We’re not going to spend a lot of time on links to stories that came up while we were away, but there are a ew that need some attention. The New York Times gives the Africa Comics exhibit a great write-up. This show kind of snuck into town with very very little fanfare, but it sounds like something that will open a lot of eyes to a little seen world of comics and artists.
âItâs intense,â? said the security guard as I was leaving âAfrica Comicsâ? at the Studio Museum in Harlem after an hour or more of up-close looking and reading. She was right. Thatâs exactly the word for the stealth-potency of this modest, first-time United States survey of original designs by 35 African artists who specialize in comic art.
The Studio Museum in Harlem displays the work of 35 African cartoonists with a political bent, including Cisse Samba Ndar. The show runs through March 18.
Their work is intense the way urban Africa is intense: intensely zany, intensely warm, intensely harsh, intensely political. True, you could say the same of New York or New Delhi, or any major cosmopolis being shaped by globalism these days. Yet every place has very specific intensities. Africa does, and they are distilled in the art here.
