both organic and dynamic approach to creation. Through its unconventional and ever-growing format, the non-profit fosters a creatively cohesive yet independent community. With the continuous support of Noldor’s Founder, Joseph Awuah-Darko, Cultural Curator Rita Benissan, as well as the residency’s Advisory Patrons, including renowned architect Sir David Adjaye OBE, the artists are immersed in a thriving artistic ecosystem: one that allows them to learn and grow from one another.  

Both locally attuned and globally minded, Noldor extends its engagement to its artists and to artistic creation beyond its walls. As they emerge from the program, it ensures the longevity of its residents and fellows’ careers within a competitive local and international art market. Moreover, nurtured by the local context, Noldor is committed to giving back to the local community by continuously engaging in philanthropic work in Ghana and abroad. Acting as a cultural repository, it encourages educational initiatives and offers learning opportunities to participants, local and global audiences alike. In doing so, it actively seeks to alter perceptions of and access to contemporary African art. All-the-while breaking down ubiquitous barriers of education and wealth within Ghana and across Africa, Noldor affirms itself as a bridge between local and global creative scenes, committed to strengthening the country and continent’s ties with the international cultural scenes.

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NOTES TO EDITORS:

About Gideon Appah:

Born in Accra, Ghana, Gideon Appah (b. 1989) is the Noldor Artist Residency’s first senior fellow. A mixed media artist, using thick, rough applications of acrylic to build up his compositions, Appah draws from personal experiences of life in Accra, responding directly to his own familial stories and Ghana’s history.

A graduate in Fine Arts from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Appah presented his debut solo show in 2013, at the Goethe Institute, Accra. In 2016, Appah was shortlisted for Ghana’s renowned Kuenyehia Art Prize for Contemporary Ghanaian Arts and received the 1st Merit Prize Award of the Barclays Atelier Art Competition, Johannesburg. The exposure led to a three-month residency at the Bag Factory Studios. 

Appah is represented by notable international galleries, including Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York; Gallery 1957, London and Accra; and Afikaris, Paris. His works have been exhibited internationally, including: Casa Barragán, Mexico City, 2019; Ghana Science Museum, Accra, 2017; Nubuke Foundation, Accra, 2017. His work is included in the collections of the Absa Museum, Johannesburg; Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden, Marrakesh; and Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto as well as several private collections.

About Joshua Oheneba-Takyi:

Born in Kumasi, Ghana, Joshua Oheneba-Takyi demonstrated an affinity for the arts at an early age, using it as a child as a coping mechanism to make up for his dyslexia. Moving away from these difficulties, Oheneba-Takyi pursued a degree in Construction Technology and Management at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (2020), all-the-while finetuning his artistic practice through conscientious self-teaching.

Oheneba-Takyi’s versatile practice, based on drawing and painting, has increasingly drawn attention. In his work, he intimately documents and examines the themes of placement and displacement, often employing the chair as a metaphor for notions of stability and belonging. 

He held his debut solo exhibition, Inside Energy, at the Jubilee Mall, Kumasi, in 2018, and has taken part in several group exhibitions, including Full Moon, at Antique Lemonade Gallery, Accra, 2017, and Secret Garden, Accra, 2019.

About Abigail Aba Otoo:

Born in Accra, Ghana, Abigail Aba Otoo (b. 1997) is currently completing a Pharmaceutical Doctorate Student at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. Actively pursuing her artistic practice in tandem with her studies, Aba Otoo explores existential themes around the Black female form, addressing issues from mental health to female identity. Using her signature mixed media approach, which incorporates panty hoes, plastic, gold leaf, and chalk, Aba seeks to create evocative, subtly figurative sculptural compositions on canvas.

Actively engaged in initiatives around psychological wellness, she donated works to the Serenity Mental Health Advocacy and Community Fundraising Event (2019), a cause in which she continues to be involved. A newly emerging artist, she has taken part in select group exhibitions, including Full Moon, Secret Garden, Accra, 2019.

About Noldor:

Founded in 2020 by contemporary African art specialist, social entrepreneur and philanthropist Joseph Awuah-Darko, the Noldor Artist Residency is an arts residency and fellowship program for contemporary African artists. Located in Accra, Ghana, and as the country’s first independent residency, Noldor is committed to nurturing the creative process of artists from Africa and its diaspora, while acting as a pillar for their development within the Ghanaian and global contemporary art scenes.

