Sokari Douglas Camp @ Tiwani Contemporary

Sokari Douglas Camp

Tiwani’s next show comes from Nigeria-born, London-based artist Sokari Douglas Camp. In a departure from her recent politically-oriented work, It’s Personal will include steel sculptures and metal drawings exploring relationships, emotions and life transitions. You can find out more about Sokari here, and you can see more of her work in the Sainsbury Galleries at the British Museum.

Private view: Thursday 5th April, 6.30-8.30

Show: 6th April – 19th May

Tiwani Contemporary
16 Little Portland Street, London
W1W 8BP

Kura Shomali @ Jack Bell

Kura Shomali

The next show at Jack Bell is by Congolese artist Kura Shomali. Mysteriously entitled Cassius Clay Ali Boom Boom Ye, it’s been put together in collaboration with Pigozzi curator André Magnin. There’s a brief biography of the artist from the Pigozzi Collection here.

Private view:
Wednesday 4 April, 6 – 8
With a live performance from A.J. Holmes & The Hackney Empire featuring a special guest appearance by Afrikan Boy

Show:
5 April – 5 May

Opening hours:
Tues-Sat, 10-6

Jack Bell Gallery
13 Mason’s Yard, London
SW1Y 6BU

Kultura Film Club @ Passing Clouds

Another last-minute shout-out: tonight at Passing Clouds there’s a screening of Je Ne Suis Pas Moi- Meme, a 2009 film by Alba Mora and Anna Santamaria which explores the international market for African antiquities. Shot in Cameroon and Belgium, it traces the complex journeys of art objects through the market system, and the debates over authenticity and economic and aesthetic value that shape their destinies. More info can be found at the facebook event page; there doesn’t seem to be a listing on the Passing Clouds website, but you can still check there for venue info.

Thursday 22nd March, 7pm

Kultura Film Club
Passing Clouds
1 Richmond Road, London
E8 4AA

South African Sale @ Bonhams

The latest South African sale is happening this very afternoon at Bonhams, New Bond St, starting at 2pm. Works by usual suspects Stern, Pierneef et al will be on offer. You can peruse the catalogue here.

The struggle over the Africa Centre continues

Here’s an interesting article from openDemocracy on the ongoing battle over the Africa Centre, which I posted about here and here. A public meeting in January this year resulted in demands for a moratorium on the sale of the building while an open consultation on the charity’s Vision and Governance is carried out, but there has as yet been no response; meanwhile, the debate around the centre’s significance – cultural, political, financial, emotional – rumbles on.

You can read more about the Save the Africa Centre campaign at its website, where there is a recently-published vision statement.

Guy Tillim @ Tate Modern

Jean-Pierre Bemba, presidential candidate, enters a stadium in central Kinshasa flanked by his bodyguards, July 2006 - Guy Tillim (2006)

Finally I get around to giving South African photographer Guy Tillim a mention – there are just a few weeks left to check out a selection of works from his Congo Democratic series, as part of the Tate Modern collection display ‘New Documentary Forms’. The series examines the 2006 multi-party presidential elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which followed decades of civil war, and, unsurprisingly, became the hotly-contested focus of the electorate’s hopes and fears for the future. There’s no direct emphasis here on the violent episodes that marked the campaigns process; instead, Tillim leads us into the centre of the crowd and invites us to contemplate the emotion, anticipation and ambiguity that mark democratic political processes.

The other artists featured in this display are Luc Delahaye, Mitch Epstein, Boris Mikhailov and Akram Zaatari – further details here.

You can see more images from the Congo Democratic series here.

Show continues until 31st March.

Collection Displays, Level 5: New Documentary Forms
Tate Modern
Bankside, London
SE1 9TG

Lilian Nabulime @ SOAS

Twisted Woman - Lilian Nabulime (2008)

There’s a rare chance this week to hear Ugandan sculptor Lilian Nabulime discuss her work, at a talk entitled ‘A Post-Modern Sculptor from Uganda – Developing a Sculptural Practice’. Nabulime is a Professor of Sculpture at Makerere University, Kampala, and works mostly with tree stumps, which she coaxes into elegant, rhythmic forms using a hammer and chisel. More details here.

Thursday 8th March, 5-7

Room B102
Brunei Gallery
Thornhaugh St, London
WC1H 0XG