Cover image: Water Matters (detail) 2020
© Barthélémy Toguo
Image courtesy of Galerie Lelong & Co. and Bandjoun Station

Three Black artists have shows in Paris this September.

ruby onyinyechi amanze  – The Poetics of Space
Mariane Ibrahim Gallery
Opening September 1, 2023

The Poetics of Space is ruby onyinyechi amanze's first solo exhibition in Paris and her second exhibition with Mariane Ibrahim.  The title of the show is borrowed from Gaston Bachelard's book of the same name.

Art critic Orit Gat contributed an essay about amanze's work and made the following observation about what visitors will see in The Poetics of Space:

"The viewer will encounter a sprinkling of small drawings in this new show, but most of amanze’s new works on view are momentous. The scale gives her more space to work with, each one of the drawings becoming a different answer to the question of math, of configuration."

Watch amanze talk about her artistic practice in the video below.

The Poetics of Space
September 1, 2023 - October 7, 2023
Mariane Ibrahim Gallery
18, avenue Matignon
75008 Paris

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Barthélémy Toguo – Water Is a Right
Galerie Lelong
Opening September 7, 2023

Barthélémy Toguo's upcoming show at Galerie Lelong, entitled Water Is a Right, is the third to be inspired by the his childhood memory of needing to "get up very early in the morning to fetch water from far away, to drink, to wash the plates at home, back home in Cameroon, before going to school."  It is comprised of ink and watercolor works on canvas and enameled porcelain works that the artist conceived while in residency at the Picasso Museum in Barcelona.

Balade Aquatique XIII
© Barthélémy Toguo
2022 Enameled porcelain
Image courtesy of Galerie Lelong & Co. and Bandjoun Station

Toguo exhibits regularly at Galerie Lelong.  I have attended multiple shows of his work since 2013, when I saw his Hidden Faces exhibition, and I got to meet him during his Strange Fruit exhibition in 2017.  I look forward to visiting this latest exhibition.

Water Is a Right
September 7, 2023 - October 7, 2023
Galerie Lelong
38, avenue Matignon
75008 Paris

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Kehinde Wiley – A Maze of Power
Musée du quai Branly Jacques Chirac
Opening September 26, 2023

In 2012, Kehinde Wiley began to create a new series dedicated to African heads of state. For the next ten years, he traveled across the continent to meet them and render their likenesses through the lens of the artistic styles used to portray European royalty and aristocracy in centuries past.

According to the quai Branly Website: "The portraits designed reflect the distinctive cultural elements of each state and reveal the identity of an individual through the double prism of the artist and his model."

A Maze of Power
September 26, 2023 - January 14, 2024
Musée du Quai Branly Jacques Chirac
37, quai Branly
75007 Paris
To purchase tickets, click HERE.