Under African Skies

On Sunday, after a quick stop at the American History Museum to catch the last day of the Julia Child Kitchen exhibit (yes, her kitchen is the stuff chef dreams are made of), my friend and I strolled over the the National Museum of African Art to see the "African Cosmos: Stellar Arts" exhibit. This piece by South African artist Gavin Jantjes is what drew me to the exhibit in the first place and let me tell you: it did not fail to work it's magical voodoo! In person, the piece is huge and I got the chance to look at it from just about every angle!

The painting is based on the San myth of a young girl who reaches into a fire and tossing the burning embers to the sky. The coals become stars and the ashes become the milky way. The figures, representatives of humans despite how much they remind me of E.T., are inspired by ancient Khoi San  paintings.

{Photo: via}

Art Scene: Kemang Wa Lehulere

Dear Kemang Wa Lehulere: I have the perfect place on my wall for this piece. Please coordinate with Stevenson Gallery where you have this on exhibition to send it right over to my place. If the originally is sold out, don't be worried, I also accept prints! You're the best!
xoxo Brandie

The Motel

I was recently looking at this video and thinking how cool videography has become recently. Or maybe I'm just paying more attention. This illustration by South African Johnny Kotze of The Motel leaves me inspired to start testing out a little video action on my next trip....

Zebra in a Zoo

A few weeks ago I found myself at the National Zoo walking past the holding area for zebra and just felt so sad for the poor animals! Don't get me wrong, I'm not one to get all teary-eyed over a zebra! There are certainly cooler animals in the animal kingdom. Nonetheless, having first seen them in their natural habitat (i.e. the plains of east Africa), it's hard not to feel bad for their distant relatives now trapped in a zoo.

And if you think that was bad, you should have seen me pass the lion cage....weep weep! Needless to say I won't be heading back to the zoo anytime soon!
{Photo: via}

Matt Kay Illustrates

Love these two illustrations by South African Matt Kay. You can see more of his work here and here. 

Wavumba

Love this shot taken in Kenya which is part of the film Wavumba.  Dutch filmmaker Jeroen van Velzen return to his childhood home in Kenya and meets up with a local shark hunter. The movie mixes myths and reality to present a unique story. Check out more here.

Njideka Akunyili

It's not everyday you come across an art piece by a Nigerian artist explicitly showing biracial love so when I saw the work of Njideka Akunyili, I was very intrigued not only by the subject of her work, but the pieces as a whole. In doing some research (i.e. my friend Google), this is what the Akunyili says about her work:

My art addresses my internal tension between my deep love for Nigeria, my country of birth, and my strong appreciation for Western culture, which has profoundly influenced both my life and my art. I use my art as a way to negotiate my seemingly contradictory loyalties to both my cherished Nigerian culture that is currently eroding and to my white American husband. {See more of her statement here}

As immigrants, I think this question of divided loyalties often comes up especially when one has been away from "home" for many years and when you throw in some of the challenges that may arise from being in a biracial relationship (i.e. maybe family and friends not being as supportive, etc.) it all seems like a big mixed bag of emotions which clearly can drive unique and beautiful art as in the case of Akunyili.

{Photo: Yale University School; Artist Statement: Heather James Fine Art}

At Home with Art

Despite my huge love of art, sadly my home just doesn't have enough beautiful art pieces gracing the walls. Needless to say, this home of South African art critic Lucia Burgur totally makes me want to start the whole decorating process again with a focus on making a home where art is the central focus. Burgur's home is a wonderful display of so much South African talent perfectly blended into a liveable space. How she does it without everything feeling cluttered is amazing to me! I think this is where the whole "white walls" business, not to mention lots of space and natural light may all be to her advantage.

Have you incorporated a lot of (or any) special art work into your home? If so, how and where?
 
{Photos: House and Leisure via Zinio}

Map This

As I sit here, itching for yet another travel adventure, these beautiful fun maps by Bianca Tschaikner just adds fuel to the "I need to travel" fire! Luckily my next trip, which I can't wait to tell you about, is coming up sooner rather than later!

{Photos: Bianca Tschaikner}

On Travel: Buenos Aires

Well friends I'm officially off to Buenos Aires! Psyched is hardly the word to describe my excitement at finally getting to experience this city! So much more - including filling you in on my time in Paraguay - to come!!

{Illustration by Migy}

Africa Illustrated

Love this illustrated map of Africa.

{Photo: Pinterest}

Art Scene: Nicole Cronje

I'm currently loving the art work by South African Nicole Cronje. She using a combination of ink on paper somethings using copperleaf and wallpaper to create these intricate designs that are part Gustav Klimt meets William Morris in a South African garden!

{Photos: Nicole Cronje}

Vintage Africa

It been too long since I last showed you my favorite vintage airline posters! I've rounded up a few more and thrown in some non-airline ones. I find these works of art so fun and graphically amazing! I can't imagine what it must have been like in the 40s or 50s being an artist and trying to "sell" Africa to a crowd of Europeans. It's also amazing how the same concepts used to draw people in so many years ago (namely: seeing "natives" and going on "safari") are predominantly the same concepts used to draw tourists to the Continent today.

{Photos: here & here}

Daniel Gbenga Orimoloye

Loving these pieces by Daniel Gbenga Orimoloye. I love an artist that can easily move between various types of art styles.

{Photos: Daniel Gbenga Orimoloye}

Nawres Hassen

So I've discovered that I'm one of those people with a "thing" for owls! I don't know why, but whether in photographs or illustrations, I just find them beautiful. As you can therefore imagine, I was a little bit more than psyched about these owl designs by Tunisian artist Nawres Hassen. Seriously, like so many things I blog about, either of these would be brilliant on the huge wall art that is ever-growing in my mind, right above my couch!

{Photos: Nawes Hassen}

Storytime

At least once a week,  I head over to my friends place where her two year old greets me with a kiss at the door, pretends I'm a human jungle gym while we eat dinner, I bathe him, he gets tossed around from bed to couch a few times, both of us giggling away, and then I read him a story. I wish this illustration by artist Yan Nascimbene had a full story that I could read from.....

How would you start a story from this picture???

{Photo: Yan Nascimbene}

Holiday in Africa

April 1958

When was the last time you picked up a travel magazine, or any magazine for that matter, with any form of art other than photography on the cover? Well, back in the day, illustrations were clearly the way to draw people into your issue, and the travel magazine Holiday, published between 1928 and 1977 had some pretty darn good illustrated covers. This one, done by George Giusti, is clearly a favorite of mine, but so is the second one from the West Indies....

February 1949

You can see even more lovely covers from this magazine here.

{Photos: here via inspirational imagery}

Collin Sekajugo

Next up is this very cool self-portrait by Rwandan painter Collin Sekajugo.

{Photo: Saatchi}

Graphic Funk

Let's start the day with this super funky graphic design by Algerian artist Younes Ze. It would add a lot of pop to a room.

{Photo: Younes Ze}

Nurudeen Odebiyi

Wow - this week has kinda kicked my butt and I'm very psyched for the weekend. In fact, I was so busy thinking about other things, I forgot that it is actually a LOONNG weekend!  How exciting is that?!? My plans include 1) a whole lot of nothing, 2) repainting my bathroom 3) cleaning the apartment and a few other mundane tasks that I'm not going to bore you with. What are you up to this weekend? Anything fun lined up?

Whatever it is, hope you have a great weekend and maybe that you take a few minutes to enjoy this gorgeous watercolor by Nigerian artist Nurudeen Odebiyi.

{Photo: Saatchi}