Sep
1
to 1 Sep

Before Nollywood . . . The Ideal Photo Studio

  • Smithsonian National Museum of African Art (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Before Nollywood . . . The Ideal Photo Studio celebrates the photography of Solomon Osagie Alonge (1911–1994) and honors the work of African studio photographers. Largely unknown today, early Nigerian studio photographers struggled like their Nollywood successors with minimal equipment and finances, yet made significant contributions to the history of African photography and portraiture and to representing Africa’s changing communities.

For further information at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art website.

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Oct
3
to 5 Oct

Cairo Fashion & Tex

  • Cairo International Conference Center (CICC) (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Cairo Fashion & Tex is the first and only international exhibition specialized in yarn, textile, garment and it’s trimming supplies and accessories in Egypt.

Cairo Fashion & Tex is an approved event by UFI (The Global Association of the Exhibition Industry). An exhibition identified as an “UFI event” is a proof of high quality, thus providing exhibitors and visitors alike with the assurance of making a sound business investment.

For further information at Cairo Fashion & Tex website.

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Oct
17
to 19 Oct

Intertex Tunisia

  • International Fair of Sousse (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

INTERTEX TUNISIA - undisputedly number 1 exhibition of textile industry of North Africa - is going to bring thousands of sector professionals together between 17 - 19 October 2024 at Foire Internationale de Sousse, Tunisia. Covering the whole textile values chain, Intertex Tunisia showcases latest trends and technologies while offering unique export opportunities along with new network and business collaborations.

For further information at Intertex Tunisia website.

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Oct
18
to 20 Oct

AKAA - Also Known As Africa 2024

AKAA - Also Known As Africa - France’s first and leading contemporary art fair centered on African art scenes, stands for a multi-faceted Africa, which transcends borders and whose voices resonate in the four corners of the world, carried by the vision of each artist.

For further information at AKAA website.

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Oct
31
to 3 Nov

ART X Lagos 2024

ART X Lagos is the premier international art fair in West Africa, and a dynamic platform created to showcase and support contemporary culture from Africa and its diaspora. Since its launch in 2016, the fair has emerged as a global destination, drawing artists and galleries from over 70 countries, with attendees and participants from 170 nations worldwide, thus significantly expanding Lagos' global cultural positioning.

ART X Lagos transcends conventional art fairs, through its ambitious programme which features immersive experiences spanning music, film, design and art, that centre the continent and diaspora’s exceptional talent..

For further information at ART X Lagos website.

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Nov
8
to 11 Nov

Africa Sourcing and Fashion Week

Fashion, Sourcing, Sustainability and Innovation

Meet your target groups from retailing, interior decoration, design and manufacturing from 8 – 11 November 2024.

World´s leading trade shows Texworld, Apparel Sourcing and Texprocess Exhibitions (Organized by Messe Frankfurt Exhibition GmbH) have been successful to come with their new brands in Addis Ababa and partner with AFRICA SOURCING AND FASHION WEEK.

For further information at ASFW website.

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Nov
16
to 17 Nov

Destination Africa 2024

  • Royal Maxim Palace Kempinski Hotel (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Destination Africa is an annual international pan-African B2B sourcing event for the textile industries in Egypt. It brings together the African Textile, Apparel and Home Textiles manufactures in ONE place with the international buyers to strengthen the business opportunities and trade activities on a global level.

For further information at Destination Africa website.

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Nov
27
to 29 Nov

Furniture and Interior East Africa

Kenya, having earned the title of the biggest Trade Hub in the region, the exhibition taking place annually in Nairobi sets itself to be a must attend event for all the stakeholders of the Furniture Industry that operates, or intends to operate in the region of East Africa from food Industry giants, to Innovative start-ups alike.

For further information at the official website.

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Dec
4
to 6 Dec

Morocco Textile Expo

  • Office des Foires et Expositions de Casablanca (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

This platform allows national and international companies of different industry sectors to show and promote their skills, meet partners and find international brands from several countries. Thus, ''Morocco Textile Expo'' contributes to the consolidation of the Moroccan expertise in this area, consolidating the competitiveness of the Kingdom and making it an international reference in many ways Afro and regional Mediterranean hub.

