Gameli Hamelo
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Articles by Gameli Hamelo
Prize dedicated to African women artists expands to Senegal, announces 2026 winners
The Ghanaian-French artist Kwama Frigaux and the Senegalese Fatoumata Sy have been announced as the joint winners of the Yaa Asantewaa Art Prize. The prize, founded by the London and Accra-based 1957 Gallery in 2021 to support artists in Ghana and its diaspora, has this year expanded to include artists from Senegal, in partnership with Institut Français du Sénégal.
For Hassanein Hiridjee, Collecting Art Is a Commitment to Africa’s Future
Collector Hassanein Hiridjee has turned a single purchase in 2010 into a collection of work spanning dozens of artists, from El Anatsui to Otobong Nkanga, and a foundation devoted to elevating Malagasy talent. Photo: Fabio Thierry / Courtesy Fondation H In 2010, Hassanein Hiridjee bought an artwork by Malagasy textile artist Madame Zo, kicking off a journey he remains deeply passionate about.
Toledo Museum of Art launches initiative to donate art books to African libraries
The Toledo Museum of Art (TMA) has launched the initiative Africa Art Library to donate books to libraries on the continent. The museum donated around 100 books to the Koyo Kouoh Library at the Gihanga Institute of Contemporary Art in Kigali, Rwanda, earlier this year and a second set is headed to the Nubuke Foundation in Accra, Ghana, this month.
In Marrakech, a Family Home Becomes a Meeting Place For Art
In the late 2010s, Gert-Jan and Corinne van den Bergh decided it was time to find a home in Marrakech, where they had been travelling for about two decades. The decision was also inspired by Meryanne Loum-Martin, an Ivorian-born lawyer friend who left Paris to start a hospitality project in the Palmeraie, the Moroccan city’s palm oasis. “I thought given the fact that we’re both very much interested in cultures that are at the crossroads … so cities like Beirut, Athens, Istanbul, Marrakech.
Ibrahim Mahama’s Most Ambitious Show Yet Is Headed to Paris—But Its Core Is in Ghana
Listen to Ibrahim Mahama speak, and he’s likely to credit his success to his community, which includes market women, weavers, craftsmen, studio assistants, railway workers, curators, professors, and fellow artists. The Ghanaian artist is quick to recognize their contributions when he receives one of the many awards he’s picked up recently. Ranked at the top of the influential ArtReview Power 100 list in 2025, he also won an Art Basel Gold Award that year and received the 2026 Arnold Bode prize.
After Losing Two Fairs, Vienna’s Galleries Built One Together
John M Armleder, FS 272, 1992. Wood, laminate, lic, disco balls, 220 x 80 x 80 cm. Photos © Galerie Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman, Astoria Artshow 2026 / Jakob Kotzmuth Among the highlights at the spacious, multistory Astoria Garage in Vienna this past September was FS 272 (1992), a mirrored sofa by the celebrated Swiss artist John M. Armleder made of furniture, reflective surfaces, lights and rotating disco balls.
How Hicham Daoudi Is Building Morocco’s Art Market
Comptoir des Mines Galerie presentation at Art Dubai 2024. Image courtesy of Comptoir des Mines Galerie. In January 2001, Hicham Daoudi cut short his biochemistry studies on a scholarship in France, deciding to return to Morocco because he felt detached from his studies.
Adji Dieye by Gameli Hamelo
For over a decade, Senegalese Italian artist Adji Dieye has been using video, sculptural installations, and photography to examine socio-political issues shaping the world as well as cultural representation and identities in public spaces, with a focus on West African countries, particularly Senegal. Her first project, Maggic Cube (2014–19), emerged from her noticing the enduring presence of Western brands in public spaces in Africa, specifically Maggi, the popular cooking and seasoning product.
New cultural centre focused on archiving Ghana's history to open in Accra
A new cultural centre is opening in Accra, Ghana, this October. Si Hene, located in a repurposed former pharmaceutical factory building, is billed as Ghana’s first membership-based cultural centre in the Ghanaian capital. Its inauguration will take place during this year’s Accra Cultural Week (29 October-2 November), organised by Gallery 1957.
