Inside Amref Health Africa's 2024 ArtBall: Honoring Kehinde Wiley & Black Art Excellence
Kehinde Wiley. Photo courtesy of Amref Health Africa / BFA
"Every year we honor an artist at ArtBall we feel has changed the discourse around African and Black art with the Rees Visionary Award. This year, we will be honoring Kehinde Wiley and celebrating 'Black Presence', aligning with his focus on reclaiming the presence of Black people: our royalty, our martyrs, and our everyday lives, in the world of fine art," Emily Correale, Amref Health Africa's director of Development and Communications, tells EDITION.
Michelle Ogleby, Siphiwe Muze, Toni Pringley, Mackenzie Harvey. Photo courtesy of Amref Health Africa / BFA
Amref Health Africa combined art and community with their annual ArtBall. The gala (which took place on May 4 at INDUSTRIA in Brooklyn, NY) honored well-renowned artist Kehinde Wiley.
Carmelo Anthony, Spike and Tonya Lewis Lee were co-chairs of the event. Notable guests included Lindsey Peoples, Earl Nurse, Storm Ascher, Indira Cesarine, Nadia Nascimento, Nadja Sayej, Carol Jenkins, Malik Roberts, Wanjiru Mwangi, Tariku Shiferaw, and Quiana Parks. Sahr Ngaujah hosted the event, and Franklin Sirmans presented Wiley with the Rees Visionary Award (named after Amref Health Africa’s late founder, Dr. Thomas Rees). Upon acceptance, Wiley announced a $700,000 donation to Amref.
In the midst of great company, food and music, the ArtBall also held an auction that featured 42 pieces of Contemporary African, Pan-African, and Black Art from emerging and established artists. The proceeds of the auction will benefit Amref’s healthcare work across Africa. It was curated by Storm Ascher, Cierra Britton, Alexandra Scotland, Natalie Kates, and Nadia Nascimento. Notable auction artists this year include Hank Willis Thomas, Khalif Tahir Thompson, Adama Delphine Fawundu, Alex Anderson, Damien Davis, Genevieve Gaignard, Jamel Robinson, Lewinale Havette, Megan Gabrielle Harris, Crystal Yayra Anthony, Roscoe B Thicke, Rudy Shepherd, Troy Jones, and Turiya Magadlela.
Along with its philanthropic efforts, the ArtBall dismantles exclusivity that’s typically seen with galas. "Amref Health Africa is for Africans, by Africans. 97% of our staff are Africans, many of whom are young, creative, innovative, and passionate. It would have been antitheses to our ethos to have an event with an audience that doesn’t reflect this," Correale continues.
Below, Kehinde Wiley shares his insight on the visual arts landscape with EDITION.
Les Ballet Afrik. Photo courtesy of Amref Health Africa / BFA
Could you share your journey with us into the arts and what drove you to embrace your career as an artist?
My journey into the arts started with an early childhood educational program that my mother sent me to as a kid at the age of 11. It was an arts conservatory that had spaces for children from the inner city. It was because of that program that I was able to sidestep some of the hurdles surrounding growing up in South Central Los Angeles in the late 80s and 90s.
Your sculpture, "Rumors of War", has been widely acclaimed. How do you perceive its impact within the context of current social and political conversations, especially regarding racial equality and the reconsideration of historical monuments?
Monuments have always been important to me because I am interested in consensus. Museum culture and curatorial practices are about consensus. Monuments are what we all gather around and collectively agree upon as a statement of intent and value. The reassessing of what our collective values contain is the nature of the conversation surrounding monuments and historical address. Is it ever possible to satisfy every political and social urge publically? No. But I believe that the work that I'm creating in Rumors of War addresses some of the ills and absences that have existed art historically within this space of black figuration and monumentality.
Marc Lacey, Githinji Gitahi, and Kehinde Wiley. Amref Health Africa / BFA
This year at the Amref ArtBall you will be honored with the Rees Visionary Award for your artistic practice and contribution to art, as well as for founding the Black Rock Global Arts Foundation. How do you feel about receiving this award?
This award is incredibly gratifying, specifically in its relationship to my efforts in Africa. As an artist, I’ve endeavored to forward a progressive and inclusive narrative. Here beyond just picture making, the work steps outside of the exhibition space and begins to affect the lives of young artists, inspiring their practice and their engagement with Africa as a continually evolving space.
What morals do you think your art and Amref’s mission have in common?
Amref has a very clear goal in regards to its healthcare mission. Art, however, exists at an interesting adjunct between the practicalities of social justice and the whimsy of an artist’s flights of fancy. At its best, all art should not be bound by a kind of dictum surrounding what it should be and what it should not be. There are moments of overlap in which an abiding desire for a corrective is achieved both pictorially and in the case of AMREF, in the bodies of the African.
Many of your works celebrate black excellence and regality. How can such portrayals be leveraged by institutions like Amref Health Africa to inspire young people, fostering a sense of empowerment and hope that contributes to improved health outcomes in Africa?
When art inspires it creates a new way of seeing something in the world that previously was perceived as fixed or indelible. The great shifts that have happened socially and culturally throughout the world have often been helped by artists. Their ability to destabilize known narratives is at the core practice aimed at equity.
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Photography by: Amref Health Africa / BFA