Not on view, available for travel.

Congo Chronicle: Patrice Lumumba in Urban Art features Congolese urban art that portrays the life and tragic death of Patrice Lumumba, the first Prime Minister of the Congo after its independence from Belgium in 1960. The exhibition consists of approximately 90 works, including a series of nearly 50 paintings by Tshibumba Kanda-Matulu, an influential artist of the 1970s, and a number of recent works by other Congolese contemporary artists who emulate his style. These paintings demonstrate how memories of Lumumba were transformed into a powerful visual narrative of a popular cultural hero.

Co-organized by the UCLA Fowler Museum at UCLA and The Nelson-Atkins Museum and co-presented by the Museum for African Art and the AXA Gallery, September 21, 2006–January 14, 2007 at the AXA Gallery, New York, New York

Organized by the Museum for African Art and presented February 17–April 15, 2006 at the World Financial Center Courtyard Gallery, New York, New York

Organized by the Museum for African Art and presented September 19–July 28, 2002 at the Museum's 593 Broadway location, New York, New York

Organized by the Museum for African Art in cooperation with the Yale University Art Gallery and presented September 11, 1998–January 1999 at the Museum's 593 Broadway location, New York, New York

Organized by the Museum for African Art and co-presented with arts > World Financial Center, September 28–November 25, 2007 at the World Financial Center Courtyard Gallery, New York, New York

Not on view, available for travel.

Collected over three decades by Xavier Guerrand-Hermès, this unique collection reveals the astonishing power of traditional North African jewelry. Crafted from silver and semiprecious stones, the jewels, from simple ornaments that would be worn by a child to elaborate necklaces for women of wealth, illustrate the cultural diversity as well as the common themes that run through North African societies. The accompanying photographs depict the daily life of North African people as well as the breathtaking landscape and archaeological monuments that caught the attention of Westerners in the late 19th and early 20th century.

Co-produced by CulturesFrance and the Cite du Design/Saint-Etienne International Design Biennale and co-presented with Arts> World Financial Center, April 12–June 24, 2007 at the World Financial Center Courtyard Gallery, New York, New York

This exhibition is available for travel for a 12-14 week period during Spring 2013|Spring 2014|Fall 2014 

The Dogon people of Mali have created an extraordinary cultural heritage, deeply embedded in a beautiful yet fragile physical environment. Masks in Motion: Dogon Now brings to life the performative experience of Dogon masquerade as a living and dynamic tradition that continues to evolve at the turn of the 21st century. This multimedia exhibition integrates masks and related objects with videos of ceremonies and performances, as well as interviews and photographs. As will be seen throughout the galleries, the Dogon create representations of their society that draw upon the past to meet the challenges of the present.

Organized by the Museum for African Art and presented October 23, 2003–June 28, 2004 at the Museum's temporary gallery, Long Island City, New York

Dynasty and Divinity: Ife Art in Ancient Nigeria is a landmark exhibition devoted to the art of Ife, the ancient city-state of the Yoruba people of West Africa (in present-day southwestern Nigeria).  The exhibition highlights the artistic accomplishments of this unique 12th- to 15th-century civilization and examines how factors of dynastic power and divine authority shaped their exceptional arts. Featuring more than 100 extraordinary bronze, terra-cotta, and stone sculptures ranging in date from the 9th to the 15th centuries, Dynasty and Divinity presents many works that have never before been on display outside of Nigeria.

Organized by the Museum for African Art and presented March 25–May 2, 2009 at BRIC Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn, New York

El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You about Africa brings together the full range of El Anatsui’s work, from wood trays made in Ghana referencing traditional Akan symbols, early ceramics from the Broken Pots series, through chainsaw-carved wood, to his most recent luminous metal sculptures and wall hangings. Anatsui has gained international acclaim for his dazzling metallic hangings made from liquor bottle caps. In these sculptures, as in wood and ceramics, Anatsui pieces together monumental visual statements that refer to global, local, and personal histories.

El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You about Africa brings together the full range of El Anatsui’s work, from wood trays made in Ghana referencing traditional Akan symbols, early ceramics from the Broken Pots series, through chainsaw-carved wood, to his most recent luminous metal sculptures and wall hangings. Anatsui has gained international acclaim for his dazzling metallic hangings made from liquor bottle caps. In these sculptures, as in wood and ceramics, Anatsui pieces together monumental visual statements that refer to global, local, and personal histories.