9th edition of the Morocco Textile Expo gains strenght with professional buyer delagations from target countries.

With the collaboration of international textile & fashion federations, associations, instituations from Europe, Asia and Africa, thousands of visitors will be gathering under the roof of Morocco Textile Expo Fair.

For further information at Morocco Textile Expo website.

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Dec
6
to 8 Dec

Egypt Home Tex

  • Cairo International Conference Center (CICC) (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Egypt's leading b2b exhibition organizer, bridging the gap between Egypt, the Middle East, and Africa's economies. With over 18 years of experience in the industry, they have earned a reputation for delivering trade shows well-attended by exhibitors and visitors, and their portfolio includes a diverse range of trade shows dedicated to the textiles, plastics, wood, home decorating, ICT, and automobile industries.

With a combined portfolio of 30 annual shows spanning 10 countries, including Sudan, Ethiopia, Morocco, Erbil, Kenya, Tanzania, and Saudi Arabia, the organizers of EGYPT HOME TEX are adept at producing mega-size trade fairs that generate millions of dollars in business deals to benefit host countries’ economy and industrial scope directly.

For further information at Egypt Home Tex website.

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May
16
to 16 Jun

15th Dakar Biennial 2024

The theme of the international exhibition of the 15th Dakar Biennale  « The Wake : Awakening, Xàll wi ».

In an immersive journey, carried by an intimate, powerful and serious scenography, visitors will discover the works of 58 artists from Africa and the diaspora. The artistic selection of this edition illustrates the extraordinary African creativity with a variety of mediums, techniques and artistic worlds. From illustration art to virtual reality, from sound design to sculpture and photography, the selection process was guided by a commitment to inclusion, in search of a balance that transcends the boundaries of matter, expression and thought.

For further information at Dakar Biennale website.

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Mar
8
to 22 Sep

Crafting Modernity Design in Latin America, 1940–1980

This exhibition presents these sometimes conflicting visions of modernity proposed by designers of home environments in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Venezuela between 1940 and 1980. For some, design was an evolution of local and Indigenous craft traditions, leading to an approach that combined centuries-old artisanal techniques with machine-based methods. For others, design responded to market conditions and local tastes, and was based on available technologies and industrial processes. In this exhibition, objects including furniture, appliances, posters, textiles, and ceramics, as well as a selection of photographs and paintings, will explore these tensions.

For further information at MoMA website.

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Feb
18
to 11 Aug

Then I knew I was good at painting: Esther Mahlangu, a Retrospective

  • Iziko South African National Gallery (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Through the language of colour and form, the exhibition charts Dr Esther Mahlangu’s contribution to contemporary art, spanning over seven decades. More than 100 artworks have been loaned from international collections, carefully curated alongside historic photographs and a short film.

Included in the exhibition is Mahlangu’s BMW 525i Art Car, which makes its historic return to South Africa for the first time in more than 30 years.

The retrospective pays homage to her unique approach to art, which intersects African cultures with modernity and the contemporary.

For more information at the Iziko South African National Gallery website.

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Jul
6
to 14 Jan

A World in Common: Contemporary African Photography

Bringing together a group of artists from different generations, this exhibition will address how photography, film, audio, and more have been used to reimagine Africa’s diverse cultures and historical narratives.

Moving beyond a traditional photography exhibition, the show seeks to explore the many ways images travel across histories and geographies. Using themes of spirituality, identity, urbanism and climate emergency, the exhibition will guide the viewer through dream-like utopias and bustling cityscapes viewed from the artists’ perspectives.

For further information at Tate Modern website.

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May
28
to 16 Sep

New Photography 2023

  • The Museum of Modern Art (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

New Photography 2023: Kelani Abass, Akinbode Akinbiyi, Yagazie Emezi, Amanda Iheme, Abraham Oghobase, Karl Ohiri, Logo Oluwamuyiwa. On view exhibition explores the photographic work of seven artists, all at various stages in their careers, who are united by their critical use of photographic forms and their ties to the artistic scene in the port city of Lagos (Èkó), Nigeria. 

For further information at The Museum of Modern Art website.

