Austere Imaginary: Marryam Moma, Taiye Idahor, Mobolaji Ogunrosoye

Austere Imaginary is an important show in two ways. Firstly, because collage is a visionary and imaginary way of propelling us into the future and visualising our own realities. Secondly, this exhibition features only women, which is important because for millennia, art has been dominated by men. Yet this medium is championed by women, as they often mood board and present their ideas visually, collecting existing parameters and using sheer imagination to assemble a new and novel creation into existence. 

This show has been curated by guest curator Lauren Tate Baeza, the Fred and Rita Richman Curator of Africa Art for the High Museum of Art, who has effectively drawn parallels between women and the practice of using different elements to create a new image in a powerful way. Drawing inspiration from literature and including artists featured in Black Collagists: The Book, she has ventured to curate a conceptually strong exhibition and draws attention to medium and gender in paper assemblage.