Gallery 1957 Accra - In and Out of Time

IN AND OUT OF TIME, CURATED BY EKOW ESHUN

THIRD FLOOR, GALLERIA MALL, ACCRA

16 SEP - 12 DEC 2023

Drawing from the Ghanaian concept of Sankofa - to return to the past in order to move forward - the exhibition explores African cultural notions of non-linear time and brings together both established and emerging contemporary artists from across Africa and the diaspora. The exhibition gathers new artworks from a range of mediums, including painting, collage and moving image. The show introduces artists who are new to Gallery 1957’s roster, such as Tunji Adeniyi-Jones, Malala Andrialavidrazana, Shiraz Bayjoo, Kenturah Davis, Todd Gray, Eric Gyamfi, Lyle Ashton Harris, Julianknxx, Zanele Muholi and Emma Prempeh, as well as returning artists Gideon Appah, Amoako Boafo, Kwesi Botchway, Serge Attukwei Clottey, Tiffanie Delune, Godfried Donkor, Priscilla Kennedy, Yaw Owusu, and Arthur Timothy.

Gallery 1957 presents the exhibition in a large scale, industrial space of 1,400 square metres that amplifies the exhibition’s narrative and invites the artists to create unique works in strong dialogue with the scale of the space.

Interrogating concepts of time, African diasporic identities and collective memory, the works on show question linear narratives of progress and modernity which have historically categorised people of African origin as less developed than citizens of the West. Instead, the works on show draw on African cultural notions of non-linear time as well as the concept of circular time presented by American scholar Michelle Wright, who takes inspiration from quantum physics to re envision time as a circle, offering it “as a place of black possibility, where past, present, collective memory and speculative future merge into one.”

National Portrait Gallery - In Conversation with Kenturah Davis

In partnership with Arion Press, the historic San Francisco letterpress printer, the National Portrait Gallery is proud to present a public conversation with visionary artist Kenturah Davis. In 2023, Arion conceived and produced a new limited edition of Zora Neale Hurston’s 1937 classic, “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” as an artist book featuring works by Davis. 

Join us for a talk led by Rhea Combs, director of curatorial affairs, about Davis’s signature style of “text drawings.” Two recent projects exemplify the ways she fuses the acts of writing and drawing: her portraits of Janie Crawford for Arion’s edition of “Their Eyes Were Watching God”and her acclaimed portrait of Ava DuVernay, now on view in the museum’s“Portrait of a Nation” exhibition. Discover how Davis marks cultural histories by inscribing text and language onto her intricately layered portraits, all while investigating Black identity.

More information available here.

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Sun Sep 17, 2023 2:00pm - 3:00pm

McEvoy Auditorium - Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery

Click here for ticket availability.

Columbus Museum of Art - Current and Upcoming Exhibitions

Works on view in one current and one upcoming show at the Columbus Museum of Art:

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PRESENT ’23: Building the Scantland Collection of the Columbus Museum of Art

On view 6/8/23 - 10/8/23, Upper Level Walter Wing

PRESENT ’23 unveils the second wave of promised gifts comprising the Columbus Museum of Art’s Scantland Collection, generously donated by the Scantland Family. Featuring 33 individual works by a total of 32 artists, the evocative paintings and textiles in the exhibition showcase the vitality and stylistic range of contemporary art practice.

The Scantland Collection is one of the most dynamic private collections of contemporary visual art in North America. The Scantland Collection is comprised of works that provide a broad perspective on the creative energies of this moment and seeks to form an evolving and wide-ranging picture of art in the mid-21st century. With a growing list of gifts to the Columbus Museum of Art, the Scantland Family ensures that its ambitious program to collect the art of the present will remain part of its community for generations to come.

The Columbus Museum of Art’s renowned collection of modern painting is largely comprised of once-private collections of contemporary art. Gifted in 1931, the Ferdinand Howald Collection became a cornerstone of the Museum. CMA went on to acquire the Sirak Collection of Impressionism and European Modernism, the Schiller Collection of American Social Commentary Art, 1930–1970 and a major collection of the New York Photo League. Extending the Schiller Collection’s commitment to the relationship between art and society, the Scantland Collection is quickly becoming the next significant pillar of the Museum’s permanent collection.

As throughout the exhibition, these works engage historical forms and narratives as a way of acting upon and being alive to the present moment. As part of the Scantland Collection of the Columbus Museum of Art, these works will continue to generate excitement, reflection and creative response.

