NEW YORK: NO SUCH PLACE: Contemporary African Artists in America

Sherin Guirguis, Untitled (Wadi II), 2012, Mixed media on hand-cut paper, 48 x 48 inches. Image via Edward Tyler Nahem Facebook page. 

NO SUCH PLACE: Contemporary African Artists in America

February 26 - April 3, 2015

Curated by Larry Ossei-Mensah & Dexter Wimberly

Featuring ruby onyinyechi amanze, Modou Dieng, Brendan Fernandes, Derek Fordjour, Sherin Guirguis, Vivienne Koorland, Wura-Natasha Ogunji, and Adejoke Tugbiyele.

EDWARD TYLER NAHEM FINE ART

37 West 57th Street

New York, NY

From etnahem.com:

Edward Tyler Nahem Fine Art is pleased to present NO SUCH PLACE: Contemporary African Artists in America, a group exhibition that highlights recent work by eight contemporary African artists living and working in the United States.

NO SUCH PLACE focuses on artists who express cultural duality and punctuate the complexities of African identity. These multi-generational artists from African countries as varied as Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, and South Africa, seek to debunk the idea of Africa as a singular, monolithic "place”, therefore initiating discussion on "Africaness" in the context of contemporary culture.

"There is no such thing as contemporary African art – there is only contemporary art from Africa,” said Bisi Silva, independent curator and founder/director of the Centre for Contemporary Art in Lagos, Nigeria. Silva warns against generic geographical descriptions of art from a continent that is so vast and diverse. Taking a cue from Silva’s statement, NO SUCH PLACE investigates the overlapping signifiers and great diversity present in these particular artists’ work, providing a space that fosters a broader dialogue about culture, aesthetics, religion and politics. NO SUCH PLACE dives into artistic intuition, exploring how these eight artists process identity and represent their individual points of view.

According to Nahem "There is a new and talented wave of artists emanating from all corners of the rich cultural tapestry known as Africa. We are excited to share in this exploration of contemporary work from a small group of artists from the diaspora, whose diversity lends itself to age, gender, roots and geography. Their new world is ideally one that opens us up to our own concept of the newness of Africa today. We are excited to provide such a forum and hopefully to be a meeting ground and catalyst for its growth and dissemination."

Exhibit Link

Eight African Expats Dispel Western Conceptions of Their Continent’s Art