Guide
Contemporary African art
Contemporary African art is the art made since roughly the 1990s by artists from Africa and its diaspora, in every medium from painting and photography to installation and film. Landmark exhibitions and curators such as Okwui Enwezor and Koyo Kouoh brought it to the centre of the art world; today artists such as El Anatsui, Julie Mehretu, Wangechi Mutu, Ibrahim Mahama and Zanele Muholi show in the world's major museums, and the 2026 Venice Biennale, In Minor Keys, was conceived by the Cameroonian-born curator Koyo Kouoh.
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What counts as contemporary African art
There is no fixed definition. The term usually covers art made in the last three or four decades by artists born in Africa — whether they live in Lagos, Johannesburg or London — and often by artists of the African diaspora. Many artists dislike being labelled "African" at all, since no one calls a German painter a "European artist" first. The label is useful, though, for following the institutions, markets and debates that have grown up around this work.
The exhibitions that changed the picture
- Magiciens de la Terre (Paris, 1989), curated by Jean-Hubert Martin, showed artists from Africa, Asia and Latin America alongside Western contemporaries, including Esther Mahlangu, Chéri Samba and the Senegalese sculptor Seyni Awa Camara. It was criticised as well as praised, but it broke a pattern.
- Africa Explores (New York, 1991), curated by Susan Vogel, presented twentieth-century African art in its variety, from urban painting to international modernism.
- The Johannesburg Biennale (1995 and 1997) — the second edition, Trade Routes, was directed by the Nigerian-born curator Okwui Enwezor (1963–2019).
- The Short Century (2001), Enwezor's exhibition on independence and liberation movements in Africa, and Documenta 11 (2002), which he directed as the first non-European curator of that exhibition.
- Africa Remix (2004–07), curated by Simon Njami, toured Düsseldorf, London, Paris, Tokyo and Johannesburg.
- The Venice Biennale of 2015, directed by Enwezor, at which El Anatsui received the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.
Curators and institutions
Koyo Kouoh (1967–2025), born in Cameroon, founded the art centre Raw Material Company in Dakar in 2008 and in 2019 became executive director of Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town, the museum of contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora that opened in 2017. In 2024 she was chosen as artistic director of the 2026 Venice Biennale. She died in May 2025 before it opened; the Biennale decided to carry out her plan, and In Minor Keys opened in May 2026 with the team she had chosen.
On the continent, institutions such as Zeitz MOCAA, MACAAL in Marrakech, the Museum of Black Civilisations in Dakar and the new Museum of West African Art (MOWAA) in Benin City, whose first building opened in 2025, show contemporary work alongside history. See where to see African art.
Artists to know
A short, far from complete list, grouped by approach:
- Transforming materials. El Anatsui (bottle caps); Romuald Hazoumè, Benin (masks made from plastic jerrycans); Gonçalo Mabunda, Mozambique (thrones and masks made from decommissioned weapons of the civil war); Ibrahim Mahama, Ghana (jute sacks covering whole buildings); Abdoulaye Konaté, Mali (monumental textiles).
- Painting. Njideka Akunyili Crosby; Lubaina Himid, born in Zanzibar, winner of the 2017 Turner Prize; Julie Mehretu, born in Addis Ababa; Amoako Boafo, Ghana, known for finger-painted portraits; Michael Armitage, Kenya, who paints on Ugandan barkcloth; Toyin Ojih Odutola; Marlene Dumas, born in Cape Town.
- Sculpture and installation. Wangechi Mutu; Otobong Nkanga, Nigeria; Yinka Shonibare, British-Nigerian, known for figures dressed in Dutch wax cloth; William Kentridge, South Africa, whose animated charcoal drawings changed the idea of what a drawing can be.
- Photography and film. Zanele Muholi, Omar Victor Diop and Aida Muluneh; Misan Harriman, photographer of London's 2020 Black Lives Matter protests and of British Vogue's "Activism Now" cover (see African photography); John Akomfrah, the Ghana-born British filmmaker who represented the UK at the 2024 Venice Biennale.
For women artists in particular, see African women artists.
The market
Auction sales of modern and contemporary African art grew strongly from the 2010s, with dedicated sales at major auction houses and fairs such as 1-54, the Investec Cape Town Art Fair and ART X Lagos. Rapid speculation on young painters — works bought from studios and resold at auction within months for many times their price — became a concern around 2019–21, and many galleries now restrict resales. For collectors, the advice is simple: buy what you love, from reputable galleries, and read how to buy African art.
Related
The events where new work is shown are listed in African art fairs and biennales. For the longer story that contemporary artists respond to, read our short history of African art. For a list of some four hundred artists born since 1960, see contemporary African artists.
