Explore AL for The Arts:

Digital Arts Exhibition in partnership with Google Arts and Culture

In partnership with Google Arts & Culture, AL for the Arts presents a growing collection of immersive online exhibitions showcasing the work of emerging and established artists from across the continent. Through high-resolution visuals, storytelling, and interactive experiences, these exhibitions make African art more accessible than ever, breaking down geographical barriers and opening up new audiences worldwide. Each exhibition explores powerful themes shaping Africa today, from history and heritage to identity, innovation, and the future. Together, they offer a window into the perspectives, stories, and creative expressions driving the continent’s cultural narrative.

Explore the full exhibit on the Google Arts & Culture Website

Ancient Civilizations & Futuristic Visions Exhibit

Ancient Civilizations & Futuristic Visions exhibit features eight captivating works that draw from African stories and experiences to reimagine the present and inspire new futures. Each piece offers a unique perspective, creating a rich tapestry of identity, culture, and possibility. Through diverse mediums, these artists draw from the wisdom of the past, reframe the present, and envision a future shaped by African identities and experiences.

What About Me Makes You Uncomfortable?

In this self-portrait series, Mickie challenges narrow definitions of normalcy, questioning why those deemed different often lose their humanity. Drawing inspiration from the myth of the Were-Hyena, they highlight how societal norms force people to erase their identities. They confront society’s imposed imperfections, magnifying them to reclaim the term “monster.” This portrait stands as a bold defiance against the constraints and expectations they’ve been told they must conform to.

My Frequency Vibes Different

Many African origin myths believe that the first beings descended from a realm of powerful spirits and a Creator God. These ancestors, endowed with special abilities, founded communities bridging earth and sky, weaving a tapestry of connection that echoes through time. This frequency resonates with the cosmos, defining their essence, connecting them to the vast, intricate web of existence.

The Afrosurreal Quotidian

The AfroSurreal Quotidian is a digital collage portrait series capturing the intimate, queer lives of young Africans in a surreal, dreamlike, and tender way. It explores the idea that we all hold multiple identities, wearing different masks and evolving as we grow and change. This embodies AfroSurrealism, where the spiritual, sensual, and political merge, exploring how visibility is negotiated for black queer bodies in motion.

Mindfulness in the Hands of Nature

Rwandan artist Mamijo Akimana walks us through guided meditation, self-exploration, and shadow work with her pieces inspired by African fauna and flora. In an interconnected series of works Akimana takes viewers through a guided meditation, delving into self-exploration, through images of African fauna and flora. Scroll down to be introduced to Akimana’s thoughts and notes on each of her works.

The Majors -11:11 Divine Timing

Multi-disciplinary research artist Sheila Chukwulozie explores this Igbo concept of divine timing and the journey of self-discovery through her short silent film, The Majors. The Majors invites you to reflect on the exchanges we make with the universe. What would you celebrate in your journey of becoming? Inspired by Igbo mythology, this exhibit explores Time as a force guiding us along its own plan.

Practical Portals

Marwa Eltahir, from Omdurman, Sudan, uses storytelling as prayer to pass down ancestral knowledge. As a writer and visual artist, she explores movement, identity, and belonging. Practical Portals is an experimental series combining somatic performance, oral prose, and solfeggio frequencies to explore embodied healing. Guided by natural elements, its five vignettes invite viewers to reimagine belonging, memory, and ancestry asking: What do I need to remember?

Omí – Deepening Our Relationship With Water

Can water in its form, fluidity and essence influence how we approach our daily lives, struggles and experiences? In a new series of video and photographic works, multidisciplinary artist Umazi “The Kreator” Mvurya explores the theme of water and our relationship to it. Omí, which means Water in Yoruba, was produced to inspire, expand, and delve into the answers to the aforementioned questions and more.

SOS: We are living through a Climate Emergency

The health hazards humanity has been facing due to global warming are becoming increasingly concerning. Cameroonian artist Cedric Chopbukuned’s drawing underscores the dangers of extreme weather events, increased hunger and poor nutrition on the African continent. Echoing similar concerns all the way from Ethiopia, artist Bereket Tadesse uses his craft to raise more awareness around climate change across the continent.

Sankha, An AfriLand Story

A dual exhibit that blends Africanfuturistic sounds, narratives and visuals to celebrate the power of choice in shaping our future. What story will rise from the remnants of our identity? This duo exhibit A-Fri-Land and Sankha, offers a philosophical journey through time and heritage merging indigenous rights with Africanfuturism to transcend history and celebrate the power of choice in shaping our future.

Someday Soon

Photographer Goodness Agaeze reimagines a world that harmonizes tradition with innovation.
In his latest project, Nigerian photographer Goodness Adaeze reimagines traditional fishing methods by introducing a fictional Fish Tracking Device that enhances the efficiency of these methods without replacing them. This photography project celebrates the past, explores the present, and envisions a future where tradition and technology coexist. It aims to preserve African traditions while inspiring new ways to approach cultural identity in a rapidly changing world.

