Royals and Regalia: Inside the Palaces of Nigeria's Monarchs

Until August 9, the New Jersey's Newark Museum presents Royals & Regalia: Inside the Palaces of Nigeria’s Monarchs, a showcase of forty visually stunning portraits from a new series by acclaimed Nigerian photographer George Osodi. Exhibited for the first time in the US, these vibrant color photographs feature the regional rulers of modern-day monarchies throughout the country. They provide audiences with a rare and intimate look inside Nigeria’s palaces and throne rooms, capturing the personalities of the rulers, the splendor of their dress, and the details of their settings. The near life-size photographs will be shown to dramatic effect along with select examples of prestige dress and regalia from the internationally renowned collections of the Newark Museum.

For more information, visit the exhibition's official website.

Images and info courtesy of the Newark Museum

New Acquisitions at Jacaranda Tribal

Jacaranda Tribal presents a new online exhibition featuring a range of fine tribal objects from southern and central Africa and Papua New Guinea alongside a beautiful selection of antique photographs taken in Africa from the 1870s to the 1930s.

For more information on the selected works below and many more, visit www.jacarandatribal.com

!Kweiten-ta //ken, a Bushwoman from Katkop Mountains, South Africa
Samuel Baylis Barnard  -  Albumen print  -  1870s

Portrait of a woman, Sudan  -  Khardiache Brothers  -  Albumen print  -  ca. 1890

Ladle with figural handle  -  Nguni, South Africa  -  Late 19th or early 20th century

Two Women from Massawa, Eritrea  -  Luigi Naretti  -  Gelatin silver print  -  ca. 1890

Maasai warriors and colonial officer, Zanzibar  -  Unidentified photographer  -  Albumen print  -  ca. 1890s

Mask  -  Eket, Nigeria  -  19th century

Man with pipe, South Africa  -  Unidentified photographer  -  ca 1880

Hat  -  Kuba, D.R. Congo

Couple seated on a wagon  -  Fred Hamm  -  Albumen print  -  1903

Incised cup  -  Abelam, Papua New Guinea  -  Early 20th century

A Tsonga snake dancer, Mozambique
Alfred Martin Duggan-Cronin  -  Silver gelatin print  -  1933

Prestige staff  -  Zulu, South Africa  -  Late 19th or early 20th century

Ndebele woman, South Africa  -  Unidentified photographer  -  ca 1930s

Headrest  -  Shona, Zimbabwe

Beja warriors, Sudan  -  C. & G. Zangaki  -  Albumen print  -  Last third of 19th century

www.jacarandatribal.com

Images courtesy of Jacaranda Tribal / ©2014 James Worrell

Africa Re-Viewed: The Photographic Legacy of Eliot Elisofon

In celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at the National Museum of African Art, the museum is organizing a retrospective exhibition of internationally-renowned photographer Eliot Elisofon. The exhibition focus on Elisofon's innovative photography and its impact on portraying the diverse arts and cultures of modern-era Africa. The exhibition will be the first to pair his photographs with collected objects, films, books, and journals, and the first exhibition in forty years to celebrate his photographic legacy.

Visit the Smithsonian website.

Images courtesy of the National Museum of African Art

African Beauty - Photographs by John Kenny

An exhibition of stunning monochrome and colour portraits, on view now at The Africa Centre in London, reveals the vibrant jewellery, delicate body art, beautiful fabrics and intricate hairstyles that decorate traditional peoples from across Africa.
African Beauty illustrates the remarkable ways that people in traditional communities engage with material culture to express their identity. From the fringes of the Sahara to the Great Rift Valley, and south to the arid communities of Angola and Namibia, Kenny’s photographs are an important journey into social status, creativity and sense of identity that lies behind the powerful and unique aesthetic of traditional village life.

Visit The Africa Centre's official website.

Information and images courtesy of The African Centre

Histories in Africa: Twenty Years of Photography by Elizabeth Gilbert

Currently on view at The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens in Jacksonville, Florida is Histories in Africa: 20 Years of Photography by Elizabeth Gilbert, an exhibition showcasing more than fifty black and white photographs documenting Gilbert’s twenty-year journey across the African continent. During this remarkable expedition, Gilbert's aim was to capture a land in flux, one in which traditional cultures and customs were rapidly disappearing. Her hope was to “distill the subjects in a timeless record, and preserve the memory of a lost era long after globalization has eroded it forever.”        

View the exhibition's official website.
      

Information and images courtesy of the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens