30th Anniversary Group Show

Press Release

Ade Adekola, Ahmed Nosseir. Afi Nayo. Bernard Guillot. Bryan McFarlane

Carl Hazlewood. Cathy Lebowitz. Chriss Nwobu. David Rich. Diako

George Afedzi Hughes. Glen Turner. Gopal Dagnogo. JiminSolanke

Jorge Luis Alvarez Pupo. Juliana Zevallos. Catherine Taylor. Khalid Kodi

Mor Faye. Noah Jemisin. This Amoda. Osi Audu. Owusu-Ankomah. Pefula

Peter Wayne Lewis. Piniang Niang. SoHyun Bae. Sokari DouglasnCamp

Sokey Edorh. Tesfaye Tessema. Trokon Nagbe. Wosene Kosrof

Skoto Gallery proudly celebrates its 30th Anniversary with a group exhibition that highlights the artists and estates the gallery is honored to work with over the years. The exhibition will open to the public on Thursday, February 10, 12nnoon-7pm.

 Since its inception on February 7th, 1992 as one of the first galleries specializing in contemporary African art in New York City, Skoto Gallery has been instrumental in the progression of this rapidly growing field that has brought greater global awareness to the idea of art, Africa and modernity. The gallery performs anvital intervention into the very idea of contemporary art through itsnpioneering efforts in organizing numerous exhibitions over the years thatnshowcase the diverse and rich traditions of modern African art.  It is a space where some of the best works bynAfrican artists can be exhibited within the context of a diverse audience.

When the gallery opened thirty years ago on Prince Street, SoHonalmost no one knew that Africa even had something called contemporary culture,nand there was racial and gender homogeneity that was slightly masked by annessentially Eurocentric plurality in the New York art world. However, there was also increasing openness to art outside Europe and the United States duringnthis period. Two years earlier in 1990, The Studio Museum in Harlem?s seminalnexhibition Contemporary African Artist: Changing Tradition, curatednby Grace Stanislaus made its debut at the Venice Biennial. In hisnreview of the exhibition at the Studio Museum NY Times Michael Brenson aptlynstated that ?in a careful, measured way, the exhibition lays the groundworknand builds bridges others can use. Eye-opening exhibitions will follow”.n

Despite its major commitment to contemporary African art, thengallery has also managed to expand, deepen and diversify its involvement with contemporary issues by engaging a wide range of art and artists in itsnprogramming.Towards this end, the gallery has increasinglynbecome a nexus of possibilities not only for African art but for mainstreamnartists of any ethnic or cultural persuasion. It has become a site where thenadventurous viewer and collector can be involved in an ongoing culturalndialogue. The gallery sees art in ecumenical terms and organizes exhibitions tonshow the relationships of a post-modern global culture after modernism.

In the words of Ornette Coleman (1930-2017), thenAfrican-American jazz luminary and curator of the inaugural exhibition at then gallery ?Before the word art existed. Asnin many concepts of thoughts and categorization, Civilization was the Art andnis Art of Mankind. There are no Best in Art only its Creation of Selfnexpression. From the many concept of the human classes, what one find in today?s concept of Art is the History of the Past with those who are taking thenstruggle to bring Art into its own present. Take a look at the Art in Africa.  Ornette Coleman was anmusician-philosopher and a free thinker, whose interest went well beyond jazz.nHe widened the options in jazz and helped changed its course. He remains thenguiding ethos of the gallery.