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Arts Intel Report

Samuel Fosso: Autoportrait

Samuel Fosso, L_002783 (M. L. King/FBI), 2008.

245 10th Ave, New York, NY 10001, United States

At the tender age of 13, the Cameroon-born artist Samuel Fosso fled to the Central African Republic to escape the tensions of the Nigerian Civil War. There he joined the Studio Photo Nationale, and while taking passport and wedding photos, he discovered a love of self-portraiture. Through monochromatic photography and self-representation, Fosso aimed to reclaim African identity from outside influences by impersonating others in his portraits. Shape-shifting, he re-creates the poses and postures of celebrated Black figures such as Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, and Muhammad Ali. This is his first solo exhibition in New York in over two decades. —Maggie Turner

Courtesy Yossi Milo, New York.