3 African Artists Whose Current Explorations You Should Look Out For

African artists are elevating their artistic practices as they experiment with their narratives, mediums, and materials. At Omenai, we are spotlighting these three African artists whose current explorations you should look out for. These artists are raising profound questions in their deeper explorations of themes that touch on identity, memory, and spirituality while reinventing materials by pushing beyond the traditional bounds of their craft. With their current presentations, their artistic growth is emphasized as they explore technicality in their narratives while working across different mediums. 

Yagazie Emezi

Yagazie Emezi is a visual artist and photojournalist. The Nigerian multidisciplinary artist uses photography and sculpture to delve into contemporary conversations on identity and spirituality. 

As a photojournalist, Yagazie Emezi’s focus is on addressing contemporary and widespread issues around corruption, environmental failure, and the extension of colonial policies into current international relations across the African continent. 

In her self-portraits, Emezi centers her chi— the spiritual force inextricably linked to her existence and residing in her according to Igbo cosmology and ontology —in her examination of the multiple realities and complexities of Igbo cosmology. She is on a personal quest of highlighting conversations on the friction and coexistence in postcolonial Africa of imported religions, and native African religions or beliefs.

In her further and deeper examination of the Igbo ontology through self-portraiture, Yagazie Emezi recently used new materials like hemp fiber and canvas as a creative-in-residence at Jnane Tamsna, a boutique hotel in the Palmeraie of Marrakech. At the end of the residency, she writes on her Instagram page:

“My time as an artist in residence at Jnane Tamsna was a beautiful recharge. I got to lighten my spirit a bit and connect with genuine souls. Perhaps more importantly, I got to bring years-old sketches and beliefs to life with new work … more on that later.”

Lebohang Kganye

Lebohang Kganye is a South African artist working with photography, sculpture, and film. Her interest in memory inspires her experimentation with history using her family’s old photographs. Kganye is imagining histories, particularly the ones she wasn’t a part of, to tell stories of home, refuge, family, and identity. 

Kganye’s work has explored themes of personal history and ancestry, as well as the history of South Africa and apartheid, by incorporating the archival and performative into a practice that centers storytelling and memory as it unfolds in the familial experience. 

Lebohang Kganye‘s recent focus is on dimensionality, which has inspired her experiments with three-dimensionality as a means of seeing the world as an illusion. Her current solo presentation at the Boschendal Estate, Mmoloki wa Mehopolo: Breaking Bread with a Wanderer inside the Manor House comprises four large-scale pop-up sculptures on the historic grounds of Boschendal Werf. She raises profound questions about heritage, migration, and family archives in her current explorations. To build the sets that make up ‘Mmoloki wa Mehopolo: Breaking Bread with the Wanderer,’ she scanned her family photo albums and then printed them out on a large scale. 

Yadichinma Kalu

Yadichinma Ukoha-Kalu is a Lagos-based experimental artist and illustrator. She is known for her artistic practice which revolves around the exploration of line, form, space, and boundaries through a variety of media, including painting, photography, sculpture, film, and digital media. 

Kalu is curious about the genesis of phenomena, real and imagined spaces. Her focus is on creating experiences in multidimensional spaces that amalgamate abstract elements, textures, and materials.

Centering Ala, the Igbo deity symbolizing earth and creativity, Yadichinma Kalu has always explored the themes of Igbo cultural identity in her work. Kalu’s latest body of work, which she worked on during her residency at  Maison Aïssa Dione, uses a variety of media, including embroideries and linocut on cotton to map out an ethereal spiritual realm that embodies the essence of Igbo heritage. She is harnessing Ala’s connection to materials, threads, and cloth as her primary artistic mediums as a way of paying homage to the historical role of textiles in preserving cultural narratives through storytelling. 

Kalu writes, “In the pursuit of understanding Ala, I unearth names, symbols, and techniques, thus mapping out an ethereal spiritual realm that embodies the essence of Igbo heritage.”