Art of Contemporary Africa

09/09/2026

Pascal Konan makes the picture by taking things away.
He paints on denim. The first act is bleach — lifting the colour out of the cloth until a pale, scorched field opens where the image will be. Only then do the ink and acrylic arrive: dozens of small dancing bodies, scattered right across the surface.
Look at the threads running between them. Some join two figures. Some leave one figure and simply stop.
Konan solo show in 2025 was called Unfinished Symphony. This exhibition picks the thought up and carries it further.
Connexion 1, 2024. Acrylic, bleach and ink on denim, 120 × 120 cm.

09/05/2026

Papytsho Mafolo leaves lines unfinished.
Gold leaf, printed matter, oil, acrylic — layered into surfaces where hybrid figures rise and dissolve. Born in the DRC, working from Brussels, painting the long labour of putting a self back together after someone else has written over it.
The open line is a reminder that something hasn’t yet arrived.

09/03/2026

Colour laid on and laid on again until the surface becomes terrain. A private language of marks, drawn from Sudan and from a life spent moving — the UK, Germany, Egypt, and finally South Africa.
For Salim, a painting is not a statement. It’s the opening of a conversation.

09/02/2026

What do you do with a line?
Papytsho Mafolo stops mid-stroke and leaves the rest to you. He calls it a reminder that he hasn’t arrived.
Hussein Salim buries his — layer over layer of paint until the canvas becomes terrain and no mark is ever the last one.
Pascal Konan bleaches his out of indigo denim. Look at the threads: some cross the whole canvas to join two figures, some leave a figure and simply stop.
Aza Mansongi sends hers round. No exit, no hierarchy, no way out — her titles say it outright.
Four painters, four answers, and not one of them finishes the sentence. That is the exhibition.
UNFINISHED LINES — 24 September to 24 October, Minnesota Street Project, Dogpatch. A participating exhibition in , SF/Bay Area Black Art Week.
Works shown, in order: Papytsho Mafolo; Hussein Salim; Pascal Konan, Connexion 1, 2024; Aza Mansongi, Under the Veuls of Silence, 2025.

09/01/2026

We're returning to Atlanta!

Art of Contemporary Africa is delighted to announce our participation in the Atlanta Art Fair, 1–4 October 2026 at Pullman Yards. You'll find us at Booth E13.

Our debut in Atlanta last year drew a wonderful response — the conversations, the collectors, the sheer curiosity about what's happening across the continent right now made it one of the highlights of our year. We're returning with a larger presentation and nine artists working across painting, photography, sculpture and textile.

Esther Mahlangu · Clint Strydom · Knox Clayton · Pascal Konan · Alexis Daniel Onguene Tassi · Oscar Mawuli · Samuel Allerton · Carol Cauldwell · Amadou Opa Bathily

Works and artist features to follow over the coming weeks. We look forward to welcoming you to the booth.

📍 Pullman Yards, Atlanta 🗓 1–4 October 2026 🎟 Link in bio

08/28/2026

What do you do with a line?
Papytsho Mafolo stops mid-stroke and leaves the rest to you. He calls it a reminder that he hasn’t arrived.
Hussein Salim buries his, layer over layer of until the canvas becomes terrain and no mark is ever the last one.
Pascal Konan bleaches his out of indigo denim. Look at the threads: some cross the whole canvas to join two figures, some leave a figure and simply stop.
Aza Mansongi sends hers round. No exit, no hierarchy, no way out, her titles say it outright.
Four painters, four different interpretations.

UNFINISHED LINES — 24 September to 24 October, Minnesota Street Project, Dogpatch. A participating exhibition in Nexus, SF/Bay Area Black Art Week. Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD)

Works shown, in order: Papytsho Mafolo; Hussein Salim; Pascal Konan, Connexion 1, 2024; Aza Mansongi, Under the Veils of Silence, 2025

08/25/2026

Excited to announce our participation in Nexus: SF Bay Area Black Art Week this year, with UNFINISHED LINES | featuring artists from the DR Congo, Sudan and Côte d’Ivoire.
Nexus runs 30 September to 4 October. Full programme at nexus-sfbay.com
The exhibition at AOCA opens on the 24 September until 24 October.
Art of Contemporary Africa | Minnesota Street Project | Dog Patch | San Francisco

08/07/2026

UP CLOSE: PAUL BLOMKAMP (South African, b.
Twenty years making stained glass windows, and a near-death experience, shaped everything
that came after. Blomkamp paints in what he calls the “clouds of unknowing” meticulous,
luminous works chasing the light he encountered during that experience.
For A Continent, Up Close, his geometric colour-field paintings sit in dialogue on the gallery wall — a quiet, radiant anchor to the show.
23 July – 30 August · AOCA, San Francisco · Enquiries via link in bio

07/31/2026

07/30/2026

UP CLOSE: CLINT STRYDOM (South African, b. 1973)

Strydom's lens finds the surreal inside the everyday; Miami Sun Loungers dissolving into sky, a Fire Hydrant wearing the city's noise, an abandoned slice of Cake holding its own small drama. Fine Art, documentary and street photography fused into one bold visual language.

A Continent Up Close - 23 July to 30 August. AOCA, San Francisco, Minnesota Street Project