‘ART TALK WITH EVA LANGRET (UK)’

AFROPOLITAN CONTEMPORARY ART

Eva Langret is Director – Curatorial Affairs  for the London–based gallery, Tiwani Contemporary. Prior to this, she held curatorial positions at the Delfina Foundation, the Wapping Project and 198 Gallery. Langret also regularly organises solo exhibitions and group shows as a freelance curator. Curated exhibitions include KIN at HANGAR Centro de Investigação Artística in Lisbon (2016) and The Zone, Basel Abbas & Ruanne Abou-Rahme, at the New Art Exchange (2011). She regularly contributes to exhibitions catalogue and artists books.

Longret presents here artists from the London and Paris art scenes.

Francisco Vidal, Lisbon (whose work is exhibited in Terarken 1)
Phoebe Boswell, London (via video)
Katia Kameli, Paris
Michèle Magema, Paris
Julien Creuzet, Paris

Francisco Vidal

The postcolonial condition is at the heart of Francisco Vidal's work. Born in Portugal from Angolan and Cape Verdean parents, Vidal considers himself both African and a product of the diaspora and cultural fusion. Vidal explores themes of mixed identities, dissidence and mobility. His drawings, sculptures and installations stand out for their visual lexicon, mixing various influences, from cubism to graffiti via calligraphy. Vidal lives and works in London and is represented by Tiwani Contemporary.

Phoebe Boswell

"I have always had a fragile understanding of the definition of 'home'." Phoebe Boswell (b. 1982, Kenya) currently lives and works in London. Born in Nairobi to a Kikuyu mother and fourth generation British Kenyan father, and brought up as an “expatriate” in the Middle East before coming to London. Her history – her identity – is rooted in transient middle points and passages of migration, and her trajectory is always anchored to a personal exploration of “home”, combining traditional draftswomanship and digital technology to create drawings, animations and installations in order to communicate global, fragmented narratives.
Boswell studied Painting at the Slade School of Art and 2D Animation at Central St Martins, London, and has exhibited at Carroll / Fletcher, Kristin Hjellegjerde, the Royal Academy, Bonhams, and the Mall Galleries. In 2012, Boswell was nominated/shortlisted for the Art Foundation's Animation Fellowship and was the first recipient of the Sky Academy Arts Scholarship. She was a Florence Trust Artist-in-Residence, and participated in the Gothenburg International Biennial of Contemporary Art, both in 2015.

Katia Kameli

Kameli (b. 1973, France) is a French-Algerian artist. Through video, photography, installation and drawing, Kameli investigates intercultural spaces, intersecting identities and their construction. Following her studies at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, under Michelangelo Pistoletto, she graduated from the École nationale supérieure d'art in Bourges in 2000. She received a postgraduate degree in New Media in 2003 from the École supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Marseille. Recent solo exhibitions include: What Language Do You Speak Stranger?, Mosaic Rooms, London (2016); Futur, Artconnexion, Lille (2016); Taymour Grahne Gallery, New York (2014); 7 Acts of Love in 7 Days of Boredom, Transpalette, Bourges (2012); and Duty Free, Videochroniques, Marseille (2012). She has also participated in numerous groups shows, including: Cher(e)s Ami(e)s, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2016); Made in Algeria, MuCEM, Marseille (2016); Entry Prohibited to Foreigners, Havre Magasinet, Boden, Sweden (2015); ‘WHERE WE’RE AT!, Bozar, Brussels (2014); Lubumbashi Biennale, Congo (2013); Pour un Monde Durable, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Portugal (2013); Le Pont, Museum of Marseille (2013); Dak'art, the Dakar Biennale (2012); Higher Atlas, Marrakech Biennale, Morocco (2012); and the Rencontres de Bamako Photography Biennale, Mali (2011).

Michèle Magema

Magema is a Congolese-French video, performance, and photography artist. She was born in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo in 1977. She moved to Paris, France in 1984, where she currently resides. In 2002 she received her MA in fine arts from l’Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Arts de Cergy. In addition to being a resident artist at Cité Internationale des Arts, she has participated in the Africa Remix Exhibition, Dakar Biennal curated by Simon, Njami, and SUD ( Salon Urbain de Douala) this year . Her work has been exhibited in the Global Feminisms exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum, and Sculpture Garden. One of her most well-known works is Oyé Oyé, (2004) a two-channel video installation, in which a woman (Magema) is shown marching in place on the left, while on the right historic footage of Zaire’s Mobutu Sese Seko overseeing parades of Congolese cultural pride. A key focus, for her, is articulating a permament exchange between individual stories, collective memories and history.

Julien Creuzet

Creuzet was born in 1986. He lives and works in Paris. He graduated from the School of Fine Arts in Caen, did a post-grad at the School of Fine Arts in Lyon and completed studies at the Studio national des Arts contemporains - Le Fresnoy in Tourcoing. He is represented by the galerie Doyang Lee in Paris. He recently had solo exhibitions at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Art et de Design in Nancy (2016), the Frac Basse Normandie in Caen (2015), the Centre for Contemporary Art in Juvisy sur Orge and the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation in Turin (2012).