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Aboudramane (b. 1961, Côte d'Ivoire)
In The Material Earth
Aboudramane's family originally came from Muslim Mali though the artist was raised in Christian-dominated Abidjan and he credits his grandfather, a healer, as strongly influencing his thought. Today, he lives and works in Paris, France. Aboudramane began his career as a professional artist in the 1990s. He had been working as a cabinetmaker in the studio of Swedish painter Gösta Claesson when he began crafting architectural maquettes that blended fragments of West African architecture with a highly personalized content. Early on his work was highlighted in the Museum of African Art (New York, New York, USA) exhibition, Home and the World. Aboudramane was one of the few artists present in Germany during the international surge of interest in African artists in 1995, and he was included in virtually every publication released at the time. As one of the first African artists to show at an international fair, he was represented at Art Cologne by Galerie Dany Keller. He quickly gained fame in Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, France and the United States, and his works were sold to important collections. He was also featured in the 1995 Around and Around exhibition curated by Achim Kubinski and Peter Herrmann in cooperation with DoualArt.
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Jide Alakija (b. 1977, England)
In The Material Earth
Currently based in the United States, Jide Alakija was born in London, UK, in 1977. He holds a Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College, London, UK. He took up photography in 2003 and has subsequently continued to move between his personal photographic projects and commercial work. His exhibitions include the 2011 "Nigerians Behind the Lens," at Tafeta + Partners at Bonhams, London; "Reflections: Photography Exhibition by British Council," Lagos, Nigeria (2010); Reconstruction in Reverse, Omenka Gallery, Lagos (2010); The Orderly Society Trust, CCA Lagos (2008); and "Words Are Not Enough," Candid Arts Trust, Islington, London (2007).
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Ghada Amer (b. 1963, Egypt)
In Earth Works, and Art as Environmental Action (with Reza Farkhondeh)
Best known for her paintings which incorporate embroidery, Ghada Amer was born in Cairo, Egypt. In recent years, her practice has expanded to include sculpture, installation, and gardens. Amer earned a B.F.A. in 1986 and an M.F.A. in 1989 from École Pilote Internationale d'Art et de Recherche, Villa Arson, Nice, France. She has been the recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant (1997) and the UNESCO award at the Venice Biennale, Italy, (1999). Amer has had solo exhibitions at the San Francisco Art Institute, California, USA; De Appel Foundation, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana, USA; Institut Valencià d'Art Modern, Spain; Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College, Massachusetts, USA; H&R Block Artspace at Kansas City Art Institute, Missouri, USA; and Gagosian Gallery, New York, New York, USA. Her work has been exhibited in group shows at such venues as Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan; Deste Foundation Centre for Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece; Queens Museum of Art, New York; _stanbul Modern Sanat Müzesi, Turkey; and AroS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Denmark. She participated in the Johannesburg Biennale, South Africa in 1997, the Kwangju Biennale, South Korea, and the Whitney Biennial, New York, both in 2000; and the Venice Biennale in 1999, 2005, and 2011. Amer's work can be found in numerous prominent collections including the following: Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, USA; Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama, USA.; Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf, Germany; Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea; and Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel. She now lives and works in New York.
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El Anatsui (b. 1944, Ghana)
In Art as Environmental Action and Earth Works
Internationally recognized for monumental works that utilize the debris of modern life in the form of bottle caps, tins, and other 'found' objects, El Anatsui is a versatile multi-media artist who was born in 1944 in the Volta region of Ghana and trained at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. He taught at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, for over three decades and remains based in Nsukka. Anatsui's numerous solo exhibitions include displays at the Asele Art Gallery (Nigeria, 1976), the National Museum (Lagos, Nigeria, 1991), the October Gallery (London, UK, 1995), the David Krut Projects (New York, New York, USA, 2006), the National Museum of African Art (Washington D.C., USA, 2008), the Garage Center for Contemporary Art (Moscow, Russia, 2009), and the Denver Art Museum (Colorado, USA, 2012). His group shows include venues such as Tekarts Expo 5 (Accra, Ghana, 1974), the Billingham Art Gallery (UK, 1981), AKA '86 - Inaugural Exhibition of the AKA Circle of Artists (Lagos, 1986), 44th Venice Biennale (Italy, 1990), The Studio Museum in Harlem (New York, 1990-92), the October Gallery (London, 1993), the 1st Johannesburg Biennale (South Africa, 1995), the 8th Osaka Sculpture Biennale (Japan, 1995), DAK'ART 2006 (Dakar, Senegal), and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, 2008). El Anatsui has also been the recipient of numerous awards including the Public Prize at the 7th Triennale der Kleinplastik in Stuttgart (Germany, 1999), the Bronze Prize at the 9th Osaka Triennale Sculpture (1998), the Kansai Telecasting Corporation Prize at the Osaka Triennale Sculpture (1995), and an Honorable Mention at the 44th Venice Biennale (1990). In addition, he is also a founding member and fellow of the Forum for African Arts Collections (2000), a member of the International Selection Committee for the Dakar Biennale (2000), and a founding member of the Pan-African Circle of Artists (PACA) (1991).
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Sammy Baloji (b. 1978, Democratic Republic of Congo)
In Strategies of the Surface
Sammy Baloji was born in 1978 in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He continues to live and work in Lubumbashi. Baloji graduated with a degree in Humanities Studies from the University of Lubumbashi. He now focuses on photography and film. His work has been exhibited in Brussels, Belgium; at the Rencontres Biennale in Bamako, Mali; at Musee du Quai Branly in Paris, France; at Cup Biennale (South Africa); and his solo exhibition, The Beautiful Time is currently touring the United States. In 2007, Baloji received both the Prix Afrique en creation (Cultures France) and Prix pour l'image (Fondation Blachere), and in 2009 he was selected as a finalist for the prestigious Prix Pictet.
