New exhibitions, tours and films announced
The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) announces that the critically acclaimed exhibition El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You about Africa, presented by the Institute for Contemporary Culture (ICC), has been extended to Sunday, February 27, 2011. The exhibition was due to close on January 2, 2011. Along with the extended run, new programming inspired by African art and culture has been added to the Museum’s current Season of Season of Africa line-up.
About the exhibition
Organized by the Museum for African Art in New York, this four-decade career retrospective of Ghanaian visual artist El Anatsui is his first solo exhibition in Canada. Drawing on Ghanaian and Nigerian cultural references as well as global, local and personal histories, El Anatsui’s body of work comprises large shimmering metal wall sculptures, for which he is best known, as well as paintings and sculptures in wood, ceramic and metal. The exhibition features more than 60 works in various media, drawn from public and private collections internationally. Among them, nine of Anatsui’s acclaimed massive metal wall sculptures, made of salvaged liquor-bottle caps that have been flattened, folded and/or twisted, then stitched together with copper wire. These large-scale sculptures recall the Ghanaian tradition of weaving and assembling the brightly coloured, hand-woven fabrics, known as kente cloth.
Upcoming and New ICC Programming
Fresh Perspectives: Tours of El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You about Africa
Sundays at 2pm
Roloff Beny Gallery
Included with ROM admission
Local luminaries conduct exhibition tours with a personal point of view.
Sun Dec 5 Peter Toh, Artistic Director of Afrofest
Sun Jan 9 Richard Rhodes, Editor of Canadian Art magazine
Sun Jan 23 Jessica Bradley, Founder, Jessica Bradley Art + Projects
Sun Feb 6 Julie Crooks, independent art curator
Sun Feb 13 Michael Chambers, visual artist
Sun Feb 20 Joan Butterfield, Art Director of the Association of African Canadian Artists
Sun Feb 27 Sarah Milroy, Art Critic
Lectures
Owning Africa: Foreign Investment in Africa’s Natural Resources
Wednesday, December 1, 7pm
Signy and Cléophée Eaton Theatre
Public $12 / ROM Members $10 / Friends of the ICC $8
Panel discussion on the highly debated question of new foreign investment on the African continent with Doug Saunders, award-winning journalist and author; John Schram, Senior Fellow with the Queen’s Centre for International Relations, former Canadian High Commissioner to Ghana and Sierra Leone, and former ambassador to eight African countries during his 36 years with the Department of Foreign Affairs; and Pablo Idahosa, Director of the African Studies program at York University.
El Anatsui and Contemporary African Art
Wednesday, December 8, 7pm
Signy and Cléophée Eaton Theatre
Public $20 / ROM Members $18 / YPC & Friends of the ICC $15
An evening conversation with top art scholars Chika Okeke-Agulu (Princeton University) and Elizabeth Harney (University of Toronto). Moderated by Silvia Forni, ROM Curator of African Art.
Includes viewing of El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You about Africa.
Co-presented by the ROM’s Young Patrons’ Circle.
Film:
Suffering and Smiling
Wednesday, January 26, 7pm
Signy and Cléophée Eaton Theatre
Public $12 / ROM Members $10 / Friends of the ICC $8
Suffering and Smiling, Dir. Dan Ollman, Nigeria/US, 2007, 65 min. Focusing on the legendary African singer and activist Fela Anikulapo Kuti and his son Femi, Suffering and Smiling depicts the impact of their politically charged music. Upon his death in 1997, Femi has continued his father’s legacy of speaking out against Nigeria’s corrupt leaders. Equally passionate and charismatic, he sings about the dire situation in his country, asks why the world’s most resource-rich continent has the poorest people, and struggles to maintain a vision of better days ahead for the common people of Nigeria. The film will be introduced by Human Rights Watch’s researcher for Africa, Eric Guttschuss. Co-presented by ICC and Human Rights Watch Canada.
African Adventure ROM Family Weekend
Saturday, February 19 - Monday, February 21 – Family Day Weekend
Royal Ontario Museum
FREE included with ROM admission.
Dance and music performances, drumming workshops, crafts and family films to celebrate the Season of Africa and Black History Month. Artists/agenda to be confirmed
Season of Africa at the ROM
The current Season of Africa is an offering of exhibitions, new permanent installations, and a series of public programs and events inspired by African art and culture. El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You about Africa is on display in the Roloff Beny Gallery on Level 4 of the ROM’s Michael Lee-Chin Crystal. Displays of recent African acquisitions, including the new original work by El Anatsui, Straying Continents, are shown in the Shreyas and Mina Ajmera Gallery of Africa, the Americas and Asia-Pacific. The El Anatsui exhibition is complemented by Position as Desired /Exploring African Canadian Identity: Photographs from the Wedge Collection, a showcase of photographic works documenting the experiences of African Canadians, currently on display in the ROM’s Sigmund Samuel Gallery of Canada.
El Anatsui Supporting Sponsor – Moira and Alfredo Romano
El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You about Africa is organized by the Museum for African Art, New York, and has been supported, in part, by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
Institute for Contemporary Culture
The Institute for Contemporary Culture is the Royal Ontario Museum's window on contemporary societies around the globe. Playing a vital role within the historical museum, the ICC examines current cultural, social and political issues throughout the modern world in thought-provoking exhibitions of contemporary art, architecture and design that are presented in the Roloff Beny Gallery and other galleries of the Museum. In addition, a roster of public events such as lectures, film series, debates and performances further explore relevant themes addressed in ICC exhibitions, and serves as a catalyst for stimulating public conversations. The ROM's extensive collections of world cultures and natural history through the ages add context, meaning and depth to these engaging discussions of contemporary ideas. For more information click here.