Our top picks of exhibitions together with cultural spaces and places, both online and in the real world.

All, Art, Auctions, Exhibitions, Travel & Hospitality, Initiatives

Viewing Ivan Michael Blackstock’s Traplord

The Wick Culture - TRAPLORD, image from Production - credit Camilla Greenwell

Above TRAPLORD, image from Production – credit Camilla Greenwell

26 March – 16 April 2022
180 Studios x Sadler’s Wells, 180 Studios, London
https://www.180thestrand.com/traplord

Ivan Michael Blackstock’s Traplord, a dance, music, spoken word performance, tackles raw and confrontational issues including mental health, racism and masculinity. Through energetic bouts of rap, hip-hop, krump and spoken poetry, Blackstock interrogates stereotypes of Black masculinity in western society in bold and daring ways. The result is a magnificent meditation on male vulnerability and violence.

Except high energy, intense physicality and a compelling dance performance punctuated by flashes of theatrical brilliance. Simisola Majekodunmi’s lighting creates a dark, brooding atmosphere, while the visual projections of video games echo the rhythms on stage. There’s a lot going on here, which makes the narrative difficult to follow at times, but this intense, upfront and powerful show will stay with you long after you’ve left the performance space.

Viewing 1-54 Paris

The Wick Culture - Khalifi, Anuar, MAN CHEST CAN ONLY HOLD ONE, 2020, Acryic on canvas, 184 x 152 cm. Courtesy of the artist and The Third Line.

Above Khalifi, Anuar, MAN CHEST CAN ONLY HOLD ONE, 2020, Acryic on canvas, 184 x 152 cm. Courtesy of the artist and The Third Line.

The Wick Culture - Adjaratou Ouedraogo, La boite rouge, 2021, Acrylic, pastel, pigment and charcoal on canvas, 35 x 35 cm. Courtesy of Françoise Livinec.

Above Adjaratou Ouedraogo, La boite rouge, 2021, Acrylic, pastel, pigment and charcoal on canvas, 35 x 35 cm. Courtesy of Françoise Livinec.

The Wick Culture - Seydou Keïta, Sans titre/Untitled (01096-MA.KE.158), 1956-1959, Posthumous gelatin black and white silver print on cartoline paper 280g back-mounted on aluminium 1mm (large format), Framed: 179 x 139 x 4.7 cm, Edition of 5 + 2 AP. Courtesy of CAAC – The Pigozzi Collection and Galerie Nathalie Obadia. © Seydou Keïta/SKPEAC.

Above Seydou Keïta, Sans titre/Untitled (01096-MA.KE.158), 1956-1959, Posthumous gelatin black and white silver print on cartoline paper 280g back-mounted on aluminium 1mm (large format), Framed: 179 x 139 x 4.7 cm, Edition of 5 + 2 AP. Courtesy of CAAC – The Pigozzi Collection and Galerie Nathalie Obadia. © Seydou Keïta/SKPEAC.

The Wick Culture - Nú Barreto, Chutes et ascensions, 2021, Collages (cardboard, paper, fabric), ceramic pencil, semi-fat pastel and recycled paper, 78 x 118 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Nathalie Obadia. © Bertrand Huet/Tutti image.

Above Nú Barreto, Chutes et ascensions, 2021, Collages (cardboard, paper, fabric), ceramic pencil, semi-fat pastel and recycled paper, 78 x 118 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Nathalie Obadia. © Bertrand Huet/Tutti image.

Above Khalifi, Anuar, MAN CHEST CAN ONLY HOLD ONE, 2020, Acryic on canvas, 184 x 152 cm. Courtesy of the artist and The Third Line.

Above Adjaratou Ouedraogo, La boite rouge, 2021, Acrylic, pastel, pigment and charcoal on canvas, 35 x 35 cm. Courtesy of Françoise Livinec.

7 – 10 April 2022
Christie’s Paris
https://www.1-54.com/paris/

Rolling back into Christie’s Paris this weekend is 1-54, the leading international art fair dedicated to contemporary art from Africa and the African diaspora. For its second Paris edition, 1-54 brings together 23 international exhibitors presenting more than 50 artists working across a variety of styles and media, including photography, textile, painting and installation. Artists to look out for include the celebrated photographer Seydou Keïta, Nigerian-born Deborah Segun and the up-and-coming Senegalese artist Djibril Drame.

Of all the things to see at the fair, this year’s special projects look set to be a highlight. Make a beeline for Aïcha Snoussi’s large-scale installation Memorial to the Drowned, produced by the MO.CO and Zinsou Foundation and presented by Galerie La La Lande. The installation, which pays homage to the tchechs of Zembra and their missing lovers, features bottles filled with drawings, stories of dreams, desires and crossings placed in a circular mound in an effigy of the missing. Also worthy of note is Memory of today, Memory of the future, a new work by the collective N.E.T celebrating the launch of the African Space Art Project.

The fair will also be accompanied by 1-54 Forum, a curated programme of talks, screenings, performances and workshops exploring the collective possibilities of art on the African continent and its diaspora in the wake of the global lockdowns. If you’re unable to travel to Paris, you can explore the fair online from 7-14 April via Artsy.

Viewing Wang Guangle: Faded Colours

The Wick Culture - Wang Guangle: Faded Colours

Above Wang Guangle: Faded Colours

1 April – 4 May 2022
Pace, London
https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/wang-guangle-faded-colours

Meditative and powerful, with echoes of Rothko in the technique, Wang Guangle’s abstract paintings demand slow viewing. One of China’s preeminent contemporary abstract painters, Guangle has developed a singular artistic practice over the past two decades, working to interpret his classical painting training into a new, abstract style. Now the subject of his solo exhibition at Pace — his second in London — the works reflect Guangle’s interest in using the painting process to translate an abstract sense of time and death into a tangible experience.

Repetition is key to this practice, as Guangle systematically layers acrylic paint over the canvas to create enigmatic colour gradations and textured surfaces, in a meditative process that reflectsEastern spiritual practices. The works in Faded Colours reflect two different approaches — one sees Guangle use a horizontal style that echo moments in time such as the blurring of mist and fog or the fall of dusk, while the other sees him move gradually and evenly towards the centre until he creates a a trapezoid, challenging the two-dimensionality of the painting.

Beautiful at first sight, with so much more to see with closer inspection, Guangle’s show is not to be missed.