Noldor Artist Residency
128 Ring Road East
La, Accra, Ghana
www.noldorresidency.com

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ADA \ contemporary art gallery Presents Inaugural Solo Exhibition of South African Artist Zandile Tshabalala

Left. Zandile Tshabalala, Enter Paradise I, 2020. Acrylic on canvas, 60 x 70 cm. Courtesy of the artist and of ADA \ contemporary art gallery. Right. Zandile Tshabalala, Enter Paradise II, 2020. Acrylic on canvas, 60 x 70 cm. Courtesy of the artist and of ADA \ contemporary art gallery.

Zandile Tshabalala’s latest series of paintings, titled Enter Paradise, places the Black female figure at the heart of her sensual dreamscapes, thereby revisiting the representation of the Black woman throughout art history.

March 4 – April 18, 2021

February 18, 2021 (Accra, Ghana) – ADA \ contemporary art gallery, specialized in the work of emerging artists across Africa and its diaspora, unveils Enter Paradise, an exhibition of new paintings by South African emerging female artist Zandile Tshabalala (b. 1999, Soweto). Marking the artist’s debut solo career, and the gallery’s third consecutive debut solo show since opening in October 2020, the new paintings include a selection of figurative self-portraits in which Tshabalala revisits the representation of the Black female figure. Presented at ADA’s Accra-based gallery space and online, the exhibition will be on view from March 4 to April 18, 2021. 

Currently completing her (BA)FINA from the University of the Witwatersrand, SA, Tshabalala creates a distinct visual narrative and artistic expression by challenging and deconstructing art historical canons of representation – recurrent motives which often marginalize and obliterate the Black female figure. Struck by this persistent absence or subtle exclusion of Black women, she investigates the ways in which they have been and continue to be depicted, interrogating alternate forms of portrayal. Guided by this analytic yet deeply personal impulse, she challenges existing representations which have come to prevail. In their place, she sheds light on the numerous ways, states and postures, in which Black women can be represented – whether real or entirely constructed. 

Titled Enter Paradise, Tshabalala’s opulent acrylic paintings are built around that very theme and a shared, fantasized conception of it. An imagined state often envisioned as lush and tropical, the term gradually acquires an entirely different meaning for the artist. In choosing it as the heart of her series, she both calls it out as yet another construct and reviews her understanding of it – and that of her viewer. “I have found myself engaging with the term ‘Paradise’ in a different manner, moving away from an idealized representation of ‘Paradise’ to an everyday, tangible perception of smaller ‘paradises.’ This kind of engagement required of me to apply not only full attention to my thoughts and emotions, but also an awareness to the moments I often overlook.”

Moving away from perceptions of the Black female figure as an inferior, undesirable symbol, the figurative canvases depict confident, steady women, controlled and empowered in their beauty, intelligence and subtle allure, affirming ownership over their own body and sexual nature. Highly intuitive, she reimagines this fierce yet composed Black woman within the very canons of sensuality and its representation. Combining a vibrant color scheme and luxurious animal print patterns, her semi-abstract backgrounds are at one with her highly pigmented skin-toned figures as they fuse into a unique sensual dreamscape. Yet, ultimately, Tshabalala’s portraits take center stage as they powerfully and unapologetically face the viewer.

Entirely composed of self-portraits, the painting series moves away from accurate depiction, calling instead to the symbolism behind the artist’s repeated presence in her works. A bald, Black woman herself, Tshabalala mirrors her personal engagement and confident affirmation of her body in her art. Beyond, or in addition to, their status as universal Black female figures, her characters come to embody the artist herself, her rejection of set standards and notions of beauty and advocacy for individual empowerment.

Enter Paradise is the third iteration of ADA \ contemporary art gallery’s program of dedicated solo and group exhibitions, off-site projects, talks, creative partnerships and more. Inaugurated in October 2020, the gallery’s previous exhibitions include the respective solo shows of emerging Nigerian artists Collins Obijiaku, Gindin Mangoro: Under the Mango Tree, and Eniwaye Oluwaseyi, The Politics of Shared Spaces.

This year, ADA will also launch a residency program bringing together a local Ghanaian artist and an international artist whose practice is rooted in Africa and its legacy. Cultivating a dialogue between local and international artists, the residency is a manifest to ADA’s engagement in nurturing Ghana and Africa’s emerging art community, while strengthening its ties and influence across global audiences.

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NOTES TO EDITORS:
About Zandile Tshabala: 

Zandile Tshabalala (b. 1999, Soweto, South Africa) is a visual artist currently completing her BA(FINA) at the University of the Witwatersrand, SA. Working primarily with acrylic and oil paint, which she sometimes infuses into sculptural elements and onto canvas, she frequently references and revisits the work of her predecessors, with most notable influences including Kerry James Marshall, Njideka Akunyili-Crosby, Cinga Samson, Nandipha Mntambo and Henri Rousseau. Addressing notions of representation, in particular that of the black woman in historical paintings, her works seek to challenge the latter through her depictions of an affirmed body and gaze.

