Exhibitions

Join us for this special public program in conjunction with our exhibition Making Africa: A Continent of Contemporary Design.  This event will take place within the exhibition in our Butler gallery space.

Admission is free on Thursdays.  The Blanton is located at the intersection of Congress Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

Paid parking is available in the Brazos Garage on Brazos Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Parking is $4; bring your ticket with you to the museum.

ABOUT MOYO OKEDIJI

Moyo Okediji is an art historian, artist, and curator. He studied fine arts at the University of Ife, before proceeding to the University of Benin, where he did an MFA in African Art Criticism, Poetry, and Painting. At the University of Wisconsin, Madison, he received a PhD in African Arts and Diaspora Visual Cultures. He has apprenticed with several indigenous African artists working in both sacred and secular mediums including mat weaving, textile designs, terra cotta, shrine painting, and sculpture.

After teaching for several years in Nigeria, Okediji relocated to the United States in 1992. For ten years he was the curator of African and Oceanic arts at the Denver Art Museum. He has taught at various colleges in the United States, including Wellesley College, Gettysburg College, University of Wisconsin, Madison, and the University of Colorado at Denver. He has also exhibited at various places including the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, The Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC,. the Corcoran Center, London, and the National Museum Gallery, Lagos Nigeria. He is the author of books and exhibition catalogues including African Renaissance, Old Forms, New Images in Yoruba Art; and The Shattered Gourd: Yoruba Forms in Twentieth Century American Art.

Get all decked out and ready to dance at the fall’s hottest party, brought to you by the Blanton in partnership with Club Bantu – Austin,TX! On Friday, October 26 we’ll be celebrating the creativity at the heart of our new exhibition Making Africa: A Continent of Contemporary Design. Join us from 6 – 10pm for an evening of the best beats, bites, beverages, and more — all inspired by the bold, creative minds of Africa’s leading artists and innovators.

TICKETS: $15 (adults & children)/ FREE for Blanton Members.

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MUSIC: In collaboration with Club Bantu – Austin,TX, you’ll be dancing the night away thanks to this talented selection of artists and performers.
-Selecta Rah (Afrobeats DJ) + DJ TaZ (Emcee)
–Emman LeGrand & @The African Rhythmix Band (Houston based Cameroonian Band)
–Chris Akinyemi (New York based Nigerian Afrobeats Artist)
-ICE Bio (Austin based Ghanaian Afrobeats Artist)
–Mélat (Austin-born RnB musician/singer)
–Abou Sylla (Austin based Guinean Percussionist)
–Troupe Abizihirwa (Austin based Rwandan Dance Performance Group)

TRUNK SHOW: We’ll be showcasing the work of two local designers; Fresh2Life and Toyosi Shusi.  You can purchase items from their clothing range on the night and in our Museum Shop throughout the duration of the Making Africa exhibition.

FOOD & DRINK: Your favorite bartenders from The North Door will be there to wet your whistle. African street foods that will be available for purchase, provided by Rufari.

If you want to skip the line and pre-order your food now, click on the link below to choose your items!

Purchase Food Tickets

MEMBER LOUNGE: Blanton Museum members get free admission and exclusive access to our relaxing member lounge, including a private bar and a complimentary snacks.

MEDIA SPONSOR: CultureMap Austin

Making Africa: A Continent of Contemporary Design is organized by the Vitra Design Museum and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation and Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne.

Generous funding for this exhibition at the Blanton is provided by Suzanne Deal Booth, Jeanne and Michael Klein, and Suzanne McFayden, with additional support from Ellen and David Berman.

The Blanton presentation is organized by Claire Howard, Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Blanton Museum of Art.

Join us for this special public program in conjunction with our exhibition Making Africa: A Continent of Contemporary Design.  This event will take place within the exhibition in our Butler gallery space.

Admission is free on Thursdays.  The Blanton is located at the intersection of Congress Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

Paid parking is available in the Brazos Garage on Brazos Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Parking is $4; bring your ticket with you to the museum.

Join us for this special public program in conjunction with our exhibition Making Africa: A Continent of Contemporary Design.  Artist and designer Mukhtara Yusuf will discuss “Africa and Materiality” through works in Making Africa, highlighting issues of conspicuous consumption and alternative use, and contextualizing these works within the history of African functional objects. This event will take place within the exhibition in our Butler gallery space.

Admission is free on Thursdays.  The Blanton is located at the intersection of Congress Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

Paid parking is available in the Brazos Garage on Brazos Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Parking is $4; bring your ticket with you to the museum.

ABOUT MUKHTARA YUSUF

mukhtara yusuf is a yoruba-nigerian-muslim visual artist/scholar, cultural activist and designer. her work focuses on decolonizing design, sustainability, alternative economies and design in the global south.

her creative art practice explores links between issues of trauma, black mental health, and afrofuturism by exploring larger conceptual motifs of colonial time, indigenous epistemology and material counter memory.

other themes in her work, through scholarly research, curation, and activism include afro-islamic identity marginalization, queerness, and african urban landscapes.

key concerns in her work are  black speculative design pedagogy, urban design and environmentalism; african design infrastructures, collaborative design, and issues of social capital and value.

Art historian, artist, and curator Moyo Okediji is our moderator for this incredible panel of artists and designers, including two artist featured in our exhibition Making Africa: A Continent of Contemporary Design.  This event will take place in our auditorium, located in our Smith Building.

PANELISTS:
Nosarieme Garrick, Executive Producer and Director, My Africa Is (Making Africa artist)
Walé Oyéjidé, Esq., Designer and Creative Director, Ikiré Jones (Making Africa artist)
Mukhtara Yusuf, artist and designer

Admission is free on Thursdays.  The Blanton is located at the intersection of Congress Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

Paid parking is available in the Brazos Garage on Brazos Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Parking is $4; bring your ticket with you to the museum.

Join us for this special public program in conjunction with our exhibition Making Africa: A Continent of Contemporary Design.  This event will take place within the exhibition in our Butler gallery space.

Admission is free on Thursdays.  The Blanton is located at the intersection of Congress Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

Paid parking is available in the Brazos Garage on Brazos Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Parking is $4; bring your ticket with you to the museum.

ABOUT BETELHEM MAKONNEN

A native of Ethiopia (b. 1972), Betelhem Makonnen lives and works between Austin Texas, Rio de Janeiro Brasil and Addis Abeba Ethiopia.

B.A., History and Literature of African Diaspora from the University of Texas in Austin

Coursework in Painting, Time-based media, and Modern and Contemporary Art History from the School of Visual Arts of Parque Lage in Rio de Janeiro.

MFA (2019) as a New Artists Society Merit Scholar in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago Low Res Program.

ABOUT TAMMIE RUBIN

Tammie Rubin was born in Chicago, Illinois, a sculptor who transforms familiar and trivial objects into mythic relics: surreal, dark, playful and sensual. Her works are intensely colored, technically complex, and intricately ornamented sculptural assemblages of everyday objects. Rubin completed her MFA in Ceramics at the University of Washington, and she received a BFA in Ceramics and Art History from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She was awarded a grant from Artist Trust, Grants for Artist Projects (GAP), and an Artist Project Grant from the Illinois Arts Council. Rubin’s work has appeared in the journals fields Issue 7, Ceramics: Art & Perception, Ceramics Monthly, and newspapers such as The Seattle Time, The News-Gazette, and The Austin American Statesman. Rubin has discussed her work and shared her techniques through lectures and workshops at various art centers and universities.