The Power of My Hands’: A Group Exhibition Featuring 16 Women Artists from Africa in Paris

Currently showing at Paris Musées until August 22, 2021, ‘The Power of My Hands’ is a group exhibition featuring 16 women artists from English and Portuguese speaking countries from Africa and its diaspora, featuring works in paintings, pottery, photographs, videos, performances and needlework – celebrate the liberating energy of the «power of their hands».

 Curated by Odile Burluraux et Suzana Sousa, the show reflects how artists can use their personal histories to address the social issues that govern the condition of women today. Examining a range of themes – the body, sexuality, self-representation, motherhood, beliefs – the exhibition asks how, for Black women, attitudes to privacy reveal what goes unsaid and their relationship with the world. It does this via an intermingling of the notions of memory, family, spirituality and imagination.

 Stacey Gillian Abe, ‘Enya Sa’, 2017, Print on Dibond

​Even if some of these artists make no claim to feminist or radical political stances, the exhibits enable the sharing of individual experiences whose collective, universal assertion chimes resonantly with the famous 1970s slogan «the personal is political».

The artists on view include Stacey Gillian Abe, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Gabrielle Goliath, Kudzanai-Violet Hwami, Keyezua, Lebohang Kganye, Kapwani Kiwanga, Senzeni Marasela, Grace Ndiritu, Wura-Natasha Ogunji, Reinata Sadimba, Lerato Shadi, Ana Silva, Buhlebezwe Siwani, Billie Zangewa, Portia Zvavahera.

Artist Wura-Natasha Ogunji has been invited to present three works from the programme at Threehouse, her alternative art space based in Lagos, Nigeria.

This exhibition adds to the Musée d’Art Moderne’s long tradition of regularly presenting women artists. It is part of Africa2020’s Focus Femmes and is backed by the Agence Française de Développement and JCDecaux.