In artist Ayana Vellissia Jackson’s exhibition titled Projection Surface, this young artist of a mixed cultural background explores African identity beyond the stock ideas of what it means to be an African-American or black and British.
? Through her images, Jackson not only asks questions about the social, economic, and political role Africans in the Americas play in their communities, in their society and in the global African diaspora, but also the platforms available for engagement with their cultural heritage. Jackson, an American photographer, was born in New Jersey in 1977 and studied critical theory and large-format printing at the University of Arts Berlin. She apparently scored accolades for a previous series of work titled African by Legacy, Mexican by Birth. The current exhibition explores religious iconography and images of what she has termed the “impoverished body in photography”.
Momo Gallery. Attend a walkabout tour with Ayana Jackson on September 17 at 11am. The exhibition closes on September 19. Tel: 011 327 3247. Jackson will also be speaking at the Alfa Romeo Talks at this year’s FNB Joburg Art Fair on September 23 at 2.30pm.
? Artist Mbongeni Buthelezi’s mid-career retrospective currently showing at the Johannesburg Art Gallery is titled maNyauza, silent messages to my mother. Fifteen years of artistic output culminates in Buthelezi’s unique plastic-painted collages. Many are colourful portraits of rather nondescript places and individuals. The main installation of the exhibition takes the form of 280 small abstract paintings (in his plastic medium) that make up a collage spanning 15m of wall space. According to the gallery, these small paintings are intended as “silent messages” to his late mother, “remembering conversations he used to have with her, growing up as a young man”.
The Johannesburg Art Gallery, King George Street, Joubert Park, until January 15 2012. Tuesday to Sunday from 10am to 5pm. Entrance is free.