Plastic Fantastic

Plastic Fantastic is a performance short directed and produced by Sami Chaouki, a Moroccan creative based in Montréal, Canada. Plastic Fantastic unloads the layered relationship humans have with overconsumption. It triggers reflections on the long-term consequences of our actions. Chaouki believes that our relationship to overconsumption is rooted in our need to feel cushioned and protected in the short term. Even when it is at the expense of our well-being in the longer term. His artwork explores the greedy almost pathetic layers of this relationship.

BURDEN: a series

BURDEN is a collaborative work between spoken word artist Sabiqah Bello and visual artist Shorouq who visually translated Sabiqah’s words through the lens of her camera. The first stanza highlights the effect of climate change on the weather. It articulates the harsh realities we have to face as consequences of our actions.

Guardians Of The Galaxy

Morinola Balogun celebrates women’s power to transcend and reimagine themselves through a mixed media piece. What if we created a superhero that acknowledges the contributions of African women, reimagined through a pre-colonial lens? Contrary to popular belief, modern ideas of women’s autonomy mirror the roles of African women in pre-colonial times. Women were seen as guardians and nurturers, ensuring the continuity and natural cycle of life, acting as operational managers in their communities.

Healing Sounds

Makenna Muigai explores the violin as a metaphor for womanhood while Erika Kimani uses the Mbira – a Zimbabwean traditional instrument – to journey into the past. ideographer Makenna Muigai and Ludovico Einaudi explore how the experience of being a woman is akin to the subtle notes of a violin – sometimes high, sometimes low.

Women Who Weave

There is a famous saying in Kinyarwanda that says, “Akebo kajya iwamugarura.” or “The basket goes to those who return it,” it implies that true gratitude is gratitude returned. This is the driving force behind the Akebo initiative, started by Annelle Abatoni Kayisire in 2020. All products are coil-woven, and the raw materials to make them are cultivated and hand-gathered by farmers, who sell them to the weavers. The inside of the coils consists of dry grass and stitched with sisal fiber on the outside of the coil.

The Bounty Of Our Motherland

During the colonial era, large amounts of food production in Africa were intended for export instead of local consumption. The emphasis on growing specific types of crops – also known as mono-cropping – to cater to the European palate was detrimental to the fertility of the land. The African continent is home to diverse flora and fauna and Louise Fenny’s piece celebrates its’ bounty, as a token of gratitude to the land that nurtured us all. The Bounty of our Motherland is a multi-layered painting that honors Africa’s nature.

Hijabs & Hoodies

Portrait participants become active collaborators in an “open studio” process that serves a deeper purpose: to reclaim narratives through story exchange and conversation. Hijabs & Hoodies portrait series is rooted in love and solidarity as well as an attempt to subvert and reclaim the very gaze that have made these garments and ultimately these communities “threatening.”

Nature: The Antidote for Self-Discovery

Inspired by the chemical reactions that take place in the brain when hormones attach to respective receptors, Rayhana Mouaouia’s photographs visualize the the effect of hormonal imbalance on her perception as well a response to stimulus around her as she navigates changes within.

Root of the Matter: African Beauty Affirmed

African hair and skin has been stereotyped as less than for many years. Daniella Nanziri and Teshi Wambui say no more. Daniella’s paintings not only pay homage to the beauty of African features but they act as reminders to her younger self who struggled with body image issues while acting as a source of empowerment for young women of the same age today. Stepping out of her usual visual style, Daniella makes use of negative space and ‘space’ itself through a the presentation of a portrait in a galaxy.

We Will Not Be Silenced

Towela Kams, Jemimah Golo and Judith Mugweru believe in the power of activism through art. “During the making of “Colourism” – my first photo series, I found my voice through my lens and then worked with other people who connected with the storyline to help them find their voice, too.” Towela Kams reflects. Judith Mugweru questions the compromised authenticity and agency of the representation of African women in the absence of platforms for the voices ofemale writers.

Bless the Land that Opened Our Eyes

Two women explore their identities in relation to nature through visual arts. In this exhibit, the powerful relationship between nature and womanhood is brought to the fore by two female artists. While the artists express themselves using different media, their works are in dialogue with each other as they begin to unpack their identities. Kimani’s work is greatly influenced by her mixed African heritage, her relationship to religion, social injustice, and mental health.

Tick, Tack, BOOM!

Tunisian visual artist Oumaima Bouzaiene unpacks how Tunisians can take action against climate change, one drawing at a time. Oumaima’s aim is to spark pragmatic and real conversation about the climate crisis so that the government has clear attainable mitigation and adaptation strategies. Oumaima drew this illustration for a webinar with Youth For Climate about water scarcity in Tunisia. Water scarcity is a significant issue Tunisia faces. Due to the frequent water cuts low income citizens find themselves walking kilometers to get drinking water.

In Her Element

Kenyan Photographer Gayle Were explores womanhood through natural elements. Gayle Were is a Kenyan photographer who uses her work as a way in which to capture experiences of womenhood. As a Kenyan photograher, she also aims to showcase the beauty of her rich heritage and culture with the world at large. Gayle’s describes her genre as a celebration of black womanhood as she draws inspiration from the women around her. This project is an exploration of the elements through the eyes of a black woman.