About the Exhibit - Democratic Intuition
This exhibit is Mokgosi’s first solo exhibit in Europe/UK, on view at Gagosian Gallery’s Britannia Street location in London from September 29–December 12, 2020.
The scale of this exhibition is absolutely incredible, with on work spanning 21 canvases across the entire gallery that reference “political and social propaganda, religious imagery, and advertising from southern Africa and the United States” in order to “Reconceptualizing where art history, postcolonial nationhood, and democracy intersect” (source)
Democratic Intuition is a project that Mokgosi has been working on since 2013. The term is a nod “Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s theory that the functioning of democracy is dependent upon accessible education.” (source)
“His most recent body of work, Democratic Intuition poses questions about how one can approach ideas of the democratic in relation to the daily lived experiences of the subjects that occupy southern Africa.” - Jack Shainman Gallery (source)
“Mokgosi draws attention to the many ways in which Black subjects have become unattributed objects of empire and institution.” (source)
“In the chapter Objects of Desire (2016–20), individual small paintings of Afrocentric beauty advertisements, Paleolithic cave paintings, and contemporary African objects are grouped together with text paintings in both English and Setswana...His annotations confront the erasure of African languages by racist policies under apartheid and reclaim these varied mother tongues.” (source)
“That work, like a lot of my work, is never going to be easy to exhibit, sell, or, for some, maybe even to understand, that’s why I feel grateful for the support of the people in these galleries and institutions that care about and are invested in my ideas and commitment to considering other histories.” - Meleko Mokgosi (source)
Video of the Exhibit
To see a walkthrough of the exhibit, fast forward to (13:21) in the video below.
About the Artist - Meleko Mokgosi
Mokgosi received his BA from Williams College and participated in the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study program. He then received his MFA from the Interdisciplinary Studio Program at the University of California, Los Angeles, and was an Artist in Residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem.
Mokgosi is an assistant professor at the School of Art at Yale University (casual).
“His work includes large-scale paintings that explore themes of colonialism, democracy, nationalism, and life in Southern Africa.” (source)
“Mr. Mokgosi believes that it is incumbent on “first-world” viewers to understand that “the world doesn’t revolve around them. There are other histories.” - The New York Times (source)
You can explore more about the artist on his website. He’s represented by Jack Shainman Gallery in New York.