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Nathalie Mba Bikoro (b.1985 , Gabon)
Performance connected with Imagining the Underground
Born in 1985, Nathalie Mba Bikoro is an interdisciplinary artist who investigates the creolisation of identities. Through her performances, she works for social change through explorations of identity, memory, dialogue, history and multi-lingualisms. Now based in London, UK, Bikoro is an Associate Lecturer (B.A. & M.A.) covering Philosophy, Issues of Representation in Media Arts & Photography, Visual Arts & Cultures, Post-Colonial Theory, Contemporary Performance Arts, Arts Management, Visual Arts & Cultures, Post-Colonial Theory, Philosophy with African Philosophy and African Political History. Bikoro has also worked as an independent curator in Contemporary Visual Arts. She is directing curator at ArtLab Open The Gate Gallery in London with monthly exhibitions programs showcasing professional and emerging contemporary artists focusing on transnational dialogues & collaboration between cultures. Bikoro leads international performance arts & film workshops and festivals including Perpendicular Casa e Rua, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, Corpos Informaticos Politicos Brazilia University, TEAK Academy, Helsinki, Finland, Lulea Academy Performance Arts in Norbotten, Sweden, KHG, Kassel, Germany, Focus Gallery, Basel, Switzerland, Meeting UFO's international touring exhibition of performance and film, Transitstation Live Arts Copenhagen, Denmark (2010), Research Group Corpos Politico Informáticos & FLAAC Festival Latinoamericano e Africano de Arte e Cultura Brazilia (2012), and Kingston University, among others. She recently published "Identity, Nudity, The Political Power of Contemporary Live Art Performance in Ato Malinda; The agorical spaces of performativity between the arts and political historycisation" through the Goethe Institut, Nairobi, Kenya and is completing her PhD in Fractured Historical Black Narratives with reference to Performing the Body in Post-Colonial theories and the development of alternative spaces/communities in politically challenged areas. Bikoro's international exhibitions include Perpendicular, Brazil (2011), African Heritage, London (2010) and Museum Africa Johannesburg, South Africa (2011), A Twist in the Taile SAVVY Contemporary Africa Gallery, Berlin, Germany (2011), EPAF11, Warsaw, Poland (2011), amongst many others. Her works have featured in Senegal´s Dak´Art Biennale, 10th edition (2012), winning 2 international arts awards including Afrique Soleil Bamako Mali and Fondation Blachere France.
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Berry Bickle (b. 1959, Zimbabwe)
In Power of the Earth
Berry Bickle is a Zimbabwean mixed-media artist who was born in 1959 and received her education at the Durban Institute of Technology and MFA from the Rhodes University, both in South Africa. Her exhibition history includes venues such as the National Gallery Zimbabwe Harare, Le Theatre International de la Cite Paris, the National Museum of African Art, Washington D.C., and the Pompidou Center in Pars, and she has participated in numerous exhibitions including Africa Remix (2004, 2006, 2007), Dak'Art, Dakar, Senegal (2002, 2006), the Johannesburg Biennale, South Africa, (1995), and the Zimbabwe Pavilion of the Venice Biennale, Italy (2011). In 2010 she was awarded the Rockefeller Foundation's Creative Arts Fellow and a residency at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center. Bickle is currently based in Mozambique.
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Jerry Buhari (b. 1959, Nigeria)
In Art as Environmental Action
Jerry Buhari was born in 1959 in Akwaya, in the Kachia Local Government Area of Kaduna State, Nigeria. He holds an M.F.A. from the prestigious Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria, where he continues to teach. Buhari has participated in over 30 group shows, 10 international exhibitions/workshops conferences, and 3 solo shows. His paintings and mixed media canvases interrogate the human relationship with the environment, dialogues of cultures, and the challenges of political leadership in modern African Nations.
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Marco Cianfanelli (b. 1970, South Africa)
In Strategies of the Surface
Marco Cianfanelli was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1970. He graduated, with distinction, from the University of the Witwatersrand with a BFA in 1992. Cianfanelli's solo exhibitions include RECORD - The Generator Art Space, Newtown, Johannesburg, 1996; Atlantis - The Mark Coetzee Fine Art Cabinet, Cape Town, South Africa, 1998; Projected Development in 2005 at Gallery Momo in Johannesburg; and the 2011 Absent Fields at Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg. In 2011 he was also featured in the Italian Pavilion of the Venice Biennale, Italy. His group exhibitions include South Africa's first Annual Land Art Event, 2011; Contemporary Sculpture in the Landscape, 2009; Spier Contemporary 2007, the 2004 Brett Kebble Awards; Once Were Painters, 2002; Emotions and Relations, 2000; Xoe! Site-specific - Nieu-Bethesda, 1998; and Taking Stock at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in 1997, which he co-curated. Since 1992 Cianfanelli has been involved in various projects relating to architecture and public space. And in 2012 the artist was selected to create a monument to Nelson Mandela on the 50th anniversary of the Nobel laureate and former president's capture by apartheid police. Cianfanelli has won numerous awards including the Montague-White Bursary for Study Abroad and the Ampersand Fellowship program in New York, New York, USA. His work can be found in public and private collections in South Africa, Europe and the United States of America.
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Emmanuel Bakary Daou (b. 1960, Mali)
In Art as Environmental Action
Born in 1960 in San, Mali, Emmanuel Bakary Daou received his degree from the National Institute of the Arts in Bamako, Mali and has exhibited widely on the international stage, participating notably in the 1998, 2001, and 2007 Bamako Biennales. In 1998, Daou won the coveted Seydou Ketia Prize at the Bamako Biennale and then the international photojournalism award from the UCIP, in Switzerland in 2001. In his work, Daou negotiates the line between art photographer, photojournalist / documentarian, and cartoonist. One of his primary self-described interests involves the photograph's relationship with reality. As the "best witness of life" he says in an interview in online magazine Afrique in Visu, photography is one of the few media able to bridge the gap between tradition and modernity. Daou also played a formative role in the creation of the association Djaw-mali (Images of Mali) and in the Digital-Club for professional photographers. He is the acting director of the magazine La Cravache and currently the main illustrator of the satiric newspaper Le Canard Libéré. He also owns a photo studio in Bamako, called Photo Nature.
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Allan deSouza (b. 1958, Nairobi)
In Strategies of the Surface
Born in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1958, multi-media artist Allan deSouza deploys photographs, texts, installations and performances to illustrate the often instructive relationship between the body and more broad-based forces of history, politics, socialization, culture, and spirituality. He received his BFA from the Bath Academy of Art, London, UK and his MFA in photography from the University of California, Los Angeles, USA. Highlights from his exhibition record include shows at the Pompidou Centre in Paris, France, the Gwangju Biennale in Korea (2008), and the Third Guangzhou Triennale in China, with solo exhibitions at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, California, USA, the Fowler Museum in Los Angeles, the Krannert Art Museum in Champaign, Illinois, USA, and the Talwar Gallery in New York, New York, USA. His works have also been included in large-scale traveling exhibitions such as Looking Both Ways (Museum for African Art, NY), Africa Remix (Museum Kunst Palast, Dusseldorf), and Snap Judgments (International Center for Photography, NY). His writings have been published in various journals, anthologies, and catalogues, including Third Text, London, Wolgan Art Monthly, and X-TRA. He is currently an Associate Professor and Chair of New Genres at the San Francisco Art Institute.
