Meschac Gaba: Tresses

Born in 1961 in Cotonou, Benin, and currently living in Amsterdam, Meschac Gaba has received international acclaim for his artistic investigations of economic power, public space and the role of the western museum. His most significant project to date, "Museum for Contemporary African Art" (1997-2002), represents a conceptual museum of more than twelve different installations in twelve different institutions. Gaba's "museum" examines the ways in which visual art and ethnographic institutions "endorse the cultural and economic value of objects within them." Okwui Enwezor, curator of Documenta 11, aptly notes, "In his sharp and precise works, Gaba never loses sight of the museum's institutional role, past and present, with regard to strategies of power and domination." The Studio Museum in Harlem is proud to present Meschac Gaba's first solo exhibition in the United States. Installed in the mezzanine gallery, his most recent body of work explores a very specific intersection of global iconography and cultural signification. In the form of mixed-media "hair" sculptures, Gaba takes on several key icons of the New York City skyline. This new body of work plays with perceptions of power through North American architecture and West African tradition and style.

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Meschac Gaba: Tresses