Artists include: Hayley Barker, Raphaël Barontini, Gabriella Boyd, Kenturah Davis, Angela Dufresne, Veronica Fernandez, Sayre Gomez, Asif Hoque, Devin B. Johnson, Heather Jones, Tidawhitney Lek, Amy Lincoln, Kat Lyons, Kylie Manning, Danielle McKinney, Jaime Muñoz, Robert Nava, Patrick Quarm, Lauren Quin, Jamea Richmond-Edwards, Kenny Rivero, Lauren Satlowski, Marina Perez Simão, Sarah Slappey, Emma Webster, Blair Whiteford, Nicole Wittenberg, Mikey Yates, Oscar yi Hou, Guimi You, Yuri Yuan and Yesiyu Zhao.

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Accra! The Rise of a Global Art Community

On view 10/6/23 –1/28/24, Lower Level Walter Wing

Accra! The Rise of a Global Art Community showcases the work of 19 artists who have deep connections to Accra, Ghana and their impact on global art discourse. Over the past five years the ‘Ghana School’ has emerged as an influential group of artists who have reshaped the contemporary art landscape. The exhibition features 28 works by artists such as Amoako Boafo, Gideon Appah, Zohra Opoku, Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe, Kenturah Davis and Derek Fordjour. Portraits, abstraction, textiles, works on papers and sculpture explore cultural identities, political histories, mythology, trauma and healing. The works challenge and redefine traditional art historical narratives, inviting viewers to engage with a new perspective.

Arion Press - Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God

We are honored to present a collaboration with Arion Press in a limited edition of Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God. The volume is available in a fine press or deluxe addition, with 10 additional original embossed prints available separately. More information on purchasing and production details can be found at Arion Press.

A novel by Zora Neale Hurston
With artwork by Kenturah Davis
And an introduction by Emily Bernard

Zora Neale Hurston’s masterpiece Their Eyes Were Watching God was largely neglected at the time of its original publication in 1937 until Alice Walker’s recovery of Hurston in the 1970s catapulted the book into its rightful place in the pantheon of American letters. Recognized now as an indispensable part of the American canon, Hurston’s story of Janie Crawford is both a poignant literary portrait of black womanhood and a rigorous anthropological account of African-American life in the interwar South.

Arion’s edition of Their Eyes Were Watching God is animated by the distinctive style of Kenturah Davis’s drawing. Davis created “text drawings” that fuse language and image by writing and rewriting meaningful phrases from Hurston’s prose to build up textured portraits of Janie Crawford at different stages in her life. In addition, Davis has selected salient excerpts from Hurston’s text which appear as intimate commentary along the bottom of every page. This continuously running line—printed from over 100 plates reproducing Davis’s hand-written manuscript—flows from the first page to the last as a surrogate heartbeat for the novel.

50 embossed prints with chine collé, numbered and signed by the artist Kenturah Davis, are available for sale: 40 accompany the Deluxe edition and 10 are offered individually. “Here Was Peace” features a color photograph portrait of Janie Crawford’s character set beside a striking, blind-embossed passage from the closing lines of Hurston’s novel. These unique prints measure 12 x 14½ inches and are printed on heavyweight 300 gsm textured all-cotton Somerset, suitable for framing.

Matthew Brown Los Angeles - Papertrail

Papertrail

712 N La Brea Ave

June 29 – August 5, 2023

Matthew Brown presents a group show of works on paper.

Featured Artists:

Alia Ahmad

Adam Alessi

Karla Black

Sedrick Chisom

Matt Connors

Kenturah Davis

Sharif Farrag

Denzil Forrester

Sasha Gordon

Justin John Greene

Dan Herschlein

Naotaka Hiro

Ann Greene Kelly

Molly Rose Lieberman

Calvin Marcus

Soshiro Matsubara

Kent O’Connor

Lorna Robertson

Antonia Showering

TARWUK

Hayley Tompkins

Vincent Valdez

Blair Whiteford

Jeffrey Deitch LA - Clay Pop Los Angeles

Presenting new work in ceramic, with florals by Maurice Harris of Bloom and Plume.

