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BGC Gallery will resume its exhibition programming this September with the return of Sèvres Extraordinaire! Sculpture from 1740 until Today, originally slated for fall 2024.
Bard Graduate Center is an advanced graduate research institute in New York City dedicated to the cultural histories of the material world. Our MA and PhD degree programs, Gallery exhibitions, research initiatives, scholarly publications and public programs explore new ways of thinking about decorative arts, design history, and material culture.

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BGC Gallery reopens this September with the return of Sèvres Extraordinaire: Sculpture from 1740 until Today, originally slated for fall 2024.

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The Bard Graduate Center Gallery produces multiple exhibitions and publications each year, serving as a vital center of learning and a catalyst for engagement in the interrelated disciplines of decorative arts, design, and material culture. The gallery is celebrated in the museum world for its longstanding legacy of landmark projects dedicated to significant—yet often understudied—figures and movements in the history of decorative arts and design; these exhibitions and publications typically represent the definitive intervention on the artists and objects they investigate. BGC Gallery is also committed to generating and supporting a vast range of diverse presentations, small and large, that challenge traditional approaches to object inquiry; these examinations of material culture explore the human experience as manifest in our creation and use of “things” of all kinds. Whether originating in internal research and expertise, or in collaboration with external subject specialists, these endeavors prioritize rigorous scholarship while seeking to adhere to the field’s highest standards in production and design.



Will Heinrich of the New York Times recommends SIGHTLINES on Peace, Power & Prestige: Metal Arts in Africa in the 2023 Fall Arts Preview, calling it an “ingenious remix of a show” that “displays historic metalwork like a pair of elegant brass anklets from nineteenth-century Nigeria alongside works by Sharif Bey, Zohra Opoku and other artists from Africa and the African diaspora.” Delaina Dixon of Ebony magazine agrees, naming SIGHTLINES among a “host of stunning exhibitions and thought-provoking installations” to see this fall. Essence magazine’s Okla Jones added her voice to the chorus, calling SIGHTLINES a “can’t miss” show. And in its Fall Art Guide, Hyperallergic wrote, “Metal works by contemporary artists including Otobong Nkanga, Radcliffe Bailey, and Lubaina Himid are presented here alongside dozens of nineteenth- and twentieth-century objects ranging from ceremonial swords to currency. As [SIGHTLINES] traces the art historical significance of African metal art, it simultaneously delves into its sociopolitical implications. Sammy Baloji’s 2022 documentary Of the Moon and Velvet, which examines metal extraction in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is among the highlights of the exhibition.”

Exhibition Description
SIGHTLINES on Peace, Power & Prestige: Metal Arts in Africa brings leading contemporary artists into conversation with historic African metal arts. Sculptures, photography, weavings, metal work, and multimedia installations by Radcliffe Bailey, Sammy Baloji, Sharif Bey, Lubaina Himid, Bronwyn Katz, Kapwani Kiwanga, Abigail Lucien, Tsedaye Makonnen, Otobong Nkanga, Julia Phillips, Zohra Opoku, Nari Ward, and Amanda Williams create sightlines with staffs and figures by the Mande smiths of Mali; regalia of the Edo chiefs of Nigeria; sacred objects of the Tusian, Gan, and Lobi peoples of Burkina Faso; ceremonial swords, gold weights, and personal adornment of the Akan people of Ghana; currencies, ceremonial staffs, and weaponry from Congo; and other extraordinary works in metal drawn from Peace, Power & Prestige, curated by Susan Cooksey at the University of Florida’s Harn Museum of Art. SIGHTLINES, curated by Drew Thompson, features exhibition design by AD—WO, the architecture firm of Emanuel Admassu and Jen Wood.
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SIGHTLINES on Peace, Power & Prestige: Metal Arts in Africa is a new expanded presentation of Peace, Power & Prestige: Metal Arts in Africa, a touring exhibition curated by Susan Cooksey, former curator of African Art at the University of Florida’s Harn Museum of Art.


Support for SIGHTLINES on Peace, Power & Prestige: Metal Arts in Africa is generously provided by the Scully Peretsman Foundation and other generous donors to Bard Graduate Center.


Peace, Power and Prestige: Metal Arts in Africa is organized by the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art at the University of Florida and curated by Susan Cooksey, Retired Curator of African Art. This exhibition is made possible with support from the UF Office of the Provost, Dr. Richard H. Davis and Mrs. Jeanne G. Davis, the C. Frederick and Aase B. Thompson Foundation, the UF Office of Research, Drs. David and Rebecca Sammons, the UF International Center, the Margaret J. Early Endowment, Visit Gainesville Alachua County, the Harn Anniversary Fund, Marcia Isaacson, Roy Hunt, Robin and Donna Poynor, UF Center for African Studies, Kenneth and Laura Berns, and retired Lt. Col. David A. Waller, with additional support from the Harn Program Endowment, the Harn Annual fund and a group of generous donors.


SIGHTLINES is curated by Drew Thompson, associate professor of visual culture and Black studies at Bard Graduate Center and Bard College. Emanuel Admassu and Jen Wood, principals of the architecture firm AD—WO, designed the exhibition and served as curatorial advisors. The project is managed by Laura Microulis, research curator, Bard Graduate Center.


Banner Image: Bronwyn Katz, kx’orakx’ora(renew), 2022. Copper-coated wire rust, and twine. Courtesy the artist.