Zandile Tshabalala’s work has been featured in several international exhibitions including: UNIT London, UK; Victoria Yards, Johannesburg, SA; and the Thabo Mbeki Foundation, Turffontein, SA. Enter Paradise is the artist’s first solo exhibition.

About ADA \ contemporary art gallery:
Based in Accra, Ghana, ADA \ contemporary art gallery specializes in the work of emerging artists across Africa and its diaspora. Established in 2020 by contemporary African art advisor Adora Mba, ADA is committed to nurturing Ghana and the continent’s contemporary art community and to fostering its ties and influence amongst global audiences.

Highlighting individual early career artistic practices, the gallery’s program includes dedicated solo exhibitions; off-site projects and exhibitions; site-specific commissions; talks; creative partnerships and philanthropic activities with local actors; and international art fairs. Each exhibition also extends online, complementing the physical experience with a multifaceted digital immersion into each artist’s personal practice.

In parallel, ADA will develop a residency program starting in 2021, bringing together a local Ghanaian artist and an international artist whose practice is rooted in Africa and its legacy. Cultivating a dialogue between the local and the international artists, the residency is a manifest to ADA’s engagement in strengthening these ties and to establishing Ghana’s emerging artistic scene and market internationally.

ADA \ contemporary art gallery
Villaggio Vista
North Airport Road
Airport Residential Area
Accra, Ghana
info@ada-accra.com
www.ada-accra.com

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KW Institute for Contemporary Art Announces its 30th Anniversary Program

To mark its 30th anniversary, KUNST-WERKE BERLIN e. V. is inviting artists to revisit the institution’s seminal role in the production and dissemination of contemporary art with a year-long program of exhibitions and special commissions, an art auction, an elaborate publication, and a celebratory weekend in its courtyard and neighborhood.

NEW DATES FOR UPCOMING ANNIVERSARY EVENTS 

Katharina Sierverding, Deutschland wird deutscher | April 27—May 6, 2021 | Billboard installation across Berlin and KW (on view throughout the Summer) 

Art Auction | June 11 and December 3, 2021 | Grisebach Auction House, Berlin

Celebratory Weekend | September 17—19, 2021 | KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin

Courtyard of Kunst-Werke Berlin, 1991. Photography by Uwe Walter. Courtesy of KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin.

April 28, 2021 (Berlin, Germany) – KUNST-WERKE BERLIN e. V., the support association of the KW Institute for Contemporary Art and the Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, announces its ongoing celebratory program on the occasion of the institution’s 30-year anniversary. Reflecting its pivotal role in the production, display, and dissemination of contemporary art, KW looks back on three decades of exhibitions and events, which established it as a pioneering space for progressive practices within the Berlin and international art scenes, and significantly contributed to the development of Berlin as an international center for contemporary art.

To mark the anniversary, KW Institute for Contemporary Art presents a range of exhibitions featuring artists Renée Green, Leonilson, Michael Stevenson, and Amelie von Wulffen, group exhibitions co-curated by artists Iman Issa and Ghislaine Leung, and a new performance piece by Michele Rizzo as well as a program of commissions, an art auction, and a celebratory weekend in its courtyard and neighborhood.

The Anniversary Program

Launched on January 15, 2021 KW’s extensive anniversary program features a series of new commissions, including Susan Philipsz’s sound installation in KW’s courtyard in homage of political activist Rosa Luxemburg on the anniversary of her execution, which was created during Philipsz’s residency at KW in 2002. On view from April 27—May 6, 2021, the re-installation of Katharina Sieverding’s monumental print Deutschland wird deutscher (1993) is to be displayed in the entranceway of KW as well as on billboards across Berlin. Furthermore, artist Sissel Tolaas will create a limited edition of soap carefully composed from particles she collected at the KW building, a former margarine factory. 

Complementing this anniversary program, KW Friends e.V., the sponsoring association of KW and the Berlin Biennale, will organize a major two-part art auction, in collaboration with renowned Berlin-based fine art auction house Grisebach. Taking place on June 11 and December 3, 2021, works by over 60 artists who have significantly shaped the history of KW and the Berlin Biennale will be featured. The annual program’s key event will be a weekend-long celebration on September 17–19, 2021, featuring an extensive program of events, performances, and the launch of the first publication retracing the history of KUNST-WERKE BERLIN e.V..

