Moshekwa langa biography of george michael

BERNIER/ELIADES GALLERY was founded in 1977 in Athens and has since continued working dynamically in the field of contemporary art in Greece. After completing twenty-one years in its old space located at 51 Marasli Street in Kolonaki, the commercial center of Athens, from January 1999 the gallery is housed in a Neoclassical building in Thission, the historic center of Athens at the foot of the Acropolis.

During the gallery’s function, Jean Bernier and Marina Eliades have introduced to the Greek public numerous artistic currents, such as Arte Povera, Minimalism, Land and Conceptual Art and the younger generation of American and European artists.

Since 2016, they opened a new space in Brussels located in the Chatelain district. While they keep their curatorial core of historical established artists, they added a different programming vision with longer and specific projects. This experimental space serves as a platform to present young and upcoming international artists to the public.

This page is a selection of key moments at the gallery since 1977, such as memorable exhibitions, strong relationships or historic artworks. Please head for the page “Exhibitions” or “Artists” for more information.

The global art market is broadly categorised by geographical regions, countries and/or continents.

According to the Art Market Report issued by Art Basel and UBS Bank, the exponential growth of the African art market over the past two decades represents a new frontier for an industry previously dominated by larger and more established economies.

Modern art, fine art, and Contemporary Art from Africa is enjoying increased global attention. Showcased worldwide in dedicated art fairs like 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair in London, New York and Marrakech; Also Known As Africa (AKAA) Art and Design Fair in Paris; The Armory Show’s Focus: African Perspectives in 2016 and the Art Paris Art Fair’s Africa Guest of Honour in 2017; major exhibitions like the infamous Magiciens de la Terre (1989) at the Pompidou Centre in Paris; Africa Explores: 20th Century African Art (1991) at the Museum for African Art in New York; Seven Stories about Modern Art in Africa (1995) at the Whitechapel Gallery in London to the the 2015 blockbuster Beauté Congo hosted by Cartier Foundation in Paris; the recent Making Africa – A Continent of Contemporary Design (2016–2017), which showed at the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao; to the current  I Am… Contemporary Women Artists of Africa at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art in Washington DC, the contemporary African art scene is indisputably a nexus of major artistic talent fuelled by an incredible creative history.

Contemporary African art has also made a remarkable entry into New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Jean Pigozzi, one of the most prominent collectors of African contemporary art, donated 45 works by sub-Saharan artists to the prestigious museum in July 2019. Works by Frédéric Bruly Bouabré, Seydou Keita, Romuald Hazoumé, Moké and Chéri Samba now form part of the museum’s permanent collection.

In 2019, at the 58th Venice Biennal

Berni Searle
Red, Yellow, Brown (details)
from the 'Colour Me' series, 1998
Colour photograph
1 000 x 1 200mm
Photographer: Jean Brundrit

Joseph Kosuth
What Does It Mean?

Mona Hatoum
Over My Dead Body

The Cairo Biennale: A prize for SA

By Emma Bedford

Not only was South Africa represented at the Seventh International Cairo Biennale which opened late last year, but Berni Searle brought home a Unesco award. Unlike the Biennale prizes, the Unesco prizes were awarded specifically to young artists.

First prize went to the Egyptian brother and sister team of Amal and Abdel-Ghani Qenawi whose enormous, other-worldly metal tunnel and hydroponic dome seemed at once a massive seed incubator and a means of extraterrestrial communication. Second prize was awarded to Berni Searle for a photographic installation exploring aspects of her identity. Third prize was shared. Marwan Rechmaoui from Lebanon produced resin, wire and plaster structures reminiscent of the raw, exposed skeletons of bombed buildings which implicate the viewer in their reflective glass surfaces, while Chilean artist Arturo Ignozio Tapia's huge crates packed with rows of submachine guns and stamped "made in the USA" are indictments of American aggression.

Searle's installation Red, Yellow, Brown consists of three life-size photographs of her supine body covered in paprika, turmeric and cloves. This work from the 'Colour Me' series explores the racial classification "coloured" by which she was defined under apartheid legislation. The term remains contentious and continues to be debated in post-apartheid politics, particularly in the Western Cape. According to Searle in a pamphlet produced for the Biennale, she covers her body in various colours "in an attempt to resist any definition of identity which is static". The use of spices in her work refers to the trade in commodities via the Cape Dutch colony in the 17th century which was inextricably lin