Earth Matters: Land as Material and Metaphor in the Arts of Africa

The exhibition Earth Matters: Land as Material and Metaphor in the Arts of Africa opened at the National Museum of African Art and Enid A. Haupt Garden, Smithsonian Institution, on Earth Day (April 22) 2013 and has been extended through February 23, 2014. Curator Karen E. Milbourne provides a preview of this first major exhibition and scholarly endeavor to examine comprehensively the rich relationship between African artists from more than twenty-five African countries and the land on which they live, work, and frame their days. Focusing on the time period from 1807—when the international slave trade was made illegal—to the present day, the exhibition features more than forty artists, including Berni Searle, Wangechi Mutu, Tchif, Christine Dixie, Hassan Echair, Batoul S’Himi, Sammy Baloji, Nyaba Leon Ouedraogo, El Anatsui, and Ghada Amer.