The Art of Curating the Black Subject

CasildART presents a discussion on The Art of Curating the Black Subject.

What is art curation? Why are curators important and what relationship do they have with artists, collectors and the artworld? How do white curators present Black art and what does it mean for Black artists to be collected and curated by white individuals and/or public institutions? Does it behove curators to encourage critical engagement on race, culture and power that challenges viewers preconditioned ideas about Black experiences? And is it important that Black curators and artits showcase aesthetic narratives that promote Black joy rather than trauma or pain? Join us in a panel discussion moderated by writer Hanou Amendah, and artists, Bokani and Giggs Kgole and independent curator, Rachel Oteng Lartey.

Moderator

Hanou Amendah is an art and culture writer. She is the founder and editor of Obatalamag, an online magazine dedicated to the arts and cultures of Africa and its diaspora. Her main interest lies at the intersection of epistemological violence and Blackness.

Bokani

Bokani is Zimbabwean born and raised, she lives and works in London. Her studio is in Hackney Wick. She studied politics with economics at the University of Bath, and has just completed a masters in computational art at Goldsmiths College. 

Bokani’s patterned, vivid pictures are breaking new ground in abstract painting. Her painting colourfully evokes natural patterns of fleeting florals and feathery flight, poetically describing her belief in integral ecology. 

Bokani has exhibited in the UK and France, Bokani is one of the nine Black female artists in  Some of Us Are Brave.

Giggs Kgole

South African born, Giggs Kgole is a multidisciplinary artist. He has worked with ceramics but more recently has become well known for his larger than life interactive masterpieces using his signature anaglyph technique to explore the never-ending beauty of Black resilience.

In 2017, a year after Kgole’s first Solo exhibition he received a Prestigious Presidential Scholarship to study in Rome at John Cabot University, where he had his first solo showcase in Europe titled ‘Before the High Walls’. 2018 marked a new feat for Kgole as he became one of Africa’s youngest gallery owners at the age of 21. Earlier this year he had his first solo exhibition at Signature African Art in Mayfair, London.