Drum roll, please. We're sending you uptown. Way uptown. The climate's changing, the Democratic nomination is still up in the air and everyone's allergies are at an all-time high. It seems like a good moment to get away. If you can't catch a real vacation, take an afternoon and check out "Flow," the Studio Museum Harlem's group show of emerging African artists. The twenty exhibitors' work represents a healthy departure from the usual cultural consensus surrounding Africa—a more complex set of views than an image of a visiting Angelina Jolie, surrounded by orphans. The diverse perspectives, and mash-up of varied media used to express them, will set you on a new trajectory for thinking about the continent—almost like seeing it firsthand.

A standout among the roster is Mustafa Maluka, an artist originally from Cape Town, who currently works and lives in Berlin. His four oversized portraits of anonymous "invented heroes" feature subjects assembled from contemporary fashion magazines and remembered Western pop culture references from his youth in Cape Flats, an apartheid-designated area of Cape Town. Flow's literature notes the paintings' suggestion of passport photographs, but I think their assorted origins and vibrant, colorist tendencies make them seem more like gigantic postage stamps. Rather than indicating any specific homeland, these stylized pictures are tickets to anywhere.

Including the top of the Billboard charts, apparently. Expressive titles like "The room is spinning and I can't breathe" and "They pray for my downfall," reference song lyrics; Maluka is also a DJ and co-founder of the site africanhiphop.com. Though his subjects may be invented and nameless, the icon-like stature he grants them on canvas is a sure nod to the status we confer on globally-popular musicians. If it's a fresh perspective you seek—or even just a reality check—Maluka's grand portraits are as border-crossing and diversely informed as anything you'll find without leaving the city!

Studio Museum Harlem is located at 144 West 125th Street; "Flow" is up now through June 29th.

- Susannah Edelbaum

Similar Topics:Africa, art, emerging artists, Harlem

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