Past
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Abu Dhabi Art 2024
Featuring Ilyes Messaoudi and Massoud Hayoun 20 - 24 Nov 2024 Explore identity and transformation at Abu Dhabi Art Fair 2024, Booth E6. Featuring Ilyes Messaoudi’s dual-sided glass paintings and Massoud Hayoun’s Ghorba series on heritage and migration. Read more -
Sotheby’s Maison at Landmark Chater
Featuring Hamed Ouattara 27 Jul - 15 Nov 2024 Discover Hamed Ouattara's contemporary African designs at Sotheby’s new Maison in Landmark Chater, Hong Kong, blending immersive art and luxury in a vibrant cultural space. Read more -
Made in Joburg - at Rmb Latitudes 2024
by Jamal Nxedlana 24 - 26 May 2024 Foreing Agent will be present with Jamal Nxdedlana at the unique and beautiful venue for the Art Fair, Shepstone Gardens which spans three acres in the heart of Johannesburg. From 24 - 26 May 2024,
Jamal Nxedlana’s new body of work, Made in Joburg, take this site as one of many cues for curiosity to travel across scales of time and space, using fashion as an interscalar vehicle to survey the aes- thetics and materiality of desire, identity expressions, consumerism, and subcultures. Produced on site at this landfill and other mine dumps across Johannesburg, his still and moving images invite consideration of the symbols and codes embedded not only in dress and performance, but also the global logistics, labour dynamics and class concerns often obscured from view when we talk about fashion.
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Archetypes
by Ousmane Bâ 2 - 25 May 2024 Infused with the influences of his Fulani background, a traditionally pastoral and nomadic community, Ousmane Bâ’s art offers a profound reflection on the themes of harmony and inner peace. His works become a thoughtful invitation to ponder the essence of movement, our relationships with ourselves and others, and our connection with nature. In a quest for new artistic horizons, Bâ has transitioned into a blend of painting and digital drawing, an exploration aimed at capturing the elusive image of inner tranquility. Read more -
My Garden
by Shen Wei 21 Mar - 27 Apr 2024 Upcoming showcase Shen Wei's latest collection of unique works at Foreign Agent Mar 21, 2024 to Apr 27, 2024 Read more -
NOMAD St Moritz
Foreign Agent goes to St Moritz! 22 - 25 Feb 2024 For its first participation to NOMAD, Foreign Agent will present works by Nicolas Coleman, Hamed Ouattara, Jean Servais Somian, Maliza Kiasuwa and Shen Wei. Read more -
Mboa
By Ajarb Bernard Ategwa 7 Feb - 16 Mar 2024 Immerse yourself in Ajarb Bernard Ategwa's textured portraits, inspired by Cameroonian Caba textiles. Mboa, which means home or village in Douala language, spotlights Ategwa's ongoing focus on personal depictions of family and friends. Providing a local perspective on self-representation in Central Africa, the collection seamlessly blends history with contemporary influences. Ategwa's expressive anonymized portraits unfold through body language, color, and clothing.
Ategwa, born in 1988 in Kumba, Cameroon, has had his art acquired by the Perez Art Museum Miami and the Chazen Museum of Art at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His work has been featured in exhibitions at Jack Bell in London Peres Projects in Berlin, and the Cameroon National Museum.
His paintings, in sizable formats, mirror the grandeur of cityscapes and public domains. With a vibrant color palette and a graphic style reminiscent of Douala’s advertising language, Cameroon’s largest city and economic hub, Ategwa captures the essence of rapid change. His painting technique involves intricate free-hand line drawings on canvas, conveying a sense of movement and momentum that mirrors the swift transformation of his city.
