A Taste for the Beautiful: African Impact on American Culture

In recognition of the statewide American Evolution: Virginia to America, 1619-2019 Commemoration and the city of Hampton’s First African Landing at Old Point Comfort Commemoration, A Taste for the Beautiful: African Impact on American Culture will highlight the art of three area artist-educators with West African roots as well as select works from the Hampton University Museum Collection and permanent African Gallery.

The guest artists, Kwabena Ampofo-Anti, Chinedu Okala and Solomon Isekeije, will share works that make a visual statement as African scholar Chika Okeke-Agula notes, “Africa remains for its artists a site of powerful imaginaries, a historical place to which they are bound by ancestry, and an idea that elicits powerful aesthetic and symbolic action.”

The exhibition will bring to light the cultural narrative that has impacted the experiences of people of African descent in America for four hundred years. Kwabena Ampofo-Anti is a Professor of Art at Hampton University and was born in Mampong, Ghana; Nigerian, Chinedu G. Okala, an Associate Dean of Art at Norfolk State University; and, Solomon Isekeije, Professor of Art at Norfolk State University is from Edo State (Benin Kingdom in Nigeria).

Free and Open to the Public