afrOURban

Jessica Sarkodie - Accra Ghana

A native Ghanaian who studied French at university, Jessica returned to Accra in the summer of 2016 after 5 years of living in the U.S. She was inspired by the lack of familiarity with her home country by many Americans she encountered. She thus started her ongoing series, #GhanaDearest, in which she captures landscapes and people in their everyday lives in Ghana. This series is a tribute to her hometown, and her way of dispelling the single negative story that is often told about Africa.

Komi Olaf - Lagos & Kaduna Nigeria

Komi was born in Kaduna, Nigeria. Lives and works in Ottawa, Canada. He is a Visual Artist and Muralist, working in painting, drawing and virtual reality. Over the last decade he has become well known for his explorations of Afro-futuristic concepts within the disciplines of Visual arts, Spoken word poetry and Architectural design. The often utopian themes expressed in his work have in common the artists fascination with hybrid forms and the intersection of culture in a technologically advanced future. He creates his works as “statements” to contribute to the ongoing dialogue promoting social critique and creative thinking.

Ly Lagazelle - Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire

Ly LAGAZELLE is a self-taught photographer, of Ivorian origin. At young age, Phillis LISSA dreamed of living abroad and starting a journey full of adventures. Documentary photography directs the artistic sensibility of Ly LAGAZELLE. Her quest for images of the world has led her to several countries in sub-Saharan Africa including Mauritania, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali and in Asia Myanmar. Curious and extroverted, she has been seeking her own identity while working closely within the artistic community. Ly LAGAZELLE devotes most of her time to processing images made during her travels. Her goal is to capture unique moments through photography. After her recent exhibition at the Anima Garden Museum around the "LES SILENCIEUSES" project, Ly returned to her homeland, to present her work in Abidjan, as part of Cité des Arts # 3, through an exhibition called "INSTINCTIV”.

Masimba Madondo - Harare Zimbabwe, Yaounde Cameroon

Masimba Tinashe Madondo was born and raised in Harare, Zimbabwe. Privileged to have had the opportunity to spend his early 20’s trying to find himself in Australia, South Africa and Singapore. He developed a passion for fine art landscapes, cityscapes, waterscapes and escapes! That’s right, travel also became a passion. He loves road trips. He is fascinated with culture and different cities and outdoors spaces. This is probably because he was interested and excelled at Physical and Human Geography in High School. That has a lot of influence on how he picks his subjects. His photography focuses a lot on shapes, space and patterns, he uses black + white to draw audiences to those elements. He lives in Zimbabwe with his fashion designer/stylist/art director wife. He also runs a leading educational publishing company in Zimbabwe, and own an adventure travel business.

Munya Chidzonga - Harare, Zimbabwe

Munya Chidzonga is a Film maker and Entrepreneur, who has worked in all

disciplines of media from online/social media platforms, to radio, television and

the big screen. He holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Motion Picture Medium,

majoring in Live Performance, Acting and Script-writing, from The South

African School of Motion Picture Medium and Live Performance (AFDA) in Cape

town, South Africa. Where he was nominated for the best Actor Award.

In 2011 he was awarded a NATIONAL ARTS MERIT AWARD (NAMA) for Best

Actor for his work in “The Gentleman”. Which is the highest acting honor in Zimbabwe. Munya is the Zimbabwean International Film Festival Ambassador.

Nora Dei-Anang - Nairobi, Kenya & Accra Ghana

Nora has Ghanaian and Kenyan parentage and has lived in countries across Africa and Europe, including Kenya, Tunisia, Côte d’Ivoire, and Italy, to name a few. As such, she has always had a passion for travel and discovered photography as a way of documenting her adventures and diverse experiences. She truly believe that photography expands your mind and perspective. It also has a way of connecting you with your subject, environment and your audience. She loves how it also tells a story, immortalising it into a specific moment in time. In short, She loves how photographs make you feel things. There’s nothing more satisfying than taking a photograph which elicits an emotional and empathetic response in the viewer. In her free time, you’ll find her photo walking and exploring a new place or neighbourhood, curating banging playlists on Spotify, and hanging out at coffee shops, always accompanied by her camera.

