Following is a link to the website of the Museum for African Art in New York and information on the
    exhibition that we will be hosting at Cranbrook Art Museum 


September - November 2004:  "Looking Both Ways:  Art of the Contemporary African Diaspora."



    Looking Both Ways: 
    Art of the Contemporary African Diaspora
    Fall 2003
    Curator: Laurie Ann Farrell

    Looking Both Ways: Art of the Contemporary African
    Diaspora is a major exhibition of works by artists from
    Africa who live and work in Western countries, including
    Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, the
    United Kingdom, and the United States. Many artists from
    Africa are in the forefront of discussions of globalism and
    cultural hybridity, terms currently circulating in the
    international art world. In a recent issue of Artnews, the
    critic Barbara Pollack called contemporary African art “The
    Newest Avant-Garde,” as many African artists are making
    statements that transcend politics—and are transforming
    our definition of African art. 

    Looking Both Ways examines the relationships among
    shifting physical contexts, emotional geographies,
    ambition, and freedom of expression while focusing on the
    increasing globalization of the African Diaspora. The
    exhibition will be on view in New York during the Fall 2003
    season, and then will travel to five domestic and two
    international venues.

    In organizing Looking Both Ways, Ms. Farrell made many
    research trips to the different countries of the African
    Diaspora, meeting artists and scholars and visiting major
    exhibitions. She made her curatorial selection after
    meeting with hundreds of artists and conducting many
    studio visits in different parts of the world. She has also
    consulted with curators and other art-world professionals
    and has reviewed many publications on contemporary art.
    Looking Both Ways, then, provides insight into the
    Diaspora from an international perspective, revealing it
    through the art and stories of the artists themselves. In
    the past, curators have often described and framed the
    work of African artists within pre-established theoretical
    and political contexts, emphasizing history, politics, and
    multiculturalism. Looking Both Ways departs from these
    practices by creating a forum in which the artists and their
    artworks can tell stories of migration, assimilation, or
    exclusion, and can identify their place in the global
    Diaspora themselves. 












                                                                    ‘Alien.’ Wangechi Mutu
                                                                    ‘Victorian Couple.’ Yinka Shonibare
                                                                    ‘Neger--don’t call me.’ Ingrid
                                                                    Mwangi
                                                                    ‘Threshold Series.’ Allan deSouza




    Looking Both Ways is not a survey exhibition. It offers a more intimate experience, focusing on
    twelve artists, each of whom will show either a single major installation or several artworks.
    The result will be an array of styles and media, ranging from video through painting,
    photography, sculpture, installation art, collage, and performance art to works on paper. The
    works will be both newly commissioned and recently produced, and will focus on the interplay
    between the artists’ African backgrounds and their new environments. The exhibition both
    introduces a new generation of emerging artists and highlights artists who are established
    within the African art community, although they may not be known to a broader public.

    Additional theoretical issues and commentary will appear in essays by and interviews with the
    scholars who have been invited to contribute to the 192-page publication that will accompany
    the exhibition. Along with an extensive public programming, the Museum for African Art plans to
    convene an international symposium featuring the artists and catalogue essayists and other
    scholars, who together will explore how the current discussions of global identities in
    contemporary art influence our perception of African art. The symposium will be open to the
    general public.

    The exhibition is the curatorial debut of Laurie Ann Farrell, Curator at the Museum for African
    Art. Ms. Farrell has worked in other roles on numerous exhibitions at the Museum, including
    Liberated Voices: Contemporary Art from South Africa (1999). She publishes regularly on the
    subject of contemporary African art and has written and presented scholarly papers at juried
    conferences.

     

     

    The list of participating artists includes:
    Fernando Alvim. Born in Angola, lives in Brussels. New commissions
    Ghada Amer. Born in Egypt, lives in New York City. New commissions
    Oladélé Bamgboyé. Born in Nigeria, lives in London. New commission
    Allan deSouza. Born in Kenya, lives in Los Angeles. New and existing works
    Kendell Geers. Born in South Africa, lives in Brussels. New installation commission
    Moshekwa Langa. Born in South Africa, lives in Amsterdam. New commissions
    Hassan Musa. Born in Sudan, lives in Domessargues, France. New and recent works
    N’Dilo Mutima. Born in Angola, lives in Lisbon, Portugal. Existing works
    Wangechi Mutu. Born in Kenya, lives in New York City. New commissions
    Ingrid Mwangi. Born in Kenya, lives in Ludwigshafen, Germany. New commissions
    Zineb Sedira. Born in Paris, lives in London. New and existing work
    Yinka Shonibare. Born in London, raised in Nigeria, lives in London. New installation commission

    Tour Schedule: Domestic and International Venues

    Fall 2003 – March 1, 2004  Museum for African Art, Long Island City, New York
    March 24 – July 18, 2004 Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts
    September 12 – November 28, 2004 Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
    January – March, 2005  Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisboa, Portugal
    Spring 2005    OPEN (European Venue)
    September 2 – December 31, 2005 Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, California
    January – March, 2006  OPEN
    April – June 2006  OPEN