The full 30-year anniversary program can be found here.

The history of the KUNST-WERKE BERLIN e. V.

Founded on July 1, 1991 by Klaus Biesenbach, Alexandra Binswanger, Philipp von Doering, Clemens Homburger, and Alfonso Rutigliano, KUNST-WERKE BERLIN e. V. set its roots in a derelict former margarine factory located on Auguststraße 69 in the Berlin-Mitte district. Through pivotal exhibitions, starting with the project 37 Räume (1992), artistic director Klaus Biesenbachpositioned the KW Institute of Contemporary Art internationally. In 1996, a group around him founded the now internationally renowned Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, which first took place in 1998. In 2002, Gabriele Horn took over the directorship of the Berlin Biennale and from 2004 acted as the director of KW and the Berlin Biennale, which since lie under a joint support association. While Gabriele Horn remained director of the Berlin Biennale, Krist Gruijthuijsen succeeded her as new director of KW Institute for Contemporary Art in July 2016.

In its thirty years, KUNST-WERKE BERLIN e. V. has considerably shaped the development of contemporary art by critically examining current tendencies and discourses within society. Exhibitions, commissions, and multidisciplinary events, which feature distinctive collaborations with artists and institutions, continue to underline and refine current focal points as part of a national and international discourse in arts and culture.

KW’s national and international significance continuously grows, cemented by thematic shows as tekkno turns to sound of poetry(1995); Stand der Dinge (2000); Territories (2003); Zur Vorstellung des Terrors: Die RAF-Ausstellung (2005); Into Me / Out of Me (2006); One on One (2012/13); Fire and Forget. On Violence (2015); and The Making of Husbands: Christina Ramberg in Dialogue (2019/2020).

Many outstanding artists have presented significant solo exhibitions at KW, among which Absalon, Kader Attia, Kate Cooper, Keren Cytter, Anna Daučíková, Ceal Floyer, Cyprien Gaillard, Beatriz González, Douglas Gordon, Judith Hopf, Channa Horwitz, Carsten Höller, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Hanne Lippard, Renata Lucas, Hiwa K, Annette Kelm, Adam Pendleton, Mika Rottenberg, Christoph Schlingensief, Hassan Sharif, Anri Sala, Wael Shawky, Santiago Sierra, Ryan Trecartin and Lizzie Fitch, and Ian Wilson.

Over the years, the program of KW has been developed together with decisive curatorial voices, including Anselm Franke, Susanne Pfeffer, Ellen Blumenstein, Anna Gritz, and many others.

You can also visit the anniversary’s dedicated website here and learn more about the history of KW and the Berlin Biennale.

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NOTES TO EDITORS
KW Institute for Contemporary Art
Auguststraße 69
10117 Berlin
www.kw-berlin.de

KW Institute for Contemporary Art is institutionally supported by the Senate Department for Culture and Europe, Berlin.

The 30 Years of KW art auction takes place in cooperation with Grisebach GmbH. KW, A History will be published by DISTANZ and is generously supported by Volkswagen AG and KW Freunde. KW’s celebratory weekend is generously supported by Olafur Eliasson and Julia Stoschek.

The exhibitions and projects in the 2021 program take place in collaboration with and/or are supported by: 

Titles and exhibition dates are subject to change.

In the interest of everyone’s safety, we kindly ask you to inform yourselves about the current COVID-19 hygiene measures and precautions when visiting our exhibitions and events.

As of: April 20, 2021

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The Austrian Cultural Forum New York Presents Artist Interview Series as Part of Current Exhibition: "Spaces of No Control"

Conducted as part of its ongoing exhibition, the bimonthly Interview Series invite the participating artists to address notions of the modern city and urban dystopias of the 20th and 21st centuries, with talks by Hans Haacke and Sabine Bitter/Helmut Weber.

Available on the ACFNY’s YouTube Channel.

The exhibition at the ACFNY will be on view through February 19, 2021 | By appointment only

VALIE EXPORT, Syntagma, 1983. 16-mm film transferred to video: color, sound. 17 minutes 3 seconds. From the compilation: METANOIA. Courtesy of Kontakt Collection, Vienna.

December 10, 2020 (New York, NY) – Extended until February 19, 2021, the Austrian Cultural Forum New York (ACFNY) presents Spaces of No Control, a group exhibition curated by Walter Seidl exploring the notion of the modern city and its signifying dystopias of the 20th and 21st centuries. The multifaceted show brings together contemporary artists based in Austria and the United States to comment on the current definitions of citizenship and public space. 

