Adam de Boer, King Lojhar, 2022 © the Artist, Courtesy Ben Brown Fine Arts

In Person Tour with Ghanaian-American Curator Larry Ossei-Mensah

Thursday 13 October
10-11am
Ben Brown Fine Arts
12 Brook's Mews
London
W1K 4DG
United Kingdom
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Join Ghanaian-American curator and cultural critic Larry Ossei-Mensah for a private tour of his most recent exhibition, Ghosts of Empires II, at Ben Brown Fine Arts. Ossei-Mensah's curatorial process explore the intersections, overlaps, and dissonance between the Black Atlantic and Asia Imperialist Trade routes and brings together an extraordinary group of contemporary artists hailing from African and Asian diasporas.

This seminal exhibition features the work of Hurvin Anderson, Adam de Boer, Delphine Desane, Theaster Gates, Jeanne F. Jalandoni, Tidawhitney Lek, Chris Ofili, Fadekemi Ogunsanya, Maia Cruz Palileo, Miguel Angel Payano Jr., Paul Anthony Smith, Zao Wou-Ki and Livien Yin.

Inspired by the formative text by British-Ghanaian author and MP Kwasi Kwarteng, Ghosts of Empire: Britain's Legacies in the Modern World, the exhibition at its crux is an examination of how artists from African and Asian diasporas are using their artistic practices as a platform to engage with the legacies of slavery, migration, colonialism, imperialism trade, and sovereignty, in contemporary times. By amplifying the conscious acts of liberation, resistance, and perseverance these communities have exhibited – despite their historical circumstances – Ghosts of Empires ll will provide a forum for a nuanced understanding of their collective diasporic histories.

ABOUT LARRY OSSEI-MENSAH Larry Ossei-Mensah uses contemporary art as a vehicle to redefine how we see ourselves and the world around us. The Ghanaian American curator and cultural critic has organized exhibitions and programs globally featuring artists such as Firelei Baez, Ebony G. Patterson, Judy Chicago, Yinka Illori, Steve McQueen, and Stanley Whitney, to name a few. A native of The Bronx, Ossei-Mensah is the co-founder of ARTNOIR, a global collective designed to engage this generation’s dynamic and diverse creative class and celebrate the artistry and creativity of Black and Brown artists worldwide. Ossei-Mensah contributed to the first-ever Ghanaian Pavilion at the 2019 Venice Biennale with an essay on the work of visual artist Lynette Yiadom-Boakye.

Ossei-Mensah is the former Susanne Feld Hilberry Senior Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCAD), Detroit, and currently serves as Curator-at-Large at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), where he curated the exhibition Let Freedom Ring in 2021. Ossei-Mensah also co-curated with OMSK Social Club the 7th Athens Biennale in 2021. Recently he curated Ghanaian painter Amoako Boafo’s first museum solo exhibition, Soul of Black Folks, at the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD), San Francisco, and is currently on view at the Contemporary Art Museum Houston. Ossei-Mensah has also organized Purring Monster with Mirrors on Their Backs featuring Guadalupe Maravilla, currently on view at MCA Denver.

Instagram: @larryosseimensah

Twitter: @youngglobal


Places limited. RSVP Essential rsvp@benbrownfinearts.com

Location

Ben Brown Fine Arts


12 Brook's Mews
London
W1K 4DG
United Kingdom