Sunday Artist Talks

In two rounds of discussion, artists of the exhibition consider the function and significance of painting and art in the Pan-African context as well as the artistic and social challenges with which they currently see themselves confronted.

The discussions are held in English.

Sunday, September 1, 2024 with Sungi Mlengeya (Dar es Salaam), Meleko Mokgosi (Massachusetts), Joy Labinjo (London)

11.15 a.m.–12.45 p.m., Studio Gegenwart

Sungi Mlengeya (b. Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 1991, lives and works in Arusha, Tanzania)

Mlengaya is a self-taught artist. Her paintings make use of minimalist forms and negative space to create portraits of Blackness and womanhood, depicting dark figures in shades of black and brown placed against perfectly white backgrounds. These compositions explore self-discovery and empowerment.

Meleko Mokgosi (b. Francistown, Botswana, 1981, lives and works in Massachusetts)

Mokgosi, who holds an MFA from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), is an artist and associate professor of painting and drawing at Yale School of Art, Connecticut. His large-scale paintings critically explore themes of colonialism, democracy, nationalism, and liberation in southern Africa.

Joy Labinjo (b. London, UK, 1994, lives and works in London)

Labinjo studied at the University of Newcastle, then at the Ruskin School of Art at Oxford University. Her vibrant, large-scale paintings are based on collaged fragments of images from her family archive and other sources. Her work explores diasporic communities and the multiplicity of her identity as a Black woman.

Sunday, May 26, 2024 Curator Tandazani Dhlakama in conversation with Esiri Erheriene-Essi (Amsterdam) and Kambui Olujimi (New York)

11.15 a.m.–12.45 p.m., Studio Gegenwart

Costs: CHF 10/5 (+ Optional: Entry CHF 13)

Esiri Erheriene-Essi (b. London, UK, 1982, lives and works in Amsterdam)

After obtaining her MFA from the University of East London in 2006, Erheriene-Essi attended De Ateliers in Amsterdam, where she currently resides. Her paintings archive moments from Black people’s lives with vibrant depth, colour and detail, counteracting the flatness of the Black figures in the canonical narratives she seeks to imagine more humanely.

Kambui Olujimi (b. 1976, lives and works in Brooklyn/New York)

The work of Kambui Olujimi challenges established modes of thinking that commonly function as “inevitabilities.” This pursuit takes shape through interdisciplinary bodies of work spanning sculpture, installation, photography, writing, video and performance. His works have premiered nationally and internationally at Sundance Film Festival, Museum of Modern Art, LACMA, Sharjah Biennial 15, 14th Dak’Art Biennale, and Kunsthal Rotterdam, among others.