The Kaleidoscope of Black Life (II)
Our latest issue shares more works from artists who deftly deploy diverse materials to depict Black life in its varied dimensions with sensitivity and nuance, each like a single hue in a kaleidoscope.
Featuring artists David Fludd, Fadwa Bouziane, francisco hernando fuentes zarate, Komikka Patton, Namikoye Wanjala, Richard Nattoo, Sequoia Barnes, Thembi Mthembu, and Vivien Kohler, this collection completes our series depicting Black life in its varied dimensions. Using mediums such as painting, collage, textiles, and even hair, our artists explore the role of spirituality, ancestral practice, healing, dreams, and symbolic representation as constitutive elements of Blackness.
Selected by artist and educator Sedey Gebreyes and curators Liz Ikiriko and Janine Gaëlle Dieudji for their originality and visual appeal, these artists are the second group of finalists from more than 100 submissions to our second global call for art in 2023. (The first group of artists was featured earlier this year.)
"The Majician's Arrival comes from my interest in spirituality and magical realism through a Caribbean lens. Taking inspiration from the sacred groves of India and Africa, together with the mangroves of the Caribbean, the ethereal quality of the piece is a celebration of Akan, Taino, and Hindu spirituality. In this work I create a space where all three worlds collide in a multilayered song of ancestry, spirituality, majic, and youth, where the inner child reconnects with an ancestor under the silk-cotton tree."
Richard Nattoo
Like with the first installment, these artists' works are rooted in their specific contexts yet are familiar, recognisable and mutually intelligible.
See more below.