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Nakunte Diarra (b. ca. 1939, Mali)
In The Material Earth
Perhaps the most acclaimed living artist of bogolan (mud-dyed) cloth, Nakunte Diarra was born in Kokani, in the Beledougou region of Mali. She has been dying and designing cloth using her own secret recipe of ingredients for more than fifty years. Her cloths have been featured in a solo exhibition at the Indiana University Museum in the USA, a show that was accompanied by a catalogue (by Tavy Aherne), as well as in larger international exhibitions of textile and bogolan arts.
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Christine Dixie (b. 1966, South Africa)
In Imagining the Underground
South African printmaker and installation artist Christine Dixie did her undergraduate fine arts training at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, before receiving an MFA at the University of Cape Town in 1993. She is presently a senior lecturer at Rhodes University. Her solo exhibitions include The Binding at Gallery AOP (2010), Corporeal Prospects at Standard Bank Gallery (2007), and Hide at the Millennium Gallery (2001), all in Johannesburg. Her works, which probe the psychology of location and human relationships, can be found in private and public collections in the United States and South Africa.
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Hassan Echair (b. 1964, Morocco)
In Imagining the Underground
Born in Rommani, Morocco, Hassan Echair currently lives in Tetouan, Morocco where he is professor of higher volume at the Fine Arts National Institute of Tetouan. Echair began his studies at the École des beaux-arts in Tetouan, and then from 1987 to 1992 he attended the Regional School of Fine Arts of Amiens, France where he won the DNAP (degree of visual art graphics option and video art) as well DNSEP (Higher National Diploma Expression Plastic) from Angers, also in France. Echair was also formerly a member of the Collective 212. In his drawings, paintings, and installations, Echair makes use of a large range of materials including paper, tile, wood, thread and stone, to portray the temporal, immaterial nature of life. He works entirely in black and white. His first solo exhibition was in 1996, and he has subsequently exhibited throughout northern Africa, the Middle East, and Europe.
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Reza Farkhondeh and Ghada Amer
In Art as Environmental Action
Ghada Amer (see separate entry) has been collaborating professionally and exhibiting with Reza Farkhondeh since 2006, though their friendship began during their days as MFA students at the Villa Arson, in Nice, France. Farkhondeh was born in Iran, has a graduate degree from the Institut des Hautes Etudes en Arts Plastique and an MFA in video and short film from the Villa Arson. He also holds a BFA in painting from the Academie de Beaux-Art de Dijon, and a BA in Economics. Farkhondeh currently works in New York, New York, USA. Farkhondeh and Amer's collaborations include both film and works on paper. They have shown in group exhibitions including Hot off the Press (2006), Art Basel Miami, Florida, USA, and All Editions in Singapore. Their solo shows include Collaborative Drawings at Kukje Gallery in Seoul, South Korea, A New Collaboration on Paper at the Singapore Tyler Institute, Collaborative Drawings at Tina Kim Fine Arts in New York, Roses off Limits at Pace Prints in New York, and The Other I also at Tina Kim.
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David Goldblatt (b. 1930, South Africa)
In Art as Environmental Action
David Goldblatt is a world-renowned South African photographer whose lengthy career has allowed him to document South Africa as it moved through the period of apartheid to subsequent post-apartheid challenges. Goldblatt was born in 1930 in Randfontein, South Africa, the son of parents who came from Lithuania to escape the Jewish persecution of the 1890's. After learning the basics of photography at Krugersdorp high school, he attained a Bachelor's degree in Commerce at Witwatersrand University, but after his father's death, devoted himself full-time to photography. Goldblatt's exhibition highlights include venues such as the Photographer's Gallery, London, UK (1974); National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia (1975); Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York, USA (1998); Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Spain (2002); and the Jewish Museum in New York (2010). Group exhibition venues include: the Guggenheim Museum in New York (1996), the Tate Modern in London (2004), the Fowler Museum at UCLA, Los Angeles, California, USA (2008), and the Venice Biennale, Italy (2011). Goldblatt's awards include the Hasselblad Photography Award (2006), the Henri Cartier-Bresson Award, France (2009), and the Lucie Award Lifetime Achievement Honoree (2010). He also began the Market Photography Workshop in Johannesburg in 1989, with the goal of educating young people in the art of photography.
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Anawana Haloba (b. 1978, Zambia)
In The Material Earth
Anawana Haloba was born in Zambia in 1978 and received her diploma from the Evelyn Hone College of Applied Arts and Commerce in Lusaka in 2000 before moving to Oslo, Norway. There, she completed her studies at the National Academy of Fine Art in 2006 and went on to graduate from the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam, Holland, in 2008. Haloba has also had numerous residencies both in Zambia and abroad, including the Rockston Studio in Lusaka (1985) where she apprenticed in stone sculpture and the Casual Powerhouse Arts Centre in Liverpool, UK (2008) where she worked on the project "When the Private Became Public." She is also the recipient of a 2013 Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship. Haloba has also been involved in a number of international exhibitions, including the Dakar Biennale of Contemporary African Art (Dakar, Senegal, 2006), the Sharjah Biennial (2007, Manifesta 7 (2008), the 16th Biennale of Sydney, Australia (2008), and the 53rd International Art Exhibition - the Venice Biennale, Italy, in 2009. Haloba's work explores the relationship between various populations as they collaborate and negotiate within socio-political, economic, and cultural contexts. Using primarily performance and sound-oriented video installations, Haloba examines the interaction between the historical and current narratives of communities, with particular focus on the political, social, and cultural tenor of the voices responsible for crafting them.
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Dan Halter (b. 1977, Zimbabwe)
In Strategies of the Surface
Dan Halter was born in Harare in 1977 and graduated from the Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, with a BFA in 2001. His solo exhibitions include Take Me to Your Leader (2006) at Joao Ferreira Gallery in Cape Town and Never Say Never (2008) at the Derbylius Gallery in Milan, Italy. Group exhibitions include venues at the South African National Gallery, the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein in Germany, and include projects such as VideoBrasil in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the Next Wave Festival in Melbourne, Australia (2006), and the Havana Biennale, Cuba (2009). His awards include the Judy Steinberge Prize (2001), selection at the MTN New Contemporaries (2008), the Michaelis Painting Prize, and residencies in both Zurich and Rio de Janeiro. Halter addresses the rapid, continuing social and economic decline of Zimbabwe, the country of his birth. Drawing on local methods of material production including weaving, collage, and sculpture, Halter creates a collage of Zimbabwe's history in which diverse materials are used and merged to create competing layers of narrative.
