Famakan Magassa wins Norval Sovereign African Art Prize

Famakan Magassa (b. 1997, Mali) was awarded the second annual Norval Sovereign African Art Prize on Wednesday evening for his painting La ballade noctambule. In this painting and others, Magassa portrays his subjects as kôrêdugaws: members of a secret, non-religious society in Mali whose initiates function as wise fools or playful tricksters in their communities, engaging in humourous behaviour in order to spread messages of community, generosity and humility.

Sharjah Biennial 15 

Conceived by the late Okwui Enwezor and curated by Hoor Al Qasimi, Director of Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah Biennial 15: Thinking Historically in the Present (SB15) will include over 300 works by over 150 artists and collectives, which will be installed in 5 cities and towns across the emirate. South African and SA-based artists participating in the biennale include: Omar Badsha, Gabrielle Goliath, Kiluanji Kia Henda, Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi, Berni Searle, Mary Sibande and Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum. For a full list of participating artists, click here.

Islamic Arts Biennale opens

The inaugural Islamic Arts Biennale opened on Sunday night at the Hajj Terminal in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. South African artists Igshaan Adams, Haroon Gunn-Salie and James Webb have produced some monumental work for the occasion, and Johannesburg-based Sumayya Vally is the biennale’s artistic director

Haroon Gunn-Salie, Amongst Men, 2015-2023. Amongst Men reimagines the funeral of Imam Abdullah Haron, which was attended by over 40,000 mourners after he was murdered by apartheid police in 1969, by suspending a series of over 1000 individually cast kufiya.