kó is pleased to present Na Chainkua Reindorf and Ato Ribeiro at The Armory Show, September 6-8, 2024, Booth P27.
Na Chainkua Reindorf and Ato Ribeiro share a mutual fascination with the history and cultural significance of West African textiles and mythologies, exploring themes of identity, heritage, and a sense of place that traverse Ghana and the United States.
Na Chainkua Reindorf (b. 1991, Ghanaian) is a multidisciplinary artist with an interest in world-building and myth-making through the art of the masquerade, spanning painting, tapestry, and sculptural installation. Reindorf’s mixed media paintings serve as chapters in an elaborate narrative portraying a fictional female masquerade society. In Mawu Nyonu, meaning “God is a woman,” Reindorf imagines seven distinct and unruly fictional female avatars, drawing inspiration from personal experiences and West African folklore. Her mixed media paintings incorporate acrylic gouache, paper fabric, silk, embroidery thread, raffia, and rattan, with narrative scenes framed against bold colors and textures. Reindorf offers a reinterpretation of the predominately masculine traditions of West African masquerade to imagine the liberating possibilities of her female characters to gain control and self-expression.
This presentation features three new works that display the personality and mode of Tokpe, a character (skin) who exists within the fictional secret world of Mawu Nyonu. Fashioned as one of seven alter egos of the artist, Tokpe represents the idea of caprice and unpredictability. She is depicted with yellow skin, two heads which represent dual and opposing personalities of pleasantness and troublesomeness, and raffia, which exists as an extension of her body in the form of a fringed curtain. Tokpe employs the raffia fringe as a portal to unknown worlds through which she draws in and casts out unsuspecting victims. Spirals are repeated throughout the works, from her hairstyle (referencing the elaborate Ekoi headdress of Nigeria and Cameroon) to the raffia skirt and fabric pattern. This symbol, which is both beautiful and dangerous, and is perhaps one of the best known naturally occurring phenomenon, best represents Tokpe’s nature — equal parts chaos and order, which is simultaneously predictable and unpredictable.
Ato Ribeiro (b. 1989, Ghanaian-American) examines the interwoven narratives of his West African heritage and American identity through wood assemblage. Ribeiro repurposes found and discarded materials, transforming the scraps into intricate geometric patterns that echo the rich visual languages found in traditional West African strip weaving practices and African American quilting traditions. The resulting forms create a visual language that reflects a combined yet enigmatic cultural identity, a reflection of his cross-continental upbringing.
Ribeiro integrates Ghanaian Adinkra symbols that represent concepts, proverbs, and aphorisms. The geometry that dominates in Ribeiro’s sculptural works are also conceptualized as a form of “mathmaking,” a visual representation of the precision and order found in traditional and contemporary architectural practices. Ribeiro’s work delves into shared and neglected histories, articulating a contemporary sense of cultural hybridity.
The Armory Show is held at the Javits Center, 429 11th Avenue, New York, NY, 10001. The VIP Preview takes place Thursday, September 5, 2024, 11-AM-7PM, by invitation.
About Na Chainkua Reindorf
Raised in Ghana, Na Chainkua Reindorf earned an MFA in Creative Visual Arts from Cornell University and a BA in Studio Art from Grinnell College. In 2022, Reindorf was selected as one of three artists representing Ghana at the Venice Biennale. Her work has been exhibited across Africa, North America, and Europe. Recent exhibitions include Strange Flesh at Galerie Cecile Fakhoury, Dakar (2024); Up to No Good at Nubuke Foundation, Accra (2022), and Come, Let Me Spoil Your Things at Specialist Gallery, Seattle (2020). Reindorf has participated in recent group exhibitions at Fondation H, Madagascar (2024); Gallery 1957, Accra (2024); Kindl Center for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2023); PM/AM Gallery, London (2023); Anthony Brunelli Fine Arts, Binghamton (2023); and The Textile Center, Minneapolis (2022). In 2020, Reindorf received the FRAC Nouvelle Aquitaine MÉCA Residency Grant. Her work is in the collections of Fondazione Berengo, ANO Institute of Art and Knowledge, Bank of America Corporate Office, Enterprise Group, and Nubuke Foundation. Reindorf lives and works between San Juan, PR, and Accra, Ghana.
About Ato Ribeiro
Ato Ribeiro was born in Philadelphia, USA, and spent the formative years of his life in Accra, Ghana before relocating to Atlanta, Georgia. Ribeiro received his BA from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2012, and his MFA in Print Media from Cranbrook Academy of Art in in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan in 2017. His work has been exhibited at the Bernard A. Zuckerman Museum of Art (Kennesaw, GA), Lisa Sette Gallery (Phoenix, AZ), Nubuke Foundation (Accra, Ghana), Cranbrook Art Museum (Bloomfield Hills, MI), the Johnson Lowe Gallery (Atlanta, GA), and Anastasia Tinari Projects (Chicago, IL) among others.He has completed residencies at Fountainhead in Miami, Florida (2024); MOCA GA Fellow (2022-2023); Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, MASS MoCa Residency (2021); Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin (2017); the Santa Fe Art Institute (2017); the Ox-Bow LeRoy Neiman Foundation Fellowship, Saugatuck (2017); the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, VT; and Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture in Madison, ME. He was the 2017 Mercedes-Benz Financial Services Emerging Artist Award recipient and a 2022 Atlanta Artadia Awardee. His work is in the permanent collections of the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Phoenix Art Museum, Detroit Institute of Art, Cranbrook Art Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library, Mercedes-Benz USA Headquarters among others. Ribeiro is currently based in Atlanta, Georgia.