Africa’s biggest modern art gallery opens in Cape Town
Image copyright EPA Image caption The work of South African artist Athi-Patra Ruga is influenced by his background in fashion design
Africa’s largest gallery for contemporary art from the continent and its diaspora has opened in the South African city of Cape Town.
The Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz Mocaa) is set inside old grain silos on the V&A Waterfront.
The building has been converted by UK architect Thomas Heatherwick into a maze of rooms with bulbous windows.
Visitors are greeted by a giant flying dragon made of rubber, created by South African artist Nicholas Hlobo.
Image copyright AFP Image caption A sculpture by South African artist Nicholas Hlobo dominates the main hall
Much of the work on display comes from the private collection of the museum’s patron, former Puma chief executive Jochen Zeitz, who is German.
“Africans need to come on board,” he says. “It’s not my museum or the Waterfront’s – it’s for Africa.”
Image copyright EPA Image caption Cyrus Kabiru, a 32-year-old visual artist from Kenya, was named one of Quartz’s Africa Innovators for 2016 Image copyright EPA Image caption Cow hides are fashioned to resemble the human form by South African artist Nandipha Mntambo
One of the biggest draws is a selection of work by the Ghanaian sculptor El Anatsui, who won the prestigious Praemium Imperiale International Arts Award last week.
Image copyright EPA Image caption This piece by El Anatsui, called Dissolving Continents, is made of interlinking pieces of aluminium and copper
Critics say the collection is missing some important African artists.
“The absence of works by Cameroonians Samuel Fosso, Pascale Martine Tayou and Barthélémy Toguo, as well as South Africans Robin Rhode, Tracey Rose and Berni Searle – all esteemed, pace-setting artists – hints at crucial blind spots,” says one reviewer in South Africa’s Sunday Times newspaper.
Image copyright AFP Image caption Kendell Geers’ Hanging Piece (1993) alludes to acts of violence carried out during apartheid in South Africa
Entrance to the public, not-for-profit museum will be free for African passport holders at certain times of the week.
Image copyright EPA Image caption The museum is set inside 1920s grain silos
