ACP reports that La Croisade Créative, a practical graphic-design workshop, is planned in Kinshasa on 7, 14 and 21 November. Sessions will cover Photoshop, image-making and generative AI, with Congolese textiles, sculpture and Kuba motifs presented as resources for contemporary visual identities. Organisers also encourage documentation and dialogue with craftspeople and custodians of cultural knowledge. The report does not specify a venue, fees or booking arrangements.
Organisers of the seventh Prix Lokumu in Kinshasa plan to connect Kuba textiles and motifs with contemporary fashion, design and visual art. Coordinator Onassis Mutombo told ACP that the programme would also provide technical, entrepreneurial and digital training for 50 young Congolese women. The awards evening is planned for 5 December at CCAPAC, with further programme and access details expected from 5 November.
ACP reported that Kinshasa art student Joseph Jessy Dunga received the international Art Humanité prize for La force des fragiles. Made with coffee as a painting material, the work brings together overlapping figures to explore vulnerability, solidarity and mutual support. Dunga linked its development to personal experience and research into the Ngbaka community. The award was presented at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Kinshasa.
Matt Stromberg’s Hyperallergic guide highlights Black artistic histories and contemporary practice across Los Angeles exhibitions. Its selections include April Bey’s textiles, a survey of the pioneering Brockman Gallery, Todd Gray’s photographic work and Reggie Burrows Hodges’s paintings across three venues. Published on 27 October, the roundup connects archival research with new interpretations of personal and collective histories. Bey’s exhibition opens on 31 October; the other featured presentations are already underway.
Hyperallergic·
Firstsite, Colchester, photographed on 3 July 2014—not a view of Nalini. Photograph: Jim Osley / Firstsite, Colchester / CC BY-SA 2.0, via Geograph and Wikimedia Commons.Jim Osley · CC BY-SA 2.0
Writing in ArtReview, Mark Rappolt examines how Arpita Shah’s Nalini connects photographs and family keepsakes to histories spanning India, Kenya and Britain. Works drawing on Nairobi and Mombasa explore migration and maternal relationships, while obscured faces complicate the promise of recovering the past. His review appeared on 27 October, after the Firstsite exhibition in Colchester had closed on 4 October 2026.
Writing for Art Report Africa, Nana Poulot examines how Mémoire Matérielle at 193 Gallery in Paris connects artistic materials with memory. Works by Gaëlle Choisne, Joana Choumali, Andile Dyalvane and Carla Gueye use embroidered photographs, ceramics and mixed-media sculpture to explore inheritance, repair and bodily experience. Curated by Azu Nwagbogu and Nkhensani Mkhari, the exhibition runs until 31 October 2026.
The tenth Abuja International Photo Festival is scheduled for 27–30 October at the Exhibition Pavilion in Abuja, with 63 artists taking part. In Shalom Esene’s Art Report Africa interview, founder Osaze Efe discusses how Nigerian photography is changing and what artificial intelligence means for the medium. Alongside the exhibitions, the programme includes workshops, panels and masterclasses, connecting photographic practice with wider questions about how images are made and understood.
ACP reports that performer Maguy Kalomba has welcomed Nadège Mitshindu Bope’s leadership of DR Congo’s national commission for protecting Kuba textiles and motifs. Kalomba called for wider transmission and visibility of this material heritage. The educator’s appointment was made by ministerial order on 1 September 2026; ACP’s 24 October report records a subsequent response, rather than a new appointment or the enactment of new legal protections.
A new book brings together more than 170 Cameroonian artists in a survey spanning a century of modern and contemporary art. Shalom Esene reports for Art Report Africa that Ozong Agborsangaya-Fiteu’s Ô Cameroon! combines artworks with essays and conversations to strengthen the documentation of the country’s artistic history. Its London launch took place at Somerset House during 1-54 on 17 October. Further launches are planned, but their dates have not been established.
Turiya Adkins, Timothy Yanick Hunter and Clifford Prince King have been selected for the Studio Museum in Harlem’s 2026–27 residency, Hyperallergic reports. From November 2026 through October 2027, the artists will receive individual studios, material support and professional-development guidance in the museum’s new building. The programme concludes with a group exhibition, continuing the institution’s support for artists of African descent.