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Clear Blue
Watercolours by Nicolas Lambelet Coleman 25 Nov 2023 - 27 Jan 2024 After the widely succesful 'A Stranger in Morocco' presented at 1-54 Marrakech in February 2023, Foreign Agent is thrilled to present another solo show by Swiss-American artist Nicolas Lambelet Coleman, his first solo in Switzerland. 'Clear Blue' is also the artist's first set of watercolours. In this amtospheric series defined... Read more -
West Bund Art & Design 2023
Shanghai, China | Booth: B316 9 - 12 Nov 2023 We're off to West Bund Art & Design in Shanghai, 9th to 12th November, 2023, at the West Bund Art Center. Shen Wei: Renowned for his intimate portraits and poetic landscapes, Shen Wei's work transcends boundaries. Ousmane Bâ: The French Senegalese artist from Tokyo brings the spontaneity of gesturing bodies... Read more -
1-54 London 2023
Foreign Agent @ 1-54 London, Somerset House 12 - 15 Oct 2023 We were excited to be present at the 11th edition of 1-54 London, the premier global fair for contemporary African art, which took place from October 12th to 15th, 2023, at Somerset House, London, Booth E19. We proudly showcased two remarkable Foreign Agent artists: Ousmane Bâ Ousmane Bâ's collages, inspired... Read more -
Ghorba
Introducing Massoud Hayoun 16 Sep - 11 Nov 2023 Ghorba - غربة
The Arabic word Ghorba — غربة — means strangeness or foreignness. It describes a feeling of exile — a longing for more familiar people and places. It is a ubiquitous theme of arts from across the Arab region, and it has a long history. In recent decades, art on the topic of ghorba has focused on the experiences of refugees from turmoil and immigrants seeking to reap the fruits of the empires they and their ancestors had built. Ghorba very certainly involves feelings of anguish. It can be taken as a sort of mourning. Some musical expressions of ghorba border on howling. But ghorba can be more than just hard feelings.
Foreign Agent’s September exhibition regards Ghorba not just as a feeling of great sorrow but as the source of inspiration it has always been. In this exhibition, artist Massoud Hayoun revisits the legacies of his Tunisian and Moroccan-Egyptian grandparents who raised him as well as several people and places he has visited in his work as a journalist. In doing so, he explores the philosophical potential of the ghorba he has encountered in himself and others. In these works, Hayoun mines his experiences of strangeness and longing in order to discover underlying truths on a wide array of topics from gender roles to government accountability to immigration.
Particularly as the world emerges from the immense loss of the pandemic, we are many of us familiar with some sort of ghorba for lost loved ones and lost time. Foreign Agent’s Ghorba show explores the possibilities for an reemergence where that collective sense of loss informs our sense of empathy for and solidarity with each other. The concept of ghorba is, in its origin, Arab, but it is also universal, insofar as otherness is a human condition. Hayoun’s work explores those boundaries to their fullest potential, and it offers a means of turning our loss into a reason to experience radical love for one another.
About the artist
Massoud Hayoun is a 35-year-old painter from Los Angeles. His work lies at a far-out intersection of the personal and political and radically reimagines the lives of his dead North African grandparents, who raised him. He began to paint in August 2022. Mathqaf art organization has heralded him as an "artist crush du jour" and called his work "incredible," and he has already garnered solo and group shows across the United States through 2024, most recently at Band of Vices in Los Angeles.
Hayoun is also an award-winning author and journalist. His first non-fiction book, a decolonial memoir of his grandparents and political theory of Arab identity entitled "When We Were Arabs,” won an Arab American Book Award for breaking new ground in Arab and Arab American studies and was a U.S. National Public Radio best book of the year. Ai Weiwei called his second book, a novel set in China, "exquisite." He has reported internationally for news outlets including Al Jazeera, CNN, and Agence France-Presse. Narrative truth-telling unifies his artistic, literary, and journalistic practices. Read more -
Euphoria
Shen Wei @ Photo Basel (Booth 20) 13 - 18 Jun 2023 For its first participation at Photo Basel, Foreign Agent is excited to present Euphoria, a solo show by Chinese-American artist Shen Wei. This is the first solo by the artist in Switzerland. Euphoria will showcase some older as well as new works never seen before from the I Miss You Already, Thirteen Days and Flowers of the Flesh series. Euphoria oscillates between aesthetic contemplations and urban discoveries, continuing the artist's exploration of self and nature.
Shen Wei's work has been exhibited internationally, with venues including the Museum of the City of New York, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Power Station of Art in Shanghai, China, the Hasselblad Foundation in Göteborg, Sweden, the North Carolina Museum of Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago. His work has been featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, The New Yorker, CNN, Aperture, ARTnews, Paris Review, Financial Times, Le Figaro, and American Photo.
