Africa & the Diaspora

Why this artist

Dumas is one of the leading figurative painters of her generation, exploring identity, intimacy and the emotional power of images. Drawing on photographs, memory and the history of painting, she creates figures whose intensity often exceeds their spare treatment. Her work offers an immediate encounter and something more complex to return to over time. Major exhibitions at Tate Modern and Palazzo Grassi reflect her institutional standing. In May 2025, Miss January sold for $13.6 million at Christie’s New York, setting a world auction record for a work by a living woman artist.

Why this artist

El Anatsui transforms discarded metal into expansive, fluid surfaces that connect material, trade and history. His works have the presence of sculpture and the movement of cloth, changing with light and installation. They offer a particularly rich dialogue between artwork and architecture. Awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 2015 Venice Biennale, he created Tate Modern’s monumental Turbine Hall commission Behind the Red Moon in 2023, reinforcing his position as a major figure in contemporary art.

Why this artist

Himid explores Black histories, cultural memory and belonging through painting. Her figures often occupy carefully constructed spaces, inviting us to imagine their conversations and relationships. Colour, pattern and narrative give the work a strong presence while leaving room for interpretation. A Turner Prize winner and a central figure in the Black British Art Movement, she represents Great Britain at the 2026 Venice Biennale. Her British Pavilion commission develops a recurring concern in her work: what it means to make a home in a new place.

Why this artist

A foundational figure in African modernism, El-Salahi brings Sudanese visual traditions, Arabic calligraphy and modernist experimentation into a distinctive language. His 2013 Tate Modern retrospective was the museum’s first devoted to an African modernist, and his work has since entered the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the Museum of Modern Art in New York and Tate, which acquired thirty-one works in February 2026. His gallery reports that some 340 of his works have been sold to museums during the thirteen years of its representation, and a survey exhibition is confirmed at MASP in São Paulo in 2028 with Adriano Pedrosa.

The painting offered here is an early pre-pixel work made at the Slade School of Fine Art in 1957, and the largest painting from that group still available. The series stayed with the artist’s family until this year and has never been shown publicly before.

Why this artist

Mahama works with materials that carry the marks of labour, trade and everyday use. His textiles draw attention to the people and systems behind their production, while their scale and texture give them a strong architectural presence. Their interest deepens as the histories of their materials come into view. His exhibition The Harvest Season at the Fondation Cartier in Paris, presented with nine invited artists and collectives, runs through February 2027 and demonstrates the breadth of his artistic and collaborative practice.

Why this artist

Shonibare uses pattern, textiles and historical references to explore how cultures are formed through exchange, migration and power. His work is immediately engaging, with further layers revealed through its materials and subjects. His textile works bring that visual richness and questioning spirit onto the wall. The exhibition Sanctuary at the Rose Art Museum in 2026–27 extends his longstanding exploration of refuge and belonging, demonstrating how a recognisable visual language can continue to address urgent contemporary questions.

Why this artist

Urgessa’s paintings place expressive human figures within densely constructed spaces. Bodies, objects and fragments of interiors come together in compositions that feel both intimate and unsettled, with narratives that resist a single reading. His work offers physical presence and emotional complexity for a collector drawn to ambitious figuration. Selected for Ethiopia’s inaugural national pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale, he has brought international attention to a distinctive contemporary Ethiopian painting practice.

Why this artist

Nkanga explores the connections between landscape, natural resources and human experience. Moving between drawing, textiles and installation, she traces how materials link places and lives. Her works on paper offer an intimate entry into this wider practice, combining precise detail with a broader sense of connection. Her exhibition I dreamt of you in colours at Malmö Konsthall, running through March 2027, brings these concerns together in a major institutional presentation.

Why this artist

Muholi’s photography centres Black LGBTQIA+ lives, with portraiture serving as both personal expression and a record of visibility. Their self-portraits use light, contrast and everyday materials to create images of striking authority. Immediate visual impact is matched by a sustained examination of identity, dignity and representation. Their major Tate Modern survey returned in an expanded form in 2024–25, following its original 2020–21 presentation, offering a comprehensive view of this influential photographic practice.

Why this artist

Muriu’s photographs bring portraiture into dialogue with textiles, pattern and inventive styling. Her sitters emerge from richly patterned surroundings, creating a deliberate tension between visibility and concealment. The images have immediate graphic appeal, with closer looking revealing their careful construction and celebration of individuality. Her participation in KYOTOGRAPHIE 2026 included CAMO and new work developed through a Kyoto residency, extending her exploration of identity through an exchange with Japanese textile traditions.

Why this artist

Eguavoen uses figurative painting to explore identity, relationships and contemporary Nigerian experience. His portraits provide a direct human connection, while their settings and compositions suggest wider social narratives. His 2024 solo exhibition Ukhurhę in Paris addressed mental health and its social stigma. His work offers an opportunity to engage with a younger Nigerian painting practice through images that connect personal experience with broader questions about the society his figures inhabit.