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William Kentridge (b. 1955, South Africa)
In Imagining the Underground
Renowned for his innovative animation technique in which he incorporate the traces, erasures, and changes of his process on film, Kentridge was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1955. He studied Politics and African Studies at the University of Witwatersrand before attending L'Ecole Internationale de Theatre Jacques Lecoq in Paris, France, where he studied mime and theater. Between 1975 and 1991, he was acting and directing in Johannesburg's Junction Avenue Theatre Company, while also working in television as an art director. His film, Mine, is part of a larger series of "Drawings for Projection" produced during the 1990s. Kentridge has been featured in solo exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York, USA, the Metropolitan Opera, New York, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Japan, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, and the Louvre, Paris, France, among others, and included in 2012 and 1997 dOCUMENTAs, 1998 Sao Paulo Biennale, Brazil, 1999 Venice Biennale, Italy, the 2000 Bienal de la Habana, Cuba, and the 2008 Biennale of Sydney, Australia. He has an honorary doctorate from the University of Witwatersrand and has received the Dan David Prize (2012), Kyoto Prize (2010), and Jesse L. Rosenberger Medal (2006), among other awards.
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Helga Kohl (b. 1943, Silesia)
In The Material Earth
Namibian photographer Helga Kohl was born in Poland thought she emigrated to West Germany in 1958. In Germany, she studied photography and attained her Westfalen Diploma from the Chamber of Trade in Munster. She also attended classes in art and art photography at the S. Walter Art Studio. During the 1960s Kohl traveled and worked in several centers in Europe, concentrating principally on provincial architecture, landscape, portraiture and fashion. In 1970 she relocated to Namibia where she has worked as a free-lance photographer since 1975. In 1993 she received the President's Award of the Professional Photographers in Southern Africa (PPSA) and in 1998 Kohl became part of an elite group of 13 PPSA Fellows in the Southern African Region. She has won several awards in the annual Fuji Profoto Awards, as well as an Mbapira Award for her photo-documentary "Art in Namibia" (1998), first prize in Namibia for photography in the Standard Bank Biennale in Windhoek, Namibia, and a three month artist residency in Bremen in 2007. Although her main focus lies in architectural and aerial photography, she has a keen interest in the San people and has undertaken documentary work detailing the day-to-day lives of the populations situated in the eastern sections of Namibia. Her work has appeared in group and solo exhibitions in Belgium, Botswana, Egypt, France, Germany, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Spain, South Africa, the United States, and Zimbabwe. Her book, Kolmanskop Past and Present, was published in 2004.
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Ledelle Moe (b. 1971, South Africa)
In Power of the Earth (installed in the Enid A. Haupt Garden)
Ledelle Moe was born in Durban, South Africa in 1971. She studied sculpture at Technikon Natal and graduated in 1993. Active in the local art community, Moe was one of the founding members of the FLAT Gallery, an artist initiative and alternative space in Durban. A travel grant in 1994 brought her to the United States where she embarked on a period of study at the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Sculpture Department Master's program. She completed her Master's Degree in 1996 and soon after accepted an adjunct position in the Sculpture Department at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore, Maryland, where she is based today. Moe has exhibited in a number of venues including the Kulturhuset (Stockholm, Sweden) the NSA Gallery (Durban, South Africa), the International Sculpture Center (Washington, DC, USA), The Washington Project for the Arts (Washington, DC) and Maryland Art Place (Baltimore). Though Moe remains strongly connected to South Africa, returning to visit annually, she has continued to live and work in the United States. Recent projects include large-scale concrete installations at Socrates Park and Pratt Institute in New York City, Decatur Blue in Washington, DC, and another in Salzburg, Austria, as well as a 2012 solo exhibition, "Displacements" in Cape Town, South Africa. In 2002 Moe was the recipient of a Joan Mitchell Award.
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Santu Mofokeng (b. 1956, South Africa)
In Art as Environmental Action
South African photographer Santu Mofokeng's deviation from conventional subject matter includes enquiries into spirituality, an interest that has continued throughout his photographic career and produced the evocative series Chasing Shadows. His explorations of landscape invested with spiritual significance form part of a wider enquiry into space and belonging, and the political meaning of landscape. His work investigates the meaning of landscape in relation to ownership, power and memory. Mofokeng has been the recipient of numerous awards including the 1991 Ernest Cole Scholarship, to study at the International Centre for Photography in New York, New York, USA. He was awarded the first Mother Jones Award for Africa in 1992. In 1998 he was the recipient of the Künstlerhaus Worpswede Fellowship and three years later of the DAAD Fellowship, both in Germany. In 2009 he was nominated as a Prince Claus Fund Laureate for Visual Arts. Santu Mofokeng's first international retrospective opened in May 2011 at the Jeu de Paume in Paris, France and is currently showing at Kunsthalle in Bern, Switzerland.
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Sinyinda Mukuti (member of Mumwa Crafts Association, Zambia)
In Art as Environmental Action
Sinyinda Mukuti is a carver to kings and member of the Mumwa Crafts Association. He was born and currently lives outside the winter capitol of the Lozi kingdom, Limulunga, in western Zambia. Mukuti carves intricate tubana (lidded storage jars or pots), mikeke (lidded serving dishes, frequently with animals or architectural motifs on top), ladles, axe handles and other finely carved objects in wood. Twenty percent of sales through Mumwa Crafts go back toward a reforestation program to insure sustainable practices for the long-term.
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Wangechi Mutu (b. 1972, Kenya)
In The Power of the Earth
Wangechi Mutu was born in 1972 and now lives and works in Brooklyn, New York, USA. She was educated in Nairobi, Kenya, at Loreto Convent Msongari (1978-1989) and later studied at the United World College of the Atlantic, Wales (I.B., 1991). Mutu moved to New York in the 1990s, focusing on Fine Arts and Anthropology at The New School for Social Research and Parsons School of Art and Design. She earned a BFA from Cooper Union for the Advancement of the Arts and Science in 1996, and then received an MFA from Yale University (2000). Mutu's work has been exhibited at galleries and museums worldwide including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California, USA, the Miami Art Museum, Florida, USA, the Tate Modern in London, UK, the Studio Museum in Harlem in New York, Museum Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf, Germany, and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, France. Her first solo exhibition at a major North American museum opened at the Art Gallery of Ontario in March 2010; a mid-career retrospective was organized by The Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, Australia in 2012, and the Nasher Museum opened a solo exhibition of her work in March 2013. Mutu participated in the 2008 Prospect 1 Biennial in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, and the 2004 Gwangju Biennale in South Korea. Her work has been featured in major group exhibitions including Greater New York at the P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Black President: The Art and Legacy of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York and the Barbican Centre in London, and USA Today at the Royal Academy in London. On February 23, 2010, Wangechi Mutu was honored by Deutsche Bank as their first "Artist of the Year." The prize included a solo exhibition at the Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin, Germany. Titled My Dirty Little Heaven, the show traveled in June 2010 to Wiels Center for Contemporary Art in Brussels, Belgium.
