In Conversation
Meleko Mokgosi
Ugochukwu-Smooth Nzewi
Saturday, August 14, 2021, 5:30pm
The Current, Stowe, Vermont
www.thecurrentnow.org
Join Meleko Mokgosi and Ugochukwu-Smooth Nzewi, curator at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, for a conversation about Mokgosi’s exhibition Scripto-visual, on view at the Current in Stowe, Vermont, through November 13, 2021. The pair will discuss the technical aspects of Mokgosi’s practice and the themes in the exhibition, including the artist’s investigations of representation and power. This in person event is free to attend.
Meleko Mokgosi, Woman Sitting, 2021 © Meleko Mokgosi. Photo: Paul Rogers Photography
In Conversation
Meleko Mokgosi
Isaac Julien
Thursday, December 17, 2020, 1pm est
Gagosian is pleased to partner with the Decolonising Arts Institute of the University of the Arts London (ual) in hosting a dialogue between Meleko Mokgosi and Isaac Julien, moderated by Zoé Whitley, director of Chisenhale Gallery, London. The two artists will discuss narrative and montage strategies in their respective practices as painter and filmmaker. The event will be introduced by Gagosian director Louise Neri and ual Decolonising Arts Institute director susan pui san lok. To join, register at zoom.us.
Left: Meleko Mokgosi. Photo: courtesy Vilcek Foundation. Right: Isaac Julien. Photo: Thierry Bal
In Conversation
Meleko Mokgosi
Michael Armitage
Thursday, December 10, 2020, 1pm est
Gagosian is pleased to partner with the Centre for the Study of Contemporary Art at University College London (ucl) in presenting a dialogue between artists Meleko Mokgosi and Michael Armitage. The two African artists will discuss the politics of contemporary figurative painting and their concurrent exhibitions—Meleko Mokgosi: Democratic Intuition at Gagosian, London, and Michael Armitage: Paradise Edict at Haus der Kunst, Munich. The conversation will be introduced by Gagosian directors Louise Neri and Jona Lueddeckens, and moderated by Tamar Garb, professor of art history at ucl, whose research focuses on gender and sexuality, race and representation, and contemporary art in southern Africa. To join, register at zoom.us.
Left: Meleko Mokgosi. Photo: courtesy the artist. Right: Michael Armitage. Photo: Theo Christelis © White Cube
In Conversation
Meleko Mokgosi
Antwaun Sargent
Thursday, November 19, 2020, 1pm EST
To mark the publication of Meleko Mokgosi: Democratic Intuition, Gagosian and Jack Shainman Gallery will host a dialogue between the artist and critic Antwaun Sargent. Published by Pacific with Jack Shainman Gallery, the book documents Mokgosi’s epic painting project Democratic Intuition (2013–20), which explores the internal contradictions of the theory that the function of democracy is dependent upon accessible education. Compelling genre scenes, often involving prominent figures from African public life, jump-cut between the confines of manual work, the freedoms of intellectual enterprise, and their ties to gender and race. In a conversation introduced by Gagosian director Louise Neri and moderated by Jack Shainman Gallery director Joeonna Bellorado-Samuels, Mokgosi and Sargent will discuss the artist’s interdisciplinary investigation of postcolonial nationhood and the democratic process. To join, register at zoom.us.
Meleko Mokgosi: Democratic Intuition (New York: Pacific Publishing, 2020). Photo: Dan Bradica © Pacific
Support
Show Me the Signs
November 10–30, 2020
Show Me the Signs is an online benefit auction hosted by Artfizz to support the families of Black women killed by the police. Over a hundred artists have created pieces in the form of protest signs for the auction, with 100 percent of the proceeds going to the African American Policy Forum’s #SayHerName Mothers Network. Work by Louise Bonnet, Piero Golia, Meleko Mokgosi, Nathaniel Mary Quinn, and Nancy Rubins is included. To register to bid, visit artfizz.com.
Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Breonna Taylor, 2020 © Nathaniel Mary Quinn
Public Installation
W1 Curates
Meleko Mokgosi
October 1–18, 2020
Flannels, London
www.w1curates.com
Meleko Mokgosi has created a new digital work viewable around the clock on a three-story building on Oxford Street in London, presented by W1 Curates. The project comprises an algorithmic sequence of image fragments and text panels from Mokgosi’s narrative paintings, digitally adapted to the full scale on a ten-minute loop across the building’s façade. W1 Curates aims to bring art to the people by using state-of-the-art technology to transform the exterior of the Flannels London flagship store into a digital exhibition space.
Meleko Mokgosi’s digital art installation for the façade of Flannels, London, 2020. Artwork © Meleko Mokgosi. Photo: courtesy W1 Curates