Rice’s Moody Center for the Arts welcomed over 600 guests for the opening reception of “Radical Revisionists: Contemporary African Artists Confronting Past and Present.”
Cool evening air allowed the Moody Center to open the giant glass doors of its Central Gallery onto the patio beyond, encouraging visitors to view the gallery’s installation — Serge Attukwei Clottey’s "Softening the Borders" — from a multiplicity of perspectives.
A variety of viewpoints are offered throughout the exhibition, which brings together the work of 10 contemporary African artists commenting through sculpture, large-scale photography, a virtual reality (VR) installation and, in the case of Clottey’s piece, performance art.
The Ghanaian artist spent much of the evening shirtless, on his knees, cleaning the wood floors of the gallery as people whom Clottey dressed in cocktail attire held champagne glasses aloft while pretending not to notice the toil taking place in their presence.
Inside the main Brown Foundation Gallery, guests beheld a complete transformation of the space thanks to custom-built walls painted vivid red, green and yellow.
Work hung on the walls includes photographic portraiture by Omar Victor Diop rendered in equally intense hues and stunning black-and-white self-portraits by Zanele Muholi.
Two very different sculptures by Yinka Shonibare confront visitors at two important turns in the winding gallery space, and a colorful plastic bag installation by Pascale Marthine Tayou demands to be examined from multiple angles.
Work by Sammy Baloji, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Adama Delphine Fawundu, Robin Rhode and Mary Sibande round out this spring’s exhibition, with Sibande’s work found in the intimate Media Arts gallery that houses video and VR installations. Sibande’s "Crescendo of Ecstasy" asks guests to fit their faces into masks, three visitors at a time.
The Moody Center will soon host another open house for “Radical Revisionists,” this one featuring complimentary beer, wine and live music from Houston band The Tontons.
Free and open to the public, Spring Fling at the Moody will take place Feb. 28 from 8 to 10 p.m. and promises to be as big a draw for the Rice community as the Jan. 24 opening reception.
“Radical Revisionists: Contemporary African Artists Confronting Past and Present” runs through May 16. For more information, visit moody.rice.edu.