Create Your First Project
Start adding your projects to your portfolio. Click on "Manage Projects" to get started
Guardians Exhibition
Project Type
Visual Art
Date
October 2024
Solo Artist
Presented as a solo exhibition by King Paris at Friedrichs Pontone Gallery in October, Guardians marked a focused and immersive body of work dedicated to reasserting African forms within the contemporary art canon. Through material transformation and modern scale, the exhibition bridged ancestral knowledge with present-day expression, engaging collectors and audiences who understand African art not as historical decoration, but as a living, evolving force shaping identity, power, and legacy.
Gallery
Guardians is a contemporary exhibition rooted in the visual language of ancient African figures, reimagined as timeless sentinels of memory, power, and identity. Drawing from sacred forms once carved to protect villages, ancestors, and spiritual boundaries, the works translate these objects into a modern sculptural and visual context.
Rather than presenting artifacts as relics of the past, Guardians positions them as living presences. Each figure stands as a witness to survival, continuity, and self-recognition, inviting viewers to see themselves reflected in the posture, gaze, and authority of the forms. The exhibition asks a quiet but direct question: who protects culture when history tries to erase it?
Through material transformation and contemporary scale, Guardians bridges ancestral knowledge with present-day expression. It speaks to collectors and audiences who understand that African art is not historical decoration, but an ongoing force shaping how identity, power, and legacy are carried forward.
