Summer 2023–Summer 2024 | Exhibition 2.3.–20.5.2024, opening 1.3.2024

Curated by: HKW curatorial team

Echos der Bruderländer sheds light on these minor and major connected histories through artistic research manifesting in an exhibition, performances, workshops, an educational programme, a podcast, sonic practices, and digital and print publications, to deliberate on and make visible pre and post-1989 sociopolitical relations, psychological traumas, and socialist experiences. Read more here. about Januario Jano

Date: 1.01.2024 

Curated by:  Diane Lima, Grada Kilomba, Hélio Menezes, and Manuel Borja-Villel

In the second half of 2023, the 35th Bienal de São Paulo – choreographies of the impossible took center stage in São Paulo’s artistic and cultural scene. It is now preparing for a journey in 2024 through the traveling exhibitions program, which the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo has been running consistently since 2011, the 29th edition of the show. Read more here.

02 –  Dec – 27 Jan 2024

Curated by: Paul Carey-Kent and Yuki Miyake

Greatness can be found in smallness and variations in scale can signify symbolic transformations. ‘An Exhibition of SMALL Things with BIG Ideas’ exploits the potential of small-scale objects to carry big thoughts that surprise, provoke, hold our attention, and make intimate relations to viewers.

07 –  October 2023

Curated by: Diana B. Wechsler

Look at Me! is what each of the people in the selected photographs seems to be telling us. As spectators, we look at the images, but (virtually) they in turn “look” at us. Based on these reflected gazes, which are part of the process of configuration of identities that this curatorial project proposes, we intend to shed light on African diversity.

06. Sept – 10 December 2023

Curated by: Diane Lima, Grada Kilomba, Hélio Menezes, and Manuel Borja-Villel

The announcement of the full list of participants consolidates the curatorial collective’s intensive research on the urgencies of today’s world and unveils the different formats, movements, and understandings of the title choreographies of the impossible. With 121 names confirmed, the complete list echoes the voices of diasporas and native peoples, broadening local and international dialogue. read more

13 –  September 2023

Curated by: Cyril Mounment

The exhibition takes its name after the well-acclaimed Blues songwriter and Singer, Big Mama Thornton, an innovative artist who was the first to record iconic songs like “Hound Dog” and “Ball and Chain.” Unfortunately, her contributions were not properly credited nor rewarded when these songs later gained immense popularity through cover versions by Elvis Presley and Janis Joplin.

18 – 21 June 2023

Curated by: Nuno Sacramento e Inês Valle

DUSK is a contemporary art festival in Iberian Peninsula’s ancestral stone sites. The inaugural edition will be taking place amidst the unique geological surroundings of Portugal with visual artists from (Portugal and Spain), Alba (Scotland), Ísland (Iceland) and Naija (Nigeria).

03 November 2022 – 29 January 2023

Artistic Director: Owanto | Project Coordinator: Joan Álvarez | Curatorial Team: Maria Pia Bernardoni, Beatriz Ros, Merilyn Mushakwe | Curator Adviser: Azu Nwagbogu

Ozangé, la I Bienal de Fotografía Africana en España, representa un puente entre la creación artística y la mirada del público aportando nuevos desafíos y oportunidades. Es África la que se presenta, la que se ve a sí misma, la que cuenta su historia, la que es actriz y ya no está sujeta a la mirada occidental. Sin embargo, escenificarse, contar su historia, presentarse, es definirse. Este proceso de redefinición constante de la identidad africana contemporánea es lo que hace que la fotografía del continente sea emocionante.

Access Artists Talk here.

Curated by Tatematsu Takeshi | 17 September – 10 October 2022

Contemporary art from Africa is seizing global attention now and the African art scene has dramatically changed in the past few years. A lot of great artists and curators are achieving a successful career in international festival and exhibitions at prestigious museums all over the world. Art market is no exception either. It has been no longer considered as a “different culture” but it is attracting great attention on an equal footing with the western art in the global market.

This exhibition entitled “Stories from Africa” is a series that will introduce various artists from Africa who are receiving attention in the global art scene. Its first edition will feature two artists, Abdoulaye Konaté from Mali and Januario Jano from Angola.

Access the exhibition info here.

Curated by Gallery Team | 13 August – 18 September 2022

Uprising, the second annual summer exhibition at Schloss Görne, Germany. The title of the show nods to the spirit of revolution – a revolt against silence, the mundane and the conventional – that can be felt pulsing through the diverse collection of works on display. Featuring artists from almost every corner of the globe, the exhibition conjures a captivating vision of togetherness that celebrates free artistic expression.

Works view  here.

Curated by Yuki Miyake and Ana Teles | 7 September – 8 October 2022

KIM-KIM is an exhibition that weaves together distinct cultures which span Africa, Europe and Asia through the kimono. It causes us to reflect upon our connections with familiar, quotidian objects and the meanings we attribute to them.

