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Roxane Mbanga – 193 Gallery, Parijs

193 Gallery is pleased to present the first gallery exhibition of Roxane Mbanga.
Roxane Mbanga (b. 1996, Paris) is a multidisciplinary artist of Guadeloupean, Cameroonian, and French heritage. Her practice spans fashion, film, graphic design, photography, writing, and performance. As a storyteller, she gathers the narratives of women with plural identities, exploring the complexity of intersecting perspectives on their bodies across different geographies.
Since 2021, Mbanga has been developing NOIRES, an immersive project in which she reconstructs the rooms
of her imagined home within artistic spaces. Weaving together the threads of her Guadeloupean, Cameroonian, and Ivorian heritage, she integrates the stories collected during her travels across Africa and the Caribbean.
The first installations—The Balcony, The Street, The Living Room, and The Bathroom—have been shown at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, the National Museum of Cameroon in Yaoundé, San Mei Gallery in London, Fondation H in Paris.
For her exhibition at 193 Gallery, Mbanga unveils two new immersive installations: The Dining Room and The TerraceThe Dining Room invites visitors to step into the echo of meals left unfinished: a table still inhabited by unseen presences, laughter stretched across memory, and the lingering resonance of past dinners. The Terrace, open and luminous, invites visitors to gather in a space inspired by Guadeloupean terraces. Here, we cross the threshold between inside and outside, where expectation meets encounter and traces of departures and absences come into view. These installations are activated by dinners that bring together Black women to share conversations on race, class, and their intersections with artistic practice. A varied cultural program—featuring readings, workshops, and interdisciplinary exchanges—extends this exploration and invites the public to engage
with these spaces.

And we hired a carpenter to patch the cloth. Eva Obodo – Afikaris Gallery, Parijs

Obodo describes his process as gestures of repairing wounds that history has left open and tying disparate parts together, both materially and symbolically. He believes that materials possess their own agency and capacity to speak, and by listening to his materials, Eva Obodo allows charcoal to narrate intertwined stories of exploitation, resilience, and hope.

Thandiwe Muriu – 193 Gallery, Parijs, Frankrijk

193 Gallery has the pleasure to announce its third solo exhibition by Kenyan artist Thandiwe Muriu, whose work explores themes of identity, culture, and female empowerment. The exhibition Clouds Bring Blessings unveils a new body of work in which the artist opens a dialogue with her natural environment and affirms her ongoing commitment to exploring cultural heritage. For these portraits, Muriu produced her own textile patterns using the tie & dye technique. A short film, on view in the exhibition, captures this creative journey.

Les héritiers. Four Families of artists from DR Congo – Galerie Angalia, Parijs, Frankrijk

How should the child of a well-known artist develop their own artistic identity?

Les héritiers (“The heirs”) exhibition brings together four families from DR Congo in which the creative push-pull between allegiance and emancipation takes place.

Moke fils utilises the technique and themes of his father, the great Moke. Hilaire Tsham, the son of the ballpoint pen artist Raymond Tsham, gives a fresh twist on his father’s style by going for a Manga vibe. The Bodo siblings illustrate two pathways: Bodo fils continues Pierre Bodo’s dazzling surrealism, while Amani Bodo has a more narrative and contemporary vision. Finally, the photographer Gosette Lubondo has moved away from her father Gaston Diakota’s studio-based craft in order to explore memory and heritage.

Sweet Life. Alice Saar – Lelong Gallery, Parijs, Frankrijk

For several decades, Alison Saar has been drawing on historical archives, popular imagery and cultural traditions to explore the mechanisms of memory and the transmission of diasporic narratives. In “Sweet Life”, she looks at the history and representation of the sugar trade from the 17th to the 20th century, drawing on a variety of sources – illustrations in cookery and manners books, advertisements, etc. – that reveal the paradoxes of an industry that was both synonymous with refinement and rooted in the violence of slavery.

