Insistent Presence: Contemporary African Art from the Chazen Collection
February 7 - May 10, 2026
Michael J. and Aimee Rusinko Kakos Galleries, Level 1, and Jason D. Kogan Gallery, Level 2
Insistent Presence: Contemporary African Art from the Chazen Collection presents forty-five works of sculpture, painting, ceramics, printmaking, and photography by twenty-four contemporary artists living and working on the African continent and in the diaspora. The work comprises new acquisitions made possible by a significant five-year gift from the Straus Family Foundation. Insistent Presence examines how artists have reimagined the human figure as a lens to pose questions about social and political histories, contested identities, and the possible future of how we relate to one another. The exhibition title was inspired by renowned African art scholars and curators Okwui Enwezor and Chika Okeke-Agulu. These scholars point to the enduring usefulness of depicting the human figure for artists keen on affirming the humanity of Africans and those critical of postcolonial governments. In this exhibition, artists provocatively explore the human body through juxtapositions of those political concerns with emotions and passions of everyday lived experiences.
Through this exhibition, guest curator Margaret Nagawa examines how artists have reimagined the human figure as a lens to pose questions about social and political histories, contested identities, and the possible future of how we relate to political concerns with emotions and passions of everyday lived experiences. The exhibition and its accompanying publication are organized into three discrete sections along the notions of the presence and absence of the human body: “The Body in Society," "The Artists is Present," and "The Absent Body." Each work in Insistent Presence highlights twenty-first-century ways of being in the world and invites us to reflect on ourselves, our relationships, and the worlds we inhabit.
This exhibition is organized by the Chazen Museum of Art and presented by the Palmer Museum of Art. Support for the exhibition is provided by The Brittingham Wisconsin Trust. The collection was made possible by a generous gift from the Straus Family Foundation.