Icon | Twins Seven Seven | Oct 2024
TAFETA is pleased to present Icon | Twins Seven Seven, the first exhibition from a newly developed curatorial program, focused exclusively on icons of 20th century African Art. Twins Seven-Seven (1944-2011) was born Taiwo Olaniyi Oyewale-Toyeje Oyelale Osuntoki in Ijara, Nigeria, and he is remembered as a prolific artist, bandleader, dancer, actor, and proud spokesperson for Yoruba culture and traditions.
NKECHI EBUBEDIKE | SCULPTURE PARK |JUL 2024
“Sculpture is the art of the hole and the lump.” —Auguste Rodin
The artist presents a small group of paintings produced at her artists residency at KinoSaito Arts Center in Lower Hudson NY. Inspired by the natural surroundings and minimalist interior of the studios in Upstate NY, the paintings build on a variety of reductive architectural forms and compositions she has been exploring in recent years.
ENAM GBEWONYO | Nude Me/Under the Skin: Dark Stars|JUN2024
Nude Me/Under the Skin: Dark Stars, ushers in a new chapter in Gbewonyo’s Nude Me series that begins to explore African spirituality and cosmology. Inspired by the written texts of the likes of Malidoma Patrice Some and Zulumathabo Zulu this series delves into ancient African belief systems.
ISIS DOVE-EDWIN | CROSSING CONTINENTS|MAY2024
Isis Dove-edwin is attracted to the infinite potential of clay to hold memory, and express different ideas through materiality, process, and form. She works within a West African ceramic lineage of building pots with rolled coils of terracotta clay. This choice was motivated by the relative absence of such work within the mainstream canon, and to challenge the idea of a fixed African craft tradition. Developing a narrative visual language as a means of storytelling, she intentionally removes function and alters shape through expressive making. Each piece is unique, commanding its own space - on the edge of pot and figure, craft and art, glaze and paint, monument and decoration.
GEORGE OSODI | ROYALTY II | JANUARY 2024
New portraits from the well-travelled series by acclaimed Nigerian photographer George Osodi. Exhibited at various times in acclaimed institutions globally, these vibrant colour photographs feature the regional rulers of modern-day monarchies throughout the country. The second showing of the series at TAFETA, the works include recent sittings for the photographer, some of which were on view at the just concluded exhibition at the TATE Modern; A World in Common: Contemporary African Photography.
BABAJIDE OLATUNJI | A SERIES OF SCARVES | OCTOBER 2023
Olatunji’s fourth solo exhibition with TAFETA is another iteration of his Tribal Marks series; a collection of hyperrealist portraits informed by his extensive research into the age-old practice of facial markings.
ALAIN JOSÉPHINE | THE UNDERSTORY | SEPTEMBER 2023
New paintings by Martinican artist, Alain Joséphine, which continue to explore the intricate beauty and untold stories that flourish beneath the tropical forest canopy of Rivière-Pilote, in his country of birth
NOW, NOW | SUMMER 2023 | JULY 2023
A CENTURY BEFORE | 20TH CENTURY AFRICAN ART | JUN 2023
NIYI OLAGUNJU | BAGA, WOOD & PAPER | FEB 2023
Olagunju's contemporary appropriation of traditional African sculptures continues to question the value system driving the continued growth in the sale of traditional African artefacts.
ALAIN JOSEPHINE | ARCHITECTURE OF TROPICAL SPACES | OCT 2022
RAHMA LHOUSSIG | UNFAMILIAR STATES | SEP 2022
AUSTIN UZOR | JAY WALK | JUL 2022
In the context of the exhibition, Uzor use the term jaywalk to interrogate the multiplicity of mass movement: mass migration, religious exodus and processions
BUNMI AGUSTO | PSYCHOSCAPE | MAY 2022
BABAJIDE OLATUNJI | IBEJI | APR 2022
