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Contemporary African artists

398 artists

Contemporary African art is one of the liveliest parts of the global art world, shown at the Venice Biennale, Documenta and every major museum, and collected across the continent and beyond (our guide to contemporary African art tells the story). This list gathers the artists born in 1960 or later — the generation that grew up after independence, or in the diaspora — across painting, sculpture, photography and installation.

They include Yinka Shonibare, with his figures in Dutch wax cloth; Wangechi Mutu and Njideka Akunyili Crosby; Zanele Muholi, who photographs South Africa's Black queer communities; Ibrahim Mahama, who wraps buildings in jute sacks; Otobong Nkanga, Amoako Boafo, Yto Barrada and Ghada Amer. Because the list is built from Wikipedia readership, it also includes photographers and others known mainly for other work, from the Bang-Bang Club's Kevin Carter to the wildlife cameraman Hamza Yassin. These are Africa's contemporary artists with Wikipedia articles, most looked-up first. See also African painters and African photographers.

Profiles

Photojournalist

Kevin Carter

South Africa · 1960–1994

Kevin Carter covered South Africa's township wars and, in Sudan in 1993, made the Pulitzer-winning vulture photograph. His life, work and the debate it started.

Actor and photographer

Ntare Mwine

Uganda · 1967–

Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, the Ugandan-American actor of Treme and Blood Diamond, is also a photographer whose pictures of Uganda have been widely shown.

Photojournalist

Ken Oosterbroek

South Africa · 1963–1994

Ken Oosterbroek (1962–1994), chief photographer of The Star and a Bang-Bang Club member, was killed in Thokoza days before the 1994 election.

Photographer

Misan Harriman

Nigeria · 1977–

Misan Harriman, the Nigerian-born British photographer, became known for his 2020 Black Lives Matter pictures and shot a British Vogue cover.

Artist

Yinka Shonibare

Nigeria · 1962–

Yinka Shonibare dresses headless figures in Victorian costume of "African" Dutch wax print, a fabric with a European history, to question empire and identity.

Painter

Njideka Akunyili Crosby

Nigeria · 1983–

Nigerian-born painter Njideka Akunyili Crosby layers paint, collage and photo transfers into interiors that hold two homes at once. Her life and methods.

Visual activist

Zanele Muholi

South Africa · 1972–

Zanele Muholi, the South African photographer and visual activist, documents Black LGBTQIA+ lives in Faces and Phases and turns the camera on themself.

Painter and DJ

Leon Botha

South Africa · 1985–2011

Leon Botha, a Cape Town painter and hip-hop DJ with progeria, appeared in Die Antwoord's Enter the Ninja and made art about his condition. He died at 26.

Photojournalist

Dan Eldon

Kenya · 1970–1993

Dan Eldon, a photographer raised in Nairobi, covered the Somali famine for Reuters and was killed in Mogadishu in 1993, aged 22. His journals became a book.

Painter and poet

Sharon Dede Padi

Ghana · 1976–2026

Sharon Dede Padi (Padiki), a Ghanaian painter and poet, set the Guinness World Record for the largest leaf-print painting. She died in July 2026, aged 50.

Artist

Ibrahim Mahama

Ghana · 1987–

Ibrahim Mahama wraps buildings in stitched jute sacks that once carried Ghana's cocoa and charcoal, and has built art centres in his home city of Tamale.

Photojournalist

Greg Marinovich

South Africa · 1962–

Greg Marinovich won the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography, co-wrote The Bang-Bang Club and later investigated the 2012 Marikana massacre.

Artist

Wangechi Mutu

Kenya · 1972–

Kenyan artist Wangechi Mutu builds hybrid figures from collage, bronze and soil. From Nairobi to the first-ever Met facade commission in 2019.

Sculptor

Bruno Catalano

Morocco · 1960–

Bruno Catalano, born in Morocco to a Sicilian family, makes life-size bronze travellers with whole parts of their bodies missing, shown in Marseille in 2013.

Artist and photographer

Yto Barrada

Morocco · 1971–

Yto Barrada photographed Tangier as a waiting room for Europe, founded the Cinémathèque de Tanger, and now works across film, sculpture and plant-dyed textiles.

Photojournalist

João Silva

South Africa · 1966–

João Silva, the Bang-Bang Club photographer, covered wars for The New York Times and returned to work after losing both legs in Afghanistan in 2010.

Photojournalist

Sani Maikatanga

Nigeria · 1975–

Sani Maikatanga, a Kano photojournalist, documents northern Nigeria's festivals, crafts and daily life, from the Argungu fishing festival to Kano's durbars.

Artist and photographer

Laetitia Ky

Côte d’Ivoire · 1996–

Laetitia Ky, an artist from Abidjan, shapes her hair into sculptures and photographs them to speak about womanhood, beauty and justice. Shown in Venice, 2022.

Artist

Otobong Nkanga

Nigeria · 1974–

Otobong Nkanga, a Nigerian-born artist in Antwerp, makes tapestries, installations and performances about land, mining, trade and the body.