Clay Pop Los Angeles, Curated by Alia Dahl

June 24–August 12, 2023

7000 Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles

A new generation of artists is reinventing the tradition of ceramic sculpture through its engagement with popular culture. A medium long associated with craft, ceramics have undergone a remarkable transformation evolving into an exciting platform for both formal and conceptual innovation. Curated by Alia Dahl, Clay Pop Los Angeles expands on the 2021 New York exhibition and the book of the same title published by Rizzoli this spring to present a group exhibition of thirty-two artists, most of whom work on the West Coast.

“Artists are taking a traditional medium and turning it on its head,” says the exhibition curator Alia Dahl. Paralleling current concerns in painting, many of the artists featured in Clay Pop Los Angeles are exploring issues of gender, race and identity, using clay in new ways to engage with social issues. Clay is pushed beyond the confines of craft and design through artists using the medium to create a personal narrative.

Ceramic sculpture has a long tradition on the West Coast, especially in Northern and Southern California. While an earlier generation of ceramic artists is referenced, the range of influences encompasses everyday commercial imagery, counterculture, and artistic sources from African American assemblage to Walt Disney. Much of the new work is exuberant and figurative, expanding on how the medium of clay has been traditionally used. Glazes are especially colorful. Funk art from 1970s Northern California is a source, as is Claes Oldenburg’s store. Some of the artists also draw on artistic influences from the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

The exhibition unveils a new dimension to the genre, highlighting its ability to reflect and comment on contemporary culture. One of the most interesting qualities of this new generation of ceramists is the deep sense of community. Los Angeles, Long Beach and Oakland are home to numerous new voices experimenting with clay, serving as the perfect platforms to show the multicultural heritage of the ceramics community.

The exhibition design by Charlap Hyman & Herrero continues the successful collaboration initiated in New York.

Copies of the book Clay Pop will be available at des pair bookstore located in the gallery at 7000 Santa Monica Blvd. The publication, designed by POLYMODE, features thirty-eight artist portfolios and is accompanied by an essay by Michael Lobel, a scholar of Pop Art and professor at City University of New York.

The artists participating in Clay Pop Los Angeles are:

Diana Yesenia Alvarado
Alex Anderson
Alex Becerra
Genesis Belanger
Seth Bogart
Kenturah Davis
Woody De Othello

Sharif Farrag
Ryan Flores
Joel Gaitan
Melvino Garretti
Lizette Hernandez
Stephanie Temma Hier
Sydnie Jimenez
Grant Levy-Lucero
Candice Lin
Jasmine Little
Amelia Lockwood
Jiha Moon
Ruby Neri
Maija Peeples-Bright
Brian Rochefort
Jennifer Rochlin
Brie Ruais
Stephanie H. Shih
Alake Shilling
Peter Shire
Christopher Suarez
Magdalena Suarez Frimkess
Amia Yokoyama
Maryam Yousif
Bari Ziperstein

Installation photo by Joshua White.

Kenturah Davis: Dark Illumination - Wanlass Residency at Occidental College

February 9th - April 29th 2023

OXY ARTS, 4757 York Blvd, Los Angeles 90042

Opens February 9th, 6pm

For the culmination of her residency at OXY ARTS, and in her first solo institutional exhibition in Los Angeles, Kenturah Davis presents a body of work that illuminates the significance of shadows in our sensory experience.

Drawing inspiration from Jun’ichirō Tanizaki’s classic text, In Praise of Shadows, Davis explores the premise that shadows and darkness do not just produce conditions that conceal, but that they can also reveal and illuminate. Using hybrid forms of drawing, photography and printmaking, Davis experiments with various modalities that interrogate the contingent relationship between shadow and light.

Davis’ practice—at the intersection of text, image, and object—considers how we embody and disseminate meaning. Her work extends to questions and explorations that help unpack social and cultural conventions and hierarchies, and consider ideas rooted in philosophy, physics, literature and anthropology.

Davis’ drawing practice is born from an interest in the earliest forms of writing and mark-making. Ancient mechanisms of inscription by early civilizations, whether on monumental temple walls or clay tiles, set a precedent for how we visualize information. Her experiments with the physicality of language guide her practice. By integrating text and portraiture, Davis blurs the distinction between writing and drawing and animates the dynamic process in which language frames how we understand ourselves and the world around us.

This exhibition and related programming are made possible by generous support from the Kathryn Caine Wanlass Charitable Foundation.

