From Lagos to Los Angeles, an African art gallery arrives
A new gallery on Melrose Ave has defied the odds and successfully opened during a dark pandemic winter. Adenrele Sonariwo has opened what may be L.A.'s first contemporary art gallery from Africa. "That in itself is an accomplishment,” said Marla C. Berns, the director of the Fowler Museum at UCLA. In bringing a branch of the gallery she founded six years ago, Rele, to Los Angeles, Sonariwo is giving emerging African artists a global platform.
"It certainly didn’t feel like a gallery opening. There was no crowd. No wine and cheese. Only a few people were allowed in at a time because of Covid-19 restrictions.
But despite the challenge of opening a new gallery devoted to largely-unknown African artists during a pandemic winter, Adenrele Sonariwo exuded an aura of serene resolve. She had succeeded in bringing to the United States a branch of the Rele Gallery that she founded six years ago in Nigeria, making it perhaps Los Angeles’s first contemporary gallery from the world’s second-largest continent.
“We’re doing the artists a disservice by just being in Lagos,” Sonariwo, 34, said at her compact gallery on a commercial stretch of Melrose Avenue. “It’s one thing to see the artwork on social media or online. But these artists have such amazing techniques that I felt it was really important to have people see them in person.”"— Robin Pogrebin, Feb. 17 2021
This post is an excerpt. Read the full article on the New York Times website.
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