Two Ghanaian artists and an artists' collective, whose work is shaping the global contemporary art scene, have cemented their places in a top 100 art power list for 2024.
London-based visual artist, filmmaker and writer John Akomfrah CBE ranked 10th in ArtReview’s Power 100 list – a significant jump from last year where he ranked 33rd.
Visual artist Ibrahim Mahama, who we recently interviewed on our AKADi Magazine podcast and who was recently featured in a Dutch-made documentary about his work, came in at number 14.
Meanwhile, blaxTARLINES - a of teachers, artists and curators based at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi (KNUST), acts as an exhibition platform and support network secured the 81 spot in the list.
ArtReview’s Power 100 is one of the most established and widely circulated annual index of influence in the contemporary artworld.
John’s work confronts the climate emergency through a decolonial lens.
He created ‘Listening All Night to the Rain, a disorientating walkthrough featuring 62 screens that played 31 hours of footage and archival material.
The walkthrough featured references ranging from Stokely Carmichael to Mark Rothko, and meditated on the artist’s enduring themes of memory, migration, racial injustice, and climate change, while asking audiences to ‘attune’ to an ‘ethics of sonics’ that served as the installation’s narrative.
John’s interest in the formal texture of filmmaking, as much as its social and political message, was honed not least during his years as a member of the Black Audio Film Collective (with former members David Lawson and Lina Gopaul still working alongside him).
Ibrahim Mahama’s work
Ibrahim’s work reflects other artists that are not just making work for exhibitions and institutions, they use their status to create new infrastructures and networks among their peers, while influencing wider social contexts.
He funnels much of the money he earns in sales of his sculptural installations into the three institutions he has founded in Tamale, the region of northern Ghana in which the artist lives.
His work includes the tapestry ‘Tale of Time/Purple Republic (2023) and his influence extends through the multifaceted institutions he operates near his home city of Tamale: Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art, Red Clay Studio and Nkrumah Volini.
Ibrahim’s 'A Tale of Time/Purple Republic (2023)' features handwoven smocks, was one of the most spectacular commissions of the Sharjah Biennial.
The Bienal de São Paulo’s curators used Parliament of Ghosts (2019) – a field of clay vessels, a forum of brick-constructed bleachers and a long stretch of Ghana’s colonial-era railway tracks – to introduce their anti-imperialist agenda.
Last year, he was ranked sixth in the list. The previous year he was ranked 47th in the ArtReview’s 2022 Power 100 List.
blaxTARLINES
The collective fosters critical discussions within the art scene in Ghana, while building international connections. This amorphous collective acts as an exhibition platform and support network, modelling a form of headless institution.
Beyond its Kumasi project space are exchange programmes with art schools in Germany, and residency swaps in Denmark and Uganda. Historical survey Ghana 1957: Art After Independence was co-curated by Kwasi Ohene-Ayeh in Accra, while the group collaborated with Berlin’s SAVVY Contemporary in shaping part of its Transitions project.
Members often swap seamlessly between the roles of artist and curator, such as Tracy Naa Koshie Thompson, who co-curated a two-part exhibition at Gallery 1957’s London and Accra spaces, then took part in the Busan Biennale.
There is also Bernard Akoi-Jackson, who organised Elolo Bosoka’s show at Accra’s Museum of Science and Technology, and whose work is currently on display in the photography biennial Bamako Encounters.
Other ranked artists
Other artists listed are: Sammy Baloji (17), Mark Bradford (19), Theaster Gates (32), Yinka Shonibare (36) and DaltonPaula (87) engage in similarly altruistic endeavours.
Painter and writer Lynette Yiadom-Boakye who ranked 47th on the list in 2023 did not feature in this year's list. However, her work has contributed to the renaissance in painting the Black figure.
The Power 100 is shaped by the input of a 40-strong panel of artworld participants from around the globe, who consider three criteria for inclusion. Those on the list should have:
(1) been active over the past 12 months;
(2) shaped current developments in art; and
(3) made global rather than local impact.
Background
ArtReview was founded in 1949 and is one of the world’s leading international contemporary art magazines, dedicated to expanding contemporary art’s audience and reach. The ArtReview Power 100 was first published in 2002.
Nan Goldin topped the list in 2023, Ruangrupa topped the list in 2022, ERC-721, representing NFTs, in 2021, Black Lives Matter in 2020 and MoMA director Glenn D. Lowry in 2019.
The full list of ranked individuals and collectives can be found here: artreview.com/power-100
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