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Art in the MidwestBlack Artists

Igshaan Adams solo exhibition at Art Institute of Chicago

By Chadd ScottPosted on March 25, 2022March 23, 20220 Comments
Igshaan Adams. South African, born 1982. Langa, 2021. Photo Mario Todeschini. Courtesy the artist; blank projects, Cape Town © Igshaan Adams.
Igshaan Adams. South African, born 1982. Langa, 2021. Photo Mario Todeschini. Courtesy the artist; blank projects, Cape Town © Igshaan Adams.

Igshaan Adams: Desire Lines is the first major solo exhibition of the work of Igshaan Adams (b. 1982, Cape Town, South Africa) in the United States, showing the full scope of his expansive approach to weaving and sculpture and running at the Art Institute of Chicago from April 2 until August 1, 2022. The presentation brings together more than 20 projects dating from 2014 to the present, including a large-scale new installation created especially for the exhibition.

Designed in close collaboration with Adams, the exhibition revolves around the notion of desire lines: informal pathways created by pedestrians choosing a more expedient route to their desired destination, as both a convenience and a way to transgress fixed boundaries. Adams employs the desire line as a powerful metaphor for the paths created by one individual which then assume a collective form—for instance, tracing lines on the physical and socio-political terrain of his hometown Bonteheuwel, South Africa and rematerializing them as woven pathways in his tapestries and installations. In doing so, he transforms what appears to be a mundane detail into a site of beauty, visibility, and agency.

Adams’s hometown, Bonteheuwel, is a key source of inspiration to the works in the exhibition. This predominantly working-class township in southeast Cape Town was founded in the 1960s as part of the forced segregation during the Apartheid era. Adams approaches Bonteheuwel both as a deeply personal space, imbued with childhood memories and a network of familial relationships, and a politically charged space, shaped by violence and generational trauma. Neither experience can erase the other; both are always present.

“Most of my family lives in Bonteheuwel,” Adams states, “and there’s nowhere else I feel I can just be myself. Bonteheuwel is often discussed in the South African media, but always in terms of death and gangs and as a dangerous place. It’s always been reduced to that. For me, a desire line is evidence that people are willing to go against what’s been laid out for them, or what the expectation is for their life. My most recent work enacts Bonteheuwel through its landscape, as a fork in the road, created by desire lines, as subversive pathways on the ground.”

Adams’s approach to space—through the desire line—points to a key question that he has explored in his practice over the past decade: “How would you treat someone differently if you knew everything about them? Or nothing?” In his tapestries and textile installations, Adams probes this question by drawing our attention to information that is seemingly absent, overlooked, or rendered invisible in the spaces we inhabit individually and collectively.

Hendrik Folkerts, curator of the exhibition, highlights the importance of detail in Adams’s work: “We move through spaces every day without noticing the more concealed or indistinct elements in them, thereby also overlooking the stories held within the private and public spaces we inhabit. The profoundly intricate materiality of Igshaan Adams’s weavings—using beads, shells, glass, rope, wire, and found objects in densely layered compositions—mirrors the complexity of the stories held within the lived spaces he investigates.”

Igshaan Adams: Desire Lines is organized by Hendrik Folkerts, former Dittmer Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art.

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Florida Highwaymen Art

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Enjoyed visiting @nimanfineart in #SantaFe, home g Enjoyed visiting @nimanfineart in #SantaFe, home gallery for the legendary #dannamingha also presenting the work of his sons Arlo and Michael. The family owns and operates the business with AMAZING examples of work from all three on hand. 
The paintings here are by Dan, an @instituteofamericanindianarts graduate and one of the most important contemporary Native American artists for going on 40 years.
I was honored to meet the man himself and spend time chatting about his life and work.
Find the gallery just off the Plaza in @cityofsantafe right next door to a gallery dedicated to his friend and fellow legend, Allan Houser.
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This original Florida Highwaymen painting by Alfre This original Florida Highwaymen painting by Alfred Hair is different in a variety of ways. They didn’t often paint in a portrait format and this Everglades scene is less common than poinciana or beach imagery.
I dig it, how about you? 
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Artworks from the fabulous @nanibah (Dine) on view Artworks from the fabulous @nanibah (Dine) on view at @sitesantafe along with Jeffrey Gibson, a powerful pairing of contemporary art with both artists happening to be Native American.
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I’ve shared lion and elephant pics in my last 2 I’ve shared lion and elephant pics in my last 2 posts on #safari with @desertdelta in #botswana #africa.
Today, the best of the rest starting with this MASSIVE  #crocodile catching sun along the banks of the #choberiver in #chobenationalpark.
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Most seen during stay at #chobegamelodge.
Good night from @desertdelta Savute Safari Lodge i Good night from @desertdelta Savute Safari Lodge in #botswana.
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Botswana is home to the world’s largest concentration of elephants, numbering roughly 140,000 around the country. In these photos, taken with just an older iPhone, you can see how close guests at @desertdelta @chobegamelodge come to these beautiful, gentle animals… close enough to hear them chew their food.
These herds (which go into water at Chobe River, amazing site) in include numerous youngsters showing the health of their population.
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Who ordered the LIONS! My morning #safari drive wi Who ordered the LIONS! My morning #safari drive with @desertdelta #chobegamelodge inside #chobenationalpark #botswana was AMAZING with lion sightings. 
Many of these lions were fewer than 20 feet from the vehicle. All of these pictures taken on an older iPhone. My YouTube channel (@seegreatart) has a full video showing how close we were.
All the safari guides at Chobe Game Lodge are women - the Chobe Angels - from around Botswana who undergo extensive professional training before taking out guests.
36 hours here and I’ve also seen elephants, hippos, impala, water buck, monitor lizard, giraffe, cape buffalo, crocodiles, CRAZY amount of birds and a … HONEY BADGER crossing road first thing out frim camp this AM.
#lion #wildlife #wildlifephotography #africa #africansafari #travel #travelblogger #travelgram
What do you think of this skateboard deck art on v What do you think of this skateboard deck art on view in exhibition at @indianpueblo? I think it’s AWESOME!
Love the color, storytelling, contemporanity and symbolism.
#skateboard #skateboardart #albuquerque #newmexico #contemporaryart #contemporarypainting #nativeamerican #nativeamericanart
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