Showbiz
Two African Immigrant Artists Honoured in America
By Dipo Olowookere
The Vilcek Foundation has announced Iman Issa, originally from Egypt, and Meleko Mokgosi, originally from Botswana, as recipients of the 2017 Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise in Fine Arts.
The prizes were designed to recognize and support emerging immigrant artists who have made outstanding contributions to American society, and each include a cash prize of $50,000.
Iman Issa, a conceptual artist, creates objects and installations in an attempt to address complex philosophical questions.
Her original area of study was phenomenology, a branch of philosophy that examines the structures of consciousness that organize subjective experience—or, put another way, how we take meaning from things we individually experience.
Later, Issa realized that art allowed for nuanced exploration of those topics, and continued her philosophical questioning through art.
She is particularly interested in monuments and memorials—aesthetic forms tasked with a function, that hold a shifting relevance based on their location in time and relationship to history.
Her work has been shown at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the 8th Berlin Biennial, and the New Museum, and she has received the DAAD 2017 Artist in Residence Award, the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award, and the HNF-MACBA Award. Issa was born in Egypt.
Meleko Mokgosi is a slow, considered painter; behind every painting he produces are hours of research, reading, and conversations with people. Mokgosi is interested in depictions of Africa and its people; he believes that the widespread misrepresentation of Africa and Africans has done a violence to the people of the continent, and through his art, he attempts a representation that is fair and just.
He is deeply concerned with politics, and seeks to understand and to illuminate the relations of power that shape people, families, villages, regions, and nations.
Mokgosi has been named the recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters Grant and the Jarl and Pamela Mohn Award, and he has shown his work at Art Basel, the Armory, the Hammer Museum, and the Whitney Museum. He was born in Botswana.
The prize winners were selected by panels of experts in a variety of artistic disciplines.
The jury panel for the Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise in Fine Arts included Nicholas Baume, director and chief curator of the Public Art Fund; Naomi Beckwith, curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Rita Gonzalez, associate curator of contemporary art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Hitomi Iwasaki, director of exhibitions/curator at the Queens Museum of Art; and Thomas J. Lax, associate curator at the Museum of Modern Art.
All prize winners will be honoured at a ceremony in New York City in April 2017. In addition to prizes in fine arts, the Vilcek Foundation is also recognizing immigrants in the sciences with the 2017 Vilcek Prizes in Biomedical Science.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
On Sunday, March 26, 2023, The Voice Africa will air on free-to-air TV stations across 14 countries in Africa, where the main sponsor of the show, Airtel Africa, operates.
This would excite fun-seekers on the continent as they would be glued to their television screens for 25 weeks.
A statement from the firm said one show would be aired per week, with the first episodes being blind auditions based solely on the talents’ voices and not looks.
It was stated that The Voice Africa would follow the format of the global show, starting out with blind auditions, battle rounds, knockouts, playoffs and concluding with the live shows.
The Voice Africa is expected to attract both a pan-African and global audience, featuring a high-profile panel of coaches and TV hosts who will witness one of the 100 selected talents eventually crowned The Voice Africa.
About 78,804 registrations were received from Nigeria, Kenya, Seychelles, Tchad, Uganda, Congo, Zambia, Tanzania, Rwanda, Gabon, Madagascar, Malawi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
However, 12,308 talents were selected for auditions, and a total of 100, seven per country, in addition to two wild cards, were chosen to proceed to the live shows in Lagos, Nigeria.
“We are thrilled to finally bring Africa’s exceptional musical talents to the world through the continent’s version of the global award-winning show, The Voice.
“The Voice Africa will display African musical talent, delivering excitement and entertainment to millions across the world, whilst showcasing amazing voices, performances, and intrigues.
“It is an opportunity to celebrate and contribute to Africa’s music scene through real-life stories of resilience, persistence, struggle, and success that some of you can relate to and will undoubtedly impact your lives,” the Group Chief Commercial Officer of Airtel Africa, Mr Anthony Shiner, stated.
In 2021, Airtel Africa announced a groundbreaking $57 million investment in education in partnership with UNICEF that aims to provide and increase access to digital education for the betterment of Africa’s children’s futures.
Other initiatives Airtel Africa has been involved in over the years include the MTV Africa Music Awards (MAMAs), the Zain Africa Challenge, which brought university students together in a quiz contest, and the Airtel Rising Stars, a football tournament for Under-15 boys and girls.