Brooklyn Gallerist Tanya Weddemire Brings a Bold New Vision to The Armory Show
After Tanya Weddemire Gallery sold two paintings by Nigerian-born artist Austin Uzor to the esteemed Clark Collection at EXPO Chicago this year, one of the first things the founder Weddemire did was call the artist. The works, HIBISCUS and LAND DEVOTION V (both 2026), were entering a U.S.-based collection that also owns works by artists including El Anatsui, Zanele Muholi, Amy Sherald, and Kerry James Marshall.
Collector Emma Menell Is Rethinking How African Artists Are Supported Abroad
Collector Emma Menell with artworks by Driaan Claassen, Michele Mathison and Kudzanai-Violet Hwami. Photo: Andrea Adriani In 2015, South African collector Emma Menell founded Tyburn Gallery in London to provide a platform for artists from Africa and its diaspora to show their work.
Collector and Patron Hasnaine Yavarhoussen Is Determined to Bring Madagascar’s Art Scene to the Rest of the World
In 2019, just four nations mounted their debut pavilions at the Venice Biennale. Madagascar was one of them, and Hasnaine Yavarhoussen’s sponsorship was largely what made it possible. The year before, the Malagasy art collector and entrepreneur met with artist Joël Andrianomearisoa to discuss the country’s participation and his support. At the time of their meeting, Yavarhoussen had limited knowledge about Malagasy artists; his almost decade-old collection didn’t even include any artworks by them.
Artist-led space in the Democratic Republic of the Congo launches ‘urgent call’ for funding
Amid rising operating expenses and dwindling international financial support, the artist-led Picha Art and Research Center in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has launched an “urgent” crowdfunding campaign on GoFundMe. It has received support from a number of leading artists and cultural figures including Elvira Dyangani Ose, who was recently announced as the new artistic director for the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town; the Belgian-born, Mexico-based artist...
Artist-led space in the Democratic Republic of Congo launches 'urgent call' for funding
Amid rising operating expenses and dwindling international financial support, the artist-led Picha Art and Research Center in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has launched an “urgent” crowdfunding campaign on GoFundMe .
For Collector Marie-Cécile Zinsou, Building a Museum in Benin Was Just the Beginning Original
The traveling exhibition “Nago Hunters from the Kingdom of Bante” by Jean-Dominique Burton in 2013. ©Jean-Dominique Burton When art collector and 2025 Yale Directors Forum fellow Marie-Cécile Zinsou first started looking into the feasibility of opening a contemporary art museum in Benin, she was met with a lot of resistance. “People told me that there was no need for a museum because there was no public for that.
10 Questions With… Amina Agueznay
This past May, what may be considered the most important work yet of multidisciplinary Moroccan artist Amina Agueznay opened as part of this year’s Venice Biennale at the Arsenale’s Artiglierie. Titled Asǝṭṭa—the Amazigh term for ritual weaving—the site-specific work represents Morocco’s debut national pavilion at the event.
The Netherlands and Germany agree to return more than 2,000 cultural artefacts to Ghana
The Netherlands and Germany intend to return more than 2,000 cultural objects belonging to Ghana taken unlawfully during colonial conquests, the Ghanaian minister of foreign affairs Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has announced .
Nigerian artist Omolola Coker wins inaugural Myma Art Prize Original
Nigerian artist Omolola Coker has been named the inaugural winner of the Myma Art Prize , a new initiative to provide long-term and sustainable support for the practice of early to mid-career artists from Ghana and Nigeria. Born in London and based in Lagos, Coker uses the batik fabric painting technique for her figurative practice exploring themes such as heritage and home.
Zohra Opoku, a ‘Woven Storyteller,’ Is Shapeshifting Her Way into Africa’s Biggest Museums
In 2023, Beata America, a curator for the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, made a research trip to Ghana. Accompanied by her colleague Julia Kabat, America ended up visiting the Accra studio of Zohra Opoku, a Ghanaian German artist whom Zeitz MOCAA director Koyo Kouoh “had always spoken really highly of,” as America recalled to ARTnews. Despite having never met Opoku before, America “just fell in love with her studio practice immediately,” the curator recalled.