A Tanga BD gathering at Planète J Socimat in Kinshasa is scheduled for 25 October, ACP reports. Organisers plan comics reading, drawing and activities around traditional objects to encourage young audiences to explore art and heritage. Barly Baruti describes the initiative as an accessible route into reading, with Hallain Paluku and Rodriguez Muladika expected to guide participants’ first steps in comics.
Maputo Fast Forward’s tenth-anniversary festival runs from 23 October to 1 November 2026 at JFS Tower in Mozambique’s capital. ART AFRICA reports that Artificial Realities: The Infinite Mirror brings exhibitions, discussions and workshops together around technology and cultural knowledge. Installations and projects by Russel Hlongwane, Dilayla Romeo, Zayaan Khan, Malik Afegbua and Adilson De Oliveira explore territory, memory and image-making.
Contemporary And editor-in-chief Ethel-Ruth Tawe traces the platform’s development across publishing, education, archives and artist commissions. Writing for C&, she uses the Kongo cosmogram to connect its magazines, Nairobi hub, mobile reading room and other programmes. Her essay introduces a series examining how these interrelated projects support artistic exchange and keep knowledge from Africa and its diasporas in circulation.
Three works by British-Nigerian artist Okiki Akinfe have been acquired for Abbot Hall in Kendal through the inaugural Dasha Shenkman Focus Fund. Shalom Esene’s Art Report Africa profile examines the painter’s practice following the selection at Frieze London. The acquisition comprises a painting, a lightbox work and a preparatory drawing, placing several aspects of her work in a public collection. The fund supports an acquisition, rather than an unrestricted cash award to the artist.
Hyperallergic’s October 20 newsletter highlights the launch of Mohammad Omer Khalil: Common Ground at New York’s Center for Art, Research and Alliances on October 25. The organisers describe the book, edited by Amina Ahmed and Jenna Hamed, as a collection of essays, studio material and archival records tracing the Sudanese artist’s career between Sudan, Italy and New York. The event will combine readings with conversation involving Khalil and contributors.
Hyperallergic·
Contextual aerial view of Kinshasa, not a competition entry. Photograph by EdwinAlden.1995; existing rotation by Respublik.EdwinAlden.1995 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Kinshasa’s Best Talent Visuel competition will use drawing, photography, graphic design and video to explore the capital under the theme “Kin la Belle”. Organiser Platini Ndaka told ACP that the November 2 edition aims to foreground cultural heritage, local talent and everyday initiatives, encouraging artists to tell more varied stories about the city.
Two bronze sculptures by Alfred Liyolo at the Congolese press agency’s Kinshasa headquarters are receiving renewed attention after a visit by his daughter, Myoto Liyolo. ACP’s account recalls their installation in 1975 and considers their place in the agency’s history, connecting the sculptor’s monumental practice with the preservation of institutional cultural heritage.
The Democratic Republic of Congo’s visual artists’ union and Belgium’s Stanley’s Auctions have announced talks towards a strategic partnership. According to a communiqué reported by ACP, discussions will address artwork traceability, authentication, contracts and artists’ rights. The proposed framework also seeks to protect artists’ market standing and strengthen safeguards for Congolese cultural heritage.
Kunstinstituut Melly in Rotterdam announced a survey of South African artist Moshekwa Langa spanning work made between 1995 and 2026. Curated by Gabi Ngcobo and Kabelo Malatsie, You Will Find Us in the Best Places will bring together nearly 120 works across drawing, collage, photography, video and installation. ART AFRICA describes a presentation organized around recurring memories, places and questions of belonging rather than a strict chronology.
ART AFRICA·
Ibrahim Mahama at Art Basel in Basel, Switzerland, on 20 June 2025. Contextual artist portrait, not the Paris exhibition. Photo: Bea Phi, CC BY-SA 4.0.Bea Phi · CC BY-SA 4.0
ART AFRICA reports that Ibrahim Mahama’s The Harvest Season at Fondation Cartier in Paris will connect installations and archival materials with contributions from nine artists and collectives. Drawing on Ghana’s colonial and postcolonial histories, the exhibition examines labour, industrial heritage and collective memory. Contributors include James Barnor, Dorothy Akpene Amenuke, Gideon Appah, Zohra Opoku and the Congolese collective CATPC, extending the collaborative approach of Mahama’s cultural institutions in Tamale.
