Malian Artist born in Dire and works in Bamako. He draws upon textiles. Influenced by political and environmental affairs. Aids have been a major theme of this work. Abdoulaye Konaté was born in Diré, Mali, in 1953. He now currently works in Bamako, Mali. Konaté first started in the Institut National des Arts in Bamako and then in Havana, Cuba where he lived for 7 years. His work primarily takes the form in textiles, which come from political issue and environmental issues showcasing his concerns. Abdoulay believes that societies and individuals, in mail and beyond, are affected by war, struggle for power, religion, globalization, and AIDS epidemic. Using materials native to mali he makes big and elaborate textiles. That are outstanding leaving one speechless.
A short video on Abdoulaye talking about his work and the meaning behind it all.
Seydou Keita
Mali contemporary artist, Gelatin silver print
1921-2001
Self taught photographer, opened his own studio in 1948, specialized in portraiture
Photographed all of Bamako in European clothing
First solo expedition took place in Paris in 1994
Father of African photography
J.D. Okhai Ojeikere At the age of 20 he got into photography. He was very passionate and bought a camera without a flash but had a friend teach the fundamentals of the photography. His first job became a photographer, and become Nigerian Hairstyles He printed off 1000 of African hairstyles. creativity that articulated Nigerian social and cultural life. Hairstyles is Ojeikere best-known and most significant body of work through which he draws attention to the elaborate and sculptural forms of Nigerian hairstyles, while documenting the evolutionary shifts in fashion during his lifetime.
Oumou Sy is a Senegalese fashion designer frequently referred to as "Senegal's Queen of Couture". She founded the association Metissacana, that supports the cultural and economic exchange between the continents. She lives and works in DakarSy design clothes for everybody to wear that was compatible with African culture. Self educated who stresses the importance of accessible schools. making dolls and other toys of clay and twigs. playing with scraps of fabric, feeling their textures and finding ways to combine them with other materials.
Florence Asare these bracelets melt down used glass bottles, and then fire the new beads in mud brick ovens. The owner and founder of the group is a woman named Florence Asare. Although it is traditional for men to smash, fire, mold and paint the beads, the women are in charge of creating the designs, producing the product and handle most of the sales and marketing. Below is a photo of the sales manager inside the workshop showroom
Ibrahim Mahama Born in 1987 in Tamale, Ghana. Lives and works in Tamale and Accra, Ghana.Ibrahim Mahama trained in painting and sculpture at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi in Ghana, with a bachelor's degree in 2010 and a master's degree in 2013.Mahama is best known for his use of jute sacks, cloth bags once used to carry cocoa and now employed as vessels for coal
Bruce Obo Myoma Onobrakpeya the is a painter and a sculptor Born in 1932: "Bruce Onobrakpeya is among the most successful artists to have emerged in West Africa during the 20th century, with continuing and commanding influence on the generation of artists in Nigeria, who have come to maturity in the post colonial period” (wiki) One of the most successful west african artists in the 20th century. born 30 August 1932, is a Nigerian printmaker painter and sculptor. has exhibited at Tate Modern in London, National Museum of African Art of the Smithsonian Institution in D.C. and the Malmö Konsthall in Sweden. Also the National Gallery of Modern Art, Lagos
Cyprien Tokoudagba
-Born in Abomey, Benin in 1939
-Restorer at National Museum in Abomey, where he came in contact with rich traditions of Benin painting
-Worked on decorations of several Vodun buildings- made up of symbolic figureheads of political and especially religious power, often a confusion of both, also as the geometrical cultural signs on walls of the place of worship
-Sculpted traditional Benin sculptures
-In 1989, undertook huge wall paintings in which he combined the emblems of the kings of Abomey, the symbols of the divinities, and various objects related to my culture
El Anatsui
Nigerian American abstract expressionist painter. He was awarded best solo artist of 2006. He has been described as the most exciting young artist to emerge from sub saharan africa since 1990. Nigerian born painter.
Ben Enwonwu
Nigerian painter and sculptor unique form of african modernism new kind of modern art
Born in Onitsha, Nigeria in 1917
studied at Goldsmith College, London in 1944, attended Ruskin College, Oxford, from 1944 to 1946, graduated from Slade School of Fine Arts in 1948
Instrumental in defining a new visual language for Nigerian art
First african artist commissioned to sculpt a bronze portrait of Queen Elizabeth II
Was also a writer and an art critic
Died in 1994
Meschac Gaba
Born in 1961 in Cotonou, Benin
studied at the Rijksakademie voor Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam in 1996-97
In 1997 in Rijksakademie, he inaugurated his major work, which was an entire museum filled with his artwork: Museum of Contemporary African Art
12 rooms, first filled with his work and then the work of others
El Anatsui
Short Video On El Anatsui steps to make his art work
Contemporary artist, makes everything out of bottle caps. He was born in 1944 he is a ghanaian sculptor for most of his career in Nigeria. He has like to do “bottle-tipo installation” which are done to a large scale and are assembled by thousand pieces of aluminum sourced from alcohol recycling stations and sewn together with copper wire. His inspirations can be drawn from pollution due to the fact he uses recycled thing to make his art
Lema Kusa
Lema Kusa was born on 24 July 1944 in Kinkenge in Bas-Congo.
Attended Protestant school of pastors and teachers in Kimpese.
In 1958 he entered the Academy of Fine Arts in Kinshasa to study advertising painting and illustrations.
After 7 years he earned diploma and scholarship at the Saint-Luc Higher Institute of Fine Arts in Liège, Belgium. He also took courses at the Liege Graduate School of Business.
Completed his professional development at the University of Louvain External Relations department.
He also became CEO of the National Institute of Arts, Kinshasa, a position he was holding in 2008 while also a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts.
Cheri Samba
Chéri Samba Born in 1956 in Kinto M'Vuila as the elder son of a family of ten children.
Father was a blacksmith and his mother was a farmer.
In 1972, at the age of 16 he left the village and the school to find work as a sign painter in the capital Kinshasa, on Kasa Vubu Avenue in Kinshasa; from this circle of artists (which included Moke, Bodo, and later Samba's younger brother Cheik Ledy among others) arose one of the most vibrant schools of popular painting in the twentieth century.
1975 he opened his own studio.
1980's he signed his painting as Cheri Samba
He became internationally known through the exhibition Les Magiciens de la Terre.
He lives and works in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.
Mode Muntu
Mode Muntu, Nga Mukulu Muntu, 1940-1985, began to paint in 1954 in Lubumbashi at Laurent Moonen’s Academy.
Mode was of Cuban origin and the eldest of 14 kids.
Mode crafted a unique style art, something the people of the Congo weren't use to seeing on the market, that's why his art was usually mistaken for decorative art.
Moke
Born 1950, Ibe, Bandundu Province, Belgian Congo.
Died in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 2001
Known as the "painter reporter" of city life.
among the leading artists of the school of popular painting that sprung up in Kinshasa
He arrived in Kinshasa at the age of ten
Discovering that there was a market for paintings, he taught himself how to render landscapes on discarded pieces of cardboard.
In 1965 he paint a picture of general Mobutu waving to a crowd as he led a parade commemorating Independence day.
Unlike Cheri Samba, Moke didn't incorporate social conflict in his work. Instead he focused on things such as street scenes, bars, all night parties, public ceremonies, etc.