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Ingrid Mwangi (b. 1975, Kenya)
In Strategies of the Surface
Born in Nairobi, Kenya, Ingrid Mwangi describes herself as born in a "mixed-up society. My generation had some disappointments with the politicians and with the deterioration of hope into fear." At the age of 16, she went to Germany. "Being African in German society was a huge issue." Mwangi remembers at that time she unwittingly "turned the camera on myself and then looked at myself from the outside, as others do." Mwangi ended up influenced by the contradictions of belonging to two different worlds, evoking to her work the living experiences of a society in collision. Subjects like discrimination - by skin color, social position or gender - all found an important place in her work. Gradually she has been focusing on conflict issues and the reasons why we live in violence. In 2005, she and her husband changed their official name to IngridMwangiRobertHutter. Their work has been exhibited internationally, from Beijing to Cairo, and is held in important private and public collections around the world.
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Abdoulaye Ndoye (b. 1951, Senegal)
In Strategies of the Surface
Born in Dakar, Senegal, in 1951, Abdoulaye Ndoye attended the Académie Royale Supérieure des Beaux Arts, in Brussels, Belgium from 1978 to 1981, and subsequently participated in a number of workshops in the United States including that at the Brandywine Printmaking Workshop (Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey, USA) and the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop (New York, New York, USA). Ndoye's distinct mixture of organic material and script creates precious, visually 'antiqued' objects that mimic the distinctive patina of sacred texts, maps, and iconic manuscripts. Using a script of his own invention, Ndoye's projects reference the creative impetus of the written narrative while highlighting dualism of that narrative as both a mode of communication and an inherently aesthetic enterprise. Ndoye has maintained a strong exhibition record over the course of his 30 year career, having numerous group and solo exhibitions at the Bekris gallery in San Francisco, California, USA, and the Parish Gallery in Washington DC, USA. Ndoye's work was featured in the solo exhibitions "The Debris of Time" at the 2008 Dakar Biennale and "Graphic Poetry" at the 2010 Dakar Bienniale. Ndoye was also a professor at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux Arts du Senegal from 1982 to 1996, becoming its director in 1996.
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Sam Nhlengethwa (b. 1955, South Africa)
In Imagining the Underground
Sam Nhlengethwa was born in 1955 in the township of Payneville Springs, east of Johannesburg, South Africa. Urban born and raised, Nhlengethwa's prints and collages relate intimately to township existence. He received a fine art diploma from Rorke's Drift Art Centre in Natal, South Africa, and after graduating, taught part-time at the Federative Union of Black Artists (FUBA) in Johannesburg. He has received many awards throughout his career, including the prestigious Standard Bank Young Artist Award for 1994. He has also participated in workshops in New York, Senegal, and Cuba, and been featured in group exhibitions since the early 1980s in Germany, Botswana, France, the United States, and South Africa. His solo exhibitions include two at the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg, and one at the Axis Gallery in Manhattan.
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Otobong Nkanga (b. 1974, Nigeria)
In Strategies of the Surface
Otobong Nkanga is a visual artist and live performer born in Kano, Nigeria. She currently lives and works in Paris, France, and Antwerp, Belgium. Nkanga began her art studies at the Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, Nigeria and continued at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris. She also participated in the residency program at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. In 2008 she obtained her Masters in the Performing Arts at Dasarts, Amsterdam. Nkanga has exhibited widely internationally. Recent shows include: Across the Board: Politics of Representation," at the Tate Modern in London, UK (2012); Animism,Extra City Kunsthal and MHKA Museun van Hedendaagse Kunst, Antwerpen, Belgium (2010). Diagonal Views, Nieuwe Vide, Haarlem, The Netherlands (2009). Re/presentaciones: ellas, Casa Africa, Las Palmas Gran Canaria (2008). Flow, Studio Museum Harlem, New York, New York, USA (2008). Africa Remix, which toured France, Germany, Japan, South Africa, and Sweden; Snap Judgments: New Positions in African Contemporary Photography, which toured America, Mexico, Canada and the Netherlands; and over the course of the last five years, she participated in the Sharjah, Taipei, Dakar, São Paulo and Havanna Biennials.
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Charles Okereke (b. 1966, Nigeria)
In Art as Environmental Action
Charles Okereke was born in 1966 in what is presently the Kano state in northern Nigeria. He undertook an apprenticeship with a commercial arts company in Aba, Nigeria from 1987 to 1990 working in commercial sign writing, screen-printing, lithography, and film processing. He then attended and graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Visual Arts in 1996 from the University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria, where he studied sculpture. In 2006, Okereke participated in a photographic workshop organized by the Goethe Institute, Lagos, Nigeria, called Football World, under the direction of Nigerian/ Berlin based photographer, Akinbode Akinbiyi. A photographers' collective called BLACK BOX eventually emerged from this workshop in which Okereke was a founding member. In 2009, Okereke became involved in a project called the Invisible Borders Trans-African Photographic Initiative, which is an art-led project founded by Nigerian artists who are committed to "affecting change in the society" (www.invisible-borders.com). The results of his work in this initiative were displayed at both the Bamako Photographic Biennale in Mali and Dak'Art in Senegal. In addition to his photographic works, Okereke also writes, acts, directs and produces plays and drama pieces, such as The Broken Vessels, Return to Innocence, The Thin Line, and Vessel of Hope. He also actively engages in organizing art classes and workshops for children.
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António Ole (b. 1951, Angola)
In The Material Earth
António Ole was born and remains based in Luanda, Angola. He graduated from the American Film Institute of Los Angeles (California, USA) and studied Afro-American culture and cinema in the University of California Los Angeles. As a painter, sculptor, installation artist, filmmaker, and photographer, Ole has created a vast body of work that focus on themes of colonization, civil war, famine, social conflicts, and the human capacity for resistance and survival. Ole directed several documentaries and videos on the life and history of Angola, such as: Os Ferroviários (Railway workers), 1975; O Ritmo dos Ngola Ritmos (The Rhythm of Ngola Rhythms), 1978, Sonangol: 10 Anos Mais Forte (Sonangol: 10 Years Stronger), 1987, amongst others. His first exhibition was in 1967 and since his international debut at the African-American Art Museum (Los Angeles), in 1984, his works have been shown in many exhibitions, festivals and biennales, including Havana (1986, 1988, 1997), São Paulo, Brazil (1987), Berlin, Germany (1997), Johannesburg, South Africa (1995, 1997), Dakar, Senegal (1998) and Venice, Italy (2003, 2007). Noteworthy, is his participation in the prestigious touring exhibitions: Africa Remix (Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf; Hayward Gallery, London, UK; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan; Moderna Museum, Stockholm, Sweden; Johannesburg Art Gallery, and The Short Century (Martin Groupius Bau, Berlin, Germany; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois, USA; PS-1/MOMA, New York, New York, USA). His most recent solo exhibitions, include: Hidden Pages, Stolen Bodies, Veemvloer, Amsterdam (2001); Olhar em Viagem (Gaze on a Journey), Alliance Française, Salvador (2003); António Ole: Marcas de um Percurso 1970-2004 (António Ole: Traces of a Route 1970-2004), Culturgest, Lisbon (2004) and António Ole, 111 Gallery, Lisbon (2007), and Artists in Dialogue at the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian (2009).