Shen Wei’s work is included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Photography, the Library of Congress, the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Morgan Library & Museum, CAFA Art Museum, and the Ringling Museum of Art, among others. Read more -
Bolibana
Hamed Ouattara @ Design Miami Basel (Booth G09) 12 - 18 Jun 2023 For its first participation at Design Miami Basel, Foreign Agent will present "Bolibana", from acclaimed designer from Burkina Faso, Hamed Ouattara, whose work was recently acquired by the Denver Museum of Art. Born in 1971 in Ouagadougou, the industrial design graduate from Paris is known for his meticulous artisanal prowess; utilizing collected scraps, debris, industrial waste – in particular oil barrels as his raw material. Hamed Ouattara named his latest series BOLIBANA which in the Bamana language of Mali and Burkina Faso means “the happy ending of an unusual journey” a tribute to the entirety of his body of work since his beginnings. His productions are entirely handmade, using ancestral welding techniques. The result is a bold series of original and functional sculptures, a daring combination of architectural elegance and playful animality.
In addition to Hamed Ouattara’s work, Foreign Agent will also present a unique piece from renowned Mozambican artist and designer Gonçalo Mabunda. “Big Chair” is composed of decommissioned weapons from the Mozambican civil war. Mabunda’s work has been acquired by the Chazen Museum of Art, Minneapolis Institute of Art and the Brooklyn Museum.
Finally, Foreign Agent will present chairs by Ousmane Mbaye Design from his new Plus collection made in Dakar.
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Chasing Spirits
Group show curated by Roger Niyigena Karera 13 May - 8 Jul 2023 Foreign Agent is pleased to present Chasing Spirits, curated by Roger Niyigena Karera. Chasing Spiritsfeatures works by four contemporary artists who explore the powerful liminal space at the intersection of the visible and the invisible, reality and fantasy: Bunmi Agusto (Nigeria), Nene Mahlangu (South Africa), Eshinlokun Wasiu (Nigeria) and Yvanovitch Mbaya (Rep. of Congo). Read more -
PAD Paris
Foreign Agent @ PAD Paris 29 Mar - 2 Apr 2023 For its first participation at PAD Paris, Foreign Agent will present a selection of works by some of the leading designers and artists rom Africa and the Diaspora, such as Yinka Ilori, Bibi Seck, Hamed Ouattara, Jean Servais Somian, Jomo Tariku, Ousmane Mbaye and Didier Viodé. Read more -
Equilibre Instable
A solo by Maliza Kiasuwa 4 Mar - 6 May 2023 Through creative blending, Maliza Kiasuwa produces organic works meshing unusual fragments of both organic and manufactured material. Whether in the form of braiding raffia and rubber or stitching loofah and polyethylene, the assemblage which can be found in a large proportion of her work symbolizes the age-old craft of weaving and patching, often used in order to expand the life span of discarded objects. These two techniques are characteristic of crude African artistic ingenuity, in spite of insufficient access to productive means. This starkly contrasts industrial society’s celebrated notion of abundance; almost inseparable from our current consumer society.
One day when the artist was working on her farm in Naivasha (Kenya), her daughter brought her a nest fallen from a tree following a storm. The nest was made of various materials which the artist decided to use: fragments of fishing nets, cotton, raffia, polyester threads from torn grain bags.
“This complex combination of elements, carefully gleaned from the banks of the lake, symbolize the difficult cohabitation of humans and nature, wealth and poverty, which even the most vulnerable of animals manage to transform into a cozy, protective and yet fragile home.”
