Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington

950 Independence Avenue, SW
DC-20560 Washington

plan route show map
africa.si.edu 202.633.4600 nmafaweb@si.edu

artists & participants

Wim Botha,  Edson Chagas,  Dimitri Fagbohoun,  Franck Abd-Bakar Fanny,  Pelagie Gbaguidi,  Kiluanji Kia Henda,  Nicholas Hlobo,  Mouna Karray,  Ato Malinda,  Julie Mehretu,  Aida Muluneh,  Hassan Musa,  Wangechi Mutu,  Maurice Pefura,  Zineb Sedira,  Yinka Shonibare 

press release

A combination of new commissions and recently produced works of art come together in this first exhibition to demonstrate the ongoing global relevance of the themes addressed in Dante Alighieri’s 14th-century epic poem, The Divine Comedy. This dramatic installation, exhibited in the entrance pavilion and on all three subfloors of the museum, showcases the height of artistic production today. Forty of the best known and emerging artists from 18 African nations and the African diaspora working in media as diverse as video projection, installation, painting, sculpture, textiles, printmaking, photography, and collage explore diverse issues of politics, heritage, history, identity, faith, and form. In so doing, they reveal that one person’s vision of heaven, purgatory, or hell might not match another’s.