Meleko Mokgosi: Acts of Resistance

Exhibition Website

May 2 2018 - Nov 11 2018

Meleko Mokgosi (b. 1981, Botswana; lives and works in New York City) produces large-scale figurative paintings that rethink the tradition of historical European compositions. He appropriates the polyptych formats and shapes of altarpieces and paintings used for the decoration of churches and other grand interiors and deploys paintings to present historical narratives and allegories. However, Mokgosi’s subjects come from African history, representing people and historical moments that do not appear within the canon of Western art history. For this exhibition, the artist is creating new works— some in response to specific works of art at the BMA—as well as incorporating existing multi-panel canvases to create a cycle of paintings inspired by contemporary feminist perspectives on African experience. These visually and conceptually related works will be featured in three adjacent galleries within a larger suite of galleries typically used to house the BMA’s historical European paintings. He installs his works panoramically, as if developing a cinematic storyboard and tapping into more recent technologies of visual storytelling.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website

  • Painting
  • International
  • Contemporary
  • Meleko Mokgosi

Exhibition Venues & Dates