Cultural purveyors reflect the collective consciousness of their local and global communities, inspiring and emulating aesthetic sensibilities. The national and cultural range of African artists is vast, yet practices are converging due to technological interconnectedness and the contemporary social climate upending colonial narratives. Aesthetically, artists are excavating blackness present in skin pigmentation, collapsing rigid Western sociopolitical frameworks, and reimagining memetic trappings, archetypes, and tropes.

 

We are witnessing a seismic shift in ideations and output unlike any our generation has seen. Communities are waking up, actively engaged in shifting historical perspectives. Or perhaps we are witness to a social trend, reflected in contemporary African art that will soon fizzle out with not much having shifted in its wake. Only time will tell. But it’s undeniable a wave of artists has emerged, conceptually linked to activism and actions sweeping the globe.

 

Artists participating in ‘Locality and the Status Quo” are already breaking the mold of art historical canon, and welcome progressive changes whose momentum will not soon slow.

 

BARA Sketchbook | Chidera Bosah | Ugochukwu Emebiriodo | Musa Ganiyy | Adulphina Imuede | Tosin Kalejaiye | Nojeem Muse | Adaeze Okaro | Omofemi Oluwole | Victor Ubahh | Barry Yusuf

 

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