The exhibition also evokes ideas of cultural appropriation and assimilation, not only those resulting from European colonialism but also the more innocent and productive cultural exchange between peoples. Ambundu women, who live in the north-west of Angola where Januário Jano was born, dress themselves in a wrap made from brightly coloured fabric that resembles a kimono.

Access the exhibition press release here.

Curated by Dario Vargas and Loren Duran | 01 June –  11 July 2022

The starting point of this exhibition is moved by the trajectories of human migration, which draw the geography of a diverse, fragmented, and complex territory. On that path, it explores an imaginary map, product of the historical clash between the imposition of new identities, and the uprooted traditions of the origin.

In a world that is sometimes local, sometimes planetary, interconnection becomes the lyric of dispersion. A diaspora in which the artists insert themselves in distant realities, and bring them closer to us through the language of their work.

Access the exhibition here.

Curated by Mengtong Zhang | 26 May 2022

“With Whom We Mutually Communicate?”, the preliminary launching event of the public programme “Queering the Institutions”, presents an ongoing exploration of the extent to which institutional practice could be expanded by the enquiries of a variety of artists.

Additionally, it questions how the public sphere is transformed through individual artistic approaches and intimate conversations they generate.

Through collecting the reflection of each artist on “the good life”, “a moment”, and “love” – be their concerns personal or universal – the conception marks the starting point of a long-term dialogue on the potentiality of queering the institutions through relational events.

Tree Art Museum in Beijing will be co-hosting this off-site public programme from 2022 to 2023 in celebration of the 10th anniversary of the institution.  More info.

Curated by Graça Rodrigues, Sónia Ribeiro, Katherine Sirois, Lourenço Egreja, and Diogo Bento | 20 May – 15 July 2022

The exhibition promotes a reflection on the concepts of materiality and immateriality, highlighting around 90 works by 48 artists from a wide variety of cultural and geographical origins – including Portugal, Angola, Mozambique, South Africa, DRC, São Tomé and Príncipe, Burkina Faso, Namibia, Netherlands, Germany and Brazil – whose practices cross spatial and technical boundaries. More info.

Curated by Emilia Epštajn, Ana Knežević, Graça Rodrigues and Sonia Ribeiro | 13 April – 31 August 2022

The Reflect #2 exhibition is the second edition of the platform for presenting the works of artists of African origin, organised in collaboration with This Is Not A White Cube gallery (Luanda/Lisbon).

The artists relate, among other themes, the out of control urban chaos of demolition and dehumanised construction, which its final form produces architectural ghosts with empty floors, while most people don’t even have a roof over their head. In these same landscapes of heat, concrete, fuel and cinder there are countless people passing by whose figures disappear under the weight of consumerist hyper materialism. More info.

Curated by Foundation team | 26 January – 28 February 2022

The Norval Sovereign African Art Prize aims to benefit contemporary artists working in Africa or of the African diaspora by increasing their international exposure. A collaboration between The Sovereign Art Foundation and Norval Foundation, the Prize will celebrate the practice of some of the most significant contemporary artists working today.

Finalists in the running for this year’s Prize hail from 18 countries, of which South Africa has the strongest representation, followed by Zimbabwe, Angola, Morocco, and Nigeria. A total of 336 entries were received from artists from 37 countries. More info.

Curated by gallery team | 06 January – 05 February 2022

Vibrant stripes of fabric and thread are assembled into graphical textile compositions that hang alongside cracked monochromatic portraits and photographs of lush landscapes and stark architectural details printed onto cotton sheets. Angolan artist Januario Jano’s first solo exhibition with Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery entitled Imbambas: Unsettled Feelings of Object & Self takes its departing point from the term Imbambas (from the Kimbundu language) which refers to things such as furniture and luggage that have an intrinsic and uncanny relationship to the body and self. While the artworks are aesthetically diverse incorporating different materialities and contexts, they share a powerful physical presence that resonates through time and space to present a profound contemplation of the object’s role in the construction and reinforcement of cultural identity.

More info.

Curated by Foundation team | 18 September – 18 December 2021

Vantage Point Sharjah 9 (VPS9) is the ninth iteration of Sharjah Art Foundation’s annual initiative dedicated to the medium of photography. The exhibition is on view from 18 September through 18 December at the Foundation’s off-site venue Al Hamriyah Studios.

Curated by Mahret Ifeoma Kupka | 18 May – 14 August, 2021

Supported by STIFTUNG KUNSTFONDS via NEUSTART KULTUR

Curated by Negarra A. Kadumu | 28 May – 07 August 2021

Curated by Tessa Carr | 07 May – 26 June, 2021

Download Publication here

Curated by 229 Scribble | January 01 – 31, 2021