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Meleko Mokgosi: Bread, Butter, and Power, 2018, Installation view, Fowler Museum at UCLA. Courtesy the artist and Honor Fraser, Los Angeles. Photo © Monica Nouwens.
Past

Meleko Mokgosi: Bread, Butter, and Power

October 19 – December 15, 2019

Meleko Mokgosi’s large-scale episodic painting cycle Bread, Butter, and Power forms the newest chapter in his ongoing series Democratic Intuition, which seeks to explore ideas about the many ways that democratic concepts influence our lives, loves, and relationships on macro- and micro-levels.

This twenty-panel installation interrogates the theme of feminism in the context of southern Africa, and considers the consequences of dividing labor practices by gender.

Mokgosi’s approach to storytelling through the form of history painting allows us to compare what we see in the paintings to the realities of inequality and gendered labor division we know from experience. This approach to the content also inspires us to think expansively about politics, power structures, and the role of history in the creation of the current nations of southern Africa.

Curator
Meleko Mokgosi: Bread, Butter, and Power was organized by the Fowler Museum at UCLA and is curated by Erica P. Jones, Associate Curator of African Arts. The Smart Museum of Art presentation was overseen by Jennifer Carty, Associate Curator of Modern & Contemporary Art.
Support

The exhibition was made possible by major support from the Fowler Museum’s Philip L. Ravenhill Endowed Fund and the Fay Bettye Green Fund to Commission New Work. Support for the presentation at the Smart Museum of Art has been provided by its SmartPartners.

Meleko Mokgosi: Bread, Butter, and Power, Installation view, 2019, Smart Museum of Art. Courtesy the artist and Honor Fraser, Los Angeles. Photo by Michael Tropea.
Meleko Mokgosi: Bread, Butter, and Power, Installation view, 2019, Smart Museum of Art. Courtesy the artist and Honor Fraser, Los Angeles. Photo by Michael Tropea.
Meleko Mokgosi: Bread, Butter, and Power, Installation view, 2019, Smart Museum of Art. Courtesy the artist and Honor Fraser, Los Angeles. Photo by Michael Tropea.
Meleko Mokgosi: Bread, Butter, and Power, Installation view, 2019, Smart Museum of Art. Courtesy the artist and Honor Fraser, Los Angeles. Photo by Michael Tropea.
Meleko Mokgosi: Bread, Butter, and Power, Installation view, 2019, Smart Museum of Art. Courtesy the artist and Honor Fraser, Los Angeles. Photo by Michael Tropea.

Videos

Bread, Butter, and Power Stories (Part I)
University of Chicago students Yiting Li and Kaitlyn Spina relate versions of one of the stories written in the Setswana language on a canvas that is part of Meleko Mokgosi: Bread, Butter, and Power.
Bread, Butter, and Power Stories (Part II)
University of Chicago students Yiting Li and Kaitlyn Spina relate versions of one of the stories written in the Setswana language on a canvas that is part of Meleko Mokgosi: Bread, Butter, and Power.
Presented in the Robert and Joan Feitler Gallery, the Richard and Mary L. Gray Gallery, and the Joel and Carole Bernstein Gallery
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