In

Context

Curatorial

Initiative

In Context is a curatorial platform initiated in 2010 to examine the dynamics of place, geography and diaspora in relation to the African continent and its global entanglements. Conceived in response to South Africa hosting the World Cup and temporarily becoming “home” to the world, the initiative began as a reflection on visibility, locality and the shifting meanings of context in an increasingly transnational art landscape.

Subsequent iterations expanded both scale and scope. In 2016, Africans in America, co-curated by Liza Essers and Hank Willis Thomas, aligned with the international conference Black Portraiture[s] III, held for the first time on the African continent. Presented across Goodman Gallery and the Johannesburg Art Gallery, and accompanied by a partner exhibition in Cape Town titled Where We Are, the initiative foregrounded exchanges between Africa and the United States while addressing gaps in art history through a global Black lens. The project brought together artists including Ghada Amer, Theaster Gates, Julie Mehretu, Wangechi Mutu, Kehinde Wiley, Kudzanai Chiurai, Nolan Oswald Dennis and Gabrielle Goliath, among others, activating conversations around migration, monuments, violence, colonial memory and diasporic belonging.

In 2018, this past was waiting for me shifted focus toward contemporary women artists working across Africa and its diasporas. Drawing on a poem by Lucille Clifton, the exhibition examined suppressed histories and the body as a site upon which colonial and patriarchal structures are inscribed. Artists including Kara Walker, Yinka Shonibare, Grada Kilomba, Shirin Neshat, Carrie Mae Weems and Wangechi Mutu addressed the persistence of historical “wounds” and the urgency of reimagining inherited narratives.

The fourth edition, La courte échelle, unfolded online during the global pandemic. Guest-curated by Yto Barrada, Mateo Lopez and Carlos Garaicoa, it reflected on physical restriction and social hierarchy through the metaphor of the ladder, foregrounding emerging artists from the Global South and reaffirming the platform’s commitment to collaboration across geographies.

Most recently, Standing in the Gap, presented in London, extended In Context beyond South Africa for the first time. Bringing together intergenerational artists including Faith Ringgold, Carrie Mae Weems, Hank Willis Thomas, Nolan Oswald Dennis and Ravelle Pillay, the exhibition made suppressed histories visible while imagining speculative futures. Across painting, sculpture, photography and research-based practice, the works filled in absences and reconsidered canonical narratives from diasporic and decolonial perspectives.

A consistent thread runs through each edition: the interrogation of how bodies inhabit space, how histories are written and rewritten, and how contemporary artistic practice can open new frameworks for understanding where we are, and how we arrived here.