You may not have heard of Johannesburg gallerist Monna Mokoena, founder of Gallery MOMO. But as the as the market for African art continues to expand and develop at an increasingly rapid rate, his is a name that you will definitely be hearing a lot more of in the future.Originally trained as a lawyer, Mokoena has been working in the visual arts for more than a decade. He worked for the prestigious Everard Read Gallery in the 90s, and then as an independent art consultant and curator in the following years.Mokoena founded Gallery MOMO in 2002 in the suburb of Parktown North, Johannesburg, and in 2015 opened a new exhibition space in Cape Town that focuses specifically on video works. The Cape Town gallery features a dedicated video room accompanying three large exhibition spaces.Since he opened Gallery MOMO, Mokoena has established himself as one of the region’s leading dealers representing a growing number of international and locally based contemporary artists with a focus on art from Africa and the diaspora.Gallery artists include Ayana V Jackson, Mary Sibande, Blessing Ngobeni, Rael Salley, Jonathan Hindson, Florine Demosthene, Ransome Stanley, Robert Pruitt, Joel Mpah Dooh, Vitshois Mwilambwe Bondo, Kimathi Donkor, Guy Wouete, and many more.Gallery MOMO also supports local and international young-and-upcoming talent through its renowned residency program, which provides the gallery with opportunities to collaborate with artists from around the world.To find out more about Gallery MOMO and the contemporary African art scene, BLOUIN ARTINFO got in touch with Monna Mokoena and asked him a few questions. (click the slideshow to see images from Gallery MOMO’s current exhibition: Dillon Marsh “For What It’s Worth II”)What was the inspiration and motivation behind the launch of Gallery Momo?The gallery was informed by my own experience and affinity of the arts from having spent four years at Everard Read, one of Johannesburg’s oldest leading galleries during the 90s; and secondly, as an independent art consultant and curator in the following years. When I founded Gallery MOMO in 2002, the landscape was devoid of representation of contemporary art from Africa and the diaspora which reflected, projected, respected, and elevated art to its true order. I therefore established the gallery to not only fill this void but to contribute a new angle to the conversation whilst providing a legitimate and legitimizing outlet for artists, not just locally but from across the continent to show, and share their work.What is the vision of the gallery and its main aims and goals?Gallery MOMO’s main goals is to work across a number of genres and to relentlessly push the boundaries of local and international voices within the market. Our vision is to be a globally gallery with a sustainable international presence.What have been some of the most significant achievements and landmark moments of the gallery?Gallery MOMO has been at the forefront of efforts to regain the ground lost to the many years of deliberate cultural isolation during the years of apartheid in South Africa. The gallery has hosted ground breaking exhibitions in both Johannesburg, Cape Town, and internationally. In 2004, we showed the magnificent work of Santu Mofokeng, one of South Africa’s foremost photographers — Mofokeng was just awarded the International Photography Prize 2016 established by Fondazione Fotografia in Modena. We have represented Mary Sibande, giving her a solo show, Four Tales, in 2008, and since then, her work has been included in a number of group shows and biennales internationally: she was accepted on a summer artist’s residency at the MAC/VAL (Museum of Contemporary Art of the Val-de-Marne) as well as being included in La 12ème Biennale d'art contemporain de Lyon in 2013. We have been working with American photographer Ayana Jackson as her primary gallery since 2008 and just recently one of her work was featured in a group show entitled A Constellation in 2015 at the Studio Museum in New York which was acquired for their permanent collection. We expanded the gallery with opening a new space in Cape Town to build on our exhibition program and give our artists the opportunity to have presence within the city’s vibrant cultural scene. It has also been a delight to be accepted into major international art fairs; we participated in Armory New York in March and have just been accepted to the forthcoming EXPO Chicago in September.How has the market for contemporary African art changed and developed in recent years?With the advancement of globalization, Africa is now the world’s fastest growing continent. This has seen the progress and an expansion in its fortunes over the past decade so hence the growing sense that its art market is the one to watch. It is no accident that most art fairs continue to highlight art from the continent and the diaspora through their focus programs such as this year’s Armory in New York or the upcoming Art Paris in France in 2017. The market is maturing as reflected by auction activity and both Ethiopian-born Julie Mehretu and South African artist Marlene Dumas were recently cited among the world’s most expensive living female artists. There is also a new generation of artists coming from the continent and exhibiting in major institutions across the globe from Angolan artist Nástio Mosquito’s having a solo show at Ikon in Birmingham to Nigerian artist Emeka Ogboh’s exhibition, Market Symphony at Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art in Washington, DC and Lucy’s Iris, a show about Contemporary African Women Artists currently on view at Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León in Spain. Furthermore it allows us to disabuse people of the notion that ‘AFRICAN ART HAS POTENTIAL’ which is not true, African art does not have potential — rather art from AFRICA is living out its potential.How do you maintain a regional focus while at the same time remain relevant and appealing to an international audience?We are, in intent and action, a GLOBAL brand — we have GLOBAL relevance and LOCAL significance — therefore for us, everything we do is evaluated through this key question. The gallery’s exhibition program is a reflection of this focus; we work with artists from across the globe, and as our family of artists grows, so does our reach and impact. Moreover, our artists are represented locally through domestic fairs like Jo’Burg and Cape Town Art fairs and internationally with biennales from Venice Biennale, Beijing Biennale, to Havana Biennale, Lyon Biennale and many more. The annual residency program which we set up in 2006 at the gallery is also committed to the support of young-and-upcoming talent and cultural creatives. We have hosted artists: Robert Pruitt, Florine Demosthene, Coby Kennedy, Victor Ehikhamenor and Faisal Abdu'allah to curators Simon Njami, Pepe Fernández and Kelly O'Reilly, also Argentinian choreographer Constanza Macras and even architect David Adjaye.What are you plans for the future in terms of development and programming?We plan not to be the biggest, but the definitive home for contemporary art from Africa and the diaspora which challenge, connect and provokes — using our growing family of diverse talents and voices to sustain that message. The gallery is also continuing its remit in finding young-and-upcoming talent on the continent with a particular interest in artists from the Northern and Eastern region. In 2015, we opened a new gallery in Cape Town which has an additional room specifically focusing on video art; in this dedicated space we have already screened works from artists such as Mohau Modisakeng, Zak Ové, Maurice Mbikayi and Fabrice Monterio. Likewise, with this in mind, we also are notably excited and looking at artists working in film and performance to add to our programme. We also hope to expand our annual residency program by linking it with other establishments on the continent, as well as look at participating in more international fairs and widening the presence of our artists around the globe.How have your own experiences and history influenced and shaped the gallery and its program?My work across various genre and artistic platforms has prepared me for the role I now play in shaping the trajectory of Gallery MOMO. I also live with art, both in my work and private spaces. So in a way art is my life.
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