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May
27
to 29 Oct

Casablanca Art School

Led by Farid Belkahia alongside Mohammed Chabâa, Mohamed Melehi and others, this pioneering school paved the way for a new generation of socially engaged modern artists who formed an influential avant-garde network.

Works by 21 artists will be brought together to demonstrate the wide variety of the Moroccan ‘new wave’, from vibrant abstract paintings and urban murals to applied arts, typography, graphics and interior design.

The exhibition will also include a selection of rarely-seen print archives, vintage journals, documentary photographs and films.

For further information at Tate St Ive website.

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May
16
to 19 Nov

Beyond the Binary: Santu Mofokeng and David Goldblatt

The exhibition is organized in three thematic sections that unite Mofokeng’s and Goldblatt’s works: Earthscapes, Edifices and Sociality.

Both men set out to picture everyday life and experience in South Africa during Apartheid and its aftermath. But where they are often positioned in contrast to one another, with Goldblatt understood as the insightful social documentarian and Mofokeng as the visionary poet, this exhibition aims to question such a separation and to allow the images to traverse preconceived labels and patterns of perception. By combining their works in novel ways the exhibition seeks to draw out the distinctiveness of each while questioning the binaries through which they are customarily viewed.

For further information at The Walther Collection website.

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May
12
to 17 Jun

Rita Mawuena Benissan: In the World, not of the World

Ceremonial umbrellas have been a documented part of Asante custom since at least the 18th century. As early as 1701, a Dutch emissary was versed enough in their importance to come bearing one as a gift on his first visit to the Asante king. A form of regalia reserved only for chiefs, they represented power, prestige and control. To sit beneath their shade was to display the qualities of ‘coolness and inner spiritual peace’, regarded as essential attributes for a ruler. 

For further information at Gallery 1957 website.

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May
5
to 15 Jul

Seydou Keïta

This exhibition brings together an exhaustive selection of works of this self-taught artist, whose rise to fame started off in a small studio in Bamako (Mali), which at the time was the capital of former French Sudan. The inventiveness of the mise en scene, the modernity of the photographs and the fresh approach to the subjects photographed, made Keïta a celebrity in his own country: thousands of Malians and travelers from West Africa came to have their photographs taken by Seydou Keïta between 1948 and 1962. 

For further information at Galerie Nathalie Obadia website.

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May
5
to 9 Oct

The Encounter: Barbara Chase-Riboud/Alberto Giacometti

The Encounter: Barbara Chase-Riboud/Alberto Giacometti explores the common ground between two sculptors who looked to the past in order to reimagine the art of their time.

In their sculptures, Chase-Riboud and Giacometti both returned again and again to the human form. Giacometti often started with clay, modeling his works by hand before casting them in plaster. Chase-Riboud, who also became an acclaimed poet and novelist, favored the ancient lost-wax casting method for her bronzes, combining them with knotted and braided fiber, wool, or silk. 

For further information at The Museum of Modern Art website.

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Apr
5
to 16 Jul

The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century

Since its emergence in the Bronx in the 1970s, hip hop has grown into a global phenomenon, driving innovations in music, fashion, technology, and visual and performing arts.

Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the birth of hip hop, The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century captures the extraordinary influence hip hop has had on contemporary society through more than 90 works of art and fashion by some of today’s most important and celebrated artists and iconic brands.

For further information at The Baltimore Museum of Art website.

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Jan
26
to 14 Jun

Ernest Cole: House of Bondage

an overview of the work of South African photographer Ernest Cole. The photographer is celebrated for his tireless documentation of Black lives in South Africa under apartheid: a regime of institutionalised racial segregation that was in effect from 1948 to the early 1990s. The exhibition includes parts of his archive, which had long been considered lost.

For further information at FOAM website.

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Dec
1
to 1 Dec

Enollywood ke re . . . Owa Isey’ama n’kere

  • Smithsonian National Museum of African Art (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Before Nollywood . . . The Ideal Photo Studio is a living exhibition and an on- going research and photography project that explores the lives of patrons from the Ideal Photo Studio and a history of Benin City and its community through the photographs of Solomon Osagie Alonge.

