Although, firmly entrenched in the 21st century, the role of women in the art market still remains a heavily debated topic. The list of 100 top-selling artists published in 2017 featured only thirteen female artists. However, none of the 13 women on that list come from the African continent.

Njideka Akunyili Crosby, a Nigerian-born painter, who currently resides in Los Angeles, is one of the rare black women whose name is frequently mentioned in conversations about the highest-grossing artists in the world. The role of female artists in the history of art has been revisited on numerous occasions by some of the most influential women in the art world, both in the 20th and in the 21st century. Despite countless attempts to overcome the obvious inequalities between genders, a recent study revealed that male artists earn as much as 50% more than female artists.

The gender gap is not the only obstacle female artists from the African continent have to overcome on their road toward international recognition. Regardless of these hardships or maybe because of them, a new generation of African contemporary female artists has gained momentum in the international art market.

The role of women in the African art scene

Many of the contemporary female artists that exhibit their work in the galleries and museums around the world no longer live on the African continent. Lubiana Himid, Toyin Ojih Odutola or Lina Iris Viktor are just a few female artists of African descent who no longer live in the countries of their origin.

Their work has also helped draw attention to the paintings, sculptures and all other forms of art produced by female artists who still live and work on the African continent. Most of the African up-and-coming contemporary female artists are still relatively young, as the vast majority of them were born in the 1970s and 1980s.

Peju Alatise, Portia Zvavahera, Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi, Marion Boehm or Virginia Chihota are currently some of the most highly-praised female artists associated with the African contemporary art scene. Their styles of painting as well as the topics they explore in their work differ considerably, which makes it difficult to speak about a unified art movement.

Nonetheless, the rejection of abstraction and the return to figuration is easily detected on the canvases produced by many of the African contemporary female artists. Through their work, Alatise, Chihota, Zvavahera, and numerous others are breathing in new life to the African contemporary art scene and creating a promising future for the development of the art market on this continent.

The differing poetics of African contemporary female artists

A few years ago, a series of portraits painted by Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi was exhibited at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris. The people depicted in these paintings seemed unfamiliar to the visitors of the exhibition, despite being members of the Nkosi’s personal pantheon. Her aim was to ‘put images of black people on the walls of key institutions’, and so far this South African artist has succeeded in her goal.

Such a socially and politically active approach to art cannot be attributed to all female artists on the African contemporary art scene, even though Pejo Alatise examines the position of women within the Nigerian patriarchal society through her work.

Artists like Zvavahera or Sunstrum have their own distinctive styles that are deeply rooted in fiction. Sunstrum’s installations, animations, paintings, and drawings explore a realm that is far removed from our immediate surroundings and make the spectator assume a cosmological perspective.

Zvavahera, on the other hand, draws inspiration for some of her work from the realm of dreams, much like the European surrealists did almost a century earlier. Her work cannot be characterized as exclusively surrealistic, as some of her series of paintings explore the exchange of human emotions or womanhood in the Zimbabwean society.

Such a variety of styles and topics these female artists cover make the African contemporary art scene more vibrant than ever. Nkosi, Alatise, Sunstrum, Zvaahera and countless other female artists from the African continent are attracting attention from the international art community, and their efforts can have far-reaching consequences on the future of the African contemporary art.