This deluxe hardcover survey, featuring profiles of 50 artists on the rise, is the definitive guide to contemporary African art.
With African artists attracting sizable audience numbers to museums, setting sky-high auction records, and appearing in mainstream press, it has become impossible to overlook the cultural significance of contemporary African art today. Author and curator Osei Bonsu's engaging profiles of leading African artists—along with gorgeous full-color reproductions of their work—introduce readers to a generation of movers and shakers whose innovative artwork reflects on Africa as both an idea and an experience. Using diverse forms, languages, and expressions to articulate what it means to be a part of the world, these artists generate alternate histories and imaginative futures—work that is both personal and political, universal and incredibly specific. Their work helps define contemporary African art as a vast artistic and cultural movement.
STELLAR ROSTER OF ARTISTS: Amoako Boafo, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Tunji Adeniyi-Jones, Bronwyn Katz—from household names to up-and-coming artists, African Art Now features some of the most exciting artists working today.
IMPORTANT AND TIMELY: Over the past two decades, contemporary African art has become part of the global mainstream, inspiring countless exhibitions, fairs, and auctions around the world. And yet, African art remains overlooked as an area of dedicated study due to continued academic and cultural bias. This book shines a spotlight on the artists whose wide-ranging accomplishments represent the shifting dynamics and boundless possibilities of African art today.
Perfect for:
- Artists, art collectors, art lovers, and museumgoers
- Educators and students
- Anyone interested in learning about contemporary African art
“Offers a closer look at 50 of the most prolific and impactful artists working today…Includes a mix of established figures—like Tunji Adeniyi-Jones—along with up-and-coming artists. It’s an ideal gift for the art buff in your life or the person who wants to become one.”
—New York Magazine/The Strategist
“Brilliantly encapsulates the essential works of 50 up-and-coming artists of African heritage…[Bonsu] draws out core themes across the artists’ oeuvres—postcolonial dystopias, family portraits, future ecologies, portrayals of shifting cultural identities, and reclamations of history—which the artists tease out in various media (painting, sculpture, collage, video, installations).”
—Library Journal
“In addition to top-notch reproductions of featured artwork, you can read engaging profiles written by Bonsu that explore the artist’s backstory and creative process, illustrating the vastness of African cultures, experiences, and ideas.”
—Real Simple
“Offers a crash course on the painful, watchful and funny contemporary artists making Africa a new art world hub, reclaiming history, sexuality and ordinary existence.”
—Chicago Tribune
“Author and curator Osei Bonsu introduces audiences to a new cohort of artists who reflect on Africa, ‘as both an idea and an experience.’ From renowned talents like Amoako Boafo, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Tunji Adeniyi-Jones, and Bronwyn Katz, to up-and-coming artists to watch, this eclectic array of materials and styles delves into the intersection of personal and universal.”
—LA Weekly