After Art Basel and Venice Biennale, African artists come to dinner in New York
NEW YORK, NY.- After a great showing at the just concluded Art Basel in Basel, contemporary African art is about to take center stage again in an exhibition that is bound to generate a lot of excitement. The show titled Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? will be held at Richard Taittinger Gallery in New York. It features works by thirteen African artists who, though, have exhibited around the world are not well-known to the New York art audience.
Borrowing its title from Sidney Poitier’s epic comedy-drama film, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? highlights Africa’s gain in the global art space that cumulated with an outstanding performance at the 56th Venice Biennale.
Venice Biennale featured an impressive number of African artists of different generations whose works showed that Africa is already at the dinner table. As with Art Basel, many of the artists at the Venice Biennale established the fact that African artists have come a long way in the effort to subtly and forcefully insert themselves into global art discourse.
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Despite the success recoded by African artists through the years in the global art arena, many in the West continue to disclaim their place at the dinner table. “Folks can’t seem to come to terms with the fact that African artists have now taken and secured their seat at the dinner table, invited or not!,” notes Chika Okeke-Agulu, artist, art historian, and curator specializing in African and African Diaspora art history.