For further information atSmithsonian National Museum of African Art website.

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Nov
20
to 3 Sep

When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting

The exhibition brings to the fore how multiple generations of Black artists have revelled and critically engaged in projecting various notions of Blackness and Africanicity that are self-reflective and that challenge the gaze imposed on Black cultures. 

When We See Us highlights the artistic lineages, art schools and movements from the Nsukka School in Nigeria, Ecole de Dakar in Senegal, the Kumasi School in Ghana and the British Black Arts Movement to the Department of Fine Arts at Makerere University in Uganda and the Federated Union of Black Artists (FUBA) in South Africa, to name a few.

For further information at Zeitz MOCAA website.

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Nov
19
to 20 Nov

Destination Africa 2022

Destination Africa is an annual international pan-African B2B sourcing event for the textile industries in Egypt. It brings together the African Textile, Apparel and Home Textiles manufactures in ONE place with the international buyers to strengthen the business opportunities and trade activities on a global level.

For further information at Destination Africa website.

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Nov
17
to 3 Feb

UBUHLE BOKHOKHO - Zizipho Poswa

Southern Guild presents uBuhle boKhokho (Beauty of Our Ancestors), a solo exhibition by Zizipho Poswa, from 17 November 2022 to 2 February, 2023. This new series of ceramic and bronze sculptures draws inspiration from the elaborate art of hairstyling practised by Black women across the African continent and diaspora.

Almost a year in the making, uBuhle boKhokho marks the beginning of another ambitious chapter for the artist. Poswa continues the exploration of her own cultural story as a Xhosa woman through the making of her sculptural works. Hair, with its profound symbolic relationship to Blackness, remains a relevant source of inspiration and dialogue within contemporary cultural discourse.

For further information at Southern Guild website.

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Nov
10
to 9 Dec

Our Story: Africa’s Climate

Our Story: Africa’s Climate, a group exhibition of emerging African artists from Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Tanzania.

This exhibition seeks to highlight the impact of the climate emergency in Africa through photography, illustration, and collage. Using storytelling as a vehicle, artists Antoinette Oni, Chioma Ince, Mihayo Kallaye, and Ngadi Smart give honest and thought-provoking insight into environmental colonialism, waste management, and historical activism.

For further information at The Africa Centre website.

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Nov
7
to 23 Feb

Décadrage colonial - Unframing Colonialism

“Do not visit the colonial exhibition”: reacting to the opening of the Paris Colonial Exhibition in Vincennes in 1931, the members of the Surrealist group denounced France's imperialist policy. The “Unframing Colonialism” exhibition proposes to review this unique episode and the visual images generated at the time through photography.

For further information at Centre Pompidou website.

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Oct
28
to 22 Jan

The New Black Vanguard

The New Black Vanguard features 15 international Black photographers contributing to a new vision of the Black figure and reframing representation in art and fashion. This exhibition is a celebration of Black creativity both in-front of and behind the camera. Featured works include Black stylists, models, make-up artists and creative directors who are bringing a radically new set of references and experiences to image making.

For further information at Saatchi Gallery website.

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Oct
28
9:30 am09:30

Fibres, Threads and Fabrics: Textiles and Cloth as Material Culture

Fibres, Threads and Fabrics Conference

Understanding material cultures from the African Diaspora is to recognise and appreciate how different objects, designs and structures create and impact the experiences of the myriad communities in which they form the building blocks. The theme for CIAD’s second dress conference focuses on how the development and use of cloth signify aspects of material culture within African Diaspora communities.

For further information at CIAD Biennial Dress Conference website.

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Oct
18
to 17 Jan

Rêve d'Égypte

The exhibition will showcase an Egyptian Rodin, inspired by an Egypt he dreamed up, fantasised and then collected.

The exhibition features over 400 items, all restored for the occasion, which include Auguste Rodin's personal collection of Egyptian art, his own sculptures and drawings, as well as archives and photographs to put into context his "friends of the last hour", as the artist liked to call the antiques he cherished. 

It also evokes the echo of Egyptian art in Rodin's work, through his research on the representation of the human body, the simplification of forms, fragmentation and monumentality. For instance, the Monument to Balzac (1898) of which he said "Balzac is the Sphinx of France".

