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.
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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.”
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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