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Southern Guild’s debut at The Armory Show focuses on Zizipho Poswa, Manyaku Mashilo, Kamyar Bineshtarigh and Oluseye, whose work brings the ancestral into conversation with the contemporary.
Southern Guild exhibits for the first time at The Armory Show 2023 in New York with a tightly curated presentation representing a new African vanguard where purpose and representation can be renegotiated with vital agency. The exhibited artists offer calls to an alternate world as a means of shedding historic traumas and reimagining a healed, whole and more abundant self.
The booth features new and recent work by sculptural artist Zizipho Poswa, including a monumental all-bronze totem, commissioned specifically for the fair, alongside a pair of sculptures from the artist’s 2022 body of work, uBuhle boKhokho (Beauty of Our Ancestors.) Also featured are paintings by Manyaku Mashilo depicting cinematic, spectral scenes of figures floating through liminal, dreamlike landscapes. Reconfiguring elements of myth, science fiction, spiritual tradition and ritual, Mashilo’s works reveal an ever-expanding new realm for healing of the past and a reimagining of future realities. Cape Town-based Iranian artist Kamyar Bineshtarigh shows several expansive paintings in which text and Arabic script become an explorative means to study the nature of mark-making and the cultural complexities that often arise through translation. In addition, an installation of talisman-like objects by Nigerian-Canadian artist Oluseye, from his ongoing Eminado Series, embody the transgenerational movement of the Black diaspora.
Zizipho Poswa
Fang Ndom, Cameroon, 2022Glazed earthenware, bronze
35 x 44.13 x 43.25 in. | 89 x 112 x 110 cm
Manyaku Mashilo
The Gathering II, 2023Acrylic, ink, red ochre on canvas
55.13 x 78.75 in. | 140 x 200 cm
Manyaku Mashilo
A New Order of being, 2023Acrylic ink, paint on canvas
39.75 x 59 in. | 101 x 150 cm
Kamyar Bineshtarigh
Studio Wall, 2022Wall paint, ink, pencil, cartridge paper, incense stick, masking tape, nails, bleach, cold glue on hessian backing
110.25 x 157.5 in. | 280 x 400 cm
Kamyar Bineshtarigh
Studio Wall II, 2022Wall paint, ink, bleach, cold glue on hessian backing
35.38 x 24.75 in. | 90 x 63 cm
Kamyar Bineshtarigh
Studio Wall III, 2022Wall paint, ink, bleach, cold glue on hessian backing
48.88 x 45.25 in. | 124 x 115 cm
Kamyar Bineshtarigh
Studio Wall IV, 2022Wall paint, ink, crayon, pencil, cold glue, bleach on hessian backing
135.38 x 106.25 in. | 344 x 270 cm
Kamyar Bineshtarigh
Factory Wall X, 2022Wall paint, ink, cold glue on hessian backing
47.25 x 61 in. | 120 x 155 cm
Kamyar Bineshtarigh
Factory Wall IX, 2022Wall paint, ink, crayon, cold glue on hessian backing
59.88 x 45.63 in. | 152 x 116 cm
Kamyar Bineshtarigh
Factory Wall VIII, 2022Wall paint, ink, bleach, cold glue on hessian backing
72.8 x 55.1 in. | 185 x 140 cm
Oluseye
Eminado Series, Reunion 7, 2018 – OngoingFound objects, rubber, synthetic hair, cowry shells
38 x 26⅛ x 3 in.
Oluseye
Eminado Series, Reunion 9, 2018 – OngoingFound objects, rubber, synthetic hair, cowry shells
29¾ x 26⅛ x 3⅜ in.
Oluseye
Eminado Series, Reunion 10, 2018 – OngoingFound objects, rubber, synthetic hair, cowry shells
34⅝ x 25¼ x 3 in.
Oluseye
Eminado Series, Reunion 11, 2018 - OngoingFound objects, rubber, synthetic hair, cowry shells
30⅛ x 24¾ x 6⅛ in.
Oluseye
Eminado Series, Reunion 12, 2018 - OngoingFound objects, rubber, synthetic hair, cowry shells
36 x 27⅛ x 2⅛ in.
Oluseye
Eminado Series, Reunion 13, 2018 - OngoingFound objects, rubber, synthetic hair, cowry shells
28⅜ x 28 x 3¾ in.
Oluseye
Eminado Series, Reunion 14, 2018 - OngoingFound objects, rubber, synthetic hair, cowry shells
28¾ x 26⅜ x 2⅛ in.