TEFAF Maastricht 2025

MECC, Netherlands, 15 - 20th March 2025 

At TEFAF Maastricht this year, TAFETA is pleased to showcase a selection of the unprecedented number of 20th century African artists included at the recently concluded Venice International art biennale, alongside a number of our contemporary staples.

Seven of the artists TAFETA will be showcasing at TEFAF Maastricht were included as part of the keynote exhibition, Foreigners Everywhere, curated by artistic director Adriano Pedrosa, and presented in the Central pavilion in the Giardini, and at the Arsenale. This represents a powerful endorsement of work from this era of African artistic production and offers the gallery an unprecedented opportunity to platform their individual practices to a seasoned collector base.

Artist like Ben Enwonwu MBE, Uzo Egonu, Uche Okeke, Malangatana and Twins Seven Seven, whose work were part of the exhibition at the Central Pavillion at the Giardini, will be shown alongside works on paper by Susanne Wenger, who was part of the presentation at the Arsenale.  Completing the septuplet is the presentation of a metal repoussé panel mounted on board by the Nigerian master Bruce Onobrakpeya, alongside some of his linocuts and deep etchings from the 60’s and 70’s. Onobrakpeya was the first of the artists to show at Venice, as part of a show titled Contemporary African Artists: Changing Tradition, curated by Studio Museum Harlem, and presented as part of the 1990 Venice Biennale.  

Other important works of art brought to Venice will include a painting by Twins Seven Seven titled Expressions of a percussionist, dated from the 1980s. A member of the celebrated Osogbo School of Art, other exhibitions of his works have included showcases at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Studio Museum Harlem and the Indianapolis Museum of Art. An early Untitled pen & ink drawing by Malangatana from 1965 will be complemented by an even earlier work by the Nigerian icon Ben Enwonwu MBE. Titled Man & Woman and executed in 1949, the watercolour on paper is an autobiographical element that makes for very interesting provenance. 

Our contemporary offering would include quilts from Yinka Shonibare CBE, another Venice Biennale alumni, painting from South African based Nelson Makamo, new works on paper from TEFAF Maastricht favourite Babajide Olatunji, and TEFAF debutant Enam Gbewonyo.

TAFETA will present at TEFAF Maastricht from 15th - 20th March 2025.

 For press enquiries please contact sadie@tafeta.com

 +44 207 637 2273

A selection of works from the unprecedented number of 20th century African artists included at the recently concluded Venice International art biennale

Artist like Ben Enwonwu MBE, Uzo Egonu, Uche Okeke, Malangatana and Twins Seven Seven, were part of the exhibition at the Central Pavillion at the Giardini

TAFETA will also present an important metal repoussé panel mounted on board by the Nigerian master Bruce Onobrakpeya, another Venice alumnus, alongside some of his linocuts and deep etchings from the 60’s and 70’s.

Our contemporary offering would include quilts from Yinka Shonibare CBE, another Venice Biennale alumni, painting from South African based Nelson Makamo, new works on paper from TEFAF Maastricht favourite Babajide Olatunji, and TEFAF debutant Enam Gbewonyo.