Meleko Mokgosi’s Virtuosic Paintings of Southern Africa Show a Different Side of the Tourism Industry—See Pictures Here

While museums around the globe are closed to the public, we
are spotlighting each day an inspiring exhibition that was
previously on view. Even if you can’t see it in person, allow us to
give you a virtual look. 

“Meleko Mokgosi: Your Trip to Africa”
at the Pérez Art Museum Miami

What the museum says: “Combining a high
degree of painterly skill with a poetic, open-ended semiotic
approach and a penchant for deep archival research, Meleko Mokgosi
shines light on some of the complex socioeconomic dynamics that
animate contemporary southern Africa.

Whereas traditional history paintings feature lofty
subjects—military battles or climactic scenes drawn from ancient
legends—Mokgosi elevates everyday, anonymous persons and common
objects, setting them against mundane domestic contexts while
inserting references that establish an array of subtle yet
powerful suggestive effects.”

Why it’s worth a look: Amid the
mural-style realist paintings Mokgosi created over the past few
years, one of the highlights at the museum is a new commission made
for the 30-foot-high project gallery, now taken up by eight
narrative paintings arranged in a square on the wall.

The title of the work—also the name of the show—is “Your Trip to
Africa,” a reference to Peter Kubelka’s 1966 film Unsere
Afrikareise (Our Trip to Africa), in which
Kubelka documented the safari trip of a wealthy Austrian family at
their request, collecting footage of the Europeans taking part in
tourist-style activities while capturing the real-life challenges
of African citizens happening simultaneously. The result is a
disturbing document of colonialism and drastic economic and social
inequality, made even more grotesque by the total ignorance of the
European vacationers who are only interested in enjoying their
“authentic” African adventure.

Other works come from the artist’s “Lerato” series, shown at
Jack Shainman in New York in 2016, and which were inspired by
European notions of allegory and love as depicted in art history,
creating detailed scenes that unfold on the canvas to upend
traditional historic narratives using race and cultural
signifiers.

What it looks like: 

The post Meleko Mokgosi’s Virtuosic Paintings of Southern
Africa Show a Different Side of the Tourism Industry—See Pictures
Here appeared first on artnet News.