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Dawit Petros (b. 1972, Eritrea)
In Strategies of the Surface
Dawit Petros was born in 1972 in Asmara, Eritrea, before moving to Kenya and eventually Canada, where he received a BA in History from University of Saskatchewan. He went on to Concordia University to earn a BFA in photography, and later attended Tufts University/School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, to receive an MFA as a Fulbright fellow. Petros' photographic and mixed media work raises questions about place, transformation, and the cohabitation of diverse cultures and ideas. His exhibitions have included venues such as the Studio Museum in Harlem Artist in Residence Exhibition (2009), the Addis Ababa International Photography Festival (Addis Ababa, 2010), Franklin Art works (2011), Galeria Marilia Razuk (2011), the Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum (2011), and Art Basel Miami Beach (2012). He has also been the subject of numerous reviews included in The New York Times (Aug. 31, 2007), Art South Africa (Feb. 2009), and Photography Quarterly (Jan-Mar 2010).
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George Osodi (b. 1974, Nigeria)
In Imagining the Underground
George Osodi was born in 1974 in Lagos, Nigeria, where he remains today. He studied Business Administration at the Yba College of Technology in Lagos and then worked as a photojournalist for the Comet Newspaper, Lagos (1999-2001). He then joined the Associated Press News Agency, Lagos (2001-2008) and has since undertaken many assignments for both local and international organizations. Osodi is a photographer whose work moves between photojournalism, art, documentary, and activism. His images have been published in publications such as the New York Times, Time Magazine, the Guardian, The Telegraph, USA Today, the International Herald Tribune, CNN, BBC, and many others. Osodi's solo exhibitions include the Haudesund in Norway (2008), Galerie Peter Hermann in Berlin, Germany (2009), RAW Materials Company in Dakar, Senegal (2011), and Rencontres de Bamako in Mali (2011). Group exhibitions include Environment and Object, present African Art at the Tang Museum at Skidmore College, Saratoga, New York (2011), Ghana Gold - De Money at the 6th Curitiba Biennial, Brazil (2011), Uneven Geographies at Nottingham Contemporary, UK (2010), Afrika in Oslo at the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo, Norway (2009), and Documenta 12, Kassel, Germany (2007).
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Nyaba Leon Ouedraogo (b.1978, Burkina Faso)
In Art as Environmental Action
Nyaba Leon Ouedraogo could have run the 400 meters at the Olympics, but a serious injury caused this former athlete from Burkina Faso to turn to photography. He has been an assistant to Paris photographer Jean-Paul Dekers, a still-life photographer, a fashion photographer, and an industrial photographer. He is now devoting himself to photographic journalism. Ouedraogo is co-founder of the group "Topics Visual Arts Platform." He has had solo and group exhibitions in France, Martinique, and Morocco, and was a 2010 nominee for the prestigious Prix Pictet.
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Owanto (b. 1953, France)
In Strategies of the Surface
Owanto (b. Yvette Berger) was born in 1953 in Paris to a Gabonese mother and French father. Owanto grew up in Gabon, where she spent her formative years before eventually moving to Europe. She returns to Gabon regularly. The artist works across a variety of media, including painting, sculpture, photography, video and installation. Owanto represented the Republic of Gabon at the 53rd International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale in Italy in 2009. She continues to exhibit internationally today. Her works can be found in private and public collections around the world.
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Thabiso Phokompe (b. 1970, South Africa)
In Power of the Earth
Thabiso Phokompe trained in Johannesburg, South Africa at FUBA (Federated Union of Black Artists) during the 1980s, where his sense of identity was bolstered by exposure to the ideas of Steve Biko's Black Consciousness Movement. Later, while studying at the Johannesburg Art Foundation, he became fascinated with abstraction and found objects. His interest in conceptual and site-specific work was sparked through workshops with other African artists and later by international art trends. Phokompe's starting point is natural fiber and earth, which represents to him "the womb from which life flows." Now based in Brooklyn, Phokompe's work has been included in such prestigious group shows as Liberated Voices (1999) and Personal Affects (2004), both organized by The Museum for African Art, New York, New York, USA, and he has had solo shows at both Axis Gallery (2002) and Skoto Gallery (2013) in New York.
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Andrew Putter (b. 1965, South Africa)
In The Material Earth
Andrew Putter was born in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1965 and studied art at the University of Cape Town for six years, adding a seventh year to qualify as an art instructor. Putter is a South African artist who deploys visual iconographies from both African and European traditions to create lush tableaux that suggest two cultures are able to coexist without one taking dominance over the other. In 2004, Putter received a National Education Award for his work in design education; in 2007, he received the Spier Contemporary Art Award, one of the most prestigious prizes for contemporary art in South Africa, for his work Secretly I Will Love You More, exhibited at the Spier Estate, Stellenbosch, and Johannesburg Art Gallery in South Africa. He has also won a Volkskas Atelier Merit award, and was a finalist in the FNB Vita Art Now. His exhibition record includes participation at the 2nd Johannesburg Biennale, the Frankfurt Art Fair in Germany, and the 10th Havana Biennale in Cuba, in addition to local venues at the South African National Gallery n Cape Town as well as the Johannesburg Gallery. Putter also works as a designer, performer, teacher and writer. He was a founding member of Public Eye and worked in conjunction with architect Andre Vorster to initiate the Mother City Queer Project, which developed ventures such as the Locker Room and Secret Garden projects. Putter has also been a regular contributor of art criticism to The Weekly Mail/Guardian, The Argus, and South, and has worked Cape Town's renowned queer culture adventures. He is the only character to appear by name in Ashraf Jamal`s celebrated novel of the Observatory underground - "Love Themes for the Wilderness".