Complementing its appointment-only display, the ACFNY has launched a dedicated bimonthly Artist Interview Series inviting the participating artists to discuss the addressed themes and their work in the show, with interviews including Hans Haacke, Sabine Bitter/Helmut Weber, Kay Walkowiak and more in the coming weeks. New participating artist talks will be released every two weeks and available on the ACNFY’s YouTube channel, until the closing of the exhibition on February 19, 2021.

Over the past five decades, public space and architecture have changed drastically as a result of modern technology and its influence on gentrification. The precision of technology no longer requires authorship nor a tangible physical presence to document reality. The more advanced technology grows, the more control investors have in the ownership of urban planning, as citizens are gradually forced to forgo their authority and waive their access to public spaces. In light of these dynamics, New York and other large cities have been under constant artistic scrutiny as a result of municipal changes that call for permanent control, often marked by capitalist trends.

Spaces of No Control’s featured artists examine the histories of specific places and create a narrative on the defining architectural and social impressions over the urban structure. The core of the show lies in photographic examinations of cities and their social strata, which are then transferred onto other media thereby engaging viewers to reflect on how to circulate with this new reality. The exhibition analyzes city planning – initially intentioned to optimize rather than reorganize society – and the results of its complex history.

Artist Interview with Hans Haacke. 6 minutes 30 seconds. Courtesy of the artist and of the Austrian Cultural Forum New York.

Works in the ACFNY’s iconic building’s lobby include Kay Walkowiak’s video, Minimal Vandalism, which shows a skateboarder skillfully leaving traces onto art installations, bringing to light the essence of minimal art and how these works are perceived within public spaces and often treated with irony. Francis Ruyter’s experimental paintings address the mechanical nature of the digital era, which hinders independent action and forces individuals to give in to the internet’s dynamics and evolving demands.

In the Lower Mezzanine, Taryn Simon’s collection confronts the divide between those with and those without the privilege of access, and reveals that which lies hidden and out-of-sight within the borders of the United States. Located in the Upper Mezzanine is VALIE EXPORT’s short film, Syntagma, created in the 1970s to investigate the body as a membrane between the self and the public, contemplating how the female body is inscribed into society. 

The building’s Upper Gallery includes a short documentary of Hans Haacke’s controversial work, And You Were Victorious After All, entirely burnt down by neo-Nazi groups in Graz, Austria, in 1988 despite constant surveillance. His work provides a telling example of the artist’s ultimate belief that citizens have no control over their contributions within public space. In this sense, Haacke’s documentary can be considered one of the most significant and resounding contributions to Austrian art history. 

Concluding the exhibition, the main gallery includes Sabine Bitter/Helmut Weber’s Performing Publicness, a photographic representation of the Park Avenue Plaza that analyzes the particularities and contradictions that lie in the private ownership of New York’s public spaces. Finally, Tony Cokes’s video-sound installation interrogates the ways in which political and social articulations in cities are driven by the media and preconceived image reproduction.

Featured artists include:

Sabine Bitter/Helmut Weber, Tony Cokes, VALIE EXPORT, Hans Haacke, Francis Ruyter, Taryn Simon, Kay Walkowiak. Curated by Walter Seidl.

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NOTES TO EDITORS
Spaces of No Control Interview Series
Available on the ACNFY’s YouTube channel

About the Curator
Walter Seidel is a curator, artist and critic based in Vienna. Having studied cultural studies (MA) and contemporary history (PhD) at universities in Graz, Seattle, Paris and New York, his work deals with the transformation of image politics and the inherent identity constellations. Seidl curated numerous exhibitions throughout Europe, North America, Hong Kong, Japan and South Africa. His writings include various catalog essays for artist monographs, exhibition reviews, and criticism. Seidl contributes to several international art magazines, most frequently to Camera Austria International, where he is also board member and curator.

About the Austrian Cultural Forum New York
With its architectural landmark building in Midtown Manhattan, the Austrian Cultural Forum New York is dedicated to innovative and cutting-edge programming, showcasing the best of Austrian contemporary art, music, literature, performance, and academic thought in New York and throughout the United States. In addition to presenting three group exhibitions per year in its multi-level gallery space and housing around 13,000 volumes of Austriaca in its library named in honor of the late Vienna-born American writer and intellectual Frederic Morton, it hosts up to 100 free events per year in its own auditorium and supports as many projects at partner institutions across the nation.
www.acfny.org

Austrian Cultural Forum New York
11 East 52nd St. (btw. 5th & Madison)
New York, NY 10022
(212) 319 5300
Open weekdays, 10:30 AM – 5:30 PM
In-person visit by appointment only | Virtual gallery tour available for media representatives and journalists.
Admission to exhibitions, concerts, and other events is free.