Morocco debuts at the Biennale with an exploration of its age-old craft traditions
For its first national pavilion at the Venice Biennale, Morocco is building on its centuries-old tradition of craft. Titled Asetta, which means “loom” and “ritual of weaving” in the Amazigh language, the monumental 300 sq. m installation by the Moroccan artist Amina Agueznay is a site-specific work designed for the Arsenale.
François-Xavier Gbré Uses His Photography to Fill in History’s Gaps
“What I try to do with my work is to fill the many gaps in history, and to tell history in different ways,” said artist François-Xavier Gbré, speaking via a video call. It was fitting that Gbré spoke these words, since so much information is still transmitted orally from older to younger generations in Africa. Born in France to French and Ivorian parents, Gbré uses his art to keep alive “the memory of the continent.” He added, “This story needs to be written.
In Dubai, Efie Gallery Is Rewriting the Map of Contemporary African Art
(l. to r.) Kobi, Valentina and Kwame Mintah. Courtesy Efie Gallery “A lot of our artists are happy that we represent them because we are the same. As Africans, we understand what story they are telling and who they are talking to,” Kwame Mintah, Ghanaian cultural entrepreneur, collector and cofounder of Dubai-based contemporary gallery Efie, tells Observer.
Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama considering legal action after alleged police assault
The Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama has allegedly been assaulted by police in his hometown. Over the weekend (21-22 March), videos and images emerged of the artist holding blood-stained clothing while talking about an incident allegedly involving members of the Ghanaian Inspector General of Police’s special operations team, known as ‘Black Maria’.
A Photographer’s Sartorial Chronicle of Moroccan Youth Culture
In the summer of 2015, Sophia El Bahja was nearing the end of her studies in her hometown of Rabat. Before enrolling in a three-year engineering course at the Faculty of Sciences and Techniques of Tangier, she planned to spend time in the Moroccan capital with her friends—but her parents had other ideas, including having the then twenty-year-old travel with them. El Bahja was so upset by her parents’ request that they bought her a new digital camera to convince her to join them. It worked.
An Art Lover’s Guide to the Best Galleries and Museums in Morocco
Over the past 10 years, Morocco’s art scene has drawn increasing international attention—thanks in part to the Marrakech edition of 1-54—yet many collectors are only just beginning to appreciate the depth and distinctiveness of its cultural production. Though long associated with tourism and Hollywood location shoots, the North African nation has a rich and underrepresented history of artmaking shaped by centuries of diverse cultural exchange.
Benin City’s Flourishing Art Ecosystem Is Gaining International Attention for a Reason
“Every square meter in Benin City has an artist,” Victor Ehikhamenor said with a laugh. He was talking about the capital of Edo, the Nigerian State, which is famed as a historical, cultural and artistic heritage center. “Every family” in the city, he continued, has an artist.
LagosPhoto Festival Confronts the Historical Weight of Incarceration
Works from “Afrotopias” in Freedom Park Lagos. Courtesy of the AAF. Photo: Ariwodola Ifeoluwa Ayomide On the rails of a structure in Freedom Park Lagos—situated on what was Nigeria’s first colonial prison—hang several images. Titled “Afrotopias,” the body of work is part of the 15th edition of the international LagosPhoto Festival.
Ten Years On, Art X Lagos Has Become the Heartbeat of Nigeria’s Creative Ecosystem
The Library at Art X Lagos 2025. Photo: Gameli Hamelo for Observer The Nigerian city of Lagos has become a global art destination in large part due to the success of Art X Lagos, and Tokini Peterside-Schwebig, the fair’s founder, isn’t surprised by that.
Hector Hyppolite, the ‘First Black Surrealist,’ Gets His Due at Art Basel Paris
A few years ago, at Art Basel Paris, London’s The Gallery of Everything wanted to show the work of the late self-taught Haitian painter Hector Hyppolite, who is today considered a pioneering artist associated with the Surrealist movement.