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Georgia Papageorge (b. 1941, South Africa)
In Art as Environmental Action
Georgia Papageorge was born in 1941, in Cape Town, South Africa and studied Fine Art at the University of South Africa and the Technikon (1974-80), both in Pretoria, South Africa, where she now lives and works. Throughout the 1980s South Africa's violent political situation provided the conceptual basis of her work. Since 1994, Papageorge has worked in some of Africa's most spectacular, remote landscapes. Her projects combine land art with photography, film and large-scale mixed media works. Papageorge's journeys up and down the Great East African Rift Valley have increasingly engaged her in the geological and sociological sense of schism or rift within Africa and the rest of the world, making it the key metaphor in her art. Fresh evidence of climate change, the dangerous charcoal trade and other environmental threats moved her art towards an urgency of documentation, which finds her working in increasingly dangerous circumstances. The State Museum of North Dakota, USA, owns a substantial body of her work and has published a major catalogue of her work. Her work also appears in the permanent collection of the National Museum of African Art. She has exhibited in the United States, England, and South Africa, and her exhibitions include the 2009 Continental Rifts in Los Angeles, California, USA, and the 2011 traveling exhibition Environment and Object.
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Jo Ractliffe (b. 1961, South Africa)
In Strategies of the Surface
South African artist Jo Ractliffe was born in 1961 in Cape Town and lives in Johannesburg. She completed her BFA and MFA degrees with distinction at the University of Cape Town. She works in photo-based media, video, and installation and her photographs have reflected her ongoing preoccupation with the South African landscape and the ways in which it figures in the country's imaginary - particularly, the violent legacies of apartheid. Most recently, she has turned her attention to the aftermath of the war in Angola. In 2010 she was a Writing Fellow at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (Wiser), Johannesburg, and an invited artist at the Phillips Exeter Academy, New Hampshire, USA. Other awards include the 1999 Vita Art prize. Ractliffe was nominated for the 2011 Discovery Prize at the Rencontres d'Arles photography festival, and As Terras do Fim do Mundo was nominated as best photobook of 2010 at the International Photobook Festival in Kassel, Germany (June 2011). Group exhibitions include New Topography of War at Le Bal, Paris, France (2011); Events of the Self: Portraiture and Social Identity, The Walther Collection in Neu-Ulm/Burlafingen, Germany (2010); the seventh Gwangju Biennale, South Korea (2008); Snap Judgments: New Positions in Contemporary African Photography, International Centre for Photography, New York, New York, USA (2006), and The Unhomely: Phantom Scenes in Global Society, Second International Biennial of Contemporary Art (Biacs 2), Seville, Spain (2006). Recent Books include: As Terras do Fim do Mundo (Cape Town: Michael Stevenson, 2010); Terreno Ocupado (Johannesburg: Warren Siebrits, 2008); Johannesburg Circa Now: Photography and the City (Johannesburg: Terry Kurgan & Jo Ractliffe, 2005); Jo Ractliffe: Selected Colour Works 1999 - 2005 (Johannesburg: Warren Siebrits, 2005); Jo Ractliffe: Selected Works 1982 - 1999 (Johannesburg: Warren Siebrits, 2004).
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Younès Rahmoun (b. 1975, Morocco)
In Art as Environmental Action
Younès Rahmoun was born in 1975 in Tétouan, Morocco, where he currently lives and works. Rahmoun studied at the Institut National des Beux-Arts in Tétouan, from which he received his degree in 1998. His multi-media works reflect his strong environmental consciousness and faith. His exhibitions include Working for Change (Venice Biennial, Italy, 2011), and as well as being featured at such major exhibitions and biennials as the Canaries, Pontevedra, Dakar, Singapore, and Marrakech Biennials. His solo shows include Apartemente 22 in Rabat, Morroco (2011), and Tiwani Contemporary in London (2013).
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Berni Searle (b. 1964, South Africa)
In The Material Earth
Berni Searle received her MFA from the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, South Africa (1995). She is a world-renowned South African artist who works with photography, video, and film to produce lens-based installations that interrogate history, memory, identity, race, and place. Solo exhibitions during 2011 included Shimmer at the Stevenson gallery, Cape Town and Interlaced (a retrospective) which featured new commissioned work, opened at De Hallen in Bruges, Belgium and travelled to the Museum for Moderne Kunst Arnhem (MMKA) in the Netherlands and Frac Lorraine in Metz, France. Recent group exhibitions include Figures and Fictions at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK, She Devil at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome, Italy (MACRO), The Dissolve. SITE Santa Fe, 8th International Biennial, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA, and Pictures by Women: A History of Modern Photography, Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York, USA. Since 1999, her work has been featured in numerous solo and collective exhibitions in South Africa, the USA, and Europe, including the Venice Biennales of 2001 and 2005. Awards include UNESCO award (1998), Minister of Culture prize at the Dak'art Biennale (2000), Civitella Ranieri Fellowship (2001), and the Standard Bank Young Artist Award (2003).
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Batoul S'Himi (b. 1974, Morocco)
In Strategies of the Surface
Born in 1974 in Asilah, Morocco, Batoul S'Himi studied at the Institute National des Beaux-Arts in 1998 in Tétouan, Morocco, from which she graduated in 1998. S'Himi focuses on the production of women, in particular the symbolism of everyday objects. Batoul S'Himi presented her first series of personal works at L'Appartement 22, Rabat in 2007 in Monde sous pression (World Under Pressure). Her works have been exhibited in Morocco and England, and she is beginning to attain international attention in both publications and exhibitions.
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Tchif (b. 1973, Benin)
In Power of the Earth
A self-taught artist, Tchif (Francis Tchiakpé) was born in 1973 in Ouidah, Benin. He is currently based in Cotonou, Benin. Although primarily a painter, Tchif is a mixed media artist who focuses on the journey of the human soul in relation to the earth. His work has been exhibited internationally, at the first international Biennial in Cotonou, Benin, at the Museu AfroBrasil in Sao Paul, Brazil, as well as in Holland, France, Germany, Belgium, and Portugal.
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Clive van den Berg (b. 1956, Zambia)
In Imagining the Underground and Strategies of the Surface
Clive Van den Berg was born in 1956 in Zambia and received his BFA from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, in 1979. He lectured at Technikon Natal in Durban, South Africa from 1982 to 1989 and was a senior lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, from 1989-2000. He is currently an independent curator, designer, artist, writer and teacher who lives and works in Johannesburg. A mixed media artist, van den Berg explores the multiple themes of the body, masculinity, landscape, light, memory, and the archive. Van den Berg has had numerous solo exhibitions over the course of his career primarily oriented in Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa, including shows at the Goodman Gallery (1991,2000, 2003, 2006, 2008) in Johannesburg, the Mark Coetzee Fine Art Cabinet (1998) in Cape Town, the Loft Theater Gallery (1986) in Durban, and the Gallery International (1984) in Cape Town. He has also had a number of group exhibitions at venues such as the Fowler Museum at UCLA, Los Angeles, California, USA (2008), the Museum for African Art in New York, New York, USA (2005), the Palais des Beaux-Artes in, Brussels, Belgium (2004), the Johannesburg Biennale (1995), and the Alvar Aalto Museum and Museum of Central Finland (1993). He has also been the recipient of numerous awards including the Natal Arts Trust overall winner (1985), the Volkskas Atelier Young Artist Award (1987), the Michelin International Art Competition Award (1998), the Civitella Raniera Foundation Fellowship (2001), and the Gateway Public Sculpture Competition (2007).
