7 African Artists Works To Show in Senegal's Historic Town of St Louis

Senegal Wed 28-04-2010

7 African Artists Works To Show in Senegal's Historic Town of St Louis
By Ed Cross

There is a lot going on in the contemporary African art world these days. The Museum of African Art is scheduled to open in April 2011 in NYC with a major retrospective for El Anatsui.

The Dak'Art 2010 opens on May 7th and the Johannesburg Art Fair was judged to be a great success. May will also see the first African auction from Philips de Pury in New York.

I recently had the great pleasure of finally meeting Charles Sekano in Amsterdam - Charles is both a Jazz pianist/composer and visual artist.

He lived and worked in exile from his native South Africa and in Kenya from the sixties to the nineties. There will be some fine Sekano works in my St Louis show and we are planning a one man show for him in London later this year. Anyone interested in his work please email me and I will send you a selection of work that I have for sale.

We have two exciting shows planned and two more under development.

Exhibition in St Louis, Senegal

Comptoirs du fleuve, St Louis

May 12th-30th 2010

Le nord, le sud, l'est et l'ouest

House of series by Charles Sekano

^{Charles Sekano - Untitled - House of Woman series Pastels on paper 2009}

This exhibition takes place in the beautiful and historic town of St Louis, with works from seven artists.

This will be part of the Dak'Art 2010 Off Programme and the St Louis 350th anniversary celebrations - it also coincides with the wonderful St Louis Jazz Festival http://www.saintlouisjazz.com/ which starts on May 20th 2010.

Fathi Hassan - Egypt, Peterson Waweru Kamwathi - Kenya, Jems Robert Koko Bi - Cote D'Ivoire, The Late George Lilanga - Tanzania, Richard Onyango - Kenya, Charles Sekano - South Africa/Kenya, Dominique Zinkpe - Benin.

The show will feature work by Peterson Kamwathi including one of his major Sitting Allowance drawings. Kamwathi's work is in this year's Dak'Art 2010 and he is currently on a residency at the prestigious Rijksakademie in Amsterdam.

WITNESS

The spectre of Memory in Contemporary African Art

ESU - Scotland, 23 Atholl Crescent, Edinburgh EH3 8HQ

August 6th- 30th 2010

10am - 6pm

Part of the Edinburgh Arts Festival

Untitled wood cut by Peterson Waweru

^{Untitled | Peterson Kamwathi | Woodcut}^{plate | Diary of Everything Stolen series}

Peterson Waweru Kamwathi's work is mostly linked to moments in the history of his country, Kenya. These may not be made explicit, but there is a sense in his work of recording history at an oblique angle. His work painstakingly records his country's political aspirations and their realisation or subversion. And the grave consequences of political failure.

Kenya's Richard Onyango can remember scenes from his childhood and more recent past with almost perfect recollection and then paint them in vivid detail.

Aside from any innate gift of recall, this practice stems from a conscious decision made as a child when, lacking a camera but inspired by its power, he resolved to use his own mind as a recording device.

The camera is the most obvious recorder of history but in modern Zimbabwe photographers are more vulnerable to harassment than artists. Photography lacks the flexibility of painting, where all the components of a social phenomenon can be incorporated.

Lovemore Kambudzi has been evoking the realities of life in Harare for the last ten years. The (decidedly unofficial) equivalent of a western "war artist", he has emerged as the principal recorder of his country's fate.

Soly Cisse is haunted by the happy memories of his childhood which seem to seep in to almost every canvas he paints in the shape of wild animals that he hunted in his youth - the animals appearing now to flee from modernity rather than the artist's youthful pursuit.

For more information on these exhibitions please contact Ed Cross at ed@edcrossfineart.com

Phone: +44 7507067567