African Art: The ARAK Collection

The definitive and debut publication of the Qatar-based ARAK Collection – home to over 4000 works by artists from Sub-Saharan Africa.

The book features artworks from more than 100 artists in the collection. It serves as an essential framing text for the ARAK Collection and provides a much needed perspective on contemporary art from the continent. Through the ARAK Collection, one is able to gain a dynamic, collective vision of Africa.

Arranged according to the selectively identified themes of Abstraction, Portraiture, and Place, each with an accompanying contextual essay by art critic and cultural theorist Ashraf Jamal, the publication also features short, informative texts on each artist written by Jamal, curator and researcher Nneoma Angela Okorie, and art historian and writer Barnabas Ticha Muvhuti.

Through considered editorial decisions and engaging prose, African Art: The ARAK Collection places African art, and indeed the continent itself, at the centre of the world, and demonstrates why the rest of the globe is beginning to shift its focus toward the work of African artists.

About the Authors:

Ashraf Jamal is a Senior Research Associate in the Visual Identities in Art and Design Research Centre, University of Johannesburg. He is the former editor of Art South Africa and Art Africa.
Nneoma Angela Okorie is a curator, writer and researcher currently based in Accra, Ghana. Her curatorial & research practice is centered around exploring new forms of displaying & debating using visual, textual, activations, audio or archival materials.
Barnabas Ticha Muvhuti is a Cape Town-based writer and art historian with research interests in the marginalised Black modern artists-cum-teachers in Zimbabwe and the practices of contemporary artists based on the African continent and its diasporic communities.