These are initiatives of the company to showcase the youthful talent on the continent.
Airtel Africa partnered with FAME Studios Africa to broadcast The Voice Africa on the continent.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
To celebrate the release of his fourth studio album, Nigerian music star, David Adeleke, otherwise known as Davido, has been given the opportunity to choose some Afrobeats songs he considers timeless.
After a long hiatus, OBO, as the singer is also fondly called, announced to his fans on Tuesday, March 21, 2023, that he would release his fourth solo full-length album titled Timeless.
To prepare fans for the album’s arrival, Davido has curated a playlist of Afrobeats tracks. This contains some of the defining songs of the Afrobeats era, including hits by his peers, Wizkid, Tekno and Mr Eazi.
The playlist also includes some of the most familiar classics from Afrobeats’ golden era, with songs by Sunny Neji, 2baba and Naeto C, as well as foundational tracks that have inspired multiple generations of Afrobeats acts, including Fela Kuti’s Zombie.
Speaking about the playlist, Spotify’s Head of Music for Africa, Ms Phiona Okumu, said, “Davido represents the audacity, consistency and huge reach of Afrobeats, and we’re glad to herald his new body of work by joining him in highlighting some of the most enduring contributions by Afrobeats acts to our musical canon over the years.”
Recall that the last time Davido made a public appearance was at the finals of the 2022 FIFA Men’s World Cup in Qatar in December, where he performed.
In his social media post yesterday, he disclosed that the album, which follows 2020’s A Better Time, is scheduled to hit digital stores on March 31.
Davido is one of the global faces of African music. Over the course of a decade and some, he has gone from the Afropop wunderkind who announced himself with Dami Duro and Back When to a global icon. With three studio albums under his belt, the singer boasts hits like Aye, If and Fall.
Next to a list of solo hits and guest verses that could outlast any jam session, Davido is also one of the most prolific cross-continental ambassadors and crossover artists in Afrobeats. His list of collaborators includes artists like Sauti Sol, Focalistic and Kidi, as well as North American stars like Nicki Minaj, Lil Baby, Young Thug and Nas.
The album announcement makes good on Davido’s promise to ‘see his fans in March’, and there’s a feeling that it’ll be well worth the wait.
The annual GTCO Food & Drink Festival is back again for its 6th Edition, and food lovers across Africa and the world are in for a feast like never before! The event is slated to hold from Saturday, April 29, till Monday, May 1, 2023, at GTCentre, Plot 1 Water Corporation Drive, Oniru, Victoria Island, Lagos, providing a 3-day weekend of food and endless celebration.
The GTCO Food & Drink Festival brings together the greatest minds on the global culinary stage, the most industrious Nigerian small food business owners, a world-class, state-of-the-art children’s play area, merging them all to give attendees the most memorable food and drink event.
Commenting on the 2023 GTCO Food and Drink Festival, the Group Chief Executive Officer of Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc, Segun Agbaje, said; “Food and drink are intrinsically social things, and best enjoyed when shared. We understand the value of bringing together businesses and consumers who are passionate about food and have continued to inspire new ways to experience life through food and drink. The continuing success of our free-business platforms reflects our unchanging commitment to Promoting Enterprise and echoes our brand promise of creating Great Experiences.”
Constantly innovating the space and on a quest to continue creating great experiences for all stakeholders, GTCO Food & Drink will be expanding its capacity by creating more opportunities for more businesses and increasing its highly coveted vendor stalls from 142 to 204, giving even more innovative and assiduous business owners a chance to not only showcase their businesses to the over 250,000 foodies in attendance but also engage with their customer base and learn from a confluence of other great-minded food entrepreneurs. The event will also feature three premier DJs in Africa, setting the scene for a weekend of celebration, food, drink, and togetherness.
Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc is a leading financial services company providing banking and non-banking services, including payments, wealth management, and pension fund management, with a presence across eleven countries spanning West and East Africa as well as the United Kingdom. The Group operates a diversified, Proudly African franchise and is renowned for its innovative approach to customer service and stakeholder engagement, which has endeared the brand to millions of people across Africa and beyond. Over the years, many customers have benefited from its unique loan products, including the Food Industry Credit and Fashion Industry Credit designed specifically for businesses in the food and fashion industry.
It’s time once again to come together and celebrate the great joys food has to offer! Attendance is FREE.
For more information on the event, please visit: https://foodanddrink.gtcoplc.com.