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Diane Victor (b. 1964, South Africa)
In The Material Earth
Diane Victor was born in 1964 in Witbank, South Africa and received her BA Fine Arts Degree from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa (1986). Known for her dark, sardonic humor, Victor is a print maker who controls the seemingly uncontrollable in her works on paper. In recent years she has been "drawing" with both smoke and ashes. Solo exhibitions include showings at the Pretoria Gallery on the Markey, Johannesburg (1990), the Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg (1994), the Michael Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa (2005), David Krut Projects, New York, New York, USA (2010, 2012), and the Faulconer Gallery at Grinnell College, Iowa, USA (2011). Victor was also the winner of the Volkskas L'Atelier Award (1988), in addition to receiving an Ampersand Foundation Fellowship (New York, 1997), a UNESCO Residency (Vienna, Austria, 1998), a Vermont Study Center Residency (Vermont, USA, 1999), and a Gold Medal Award for Visual Art form the South African Academy of Arts and Sciences (2005). In addition to graduating with distinction and winning various awards, Victor also became the youngest recipient of the prestigious Volkskas Atelier Award in 1988.
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Graeme Williams (b. 1961, South Africa)
In Strategies of the Surface
Born in South Africa in 1961, photographer Graeme Williams began his career as a documentarian. Starting in 1989, Williams was contracted by Reuters to cover South Africa's transition to ANC rule. Then, in 1991 he began to contribute photographs to the Southern African documentary collective, Afrapix, and later went on to become a founding member and manager of South Photographs Agency. His work is housed in the permanent collections of The Smithsonian, National Museum of African Art, Washington, D.C., USA, The South African National Gallery, The Rotterdam Museum of Ethnology, The Netherlands, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA, The Apartheid Museum, Johannesburg, South Africa, The Finnish School of Photography, Helsinki, Oxfam and Anti-Apartheid Movement in Brussels, Belgium, Cape Town University, South Africa, as well as the BHP Billiton Collection and the AngloGold Ashanti Collection. He has staged solo exhibitions in Johannesburg, New York and Paris and participated in many combined exhibitions, including the 2011 Figures and Fictions exhibition at London's Victoria and Albert Museum. He has also contributed to a number of publications showcasing photography in South Africa and around the world, such as Then and Now (2008). Williams' books include The Edge of Town (2011), Graeme Williams Photographs (2010), The Inner City (2000), The Floor (1996). His photographs have also been published by National Geographic Magazine, Time, Newsweek, The New York Times Magazine and Photography magazine (UK).
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Ben Enwonwu (b. 1921-1994, Nigeria)
In Strategies of the Surface
Ben Enwonwu was born in 1921 in Onitsha, Anambra State, Nigeria and studied under Kenneth Murray, a well-known British arts education officer in the colonial service who was responsible for supporting many modernist pioneers and for building the Nigerian national collection. From 1938-1943, Enwonwu taught in Nigeria's secondary schools, had his first solo show in 1943 in Lagos, and thereafter obtained a scholarship to study at Goldsmith's College, Ruskin College, and later the Slade School in London. He worked as both a sculptor and a painter, though his best-known public commissions were sculptures. As many of his works suggest with their stylized, rhythmic qualities and pan-African subject matter, Enwonwu was deeply concerned with ideas of Negritude. He studied anthropology at University of College, London and became a Fellow at the Royal Anthropological Institute. In 1954 he was awarded an MBE (Member of the British Empire). Shortly thereafter he received a major commission to sculpt a portrait statue of Queen Elizabeth II in 1957, and a similar commission came from former president of Nigeria, Nnamdi Azikiwe. Enwonwu also held a professorship at University of Ife until his death in 1994. His works have been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions including the National Gallery of Lagos (1991), Mall Galleries, London (1985); Galerie Apollinaire, London (1950); Howard University, Washington (1950).
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Iba N'Diaye (b. 1928-2008, Senegal)
In Strategies of the Surface
Iba N'Diaye (also NDiaye) was born in 1928 in Saint Louis, Senegal. N'Diaye studied architecture in Senegal and continued his creative studies in France at the École des Beaux-Arts, Montpellier, École des Beaux-Arts, Paris and the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. At the request of President Léopold Sédar Senghor, N'Diaye returned to Senegal in 1959 to create the Department of Plastic Arts at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Dakar. He returned permanently to Paris in 1967. N'Diaye frequented jazz clubs in Paris in the 1940s and his love of music informed his art practice. In 1987 the Museum für Völkerkunde, Munich organized the first major retrospective of N'Diaye's works in Europe, which then later traveled to the Afrika Museum in Berg en Dal, The Netherlands(1989) and to the Tampere Museum of Modern Art in Finland (1990). His artworks have also been featured in numerous group and solo exhibitions throughout Europe, North America, Africa and Asia.
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Jacob Hendrik Pierneef (1886-1957, South Africa)
In Strategies of the Surface
Jacob Hendrik Pierneef was born in Pretoria, South Africa in 1886 to a Dutch father and Afrikaans mother. Raised in Pretoria, Pierneef attended the State Model School where he excelled at drawing. During the Pierneef family's temporary exile in Holland (1899-1902) at the time of the Boer War, he received some formal art tuition at the Rotterdam Academy. On his return in 1903 he received artistic guidance from South African artists Anton van Wouw (1862-1945), Pieter Wenning (1873-1921) and Frans Oerder (1866-1944) and later from the Irish artist George Smithard (1973-1919). Pierneef held his first solo exhibition in Pretoria in 1913 and during the early 1920s held a number of successful exhibitions in Pretoria, Stellenbosch, Cape Town and Namibia. In 1925 on a second visit to Holland, Pierneef met Dutch philosopher of art, artist and mathematician Willem van Konijnenburg and became familiar with his ideas published in De Aestetische Idee (1916). Under the influence of van Konijnenberg, Pierneef started to apply strong geometric principles to his compositions, and is today well-known for his ordered portrayal of the South African landscape and particularly the South African bushveld. The inspiration for his individual style came from his studies of the rock art of San peoples, as well as the decorative arts of black southern Africans.
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