Presented in collaboration with Kunstmuseum Basel
Drawing from nuanced forms of joy, Black artists, whether residing in Africa or within the vast African diaspora, have pursued a spectrum of visual vocabularies that encompass the experiences of Blackness - of being Black; of living within Black cultures and navigating the complexities of representation and visibility. In doing so, they have intentionally explored the poetics of Blackness in a way that subverts reductive tropes. They explore Black subjectivity and Black consciousness through figurative painting as part of a historical continuum. Join curator Koyo Kouoh as she discusses these vocabularies and histories - surveyed and celebrated in the exhibition When We See Us, A Century of Black Figuration in Painting, currently on show at Kunstmuseum Basel - with artists Kudzanai-Violet Hwami and Tschabalala Self.
Kudzanai-Violet Hwami, Artist, London
Tschabalala Self, Artist, Hudson Valley
Moderator: Koyo Kouoh, Executive Director and Chief Curator Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town