Elastic Visions at Efie Gallery

Efie Gallery presents a group exhibition, Elastic Visions, curated by Faridah Folawiyo, showcasing the dynamism of artistic expression emerging from practitioners of African origin across the world. Running 27 February – 27 May 2024, the exhibition examines how artists from Africa and the diaspora overlook the restrictive concepts of Eurocentric cultural superiority. Folawiyo, a Nigerian curator with a background in Middle Eastern studies, is also exploring the historic dichotomy created by Orientalism and its interrogation by Edward Said (1935-2003), who urged Western intellectuals to rethink how they observed, understood and depicted the Middle East. The show aims to stretch audiences’ limits and perceptions, inviting them to consider the elasticity and hybridity of influence and output.

The exhibited artists include: Kesewa Aboah, a Ghanaian-British artist and model who uses her own body as a paintbrush; Kevin Claiborne, whose work examines intersections of identity, social environment and mental health within the Black American experience; Larry W. Cook who works across photography, video, and installation; Hugh Findletar, a glass sculptor in Italy who draws on his Caribbean heritage; Enam Gbewonyo a British-Ghanaian textile and performance artist exploring womanhood and humanity while advocating the healing benefits of craft; Amina Kadous, a visual artist exploring memory, identity and the ephemerality of experience; Cédric Kouamé based between Brussels and Abidjan, who works across sculpture, photography and performative activations; Daëna Ladéesse, who explores the divine feminine force through painting and performance; and Fadekemi Ogunsanya, a multidisciplinary artist exploring African culture, blended with mythology and folk art.

Faridah Folawiyo, curator, says: “Artists are constantly operating through hybrid lenses. This exhibition provokes viewers to stretch past imagination and pre-conceptions, and to be open to influence, wherever it comes from, rejecting the discourse of us vs them. The art historian Linda Nochlin wrote about how Orientalist art gave the impression of an absence of history in certain parts of the world – so we are looking in contrast at artists whose work stretches history, or at least our conception of it.”

Elastic Visions
27 February – 27 May 2024
11-7pm, daily
Efie Gallery, Unit 2 Al Khayat Art Avenue, 19th Street – Al Quoz 1
Dubai, United Arab Emirates