For this exhibition, the artist has produced a body of work combining different techniques and materials. Wooden sculptures covered in metal and other objects show the pride of rebellious women, while white ceramic sculptures depict busts of women scarred by violence, and paintings on wood or jute and textile prints add to this exploration of the traces left by the past. Mischievously entitled “Citizen Cane”, a large female figure wearing a belt of machetes revisits the iconography of the triangular trade punctuated with revolts. Another work, “Lait Sucre”, depicts a pregnant woman sculpted in wood and bathed in an intense dark blue light, and questions the role of women in this story of servitude and resilience.

Known for her materialist approach and her expressive use of recycled materials, Alison Saar has been developing a sculptural and graphic practice over the last forty years that engages with mythology, Caribbean folklore, the history of blues and jazz, and the experiences of black women in the United States. Born into a family of artists, she is the daughter of Betye Saar, a leading figure in the Black Arts Movement. Here work has been exhibited in many prestigious institutions, including MoMA (New York), the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York) and the Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington). Several of her sculptures have been installed in public spaces in the United States, and in 2024 the work Salon was inaugurated in the Aznavour garden in Paris to coincide with the Olympic Games.

Born in 1956, Alison Saar lives and works in Los Angeles.

Every bird flies with it’s own wings. Thandiwe Muriu – 193 Gallery, Parijs, Frankrijk

Deze tentoonstelling is een viering van de diversiteit van vrouwelijkheid. Thandiwe Muriu’s werk focust zich op portretten die elk een unieke expressie van vrouwelijke identiteit vastleggen – veerkrachtig, vreugdevol, onvolmaakt, en krachtig. Door middel van kleur, symboliek en verhalende elementen herinnert de serie ons eraan dat er niet één manier is om vrouw te zijn; elke stem, elk pad en elke schoonheid staat volledig in haar eigen waarheid.

De 193 Gallery vertegenwoordigt Thandiwe Muriu en haar werken worden regelmatig tentoongesteld in verschillende contexten. Het is een belangrijke kunstenares, bekend om haar levendige esthetiek en het herinterpreteren van hedendaagse Afrikaanse portretfotografie.

Are we going somewhere or are we just going? – Afikaris, Parijs

Heel blij om eindelijk Saidou Dicko’s werken in het echt te zien. Met twee werken vertegenwoordigd.

In the haze of summer, the line blurs between journey and drift. The exhibition explores this state of reflection, of in-between: between two conversations, between night and day, between the place we come from and the place we dream toward. Like childhood summers that stretch like golden hours, like the notion of “home” that is both a place and a ghost.

In a world fractured by migration, colonial legacies, and climate displacement, movement is not always a choice. These are stories of departure and return, of borders drawn by circumstance and softened by time, of memories created along the way.

There is nostalgia here, but not as sentimentality rather as navigation. Memory is the compass, dream is the map.

And the journey is what really matters.

Wax – Musée de l’Homme, Parijs, Frankrijk

Wax is an instantly recognizable textile that comes in a variety of brightly-coloured patterns. This fabric, generally seen as ‘African’, has stood the test of time and transcended borders. Over the past decade, its popularity in Western societies has soared. Whether in clothing, accessories or objects, wax is found increasingly in our homes and wardrobes. Yet few of us are aware of its unique history.

Wax is inspired by batik, a fabric of Indonesian origin that is dyed using a wax resist technique. Industrialised by Europeans, it first became popular in West Africa before spreading across the continent, carving out a place for itself in the world of African textiles. The exhibition traces the history of wax to reveal a textile with a hybrid identity.

It also highlights the key role played by women in the spread and popularity of this fabric, with a look, for example, at the saga of the Nana Benz. The first traders to distribute wax on the markets of Togo, these women made fortunes from the lucrative trade of the fabric in the 1960s.

While wax has become a commercial and industrial commodity on an international scale, it is nonetheless a textile with strong emotional connotations, accompanying individuals through the major moments of their lives for several generations.

Pieces by Thandiwe Muriu, Yinka Shonibare, Aida Muluneh, Kehinde Wiley, Catherine Ochieng, Gombo Wax en Omar Victor Diop.

