By Nii B.Andrews.
The Black Rock Senegal – a multidisciplinary artist in residence program established in 2019 by Kehinde Wiley on the coast of Dakar for African artists, keeps growing in strength.
The program continues to power the mission of supporting new artistic creation through collaborative exchange and catalyze change in the global discourse about Africa.
In order to provide further support for the program, the founder Kehinde Wiley has curated a landmark exhibition of self portraits from a cohort of 40 contemporary African artists.
The portraits are a death knell to the myth of a monolithic Africa since they provide a wide spectrum of visual images that attest to what it means to be “African” or “of Africa”.
As a collective, the images “present a new exploration of identity, perception, and self-regard within the global stage through the lens of figuration, exploring notions of perspective, authorship and control within acts of expression that directly address the self.”
Most appropriately, the exhibition is titled, “SELF ADDRESSED”.
It opened at the Jeffrey Deitch gallery in Los Angeles on November 6, 2021 and will run till December 23.
Jeffrey Deitch’s full sales commission will be donated to Black Rock Senegal.
The self portraits are by the following artists:
Stacey Gillian Abe
Tyna Adebowale
Juwon Aderemi
Omar Ba
Ngimbi Bakambana
Hilary Balu
Amoako Boafo
Dalila Dalléas Bouzar
Rehema Chachage
Félicité Codjo
Mbali Dhlamini
Ekene Emeka-Maduka
Yagazie Emezi
Teresa Kutala Firmino
Nonzuzo Gxekwa
Mwangi Hutter
Tosin Kalejaye
Talut Kareem
Banele Khoza
Lindokuhle Khumalo
Salifou Lindou
Epheas Maposa
Gael Maski
Nandipha Mntambo
Shabu Mwangi
Ludovic Nkoth
Collins Obijiaku
Harold Offeh
Temitayo Ogunbiyi
Oluwole Omofemi
Nengi Omuku
Zohra Opoku
Eniwaye Oluwaseyi
Thania Petersen
Zizipho Poswa
Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe
Jerry Quarshie
Adjei Tawiah
Barthélémy Toguo
Moussa Traoré
Victor Ubah
Chukwudubem Busayo Ukaigwe
Uthman Wahaab
Sylvester Zanoxolo