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Noldor, Ghana’s First Independent Artist Residency, Presents Inaugural Resident and Exhibition by Ghanaian Artist Emmanuel Taku

The inaugural exhibition, Temple of Blackness – It Takes Two, brings together 10 new paintings by Emmanuel Taku. Conceived during his four-week residency at Noldor, this first solo exhibition draws on figurative surrealism to reclaim a Black narrative and identity.

December 4, 2020 – January 17, 2021

Left. Brothers in Red, Emmanuel Taku. Mixed media: acrylic and newspaper on canvas. 127 x 200 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Noldor Artist Residency. Right. Close view of Brothers in Yellow, Emmanuel Taku. Mixed media: acrylic and newspaper on canvas. 127 x 200 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Noldor Artist Residency.

December 8, 2020 (Accra, Ghana) – Marking its first edition, Noldor, Ghana’s first independent artist residency program, unveils Temple of Blackness – It Takes Two, the debut solo presentation of its inaugural resident, emerging Ghanaian artist Emmanuel Taku. The exhibition, on view from December 4, 2020 - January 17, 2021 at Noldor’s warehouse studio space in Accra’s La district, features 10 portraits created by the artist during his time at the residency. Building on Taku’s figurative surrealist approach, the new work revisits and reclaims a Black narrative and identity. Reflecting the residency’s profound concern for its artists’ creative development, this first iteration attests to Noldor’s role as a catalyst in the emergence of a striving Ghanaian local subculture.

A technically trained emerging African artist with only limited resources to pursue his art, the Accra-based artist Emmanuel Taku was selected as Noldor’s first resident and invited to take part in the annual four-week program in November 2020. For the first three weeks, the artist resided and created in Noldor’s large-scale warehouse studio space located in Accra’s seaside La district. The final week took place in a secluded space in the periphery of central Accra, an alternative psychological retreat where Taku received personal, professional and creative guidance. Following Noldor’s unconventional format, the residency reflects an organic, holistic approach to creation – one where emotional health nourishes an artist’s creative process. 

Mentored by mid-career Ghanaian artist Gideon Appah, Taku produced a selection of works expanding on his existing style. Temple of Blackness – It Takes Two presents 10 figurative surrealist portraits, with the artist’s distinct silk-screening approach. Throughout his practice, Taku, a graduate in Visual Arts and Textiles from the Ghanatta College of Art and Design, uses a variety of materials, from acrylic to textiles and newspapers, which he applies on canvas, fiberglass, fiber net, mesh or plywood. Manipulating and further exploring the materials, he captures the Black body in abstract form, recalling a human shape yet endowing it with a supernatural essence. Individual or paired, the figures become anthropomorphic silhouettes, bodies engulfed in a common silkscreened fabric print thereby creating of sense of consolidation, synergy, and unity. Reflecting the artist’s fascination with fabric and pattern, in particular paisley, the choice of material calls to a mixed cultural identity – a textile fashioned in India, which has since adopted a British sensibility and now integrated a sartorial mainstream.

The Cowboys in Blue, Emmanuel Taku. Mixed media: acrylic and newspaper on canvas. 127 x 200 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Noldor Artist Residency.

Sketching these abstracted Black bodies, one as a reflection of the other, Taku projects a mixed, therefore in part shared, Black identity. Revisiting a narrative in which the Black body is often objectified or politicized, he reclaims perceptions of Blackness, overturning them by affirming Black identity as one whole worthy of reverence, both historically and today. “This body of work was inspired by British-Ghanaian artist John Akomfrah’s discussion on his perceptions as child that museums presenting works by J. M. W. Turner or John Constable were ‘Temples of Whiteness,’” Taku explains. “This notion stuck with me and drove me to aspire for my own ‘Temple of Blackness,’ one that would capture Black people as demi-gods, or heroes. In depicting these Black bodies as abstract, analogous shapes, all-the-more united by their silkscreen casts, I seek to reclaim their anecdotal, objectified representation, instead affirming a shared, universal and strong Black identity.”

On view until January 17, 2021, the exhibition affirms the residency’s vision to act in the development of a striving local subculture, a Ghanaian and African ecosystem where artists, museums, art galleries and a growing collectorship meet. All-the-while globally minded, Noldor will subsequently bring the works to global audiences through partnerships with international galleries. “My time at Noldor acted as a turning point in my artistic practice. I was given the opportunity and resources to develop myself creatively, expanding on an approach which I have long explored, and to anticipate a career as an international artist.”

