Author Description

"African Art Now offers a wide-ranging view of new currents in contemporary African art, profiling thirty-three painters, photographers, sculptors, and installation artists. No single tradition or method defines these artists, who come from numerous different countries; however, they share an awareness of both local and global cultures, reflecting the complex heritage faced by African artists today. Included in these pages are the works of studio portrait photographer Philip Kwame Apagya (Ghana), who transports his clientele into the idealized world of advertisements; the painters Moke and Cheri Samba (Democratic Republic of Congo), whose vivacious canvases record different aspects of daily life in Kinshasa; and Pascale Marthine Tayou (Cameroon), whose video installations capture both the evil and the grace of the world we all share. From South Africa is Esther Mahlangu, an important proponent of the Ndebele decorative wall paintings executed exclusively by Ndebele women; from Benin, Romuald Hazoume, whose masks and installations reinterpret the traditions of his Yoruba heritage; and from Cote d'Ivoire, Frederic Bruly Bouabre, who communicates an encyclopedia of universal knowledge and experience in his postcard-format drawings."--BOOK JACKET.