As the opening times of group exhibition #Faces have been limited during 3 weeks due to the FInAB project in Benin, OpenArtExchange has decided to extend #Faces by 3 weeks till 17 April. This will be accompanied by (re)launching several online viewing rooms and features with global partners Artsy.net, ArtNet.com and Kooness.com. Feel free to visit the gallery in Schiedam or one of the viewing rooms online and enjoy #Faces.

About #Faces

For #Faces we have selected a great group of artists, consisting of different generations with ages ranging between 24 and 82, originating from 4 different African countries (Nigeria, Benin, Angola/Portugal and DR Congo/France) and one artist from the Netherlands, all presenting their latest work. As such, they encompass fresh views on contemporary African identities from artists living within African societies, artists having lived in both African and European contexts and an artist living in Europe but having traveled to Africa. That results in a colorful gallery of portraits full of resilience, determination, hope and energy, created with quite different materials ranging from various painting styles, mixed media works with nails on plywood, mixed media collages of tiny black and photographs within colourful acrylic settings, to traditional clay head sculptures with colorful glazed ceramic headdresses.

Participating artists

Klaashenk Blonk (1947, Netherlands) – Ceramic sculptures consisting of a traditionally painted half clayhead and a semi-abstract glazed headdress (2pcs)
Casca (1976, Portugal/Angola) – Semi-abstract acrylic paintings of African portraits in traditional settings with a touch of Picasso and Miro  
Gabriel Jideonwor (1991, Nigeria) – Figurative acrylic paintings of colorful urban Africans with a mix of expressionism and (sur)realism
Jonathan Vatunga (1996, France/DR Congo) – Figurative portraits from collages with tiny black and white photographs within colorful acrylic settings
Syl Loko (1996, Benin) – Figurative, semi abstract miniatuur portraits of nails and recycled cans on painted plywood.