The second edition of Noldor will take place in the Fall 2021, with the selection process to occur over the Summer 2021.

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NOTES TO EDITORS:
About Emmanuel Taku:
Born in Accra, Ghana, Emmanuel Taku has been practicing portraiture for over ten years. Using a variety of materials from acrylic to textiles and newspapers which he applies on canvas, fiberglass, fiber net, mesh or plywood, Taku’s visual language distinctly draws on figurative surrealism. 

A graduate in Visual Arts and Textiles from the Ghanatta College of Art and Design, Taku subsequently acted as an art teacher in figurative drawing. All-the-while pursuing his independent work, he sought inspiration from peers including rising Ghanaian artists Kwesi Botchway and Gideon Appah.

Selected to take part in Noldor’s inaugural residency program in November 2020, Emmanuel Taku will unveil a new series of figurative surrealist portraits conceived through his distinct mixed-media approach. Titled Temple of Blackness – It Takes Two and presented at Noldor’s studio space from December 4, 2020, to January 17, 2021, the exhibition marks Taku’s solo debut and introduction to the contemporary art world.

About Noldor:
Established in 2020, the Noldor Artist Residency is an annual four-week program based in Accra, Ghana. Founded by contemporary African art specialist, social entrepreneur and philanthropist Joseph Awuah-Darko, the residency invites one emerging African artist, technically trained and with limited access to artistic resources, to expand on his practice in a dedicated studio space and retreat. Ghana’s first independent residency program, Noldor is committed to nurturing African artists’ creative process, while acting as a pillar for their introduction and development within a flourishing local subculture and global contemporary art scene.

Temple of Blackness – It Takes Two
December 4, 2020 – January 17, 2021 | Monday – Saturday, 9am – 5pm
Noldor Artist Residency
128 Ring Road East
La, Accra, Ghana
www.noldorresidency.com

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CHYBIK + KRISTOF ARCHITECTS Affirm their Social Engagement with Brutalist Bus Terminal Redesign

Zvonařka Central Bus Terminal, Brno, Czech Republic. Photograhy by alexshootsbuildings. Courtesy of CHYBIK + KRISTOF Architects & Urban Designers.

The new design for Brno’s Zvonařka Central Bus Terminal revisits the station’s defining role in the city’s social fabric while preserving its Brutalist structure. Self-initiated by the architects, the project reaffirms their longstanding engagement for social change.

December 7, 2020 (Brno, Czech Republic) – CHYBIK + KRISTOF ARCHITECTS & URBAN DESIGNERS have announced the forthcoming ground-breaking of their redesign of Brno’s Zvonařka Central Bus Terminal in the Czech Republic. Self-initiated by the architects in 2011 and with reconstruction to begin, the project involved preserving the existing Brutalist heritage structure while addressing the need to rethink a decaying public space into a functional entity adapted to evolving social needs. Stressing the station’s central role in the city and region’s social fabric, the project affirms CHYBIK + KRISTOF’s continuous engagement in establishing architects’ responsibility as catalysts for positive social change.

Designed in 1984 and built in 1988 in response to insufficient capacity of bus stations across the city, the Zvonařka Central Bus Terminal has continuously acted as the region’s main bus station for intercity transport. Originally conceived as an extensive transportation hub, only two of its five initially projected construction phases were completed. Following the Czech Republic’s 1989 Velvet Revolution, which prompted the first non-communist government since 1948, the station was privatized, resuming its role as a bus station and foregoing construction plans and visions of its future. Established as a Brutalist heritage site, its high maintenance costs led to little upkeep, driving to its gradual deterioration.

Original drawing of the Zvonařka Central Bus Terminal, 1984.

In 2011, CHYBIK + KRISTOF, having recently established their studio in Brno, a city for which they shared a deep connection, grew aware of the station’s decaying conditions. Eager to advance a positive alternative to a seemingly irrecoverable space, they reached out to its private owners with an elementary study and redesign proposal. Published and widely shared on social media, the proposal drew considerable media and public attention. In a process strongly facilitated by the architects, a conversation was prompted between local private stakeholders and public authorities – one revolving in part on the attainment of the sufficient funds to bring their vision to life. Accounting for the complexities of the project and after a four-year-long collaborative exchange, the needed funding was attained in 2015, notably through the project’s recognition as a European funds project, thereby securing a prominent share of the investment.

