{"id":228363,"date":"2025-07-01T04:25:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T04:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/228363\/"},"modified":"2025-07-01T04:25:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T04:25:12","slug":"brice-arsene-yonkeu-brings-diaspora-dialogue-to-gagosian-park-75","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/228363\/","title":{"rendered":"Brice Ars\u00e8ne Yonkeu Brings Diaspora Dialogue to Gagosian Park & 75"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tEditor\u2019s Note:<\/strong>\u00a0This story is part of\u00a0Newsmakers<\/strong><\/a>, a new\u00a0ARTnews\u00a0series where we interview the movers and shakers who are making change in the art world.<\/p>\n

\n\tIf you happen to stroll past Gagosian<\/a>\u2019s Park & 75 space this summer and think, \u201cAh, yes, another pristine blue-chip group show,\u201d you may want to circle back. \u201cEver So Present II: Between Home and Elsewhere,\u201d curated by independent curator Brice Ars\u00e8ne Yonkeu, is something different.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s the second installment of a two-part exhibition that began at dot.ateliers, the foundation\u2013cum\u2013exhibition space launched by Ghanaian painter Amoako Boafo<\/a> in Accra in 2023.<\/p>\n

\t\tRelated Articles<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Three<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cEver So Present\u201d brings together four artists of African descent whose practices stretch across painting, photomontage, and assemblage. As Yonkeu told ARTnews in a recent interview, these artists may be young and emerging, but they are \u201ccomplete artists.\u201d The result is less a themed showcase than a visual conversation\u2014one that considers the diasporic self in all its fluid, shifting complexity.<\/p>\n

\n\tYonkeu, a cofounder of Bwo Art Gallery in Douala, Cameroon, is the first curator invited to participate in dot.ateliers\u2019 new residency program for curators, writers, and filmmakers. With \u201cEver So Present II,\u201d he expands on the questions posed in the Accra show\u2014about memory, migration, and belonging\u2014asking what remains \u201cever so present\u201d in the work of diasporic artists as they move across borders, cultures, and time zones. The answer, here at least, is not one thing but a tapestry of visual narratives and personal histories.<\/p>\n

\n\tARTnews sat down with Yonkeu at Gagosian\u2019s Upper East Side gallery during the show\u2019s installation to talk about what carried over from Accra, how identity resists simplification, and why he sees curating as a form of conversation.<\/p>\n

\n\tARTnews: The show began in Accra and now it\u2019s on the Upper East Side. What do you think carries over between the two settings? Or is there something that gets lost in translation?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tBrice Ars\u00e8ne Yonkeu:<\/strong> That\u2019s a very good question. In Accra, I was responding directly to what the artists had created during their residency, and Accra\u2014the city, its environment\u2014had a strong impact on the work. This version in New York is a bit different. I wanted to continue the conversation but expand it. Here, the artists are not necessarily responding to a single place. They\u2019re speaking from and to many places. What connects both shows is the presence of something that lingers. That\u2019s what I mean by \u201cever so present.\u201d It\u2019s what remains.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tTwo 2025 works by Emma Prempeh at \u201cEver So Present II: Between Home and Elsewhere\u201d at Gagosian\u2019s Park & 75 location. On the right is Di sea have many ghost; on the left is Come see.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto Owen Conway\/Courtesy Gagosian<\/p>\n

\n\tLet\u2019s talk about the artists. Emma Prempeh\u2019s work stood out immediately to me. The atmosphere, the light, the brushwork\u2014it feels so intimate.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tEmma\u2019s work is very special. Her mother\u2019s life and memories are central to her practice. One of the paintings in the show, Di sea have many ghost, was made after a photograph taken during her first visit to Saint Vincent, where her mother is from. It was also her mother\u2019s first time returning in over 40 years. So there is this intergenerational return happening\u2014a loop. And the way Emma uses light, texture, even schlag metal that oxidizes over time\u2014it\u2019s all part of how she paints memory.<\/p>\n