Related Programming:

Opening Reception - Kenturah Davis: Dark Illumination

February 9, 2023 | 6:00PM - 8:00PM

Celebrate the opening of Kenturah Davis: Dark Illumination with drinks, food, music and more.

Kenturah Davis in Conversation with Ian F. Blair

February 21, 2023 | 6:00PM

Kenturah Davis is joined by Ian F. Blair, editor-in-chief of the L.A. Times Image magazine.

Jonathan Richards and Ensemble in Concert

March 23, 2023 | 6:00PM

An intimate evening of jazz reflecting on Kenturah Davis: Dark Illumination.

Screening of Maborosi (Phantom Light) (1995)

April 6, 2023 | 6:00PM

The classic debut feature film by Hirokazu Kore-eda. A somber, revelatory story on grief and life after death. 

Incense Presentation with Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony

April 27, 2023 | 6:00PM

Olfactory artist Persephenie and Nesanet Teshager Abegaze share knowledge, scents and ceremony. 

Tennessee Triennial - RE-PAIR: Tri-Star Arts Knoxville

Opens Friday, January 27, 2023, 11:00AM 5:00PM

Tri-Star Arts, 4450 Candora Ave, Knoxville TN 37920

Tri-Star Arts is pleased to announce the artist roster, curators, and highlight weekend dates for the inaugural Tennessee Triennial for Contemporary Art: RE-PAIR, opening January 27th and on view through May 7th.

Tri-Star Arts is located at the historic Candoro Marble Building, 4450 Candora Avenue Knoxville, TN, 37920. Come by to see their RE-PAIR themed show feat. Kenturah Davis (Los Angeles, CA) and Rubens Ghenov (Knoxville, TN) indoors and an outdoor sculpture by Hank Willis Thomas (New York, NY).

The Tennessee Triennial has chosen a statewide model that is set apart and unprecedented. Curators from institutions in Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville, and Chattanooga have been invited to respond to the theme of RE-PAIR authored by consulting curator Dr. Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons. This horizontal approach allows for each curator to be active in selecting participating artists. The Tennessee Triennial is a collective endeavor that emphasizes Tennessee’s contemporary art community while including national and international perspectives.

Ava DuVernay - Smithsonian Portrait of a Nation

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery presented “Portrait of a Nation: 2022 Honorees” Nov. 10, featuring the seven recipients of the museum’s 2022 Portrait of a Nation Awards. Included in the exhibition are newly acquired portraits of honorees José Andrés, Clive Davis, Ava DuVernay, Marian Wright Edelman, Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., Serena Williams and Venus Williams. The exhibition premieres six newly commissioned works and one never-before-shown photograph, each by a highly acclaimed contemporary artist. “Portrait of a Nation: 2022 Honorees” will be on view on the museum’s first floor through Oct. 22, 2023. Admission is free. “Portrait of a Nation: 2022 Honorees” is generously supported by NIKE Inc.

“Since 2001, the museum has collected portraits of living sitters and continues to expand its work with contemporary artists,” said Rhea L. Combs, director of curatorial affairs. “We are incredibly fortunate that these artists have agreed to work with the museum to contribute to the visual history of our nation while celebrating this year’s Portrait of a Nation honorees.” 

… A new work on paper by the California-based artist Kenturah Davis (b. 1980) features an intricate depiction of filmmaker DuVernay, whose interest in moving images and writing is highlighted through the artist’s stamping technique. 

The newly acquired works contribute to the National Portrait Gallery’s collection of more than 23,000 objects and its history of collaborating with contemporary artists. The “Portrait of a Nation: 2022 Honorees” exhibition is curated by Combs in collaboration with Taína Caragol, curator of painting, sculpture and Latinx art and history, and Leslie Ureña, curator of photographs.

Established in 2015, the Portrait of a Nation Awards honor extraordinary individuals who have made transformative contributions to the United States and its people across all fields of endeavor. The 2022 honorees were presented with their awards at the ticketed Portrait of a Nation Gala Nov. 12.

Solo Booth at Frieze London 2022

Matthew Brown is pleased to present a solo booth of new works by Kenturah Davis for Frieze London 2022.

Booth H10

Regent's Park
October 12–16, 2022

Preview
Wednesday, October 12: 11am–7pm
Thursday, October 13: 11am–7pm

Public Hours
Friday, October 14: 11am–7pm
Saturday, October 15: 11am–7pm
Sunday, October 16: 11am–6pm

Install View