AlterNativeArt

Every day seems to bring a new crisis: financial markets in turmoil, energy price rises, food riots, violent conflicts and environmental disasters. And whatever the disaster, poor and marginalised people are always affected the most. It doesn't have to be this way. Every person on the planet can make change happen. 6 Billion Ways is a day where the arts meet ideas, discussion and action to explore the causes and find solutions to these interlinked global crises. Including discussions on: the financial crisis and economic alternatives, conflict and liberation in Palestine and Iraq, climate catastrophe and building a green new deal, the future of feminism, the impact of Obama on race politics, when resistance is successful and how to change consumer culture. With international speakers, films, music, and a chance to learn and practise new skills, 6 Billion Ways is your chance to get inspired and join local and global networks building a better world. Outline of the day 10am-6.45pm: W...

Source: UCSB Culled from: http://www.edhat.com/site/tidbit.cfm?nid=17632&linkSource=edhat.com (Santa Barbara, Calif.) - During the period from 1950 to 1965, Ben Enwonwu was the most famous artist of African ancestry anywhere in the world. He produced a sculpture of Queen Elizabeth II, traveled to the United States as a guest of the Harmon Foundation and the State Department, and exhibited his work alongside those of Pablo Picasso and other prominent modernists. More than 45 years later, however, Enwonwu has fallen into relative obscurity. Now, Sylvester Okwunodu Ogbechie, an associate professor of art history at UC Santa Barbara, has written a monograph on the life and work of Enwonwu. Titled “Ben Enwonwu: The Making of an African Modernist” (The University of Rochester Press, 2008), it is the first significant biography published about this modern African artist. “His pedigree justifies the need to produce a coherent narrative of his life and career,” said Ogbechie, who first bega...

By Mwalimu George Ngwane Posted 17/02/09 culled from: http://cameroon.africancolours.net/content/18726 The rampant closure of cinemas in most cities in Africa today may be harmful to the growth of celluloid cinema and the future of the film festival (FESPACO) in Burkina Faso. On the other hand this may open a window of opportunity to the new wave of television films (telefilms) now becoming a permanent feature in our cultural landscape. Africa Magic and Africa Magic Plus, the twin audio-visual channels hosted by M-Net in South Africa are fast becoming the artistic vista for African film producers interested in bringing screen art and culture to the privacy of our sitting rooms and bedrooms. With the waning interest in a reading culture, telefilms are now bound to play the role “African Writers Series” played in the wake of Independence by showcasing the values and virtues, lores and mores as well as the aesthetic diversity of traditional Africa. With our educational system alienated f...

Maputo: A Tale of One City Berry Bickle, Ângela Ferreira, Pompílio Hilário Gemuce, Rafael Mouzinho, Emeka Okereke, Lourenço Dinis Pinto, Mauro Pinto Kuratorer: Bisi Silva, Daniella van Dijk-Wennberg og Marianne Hultman Part 1 opens 6 p.m. Oslo Museum; International Cultural Centre and Museum, Tøyenbekken 5 The exhibition opens at 6 p.m. by Ambassador Pedro Comissário from the Embassy of The Republic of Mozambique in the Nordic countries and the Norwegian Ambassador in Maputo Tove Bruvik Westberg Part 2 opens 7 p.m. Oslo Fine Art Society, Rådhusgaten 19 Hypocrisy: the site specificity of morality Georges Adéagbo, Birgir Andrésson, Olaf Breuning, El Parche, Marianne Heier, Gunilla Klingberg, Moshekwa Langa, Steve McQueen, George Osodi, Wilfredo Prieto, Pascale Marthine Tayou Curators: Stina Högkvist and Koyo Kouoh Opens 6 p.m. National Museum - Museum of Contemporary, Bankplassen 4 Beauty and Pleasure in South African Contemporary Ar t Dineo Bopape, Andries Botha, Frances Goodman, Kay...

naijablog: Nigerian Haute Couture

Art Galleries Association of Nigeria (AGAN) in conjunction with the The National Gallery of Art, (NGA) Abuja , will stage from May 2-10, 2009 Art Expo Nigeria , the second art fair of its kind in Nigeria. This fair will take place at the National Museum Onikan, Lagos.The fair is conceptualized to be an annual event for the Visual Arts sector, and a tool for promoting Nigerian visual art market to the international market. This year's art fair shall feature art and will attract over 50 galleries across the country and have participation from several countries in the West African sub-region including Ghana and the Republic of Benin. It is also expected that over 100 artists cutting across several generations of artists will feature works of arts through the galleries. The event will be opened formally at the National Museum Onikan, Lagos, Nigeria, on the 2nd of May, 2009 at 12.00 noon. According to the President of AGAN, Chief Frank Okonta who is also the proprietor of Nkem Ga...

