By Japhet Alakam

The skills, talents and creative prowess of African artists will be on display as the 12th edition of Dakar Biennale, or Dak’Art – Biennale de l’Art Africain Contemporain, a major contemporary art exhibition that brings together and showcases the works of many African artists opens in the Senegalese capital, Dakar in May 2016.

•An installation by Akrisha

The event which takes place once every two years with focus on Contemporary African Art since 1996, will this year feature the works of five Nigerians.

Recently the organisers released the list of 65 artists from all over the African continent as those to participate in its upcoming 12th edition in the Senegalese capital from 3 May to 2 June 2016.

The Biennale of contemporary African art in Dakar is the only event of note on the continent to consecrate its selection in particular to living artists in and outside the continent, but this year this is an exception as the list includes the work by the late French-Moroccan photographer Leila Alaoui, who was murdered in a terror attack in Burkina Faso last week.

Curated by French luminar Simon Njami, one who sees it as his mission to bring the biennial up to date and into touch with the contemporary art world. Dak’Art—Africa’s largest biennial—will include presentations from artist form Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Malawi, Sudan, South Africa, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, amongst others. The biennial also includes artists from African diaspora countries such as France and Italy.

The Biennale sees its role as one of promoting artists in Africa who don’t usually receive this kind of platform.”Dak’Art objectives are to expand the possibilities of promoting African artists poorly represented in major international art, but also for Africa to develop its own speech on aesthetics and to participate in conceptualization of theoretical tools for analysis and appreciation of artistic proposals.” they state on their website.

Among the lists is Olaniyi Rasheed Akindiya,aka Akirasha, a Nigerian artist based in the United States. Akrisha who will represent US at the event is one the Nigerian artists on the forefront in the visual arts scene around the world. He is known for his futuristic works which have ties to ancient African history and spirituality. These works are based on moments of time, fleeting moments that can be easily forgotten or transformed into reflections on rural versus urban life, and the accelerated pace of development and social infrastructure which explores both his personal life and the universal.

This uninhibited artist explores different art forms, and fearlessly too. He has, and continues to build a great body of work in mixed media painting, sculpting, installation, body painting and performances.

Other Nigerians on the lists are: Abdulrazaq Awofeso, Modupeola Fadugba, Victor Ehikhamenor and Folakunle Oshun.

Abdulrasaq Awofeso is a Nigeria based sculptor whose methodology is based on the notion of constructivism; adding to the structural form rather than deducting. His compositions, often figural in form, portray notions of bureaucracy and the constraints within the political, social and economic urban sphere; Modupeola Fadugba is Togo-born Nigerian many parts, who is passionate about issues of social justice, women’s empowerment, education and the use of art as a vehicle for activism; Victor Ehikhamenor is an award winning visual artist, writer and photographer.

He draws influences from traditional African motifs and religious cosmology while Folakunle Oshun is a Nigerian-born sculptor of the Wolof/Jollof fame that explores the popularity and migratory controversy of the culinary dish.