Nuits Balnéaires - Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire

Dadi Aka Aboubahkr Thierry Kouamé is an Ivorian artist living in Abidjan. Dadi’s experience in Abidjan has given him an authentic eye for photography. A place where he developed a personal aesthetic, which could be described as pure, loving, deep and peaceful, missioned to tell stories about his motherland. His first printed publications were in Off the wall photo book (based in France) and Ivorian Chik magazine, both in 2015. Dadi’s artist name Nuits Balnéaires, was inspired by a road trip through the Ivorian coastline with his father. The name is a French expression referring to a breathtaking experience along the seaside at night where he was touched by the sounds of Rumba, Salsa and waving palm trees creating his ideal tropical scene that soon became part of his aesthetics. Dadi has worked with brands such as Congolese brand LIBAYA, the Dutch brand Afriek, Nigerian label Orange Culture and shooting the latest campaign for Lagos Fashion & Design week in 2017.

Randi Karangizi - Kampala, Uganda

Randi is an aspiring architect from Uganda studying Architecture and

Urban Design at the University of Cambridge. She has spent six months

in 2017 documenting observations and conversations with locals in

Kampala as part of her research into the development of urban markets.

She is fascinated by the adaptable and dynamic nature of African cities

and interested in innovative ways architects can respond to challenges

faced by rapidly urbanising cities. She enjoys travelling, reading and

learning from different cultures.

René Tavares - Sao Tome

Presently he lives and works between São Tomé and Lisbon. Graduated by the National School of Fine Arts of Dakar, Senegal, he participated simultaneously in several workshops in Teia D’Arte art gallery, in São Tomé. In 2004 joined the painting, drawing and installation course directed by the artist Maria Magdalena Campos, during the Biennial of Dak’ar. He has held exhibitions in São Tomé, Lisbon, Évora, Paris, Bordeaux, Brussels, Amsterdam and Luanda, amongst other cities. More recently, he took part in the collective exhibition “Africa now– Emerging talents form a continent on the move”, in Washington, arranged by the World Bank. In 2008 he was granted a scholarship to develop his researches in the École de Beaux Arts de Rennes, France and simultaneously joined the photography course of the ARC/Rennes project. He is an artist that reflects throughout his work his own experience of contemporary dislocation among the several post-colonial contact zones.

Mamy Tall - Dakar, Senegal

Mamy Tall grew up in Togo then studied architecture in Montreal. She lives in Senegal where she practices architecture. She is the co-founder of Lives, a platform which promotes african destinations and their ecosystem (arts, food, travel...) a vision and a personal creative world that she exploits and unveils through two of her passions: photography and videography. Her art is expressed through the richness of African culture. She does not distinguish her artistic endeavors from her profession of Architecture. She thinks Architecture is at the origin of her creative vision, it allows her to develop every day thanks to her ability to interpret our environment in a different way, everything is related to Architecture.

Sheriff001 - Nairobi, Kenya

Sheriff 001, a Nairobi local is a matatu conductor, who has worked in the industry for over 9 years. Kenyans have begun to embrace and celebrate matatu culture, one of the ways this has manifested is in the aesthetics of the vehicles. Sheriff has become a well renowned documenter and participant of matatu culture. He designed the matatu he works in and has been nominated for and won the Best Crew in Nganya and Ma3 award (nominated 2013, won 2017). Sheriff was recently featured in the New York Times Article: Transportation Turned Performance Art: Nairobi’s matatu Crews By Rachel Clara Reed. He loves his work and is proud of the ways in which through his interaction with people it has created a platform for him to be a contributor to the evolution of matatu culture.

Kitonera Nasasira - Kampala, Uganda

Kitonera was born and raised in Uganda, his passion for Film making and photography developed from a desire to document his country. Through his work he aims to explore the rich culture of Kampala and Uganda from a participatory perspective. Kitonera’s background in Information Systems and farming have influenced his expression of his country, the amalgamation of these skills and experience exemplify the ways in which Ugandans and Africans are tapping into a broad range of skill sets and experiences to define their place on the continent and in the world.

Phillip Johnson - Creative and Branding Lead

Phillip has worked extensively on multifaceted communications campaigns across industries. As an Ecuadorian- American, he has found the merging of these cultures has resulted in the birth of his constant exploration of the meaning + impact of multiculturalism. Celebrating this heritage has allowed him to be fully present in his travel, work, and social connections - and through this, create work that has an influence beyond artificial social constructs.

Kholisile Dhliwayo - Curator

Kholisile spent his youth in Ethiopia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. He is an architect and has worked in Melbourne, Toronto and New York City. His interest in African urbanism was ignited by his travel through the continent and abroad. He feels there is an urgent need for artists, architects and urbanists to document African cities for the diversification of our own perception of Africa as well as the outside world. He feels urbanism should be described and discussed in the sense of the city as a living breathing element that is continuously developing and changing. Kholisile started afrOURban in 2017 as a way of gathering a collective of artists interested in African urbanism.

African diaspora culture