Photographer

Khadija Saye

The Gambia · 1992–2017

Khadija Saye, a British-Gambian photographer, made tintypes about Gambian spiritual practices, shown in Venice in 2017 weeks before she died at Grenfell.

Painter

Amoako Boafo

Ghana · 1984–

Amoako Boafo, the Vienna-based Ghanaian painter, models Black sitters' skin with his fingers. His rise set off an auction frenzy; he founded dot.ateliers.

Photographer and video artist

Leila Alaoui

Morocco · 1982–2016

Leila Alaoui, the French-Moroccan photographer of Les Marocains, made life-size portraits and films about migration. She was killed in Ouagadougou in 2016.

Photographer and designer

Hassan Hajjaj

Morocco · 1961–

Hassan Hajjaj mixes Moroccan street style, fashion and pop art in bright portraits framed with tins and everyday goods, including the Kesh Angels of Marrakech.

Photographer and singer

TY Bello

Nigeria · 1978–

TY Bello (Toyin Sokefun-Bello) is a leading Nigerian portrait photographer, official photographer to President Goodluck Jonathan, and a gospel singer.

Photojournalist and activist

Boniface Mwangi

Kenya · 1983–

Boniface Mwangi photographed Kenya's 2007–08 post-election violence, showed it in a travelling street exhibition and became one of Kenya's best-known activists.

Artist

Adel Abdessemed

Algeria · 1971–

Adel Abdessemed, born in Constantine, left Algeria during the civil war and made provocative works such as Coup de tête, the giant bronze of Zidane's headbutt.

Artist

Ghada Amer

Egypt · 1963–

Ghada Amer, born in Cairo, stitches images of women and words into her paintings, turning a craft taught to women into a language of desire and freedom.

Artist

Romuald Hazoumè

Benin · 1962–

Romuald Hazoumè of Porto-Novo turns plastic petrol cans into masks and built La Bouche du Roi, a slave ship of 304 masks now owned by the British Museum.

Sculptor

Kwame Akoto-Bamfo

Ghana · 1983–

Kwame Akoto-Bamfo, a Ghanaian sculptor, made the chained figures at the entrance of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama.

Sculptor

Nnenna Okore

Nigeria · 1975–

Nnenna Okore, a Nigerian artist born in Australia and based in Chicago, twists, dyes and weaves burlap, paper and clay into sculptures of decay and renewal.

Photographer

Samuel Fosso

Nigeria · Cameroon · 1962–

Samuel Fosso opened a studio in Bangui at thirteen and has photographed himself in costume ever since, from 1970s pop-star poses to his African Spirits.

Photojournalist

Anton Hammerl

South Africa · 1969–2011

Anton Hammerl, a South African-Austrian photojournalist, was killed by Libyan government forces near Brega in April 2011; his death was hidden for six weeks.

Poet and photographer

Caleb Femi

Nigeria · 1990–

Caleb Femi, London's first Young People's Laureate, combines poems and his own photographs in Poor (2021), a portrait of young Black men on a Peckham estate.

Artist and filmmaker

Wael Shawky

Egypt · 1971–

Wael Shawky retold the Crusades from an Arab viewpoint with marionettes in Cabaret Crusades and made Drama 1882 for Egypt at the 2024 Venice Biennale.

Photographer and painter

Zwelethu Mthethwa

South Africa · 1960–

Zwelethu Mthethwa won acclaim for colour portraits of South Africans at home. In 2017 he was convicted of murdering Nokuphila Kumalo and jailed for 18 years.

Photographer and filmmaker

Youssef Nabil

Egypt · 1972–

Youssef Nabil hand-colours black-and-white photographs in the style of old Egyptian film posters and studio portraits, portraying stars, artists and himself.

Calligraffiti artist

eL Seed

Tunisia · 1981–

eL Seed, a French-Tunisian artist, paints Arabic calligraphy on a monumental scale, from a mosque minaret in Gabès to Perception, across 50 buildings in Cairo.

Artist

Ahmed Umar

Sudan · 1988–

Ahmed Umar, who came to Norway from Sudan as a refugee in 2008, uses ceramics, textiles, jewellery and performance to tell stories of queer Sudanese lives.

More artists

Most looked-up first. Names link to our profile, or to Wikipedia where we do not have one yet. Short descriptions from Wikidata; portraits from Wikimedia Commons. Image credits

Better known for other work

Writers, presenters and public figures whom Wikidata also lists here; their profiles explain the connection.

Wildlife cameraman

Hamza Yassin

Sudan · 1990–

Hamza Yassin, born in Sudan and based in the Scottish Highlands, is a wildlife cameraman, photographer and TV presenter — and won Strictly Come Dancing in 2022.

Television host and photographer

Frank Edoho

Nigeria · 1972–

Frank Edoho is best known as the host of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? in Nigeria; he is also a photographer, filmmaker and voice-over artist.

Writer and photographer

Caleb Azumah Nelson

Ghana · 1993–

Caleb Azumah Nelson, a British-Ghanaian writer and photographer, won the Costa First Novel Award for Open Water (2021), narrated by a south London photographer.