Grass Roots: African Origins of an American Art presents the remarkable beauty of coiled basketry and demonstrates how the utilitarian rice fanner and market basket can be viewed simultaneously as objects of use, containers of memory, and works of art. The exhibition features 225 objects including baskets from the Lowcountry of South Carolina and Georgia and from diverse regions of Africa, as well as African sculpture from the rice-growing societies which, through the agency of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, exported their cultures to America.  

Grass Roots: African Origins of an American Art presents the remarkable beauty of coiled basketry and demonstrates how the utilitarian rice fanner and market basket can be viewed simultaneously as objects of use, containers of memory, and works of art. The exhibition features 225 objects including baskets from the Lowcountry of South Carolina and Georgia and from diverse regions of Africa, as well as African sculpture from the rice-growing societies which, through the agency of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, exported their cultures to America.  

Organized by the Museum for African Art and presented February 9–May 29, 2000 at the Museum's 593 Broadway location, New York, New York

This exhibition is available for travel for a 12-14 week period from Spring 2012 – Winter 2014

Ibrahim El Salahi: A Visionary Modernist is the first museum retrospective of Ibrahim El Salahi, whose powerful paintings reflect a life of struggle, migration, contemplation, and prayer. Revered throughout Africa and the Middle East, El Salahi has inspired generations of artists with his meditative approach to imagery. This exhibition traces El Salahi’s journey from Sudan, his self-imposed exile in the United Kingdom and Qatar, and later time in the United States. Spanning nearly five decades and several continents, El Salahi’s critically accomplished painting practice has been guided by his deep devotion to, and exploration of, his Islamic faith.

Organized by the Museum for African Art and presented September 27–December 31, 2000 at the Museum's 593 Broadway location, New York, New York

This exhibition is available for travel  in Summer 2013 and Winter 2013.

Jane Alexander is one of the most significant South African artists working today. Her animal-human sculptures, photographs, and dramatic installations speak of lasting disfigurations in her native South Africa, yet raise issues about human nature that resonate with viewers internationally. Alexander’s hybrid-mutants inhabit a universe where boundaries between self and other, human and animal, are unstable, where shared foundations and clashing differences are disclosed, and where the grotesque and the familiar entwine. Alexander “has arguably created and developed one of the most compelling personal galaxies of the contemporary art universe.” (Pep Subirós, On Being Human)

Organized by the Museum for African Art and presented September 17, 1999–January 2, 2000 at the Museum's 593 Broadway location, New York, New York

Organized by the Museum for African Art and presented November 14, 2003–March 1, 2004 at the Museum's temporary gallery, Long Island City, New York

Organized by the Museum for African Art and presented April 10–August 15, 2003 at the Museum's temporary gallery, Long Island City, New York

New Premises: Three Decades at the Museum for African Art, an institutional retrospective, will reflect on the Museum’s rich exhibition history since its founding in 1984. Rather than a simple review of exhibitions to date, the show will present surprising juxtapositions of objects, examining the ways in which the Museum has expanded the definition of African art to include not only historical masterpieces but also contemporary performance art, photography, design, puppetry, and the art of the everyday.

Organized by the Museum for African Art and presented September 23, 2004–January 3, 2005 at the Museum's temporary gallery, Long Island City, New York, and at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York, New York

Co-organized by the Museum for African Art and MoCADA and presented June 4–September 13, 2009 at MoCADA, Brooklyn, New York

Organized by the Museum for African Art and presented August 4–December 12, 2005 at the Museum's temporary gallery, Long Island City, New York

Organized by the Museum for African Art and presented August 4–December 12, 2005 at the Museum’s temporary gallery, Long Island City, New York

Not on view, available for travel.

This exhibition presents the work of Sammy Baloji, a Congolese photographer and video artist who explores colonial architecture and copper mines in the city of Lubumbashi, located in the southeastern Katanga province of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Organized by the Academy for Educational Development and co-presented by the Museum for African Art and arts > World Financial Center, September 7–November 25, 2007 at the World Financial Center Courtyard Gallery, New York, New York