[:en]’ Young Guns’ at Sulger-Buel Lovell Gallery[:]

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This was a show curated by Andrew Lamprecht at the Sulger-Buel Gallery. I had met Christian Sulger-Buel earlier in 2017 at the Contemporary African Art Fair at Somerset House in  October 2017, and he invited me to the Gallery opening on 28 Feb 18.  Despite the horrendous weather I felt I should go. Christian warmly welcomed me and many others who came. It was  an enormous opportunity to bridge generation gaps as many of these young guns had  no connection with two generations earlier. It was pleasing to see them lap up stories of how it was in 1970’s and the different struggles and successes that African artist engaged with. I also explained what we were fearful of and what we sought to do so they could see there was no point trying to imitate what was done then… each generation has its own mission. Also disabusing them of their assumption that those who were now famous were always such. Soyinka did not fall out of nappies into world fame!

There is a whole new generation that needs to reconnect with their recent history and with their community of artists. This is an imperative duty!

My eye was caught by the work of Larry Amponsah and we spoke for  a long time about visual  language, codes and communities.  He was consumed by the meaning we attribute to popular images around the world and who gets to control their significance. He had begun working in law in Ghana but was driven into the world of arts by an inner urging and came to London to pursue it further. Definitely worth keeping an eye out for his future work.

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