SATURDAY 14TH FEBRUARY 2009 3PM Monna Mokoena (South Africa) Monna Mokoena is a highly respected and innovative curator, well known on the South African arts landscape. He also established Gallery MOMO in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2003. MOMO not only exhibits but also represents leading contemporary South African and international artists. Mokoena’s focus is on contemporary work that stretches boundaries, nurturing a global platform for our continent's extraordinary creative impetus. As an independent curator Mokoena also undertakes commissioned projects. Corporate clients, architects, designers, government departments and many artists have worked with him to develop art strategies and processes that align with organisational objectives. He enjoys collaborating and bringing substantial knowledge of the arts in South Africa and worldwide to the table. On an ongoing basis, he is involved in the management of various art collections as well as sitting on various boards in an a...

INVITATION Terra Kulture in collaboration with Farafina request your presence at a book reading on Friday 27 February, 2009 Venue: Terra Kulture Plot 1376 Tiamiyu Savage Crescent Victoria Island Lagos Time: 6.00pm prompt The books: Lawless and Swallow The Author: Sefi Atta, Winner of the inaugural Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa Admission is free.

SATURDAY 7TH FEB 2PM THE MOST PROVOCATIVE EXHIBITION OF THE YEAR Like a Virgin... Lucy Azubuike and Zanele Muholi. This is an unmissable exhibition of two rising African women artists who defiantly put sexuality and the body at the centre of their work and challenge stereotypes within a patriarchal society. PANEL DISCUSSION 2PM SAT 7TH FEB The panel discussion promises to be enlightening and at times controversial. But then what is Art about if it continues to reinforce taboos. We have an interesting and critical panel including exhibiting artist Lucy Azubuike, emerging South African curator Gabi Ngcobo (co-curator of Cape Africa in 2007), artist and art historian Ken Okoli from Ahmadu Bello University. It will be moderated by Hansi Momodu, CCA,Lagos . Cultural Stimulus with PAGES PAGES, is the confluence of literature, art works, comics and photography. This programme is designed to converge fictionist, poets and playwrights at the Centre for Contemporary Art,Lagos, to give litera...

www.soyinkasociety.org www.cafeafricana.com www.fashionafrica.com For more scroll down and view list on the right hand side of the page (only available on the blogger version of my blog http://alter-native-me.blogspot.com/)

By Sean O'Toole Published: January 19, 2009 Culled from: http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/30069/2009-preview-art-in-a-vast-continent/ CAPE TOWN—Contemporary African creativity has been the source of much intrigue, argument, and hype in recent years, with shows aplenty in North America and Europe. That’s good news if you live in Paris or New York, less so if you’re a resident of Dakar or Luanda, Nairobi or Cape Town. Not that the 922 million inhabitants of the 53 states making up the world’s second-largest continent are without cultural entertainment. But you won’t read about it in Time Out Africa — there isn’t one. The problem is perhaps best summarized in a quote from the frustrated online editors of the Mail & Guardian, a leading South African weekly newspaper: “We, the people of this vast continent, do not all know each other, nor is the staff of this South African newspaper equipped to be an authority on every last detail of every last country; we don’t supply accommodatio...

29th January – 14th March 2009 Curator: Bisi Silva Curatorial Assistant: Hansi Momodu The Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos is pleased to present the works of Nigerian artist Lucy Azubuike and South African photographer, Zanele Muholi in the exhibition "Like A Virgin…" . The works highlights women's experiences, identities, their bodies and sexuality, in a manner yet to be explored in contemporary Nigerian art. Since 1999, Azubuike has created a large, ongoing body of work of her menstruation cycle. These simple images of menstrual blood serve as a diary, a book of visual narratives containing insights into personal reflections and experiences such as love, hope, disappointment and friendship. In another series, Azubuike focuses on photographing trees. She moves from the autobiographical and the personal to the public and focuses on the way in which culture, tradition and religion, the embodiments of patriarchal society impact negatively on women. These manifest as ou...