Disguise, Pt.1 : Saya Woolfalk + William Villalongo

Host Jake Nussbaum talks to artists Saya Woolfalk, William Villalongo, and curator Kevin Dumouchelle, all of whom are involved in the exhibition, Disguise: Masks and Global African Art, on display at Brooklyn Museum from April 29 - September 18, 2016. The show looks at the history of African masquerade as a source of inspiration for contemporary artists. By putting on a mask and becoming someone else, artists reveal hidden realities about society, including those of power, class, and gender, to suggest possibilities for the future. This is the first in a two-part series on the Disguise show. Saya Woolfalk holds a B.A. from Brown University and an M.F.A. from School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work has been shown in a number of institutions such as the Studio Museum in Harlem, MoMA PS1, and The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Her art is known for its focus on hybridity, reflecting her own background of both African and Asian heritage. William Villalongo is the recipient of the prestigious Louis Comfort Tiffany Award and the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptor's Grant. He holds a B.F.A. from the Cooper Union and an M.F.A. from Tyler School of Art at Temple University. His work is included in several notable collections including the Studio Museum In Harlem, The Whitney Museum of American Art, and Princeton University Art Museum. He shamelessly gathers mass cultural imagery, with a base in African-American and American history, with goal of orchestrating a conversation between history and art which could give us the progressive discussions of the future. Kevin D. Dumouchelle has overseen the Brooklyn Museum’s African and Pacific Islands collections since 2007. In 2014, he conceived and curated Double-Take: African Innovations, the Museum’s reinstallation of its remarkable African holdings. He has also curated exhibitions of both contemporary and historical African art. He has published on a range of topics, from architecture and canonical African sculpture to contemporary photography, and he has received numerous fellowships and awards. Dumouchelle earned an M.A. and M.Phil. in Art History and Archaeology from Columbia University, where he taught art history and is completing his Ph.D. He has pursued research in Morocco, Mali, and Ghana, and is the recipient of a first-class Master’s degree in history from Oxford University and a B.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University. This program is part of a radio series curated by Margaux Huille of 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair. Referencing the fifty-four countries that constitute the African continent, the title of 1:54 establishes the parameters of the fair’s ethos: as a platform that strives to represent multiplicity and showcase the diversity of contemporary African art and cultural production on an international stage. 1:54 New York 2016 showcases 17 exhibitors, presenting over 60 African and African diasporan artists at Pioneer Works, 6-8 May 2016.

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