\n\tThere\u2019s also this cinematic feel. Like you\u2019re walking into a scene that\u2019s already unfolding.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tExactly. That\u2019s a big part of her visual language. And lately, she\u2019s started painting more landscapes\u2014outdoor memories, you could say. It\u2019s a development I\u2019ve been very happy to see.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnother work that really pulled me in was the piece by Jos\u00e8fa Ntjam. There\u2019s so much packed in\u2014you could stand in front of it for an hour and still find new connections.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tJos\u00e8fa works with photomontage, and the layering is incredible. She pulls from archives, historical images, family photos. In one work, she brings together Saku Ne Vunda, the first African ambassador to the Vatican; Henrietta Lacks; and Harriet Tubman. It becomes this cartography of Black resistance\u2014a constellation of memory and protest and presence. And her technique, the sublimation printing on aluminum, gives it this futuristic glow.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd then you have Luke Agada, whose work is very different\u2014more abstract, but still emotionally charged. His drawings are my favorite part of this show.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tLuke\u2019s paintings are about transformation. He was born in Lagos, moved to the U.S. for grad school, and his work embodies that in-betweenness. He used to be a veterinarian, actually, and there\u2019s an organic quality to his forms. He paints this psychological space\u2014what Homi Bhabha might call a \u201cthird space.\u201d You can see traces of memory, landscape, maybe even architecture. But it always stays open.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tWorks by Luke Agada and Jos\u00e8fa Ntjam at \u201cEver So Present II: Between Home and Elsewhere\u201d at Gagosian\u2019s Park & 75 location. On the left is Agada\u2019s The Things That Stayed (2025). On the right are Ntjam\u2019s Nsaku Ne Vunda, 2025 (middle) and\u00a0Guardian of the Ancestor\u2019s Echo, 2025 (right).<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto Owen Conway\/Courtesy Gagosian<\/p>\n

\n\tBoafo\u2019s work is the most figurative in the show, and also the most central\u2014literally and metaphorically. Did you feel any pressure curating a show that includes him, especially since it\u2019s his residency program?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tTo be honest, I saw it as an opportunity. I\u2019ve admired his work for a long time. There was no pressure\u2014I curated the show and then sent him pictures once it was installed. The work in this show is one of the most intimate I\u2019ve seen from him. The figure\u2019s arms are open, welcoming, but also slightly divided. It\u2019s as if she\u2019s holding a space for us and reflecting it back at the same time.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen you\u2019re curating a show that deals with identity, how do you avoid falling into clich\u00e9s?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tThat\u2019s something I think about all the time. I don\u2019t come with a fixed idea of what identity is. I come with questions. I\u2019m interested in the complexity of diasporic experience\u2014not to simplify it, but to show its layers. These artists are all saying something different. My job is to create a space where those voices can resonate.<\/p>\n

\n\tThere\u2019s a thread of memory running through the whole show. Was that something you planned, or did it emerge organically?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tIt was very organic. I started with a one-page curatorial brief\u2014an outline of ideas I wanted to explore. From there, I thought about which artists could speak to those ideas. And then, as the works came together, new connections emerged. I always say that an exhibition should feel like a book. Each artist is a character. Each work, a chapter. You walk through, and the story unfolds.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd the best part is: anyone can walk in.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tThat\u2019s what I love about this space. The walk-in traffic is amazing. People from all walks of life come in, not just the art world. I want exhibitions that speak to everyone\u2014without oversimplifying. That\u2019s what keeps it fun. And meaningful.<\/p>\n

\n\tIf you were to do this show again, or expand it somehow, is there anything you\u2019d do differently?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tI think I would include more mediums\u2014especially sculpture. And I\u2019d love to bring in artists who are thinking through ideas of transmission, especially intergenerational ones. What does it mean to carry something forward? To pass it down? There are so many ways to build on this exhibition. The themes aren\u2019t fixed. They evolve with the artists, and with the places we show them.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cEver So Present II\u201d is on view<\/a> at Gagosian\u2019s Park & 75 location now through August 8.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Editor\u2019s Note:\u00a0This story is part of\u00a0Newsmakers, a new\u00a0ARTnews\u00a0series where we interview the movers and shakers who are making…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3939],"tags":[89862,4021,4020,4022,77,31759,66074,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-228363","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-amoako-boafo","9":"tag-arts","10":"tag-arts-and-design","11":"tag-design","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-gagosian","14":"tag-newsmakers","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114776082098463166","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}