For further information at Musée Rodin website.

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Sep
24
to 6 Oct

African Cosmologies: Redux

African Cosmologies: Redux is a large-scale group exhibition that examines the complex relationships between contemporary life in Africa, the African diaspora, and global histories of colonialism, photography, and rights and representation. The exhibition considers the history of photography as one closely tied to a colonial project and Western image production, highlighting artists who confront and challenge this shortsighted, albeit canonized lineage.

Rotimi Fani-Kayode (Nigeria)
leo with Shobun Baile
(Brazil/United States)
Mónica de Miranda (Angola/Portugal)
Santu Mofokeng (South Africa)
Sethembile Msezane (South Africa)
Eustáquio Neves (Brazil)
Nyaba L. Ouedraogo
(Burkino Faso/France)
Rosana Paulino (Brazil)
Dawit L. Petros (Eritrea/United States/Canada)
Zina Saro-Wiwa (Nigeria/United States)
Aida Silvestri (Eritrea/UK)
Lindokuhle Sobekwa (South Africa/United States)
Wilfred Ukpong (Nigeria/France)
Lyle Ashton Harris (United States)
Samson Kambalu (Malawi/UK)
Faisal Abdu’Allah (UK)

Akinbode Akinbiyi (Nigeria/UK)
Hélène A. Amouzou (Togo/Belgium)
Sammy Baloji (Congo/Belgium)
James Barnor (Ghana/UK)
Bruno Boudjelal (France/Algeria)
Edson Chagas (Angola)
Ernest Cole (South Africa)
Jamal Cyrus (United States)
Jean Depara (Angola/Congo)
Laura El-Tantawy (Egypt/UK)
Samuel Fosso (Cameroon/France)
Rahima Gambo (Nigeria)
Eric Gyamfi (Ghana)
Lyle Ashton Harris (United States)
Samson Kambalu (Malawi/UK)

For further information at FotoFest International Biennal website.

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Sep
18
to 26 Mar

Called to Create: Black Artists of the American South

  • The National Gallery of Art (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Thornton Dial, James “Son Ford” Thomas, Lonnie Holley, Mary T. Smith, Purvis Young, and many other Black artists in the South drew upon recycled materials as their art supplies and used yards, porches, or boarded-up storefronts as their galleries. The women of Gee’s Bend, Alabama, made dazzling quilts from well-worn clothing or leftover scraps of fabric. Despite racism and other forms of discrimination, all of these artists drew on deep cultural and spiritual traditions to create some of the finest art of our time.

For further information at The National Gallery of Art website.

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Jul
2
to 16 Apr

Africa Fashion

  • Victoria and Albert Museum (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Spanning iconic mid-20th century to contemporary creatives through photographs, textiles, music and the visual arts, Africa Fashion will explore the vitality and global impact of a fashion scene as dynamic and varied as the continent itself.

For further information at the Victoria and Albert Museum website.

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Jun
30
to 29 Jan

Indigo Waves and Other Stories: Re-Navigating the Afrasian Sea and Notions of Diaspora

Taking the stories and histories of the Indian Ocean as its departure point, the group exhibition Indigo Waves and Other Stories: Re-Navigating the Afrasian Sea and Notions of Diaspora brings together 13 contemporary artists, historians, filmmakers, musicians, writers and thinkers to investigate, unpack and shed light on some of the smaller and bigger historical, cultural and linguistic links between the continents of Africa and Asia. The exhibition approaches the Indian Ocean as a communal horizon from which to read Afrasian (that is, belonging to both Africa and Asia) histories of forced and unforced movement through currents of mercantile and colonial empire.

Participating artists:

Akinbode Akinbiyi
Ayesha Hameed
Cetus Chin-Yun Kuo
Cinga Samson
Hasawa
Luvuyo Equiano Nyawose
Malala Andrialavidrazana
Myriam Omar Awadi
Oscar Murillo
Sancintya Mohini Simpson with Isha Ram Das
Shiraz Bayjoo in dialogue with Traci Kwaai
Sohrab Hura
Thania Petersen

For further information at Zeitz MOCAA website.

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