Clip of Shonibare from TV series, Art 21 (William Kentridge also stars). See also this profile of Shonibare in The New York Times.

A retrospective of his work opens at the Brooklyn Museum this week.

Retrospective of his art the Brooklyn Museum through September 20, 2009.

Exhibition (till July 25, 2009) at Exit Art in Manhattan on the 20th black arts and political movement. Curated by New Yorkers Papo Colo, Tânia Cypriano, Rose Myriam Réjouis, Franklin Sirmans and Greg Tate. Includes a party on June 18 (7 till 11pm) with Baye Kouyaté and Les Tougarakes, Dallam-Dougou, and DJ Turmix, and a Brazil-focused film series.

“… [In "Signs Taken for Wonders at the Jack Shainman Gallery in New York City, curated by Isolde Brielmaier May 28 – July 3, 2009] six artists, Kader Attia, Jn. Ulrick Désert, Julien Friedler, Jeffrey Gibson, Xaviera Simmons, and Carrie Mae Weems, use Africa as their muse as they examine representation, symbolism and the power of the image within the social, economic, political, historical and cultural spheres of the 20th and 21st centuries. Their work explores iconic figures, events and ideas that have contributed, explicitly and implicitly, to the imaging of the African continent around the world. In Signs, the artists use a range of media—painting, sculpture, photography, video, mixed media and installation—to articulate a particular person, idea, event or time period that is significant to the role that African countries, cultures and individuals occupy within global politics, popular culture and economy. In so doing, they spotlight both the acknowledged and overlooked roles that international players, African individuals and the continent as a whole, maintain on every level of the world stage.”

More information.

Paris-based Zoulikha Bouabdellah (born in Moscow of Algerian parents), seen in a video above talking about her work at the Brooklyn Museum in 2007 (as part of the “Global Feminisms” exhibition), is one of six artists in “Perspectives: Women, Art & Islam” (going till September 13, 2009), an exhibition opening next Thursday, June 4, at MoCADA, near downtown Brooklyn.

The other artists are Fariba Alam (Bangladesh), Mahwish Chishty (Pakistan), Safaa Erruas (Morocco) and Nsenga Knight (United States). The show is curated by Kimberli Gant and Lisa Binder. (The exhibition forms part of the larger “Muslim Voices: Arts and Ideas” at the nearby Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Artist Glen Ligon channels Zora Neale Hurston.

the art of Shadi Ghadirian as part of exhibition and panel on “The Seen and the Hidden: [Dis]covering the Veil” at the Austrian Cultural Forum in Manhattan.

“… Jasper de Beijer play[s] with reality in [his] photographs. After all, a photograph shows what is seen through the lens. However, what if that is not actually reality, but a specially constructed version of reality? … [D]e Beijer goes even further: he makes life-size, three-dimensional models – often of paper – which he then photographs, producing images reminiscent of Victorian prints. Fabulous Fictions shows us that, in their work, nothing is what it seems… On a trip to Ghana De Beijer was struck by the fact that Africa looks nothing like the exotic, Western image he had from photographs and stories. Life was just as banal there as it was at home. Back in his studio, he built a jungle set with life-size dummies which he photographed, approaching it not as a cultural anthropologist would, but in a way that gives us another picture of Africa which, despite the constructed scenes, actually appears more real than the photographs we normally see of the continent and its people …”

Foto Museum Den Haag, The Netherlands,

HT: Maluka

The African artists included are:

Georges Adéagbo (born Cotonou, Benin, 1942)

Anawana Haloba (born in Livingstone, Zambia, 1978)

Susan Hefuna (born in Cairo, 1962)

Moshekwa Langa (born in Bakenburg, South Africa, 1975)

Pascale Marthine Tayou (born in Cameroon, Africa, 1967)

Full list.

The Scene Gallery

Cannon Hersey and Samson Mnisi

Works on Paper May 9th – June 10th, 2009

Opening reception: Saturday May 9th, 3 – 7pm

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: contact Sara Safiullah / Ra kaa Shabaka: 718-622-2201

The Scene gallery is pleased to present a two-person exhibition of works on paper by South African artist, Samson Mnisi and American artist, Cannon Hersey. Working in concert, they have brought their art across South Africa and the USA, to the UK, France, Brazil, Austria, and the Netherlands.

SAMSON MNISI work reflects his life as a youth, emerging as a man in a post apartheid South Africa. Infused with a tradition of ritual and tribal marking, his work captures the artistry derived from an ancient tradition of Sangoma empowerment symbols. It is these marks on paper, these scribe-like movements, which are now the remnant visuals of a post-colonial existence in his homeland.

CANNON HERSEY finds his work in art making through writing and photography and printmaking. As an artist recording, collaboration becomes the medium he uses to speak to issues of culture, image and idea. Through his work he creates an objective, that gives rise to a unified idea based in co-dependency. Together Mnisi and Hersey have organized large scale exhibitions, chaired discussions and panels on art, and community. They have forged a union founded in the art they make and a need to express a realization of the spaces they individually occupy. Their art and cultural creation challenges the audience to appreciate more, our co-dependency and the differences that make up who we are and where we are from.

A retrospective on the collaborative works of these artists is currently showing at Mocada in downtown Brooklyn.

Selected Collections for Hersey and Mnisi include: Joachim Esteve II, Joachim Esteve III, Jaques Marchais Museum of Fine Art, BMW, Dell Computers, Vodacom, Rand Merchant Bank, FUBA (Federated Union of Black Artists), Joubert Art Museum, Museum Africa, Johannesburg, Museum for African Art, New York City and Vassar College, NYU and Yale University.