The time is always now. Artists reframe the black figure – National Portrait Gallery, Londen, Engeland

The exhibition, curated by writer Ekow Eshun, showcases the work of contemporary artists from the African diaspora, including Michael Armitage, Lubaina Himid, Kerry James Marshall, Toyin Ojih Odutola and Amy Sherald, and highlights the use of figures to illuminate the richness and complexity of Black life. As well as surveying the presence of the Black figure in Western art history, we examine its absence – and the story of representation told through these works, as well as the social, psychological and cultural contexts in which they were produced.

The exhibition features the work of leading artists including Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Hurvin Anderson, Michael Armitage, Jordan Casteel, Noah Davis, Godfried Donkor, Kimathi Donkor, Denzil Forrester, Lubaina Himid, Claudette Johnson, Titus Kaphar, Kerry James Marshall, Wangechi Mutu, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Chris Ofili, Jennifer Packer, Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Thomas J Price, Amy Sherald, Lorna Simpson, Henry Taylor and Barbara Walker.

My Oma. Kunstinstituut Melly. Rotterdam

My Oma is een tentoonstellingsproject dat zich richt op de figuur van de grootmoeder.

Het project verkent persoonlijke en culturele erfenissen die voorkomen uit zowel genegenheid als conflict. Het brengt kunstenaars en verhalen samen, evenals kunstwerken en theorie die centrale kwesties van onze tijd verwoorden: ervaringen van immigratie, dissonant erfgoed en veranderende genderrollen.

My Oma besteedt speciale aandacht aan belichaamde kennis en verhalen op kleine schaal. In het licht van een ontwikkelende politieke polarisatie, benadrukt My Oma juist historische perspectieven, versterkte intergenerationele banden en vieren we kennis behouden door verschillende diasporas. De tweetalige titel van het project—met het Engelse my en het Nederlandse oma—is bedoeld om deze persoonlijke benadering over te brengen.

What it is, what it means and what I would like it to be. Pris Roos. Tent Rotterdam

Als ik even binnenstap bij Kunstinstituut Melly, geeft de kassier aan dat ik even op de website moet kijken. En dan blijkt dat ik vergeten was dat er een expo van Pris Roos in Rotterdam is. Jaiks. En wel in Tent, het platform voor hedendaagse kunst in de Witte de Withstraat. Het zijn mixed-media installaties met portretten van negen individuen. De geportretteerden ontvouwen hun gelaagde reis door middel van gesprekken met de kunstenaar, vastgelegd in audiofragmenten. Met de solotentoonstelling ‘what it is, what it means and what i would like it to be’ creëert Roos een ruimte waarin je je eigen familiegevoel kunt onderzoeken en je thuis kunt voelen.

De geportretteerde vrouwen en non-binaire personen, allen vertrouwde gezichten uit Roos’ eigen kring, dienen als muzen voor deze bijzondere collectie. Familie, opgroeien, immigratie, queerness, gender en gendertransitie zijn intieme thema’s die worden verkend in gesprekken bij elke installatie.

Africa Supernova. Kunsthal KAdE, Amersfoort

Kunsthal KAdE biedt voor de tweede keer in een paar jaar tijd uitgebreid een podium aan de opkomende generatie Afrikaanse kunstenaars. Van Benin tot Zuid-Afrika, jonge artiesten die kleurrijke werken (hence the name, supernova) neerzetten en de stereotype verwachtingen rond Afrikaanse kunst onderuit schoffelen. Deze expositie stond al een tijdje op mijn to-do-lijstje. Vanuit het crëeren van verbinding in mijn organisatie bezochten we deze expositie met een aantal collega’s. Een collega van de sectie kunst en cultuur bood ons een blik in hoe leraren leerlingen kunnen stimuleren te kijken naar de wereld om zich heen, aan de hand van kunst waarin zij zichzelf mogelijk herkennen. Erg interessant, en voor de expositie eindigt, wil ik er zeker nog een keer langs.