Meet the Collector: Kayode Adegbola On Building a Gallery That Reflects His Passions
Kayode Adegbola has been helping build Nigeria’s arts infrastructure for fifteen years through his curatorial platform Adegbola Art Projects. Photo: Jonathan Chambalin. Courtesy Adegbola Art Projects. “I have a theory that [Grammy award-winning Nigerian artists] Wizkid and Burna Boy are who they are today because they were first well known at home,” Kayode Adegbola told Observer, speaking from his home in Lagos.
For Sculptor Sandra Poulson, Every Object Contains ‘Micro-Stories’ About Its Making
When Sandra Poulson was growing up in the Angolan capital of Luanda, her father used to tell her off by saying, in Portuguese, “Este quarto parece uma República!” The phrase, which translates to “This bedroom looks like a Republic!,” was an indirect order for her to clean up her room, and in some ways likened that messy space to nation-building and political disorder. Poulson didn’t think about the phrase that way when she was younger. She didn’t think about it much at all until recently.
Yinka Shonibare Is Using Money from His Art Sales to Give Back to Africa
In April 2011, Yinka Shonibare visited the Nigerian city of Lagos following an invitation from celebrated curator Bisi Silva, who’d invited the London-based artist for a talk about his practice and to host a show. There was no space to mount the show Silva and Shonibare had envisioned, but the trip ended up being formative in a different way.
Silver Lion Winner Karimah Ashadu On Art, Resilience and Making Her U.S. Debut
Machine Boys captures the complexities of urban masculinity in Lagos through the lens of young men navigating life as outlawed motorcycle taxi riders. Courtesy of the artist and Fondazione In Between Art Film In 2024, Machine Boys, a film that explores performative masculinity, premiered at the Venice Biennale, and its director, Karimah Ashadu, won the prestigious Silver Lion for a Young Participant.
Silver Lion Winner Karimah Ashadu On Art, Resilience and Making Her U.S. Debut
3 hours ago Muhammadu Buhari failed to build a better Nigeria, twice Stepping off the ferry in Liverpool, Muhammadu Buhari was struck by the city’s orderliness.
Craft and Kinship: How Sanaa Gateja’s Art Anchors Community
Artist Sanaa Gateja’s artistic journey has spanned decades, continents and disciplines. Courtesy the artist and Karma “I like the Africanness of handling materials, the aesthetics and the value that we attach to materials,” Sanaa Gateja tells Observer from his base in Uganda.
In Madagascar, Fondation H Anchors a Rising Contemporary Scene
An installation view of Yinka Shonibare’s “Safiotra.” Photo: Fabio Thierry Andriamiarintsoa © Fondation H This past April, scores of art world insiders from institutions, organizations and galleries—MoMA, Serpentine Gallery, V&A East and Goodman Gallery, to name a few—trekked to Madagascar for an exhibition billed as Yinka Shonibare CBE RA’s first major show in Africa.
Ten top shows to see in New York during Frieze week
The first full-scale retrospective on the late great painter and sculptor Jack Whitten (1939-2018)brings together more than 175 works spanning his six-decade career. His large-scale mosaic-like compositions—made from hardened acrylic paint cut into thousands of tiles—figure prominently, as do his mixed-media assemblage sculptures.
Yinka Shonibare’s first major solo show in Africa to open in Madagascar
The British Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare was given carte blanche for his first major solo exhibition on the African continent. Safiotra [Hybridities] at the Fondation H in Antananarivo, Madagascar, will include several of Shonibare’s sculptures, such as Alien Woman on Flying Machine (2011) and Refugee Astronaut X (2024), as well as some of his lesser-known quilt works.
How a new online database is bringing an African focus to restitution cases
When the French president Emmanuel Macron called for the restitution of African artefacts by the West in 2017, his statement was viewed in the international media as groundbreaking. Those reports failed to acknowledge the decades of calls for restitution from Africans themselves and the work being done across the continent to capture and analyse information about heritage looted in the era of European colonialism.