Maliza Kiasuwa’s productions are overlaid with stitches, symbolizing the need to constantly mend, repair, heal, and gather what has been damaged by the hazards of history. The artist engages viewers to touch her works, to ponder about the origin of the resources used, and to observe these contemporary productions with renewed attention. Self-supporting, suspended or draped on metal rods, the artist’s creations synthesize the delicate and the brutal, wealth and poverty, ugliness and beauty, of her environment. This ambivalence and tension remains particularly present within the African continent: “équilibre instable.” Read more -
A Stranger in Morocco
Nicolas Coleman @ 1-54 Marrakech 9 - 12 Feb 2023 Foreign Agent is thrilled to present A Stranger in Morocco, Nicolas Lambelet Coleman's solo show at 1-54 Marrakech. This series of figurative paintings is centered on the artist's travels through Morocco in May 2022. For several weeks, he stayed in Marrakech and Tangier while visiting towns and villages nearby. He... Read more -
Play/Mobile
Jamal Nxedlana and Contemporary Design from the Edge 10 Dec 2022 - 25 Feb 2023 Foreign Agent is excited to introduce Play/Mobile, a curated show presenting a body of photographs by Jamal Nxedlana which evoke a relationship with and to sculpture, putting the ubiquitous monobloc plastic chairs at the centre. These cheap, flexible productions index the repetition, replication and duplication processes that “drain culture, objects and life of their idiosyncrasy, their spark and potential. [Becoming] copies and copies of copies” (Jamal Nxedlana). The flexibility and fluidity of the plastic is further mirrored by the actors’ bodies, a celebration of the formless, which as the French philosopher Georges Bataille argued, was to bring “art down in the world”, down from its elevated status to its base materialism, as a vector for creativity.
This playful critique of the generic is set in dialogue with new productions in contemporary design from Africa and the Diaspora: selected pieces from Dokter and Misses’ new line of work Sketches from the Edge, as well as their Blue Chair, which is also referenced in one of Nxedlana’s work; the Yayoi chairs designed by Bibi Seck for Foreign Agent, recently featured in Elle Déco and his recycled plastic Taboo line; Jomo Tariku’s stools which appear in the forthcoming Black Panther movie series and iconic Nyala chair and Ousmane Mbaye’s new afrofuturistic Plus line. All presented for the first time in Switzerland.
Foreign Agent will also launch selected items from Ohiri Studio OUTLINES as featured in Vogue and worn by Bella Hadid at the Met Gala. Exclusively at Foreign Agent.
The show opens Saturday December 10 in presence of Jamal Nxedlana.
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Abu Dhabi Art 2022
Ilyes Messaoudi and Lounis Baouche @ ADA 2022, Booth AT6 14 - 20 Nov 2022 Foreign Agent is excited to present new works by Ilyes Messaoudi and Lounis Baouche in the Focus section of Abu Dhabi Art! Read more -
AKAA 2022
Foreign Agent @ AKAA 2022 19 - 23 Oct 2022 Foreign Agent is thrilled to present for the first time at AKAA Paris, Booth C7, presenting new and recent works by Maliza Kiasuwa, Ousmane Bâ, Bibi Seck, Ousmane Mbaye and Jomo Tariku. Foreign Agent will also curate the VIP lounge with stunning pieces from some of the leading designers from... Read more -
Storytelling
Recent Works by Didier Viodé 15 Oct - 3 Dec 2022 Storytelling is Didier Viodé's second solo show at Foreign Agent. In Storytelling, the artist continues his observation of human life through a series of portraits and landscapes, which tell stories from his own personal memories as a child in the Ivory Coast to contemporary culture and society. At the heart... Read more -
Realms of Soualiga
Lisandro Suriel @ Unseen Amsterdam, Booth 12 15 - 18 Sep 2022 Foreign Agent is thrilled to present Realms of Soualiga, new works by Lisandro Suriel at Unseen Amsterdam. Lisandro Suriel is a photographer of magic realism and artistic researcher from Saint Martin. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Photography at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague and received his... Read more -
Summer Flings
Franck Kemkeng Noah, Ousmane Bâ, Isaac Zavale, Nicolas Lambelet Coleman and Gonçalo Mabunda 15 Jul - 1 Oct 2022 Foreign Agent is excited to announce the launch on July 15, 2022, of its summer group show Summer Flings showcasing exciting works by Franck Kemkeng Noah, Ousmane Bâ, Isaac Zavale, Nicolas Lambelet Coleman and Gonçalo Mabunda, most of whom are shown for the first time in Switzerland. Summer Flings explores wide-ranging themes from self-creation trough inter-culturalism, the absurd legacy of armed conflict, the beauty of the Black body, the assassination of Benjamin F. Randolph and the vibrant reality of Joburg inner-city street life. Come join us on Friday July 15 at 6pm!
