The Art Newspaper
Tariff anxieties are no match for buoyant mood at Mexico City’s Zona Maco
Also in the Sur sector, New York’s Palo Gallery is showing a solo stand of paintings and works on paper by the Liberia-born, New York-based artist Lewinale Havette. The works—some ghostly and monochromatic, others vibrantly saturated—are informed by Havette’s childhood experiences as a young girl migrating across West Africa with her family.
Art Market
Zona Maco 2025 Keeps Mexico City at Its Heart While Expanding Its International Reach
Zona Maco made a special effort this year to showcase artists from the Global South, and it was these first-time exhibitors who made the most of the opportunity. New York–based Palo Gallery had a standout booth centered around the Liberian artist Lewinale Havette, whose work takes on themes of migration and spirituality. Entering the booth, there was a real sense of discovering new talent.
HYPEBEAST
Must See Booths at Zona Maco 2025
Marking its Zona Maco debut, New York’s Palo Gallery presents a solo booth featuring new paintings and works on paper by Lewinale Havette. Her practice interrogates femininity, migration, and identity, shaped by her experiences growing up in Liberia and moving through West Africa. With a striking mix of abstraction and figuration, her paintings layer washes, drips, and gestural marks to depict powerful, fluid representations of womanhood. This presentation builds on Havette’s breakout solo exhibition with the gallery in September 2024, offering fresh works that radiate both defiance and grace.
Vogue Mexico
Zsona Maco 2025: Which Galleries to See in This Edition
Palo Gallery presents the work of Lewinale Havette - ZMS 10 A unique opportunity to see the paintings of Liberian artist Lewinale Havette. The exhibition invites viewers to explore the complexity of black femininity and migrant identity in relation to religion and the metaphysical.
Meer
Mami Wata
Palo Gallery is pleased to present Mami Wata: the story of migration, lost religion, and female identity, a solo exhibition of recent paintings by Lewinale Havette, curated in partnership with Cierra Britton Gallery. In her inaugural solo exhibition in New York City, Havette delves into the intricate interplay between African spirituality, migration, and the quest for female identity amid displacement. Mami Wata: the story of migration, lost religion, and female identity opens September 4 at Palo Gallery’s flagship location, 30 Bond Street.
i-D Magazine
Head of State's New Exhibition Reflects on Expansive Definitions of Home i-D Magazine, September 14, 2023
For SS24, designer Feek Abijako presents 'Home As Corpus', a deep exploration of his father's migration from Nigeria, curated by Diallo Simon-Ponte.
If fashion adorns the body, art adorns space. By way of Home As Corpus, a new exhibition presented by the multidisciplinary fashion label Head of State (founded by Feek Abijako) and curated by Diallo Simon-Ponte, the two come together to bask in a three-day embrace.
Christie’s
Christie’s London with ArtLeadHer : Note to Self
Christie’s is delighted to present Note to Self, a dynamic selling exhibition curated by author, singer-songwriter, and activist Mashonda Tifrere.
Through her platform Art LeadHER, Tifrere aims to combat gender bias by curating opportunities for womxn artists and curators. The present group of works is a snapshot of the vibrant and innovative work created by young womxn artists worldwide, from the United States to Nigeria and Germany. Whether figurative or abstract, painted, photographed, or assembled from mixed media, these richly inventive works share in their visual vibrancy and bold sense of self-affirmation. In tune with her 2022 EP Note to Self, says Tifrere, ‘Each artwork in this show shares a moment of joy, wisdom, and feminine sovereignty.
Platform Art
David Zwirner, Cierra Britton Gallery, Platform Art Collaboration
Atlanta-based artist Lewinale Havette depicts underlying themes in her work that deal with aspects of identity, including gender and power dynamics, race, religion, and sexuality. As a West African woman, Havette finds it crucial to reposition black female bodies away from the lens of patriarchal capitalism and uplift them as human beings capable of tenderness, power, and strength in contrast to fear, powerlessness, and exploitation.
In this new series of works on paper, Lewinale Havette aims to make a connection between intimate bonds and healing through female spirituality and mysticism. With this work, Havette is inspired by the West African and European art tradition of nudes with their symbolism of strength, dominance, heroism, and freedom.
BCA Exhibits
States of Blackness
This exhibition expresses different perspectives of blackness and reflects on the different ways it is experienced across various artistic mediums, voices, and geographic states.
The six selected artists (Jamal Ademola, Stephanie Brown, Lewinale Havett, Kay Hickman, Alexis McGrigg, Jasmine Murrell) each illuminate evolving ‘States of Blackness’, in the service of freedom and, therefore, social justice for all.
Sponsored by U.S. Embassy London.
Artsy
Pauline Willis' Curated Highlights from 1-54 NY
“In light of the AFA’s upcoming traveling exhibition African Modernism in America, I’ve recently had a preoccupation with African artworks full of emotion, sometimes complicated and intense. The AFA has long been committed to expanding the art historical canon by incorporating histories that have too often been overlooked and artists whose originality and skill have too often been marginalized. As such, I was moved to witness and admire this collection of works that truly confront the viewer in ways I find to be gripping and curiosity driven. Rhythm and movement are seen and felt, either in the figure or the composition. I can also see the references and nods to their mid-century predecessors, some of whom were creating art in America, forming a proud and dynamic African diaspora and community. It is moving to see what these artists today have inherited and where they have creatively broken the mold.”
Discover Pauline Willis' selection of highlights from 1-54 New York 2022.
154 NY
1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair
1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, the leading international art fair dedicated to contemporary art from Africa and the African diaspora, is delighted to announce its in-person return to New York after two years, set to take place over four days from 19 – 22 May 2022. The return of 1-54 New York will see an international line-up of 25 galleries from across Africa, Europe, and the Middle East, including galleries from New York, such as Cierra Britton Gallery, Fridman Gallery, Hannah Traore Gallery, Medium Tings, Long Gallery, Montague Contemporary, Superposition Gallery, among others.
Arts ATL
Strange Paradigm Online Exhibit w/ Atlanta-based Artist Lewinale Havette
Mixed media monoprints by Atlanta-based artist Lewinale Havette will be featured in the virtual group exhibition “Strange Paradigm” sponsored by Young Space. This online platform focuses on early career and emerging artists. The show includes a wide range of paintings, photography, printmaking, video, sculpture, and installation. Available online May 21 through June 20.
Contemporary Art Keen
Interview with Contemporary Art Keen Enthusiast Magazine
In an article featuring painter Lewinale Havette, published in the April 2021 edition of the online publication CAKE (Contemporary Art Keen Enthusiast),
the artist describes her studio as the place that “converts memories, visions, and dreams.”
The interview discusses how Havette’s life has influenced her artwork, beginning with her roots in Monrovia, Liberia, where she was born and raised, followed by a journey to The Ivory Coast and then moving to the United States when she was 10 years old.
“I was raised in an introverted atmosphere and educated by a strict mother whose moral compass included rules on how to behave as a woman. My artwork debunks the historical power structure systems that had once surrounded me, shedding light on who I was, who I became, and who I am becoming.”