Through Art, Gustavo Nazareno Brings His Afro-Brazilian Faith to the Global Stage
Gustavo Nazareno’s richly symbolic paintings investigate the African hand in Brazilian Baroque art. GABRIEL_VOLPI In 2018, Brazilian artist Gustavo Nazareno left Minas Gerais for São Paulo because his aunt, a practitioner of the Afro-Brazilian religion Umbanda, “got an intuition [that] something was going to happen.” (Umbanda is based on the idea of possession by the spirits.
‘It’s important because it’s a part of me’: why a growing number of African diasporic artists are showing work on the continent
The London-born and based artist Emma Prempeh hit a major career milestone in 2021, debuting in Africa with a solo show at ADA Contemporary Art Gallery in Accra, Ghana, her father’s homeland. The show was preceded by a month-long residency in the West African country. It was a decision “to connect with my heritage”, she tells The Art Newspaper.
Black Identity Across Continents: An Interview With Artists Nolan Oswald Dennis and Deborah-Joyce Holman
Nolan Oswald Dennis’ “overturns” at the Swiss Institute explores decolonization, Black liberation and Indigenous resistance. Photo by Daniel Perez. Courtesy the Swiss Institute “It feels like it came out of a shared community,” the Johannesburg-based South African artist Nolan Oswald Dennis tells Observer about making his U.S. institutional debut alongside London-based Swiss artist Deborah-Joyce Holman in separate exhibitions exploring Black identity.
Ugandan Gallery Afriart Is Championing African Artists at Art Basel Miami Beach
When Art Basel Miami Beach opens this week, it will include a “very special presentation” by Ugandan gallery Afriart in the main Galleries sector alongside major names including Gagosian, Pace Gallery, and Hauser & Wirth.
A Groundbreaking Show on the African Diaspora Raises Pressing Questions About Portugal’s Colonialist Past
In 2008, Danish Trinidadian artist Jeannette Ehlers traveled to Ghana, where she visited Fort Prinzenstein, which was built by Danish traders in 1784 and used in the transatlantic slave trade. Located in Keta, in the West African country’s Volta Region, the fort is classified as a UNESCO World Heritage site because of its historical significance.
BmoreArt News: Election Day, Angela Alsobrooks Victory for MD, Cara Ober & Teri Henderson 'On the Record'
Baltimore art news updates from independent & regional media November 7, 2024 Words: , Rebecca Juliette This week’s news includes: Cara Ober, Teri Henderson, and John Waters react to the Baltimore Sun’s decision to cut features, Angela Alsobrooks’ historic victory, BOPA contract ends, Skylight Boutique’s gender affirming finds, Suchitra Mattai at NMWA, Free Admissions Podcast celebrates 90 years of The Walters, Leslie Gray Streeter’s election op-ed, election reaction from Art Forum’s editor...
Accra Cultural Week shines a light on Ghana’s burgeoning art scene
“It’s no longer the fact that Ghana is an emerging talent. It has arrived,” says the dealer Marwan Zakhem of the country’s art scene. “It’s still in its nascent stage, of course, because there are so many great, talented artists that are coming to the fore, but still as we speak right now, I think if you ask anyone in the international art world, they will say that definitely Ghana is one of the key players.” There is a lot of evidence to back this statement.
This Year, ART X Lagos Extended Its Reach Even Further
This Year, ART X Lagos Extended Its Reach Even Further The African art fair’s expansive noncommercial programming made the 2024 edition the most compelling yet. The fair’s Schools Programme aims to empower students through access to art initiatives. Courtesy ART X Lagos When Art X Lagos was founded in 2016, the intention was that the fair would serve as a platform to project visual art from Nigeria, Africa, and its diaspora, with the gallery sections being its focus.
Suchitra Mattai Uses Vibrant Tapestries to Create New Histories
While she was still a high school student in Metuchen, New Jersey, Suchitra Mattai found herself puzzled by a history class she was taking. The course was called World History, but despite its name, it was clearly about the West, not the entire globe. Years later, she realized she had encountered an “obviously absurd gap” in the course’s curriculum. Born in Guyana to parents of Indian heritage, Mattai faced a similar situation during the years prior, when her family lived in Canada.
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