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Gbèto/Human
Didier Viodé @ 1-54 New York 19 - 22 May 2022 Gbèto/Human is Didier Viodé ’s first solo show in New York, after his recent successful group show at Marianne Boesky Gallery curated by Amoako Boafo and Larry Ossei-Mensah, followed by a Paris solo show and a forthcoming participation at the 2022 Dakar Biennale. In the Fongbé and Pedah languages... Read more -
There's Gasoline In My Heart
A solo by Tiffanie Delune 7 May - 2 Jul 2022 Creating from her own imagination, dreams and memories, Tiffanie Delune invites us into new territories crafted in her signature blend of warm colours, layered textures, abstract shapes and biomorphic sensual forms overlaid with talismanic pictorial signs. There’s Gasoline In My Heart is a playful and thoughtful invitation to reflect on love, desire and our engagement with nature and the universe.
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The Jumbee Sea
A solo by Lisandro Suriel 19 Feb - 23 Apr 2022 Foreign Agent is proud to present The Jumbee Sea, Lisandro Suriel's first solo exhibition at the gallery. Read more -
Kahina
A solo by Ilyes Messaoudi 4 Dec 2021 - 5 Feb 2022 Foreign Agent is proud to present Kahina, the first solo exhibition in Switzerland of Tunisian artist Ilyes Messaoudi. Vernissage on Sat 4 Dec, 2pm - 6 pm Read more -
Masolo
Kura Shomali, Maliza Kiasuwa and Joycenath Tshamala 4 Sep - 6 Nov 2021 Foreign Agent is proud to present Masolo, a group show featuring three exciting Congolese artists presented together for the first time: Kura Shomali, Maliza Kiasuwa and Joycenath Tshamala - their first gallery show in Switzerland. Read more -
Bonne Arrivée
Foreign Agent @ the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris 31 Aug - 5 Sep 2021 Foreign Agent is excited to take part in Bonne Arrivée, the first contemporary African design exhibition at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, organized by the Les Oiseaux Migrateurs collective, launched in 2014 by Mamadou and Youssouf Fofana. Foreign Agent will present pieces by Yinka Ilori , Ousmane Mbaye... Read more -
Strangely Familiar
A solo by Léonard Pongo curated by Julie Bonzon 8 Jul - 21 Aug 2021 Foreign Agent and The Photographic Collective are proud to present Strangely Familiar, Léonard Pongo's first solo exhibition in Switzerland. This unique and poetic display compiles a selection of works from his acclaimed series "The Uncanny" (2011-2017) and "Primordial Earth (2017 - Ongoing). Read more -
Superlife
A solo by Maurice Mboa 5 Mar - 30 Apr 2021 Foreign Agent presents Superlife, Maurice Mboa's first solo show in Switzerland since 2017. Read more -
Gbèto
A solo by Didier Viodé 10 Dec 2020 - 13 Feb 2021 Foreign Agent présente Gbèto, le premier solo en Suisse de l’artiste béninois Didier Viodé. TEST TEST Read more -
On entre OK, on sort KO!
17 Oct - 28 Nov 2020 Foreign Agent presents a group show featuring works by some of Africa's most exciting artists: Chéri Chérin, Shula, Kura Shomali , Malick Sidibe, Trésor Chérin and Christian Astuguevieille. Read more -
Afro Pop Power Trip
13 Jun - 5 Sep 2020 Foreign Agent presents a group show featuring works by Wole Lagunju , Maurice Mboa and Yinka Ilori . Read more -
This is Foreign Agent!
13 Dec 2019 - 7 Mar 2020 Inaugural Group Show of Foreign Agent gallery. Read more
Online
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Pride in Port-au-Prince
A solo by Pierre Louis Herold 1 - 31 May 2021 On the occasion of pride month (May 2021), Foreign Agent presented a selection of works by Haitian cardboard painter Pierre Louis Herold. Read more -
Ses’fikile sesikhona! (we are here, we’ve arrived!)
A solo by Nonzuzo Gxekwa 1 - 31 May 2021 On the occasion of pride month (May 2021), Foreign Agent and The Photographic Collective are pleased to present a selection of works by South African photographer and visual artist Nonzuzo Gxekwa. Gxekwa's work has gathered momentum and praise over the past year through its inclusion in international exhibitions, art fairs,... Read more
