2025-02-17 Fellows at a group exhibition When We See Us at Bozar, Brussels, Belgium

We are very excited to share that a brilliant exhibition ‘When We See Us. A Century of Black Figuration in Painting’ curated by our fellow Koyo Kouoh and her is being presented at Bozar ir Brussels, Belgium. The exhibition features works by so many wonderful artists, including our four fellows Gavin Janties, Mustafa Maluka, Neo Matloga and Mmapula Mmakgabo Helen Sebidi.

How have artists from Africa and its vast diaspora depicted daily life over the past century? Koyo Kouoh, Executive Director and Chief Curator of Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town, and her team have sought to answer this question with a landmark exhibition. Bozar proudly presents this vast kaleidoscope of Black figurative painting from the 1920s to the present day.  

Inspired by Ava DuVernay's series When They See Us, the exhibition title "When We See Us" reflects a fundamental perspective exploring Black self-representation and global Black subjectivities. The approximately 150 works by around 120 artists are grouped into six themes: "The Everyday”, "Joy & Revelry”, "Repose”, "Sensuality”, "Spirituality”, and "Triumph and Emancipation”. 

This exhibition is conceived and organised by Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA) In Cape Town . When We See Us is presented at Bozar under the Patronage of Her Majesty the Queen.

You can see the exhibition until 10 August 2025

Photo: Kudzanai-Violet Hwami, An evening in Mazowe, 2019, Courtesy of Jorge M. Pérez Collection, Miami © Kudzanai-Violet Hwami