June Art Review
Shade goes to Basel, production for the new series is underway and I picked up a nice award. Plus, my guide of everything to enjoy in the Black art scape this month
In this issue you’ll find news on: Donald Rodney at Spike Island Kahlil Joseph at 180 Studios Grada Kilomba in Brazil & London Nana Danso Awuah-Asante at LAFA in Accra Bertina Lopes at Bonhams Matthew Krishanu closing at Camden Art Centre Neurodiversity at Copperfield Black British Music at the British Library Alvaro Barrington Zanele Muholi Museum anti-racism group Helga Podcast Working Class Artist group and Adura Onashile’s debut movie Girl
This issue is too long to view as an email; tap the headline to read it in full in your browser.
We won an award!
Axel Kacoutié & I were awarded the UKAN Best Producer/Team of the Year! Thanks to all who nominated and voted - it was a complete surprise.
Shade in Basel
Shade Podcast and Shade Art Review will be in Basel later this month. More on that soon..
Reverb at 180 Studios until Sept 28
The Vinyl Factory is showcasing their collaborations with artists and musicians from the past 20 years, as well as many new works at 180 Studios. The exhibition features site-specific audio-visual installations and sonic experiences commissioned by The Vinyl Factory, from artists including Theaster Gates, Es Devlin, Julianknxx and Kahlil Joseph. It was one scene from a Joseph short film that inspired our soundscape series Interludes. I’m going to visit primarily to view Joseph’s contribution, but OMGGGG there is such a great lineup of artists. More here
Grada Kilomba, O Barco or The Boat (2021) at Inhotim Brazil
O Barco shows 134 blocks of burned wood stretch along 32 meters, arranged in reference to the architecture of the bottom of the vessels that carried millions of enslaved African bodies across the ocean. Along the way, between the blocks, visitors come across a poem written by Kilomba and translated into six languages.
Kilomba’s Archaeology of Contemplation has of course been shortlisted alongside works by Alberta Whittle, Helen Cammock, Hew Locke, Khaleb Brooks, Nana Buluku and Zak Ové for the Docklands slave memorial commission. If we’re to have these monuments (and I’m yet to process fully how I feel about their impact) then Kilomba’s offering gets my vote on this one. You can vote here
Donald Rodney Visceral Canker showing at Spike Island Bristol May 25 - Sept 8
Spike Island presents a major survey exhibition of late British artist Donald Rodney (b. 1961, West Bromwich; d. 1998, London). The exhibition at Spike Island brings together all of Rodney's surviving works. This includes large-scale oil pastels on X-rays, kinetic and animatronic sculptures, and restaged installations, as well as sketchbooks and rare archive materials, spanning 1982 to 1997.
Also on display is Autoicon (1997–2000), an interactive digital artwork initiated by Rodney and finalised by a group of his close friends after he died from sickle cell anaemia in 1998. Sickle cell disease is a group of inherited red blood cell disorders that affect hemoglobin, the protein that carries oxygen through the body. Almost 300 babies are born in the UK with sickle cell each year. I was one of the 1 in 79 babies born in the UK each year that carry sickle cell trait.
Coming soon to Shade Podcast — I’ll be in conversation with the exhibition curators— former Spike Island Director Robert Leckie and Nicole Yip, Chief Curator at Nottingham Contemporary.
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