Engaged in preserving the symbolic local heritage embodied by the Brutalist structure, CHYBIK + KRISTOF create a contemporary redesign, receptive to the station’s primary role as a central transportation hub – through which over 820 regional, national and international connections and 17,000 passengers transit each day. Following the original square floorplan, the redesigned main hall is an open structure devoid of walls. Acting as a two-sided roof, the inner space houses the individual bus stops while the outer area serves as a parking space for buses. Envisioning it as an intrinsically public space, CHYBIK + KRISTOF replace the existing stands – temporary structures added in the 1990s – with an information office, ticketing and waiting areas as well new platforms and an orientation system accessible to the disabled. The architects’ design gives prominence to light as easing access, evoking comfort and promoting safety. By removing the temporary stands, they open up the terminal onto the city, providing a second entry to the station at street level. While they repaint the main worn-down structure in white and install new light fixtures, they preserve and proudly bring to light the wall art on temporary stands throughout the station, previously concealed between them. Drawing a clear path to buses and various services, CHYBIK + KRISTOF transform the building into a dynamic social hub, channeling an unrestricted flow of locals and passengers alike.

Reflective of unclear, evolving and at times conflicting urban visions, the Zvonařka Central Bus Terminal is one of many similar residual spaces, preserved yet poorly maintained, and often entirely disconnected from their surroundings. As both architecture and design professionals and users of the urban space, CHYBIK + KRISTOF adopt the critical lens for which architects are well equipped – one that renders them both sensitive to and critical of an environment and brings them to consider the inherent relationships, nuances and synergies between the envisioned and the built, the public and the private, the function and the experience. Affirming what has grown into a deep-seated social responsibility over the past decade, they consider the project through not only its function, but also a studied understanding of its impact on the social fabric. By involving diverse actors – architects, public entities and private partners, local and external – they once again demonstrate architects’ central role as active exponents for change and instigators of a dialogue. In an attempt to correct past shortcomings, they see architects today as obliged to bring forth a holistic approach that moves beyond the mere construction process towards user-centered design which adheres to the environmental and social fabric.

CHYBIK + KRISTOF, Visualization of the new Zvonařka Central Bus Terminal, Brno, Czech Republic. Courtesy of CHYBIK + KRISTOF Architects & Urban Designers.

Part of a generation of architects who founded their practice in the aftermath of the 2008 economic crisis, CHYBIK + KRISTOF have continuously sought to self-initiate and take on projects responding to distinct social need. Advocating for architects to initiate and engage with positive social change, founding architects Ondřej Chybík and Michal Krištof state: 

“Architects today share the obligation to address critical social and environmental issues. Beyond punctual functional concerns, our profession is tasked with acknowledging and deconstructing the shortcomings at the roots of our urban and social structures, thereby raising public awareness and promoting societal engagement. We see the Zvonařka Central Bus Terminal as embodying the three founding blocks of architects’ social responsibility. First, architecture responds to a functional need that must be clearly and efficiently addressed. Second, this need is expressed by the user of a space, whose experience of the latter must remain at the center of all concerns. Thirdly, and most importantly, architects intervene in a fragile ecosystem, one in which sociopolitical dynamics, economic factors, historical legacies, environmental concerns, to cite only a few, come together. It is essential, if not only ethical, to take all into account. Ultimately, by revisiting the past, engaging with the present and projecting to the future, architects can, and must, be catalysts for change.”

With completion due in 2021, this initial redesign acts as the first stage of a broader reconstruction and urban renewal project, with changes to the surrounding areas to follow.

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NOTES TO EDITORS:
About CHYBIK + KRISTOF
CHYBIK + KRISTOF is an architecture and urban design practice founded in 2010 by Ondřej Chybík and Michal Krištof. Operating with 50+ international team members and offices in Prague, Brno and Bratislava, the practice aims at creating bridges between private and public space, transcending generations and societal spheres. Taking into account local histories and environmental specificities, the studio works on a wide array of projects, ranging from urban developments to public and residential buildings. Recent projects include: Gallery of Furniture (Czech Republic), the Czech Pavilion at Expo 2015 (Milan, Italy) and Lahofer Winery (Czech Republic). The studio has been awarded a number of prizes including the 2019 Design Vanguard Award from Architectural Record, and was recently amongst the European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies’ 2019 40 Under 40 Award winners.
https://chybik-kristof.com/

Zvonařka Central Bus Terminal
Zvonařka 411
617 00 Brno
Czech Republic

Project Team: Ondrej Chybik, Michal Kristof, Ondrej Svancara, Ingrid Spacilova, Adam Jung, Krystof Foltyn

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