Artists from Horn of Africa

Exhibit showcases artists from Horn of Africa 

Source: Athens News

24 Jan 2016

 

Dawit L. Petros, Mahber Shaw'ate (Association 7)

"Number 8, Nazareth, Ethiopia" 2011

C-Print, Image (Courtesy of the artist)

 

 

Ohio University’s Kennedy Museum of Art has announced a new exhibition, “Encounters Beyond Borders: Contemporary Artists From The Horn of Africa,” which opened last week and will be shown through May 29. The exhibit brings together eight contemporary artists from the Horn of Africa, now living in either North America or Europe, according to a news release.

Pursuing international trajectories in the contemporary art world, the artists “refigure indigenous artistic content, thereby visually articulating multidirectional and transnational flows, frictions, networks, and mobilities within and between the continents of Africa, North America, and other world spaces,” the release said.

The artworks included in the exhibition “aim to become a means for understanding transnational complexities of diasporas, political unrest in the Horn, and broader stories of migration,” according to the release.

These artists are exhibited together for the first time, guest curated by Andrea Frohne. She is an associate professor of African art history in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts in the Ohio University College of Fine Arts.

An opening reception for the exhibition had been set for Friday, Jan. 22, from 5-7 p.m. but because of the snowstorm Friday, was rescheduled to Feb. 12. Frohne will lead a gallery walk prior to the reception at 4 p.m., and all events are free and open to the public, the release said.

Artists included in the exhibition include: Dawit L. Petros (Eritrea/Canada/NY), Elsa Gebreyesus (Eritrea/Canada/Washington D.C.), Salem Mekuria (Ethiopia/Boston), Yegizaw Michael (Eritrea/Seattle), Wosene Kosrof (Ethiopia/Berkeley, CA), Mohamed Hamid (Sudan/Columbus, Ohio), Rashid Ali (Somalia/London), Andrew Cross (England), and Julie Mehretu (Ethiopia/NYC).