Finding the right holiday gifts for an art lover shouldn’t be difficult or out of the way. One can get them thoughtful art-inspired gifts that would make good collectibles items that they will hold dearly. Get inspired with ANA’s guide to the best presents for an art enthusiast during the holidays.
- Kehinde Wiley Playing Cards
Painted on this gorgeous deck of playing cards is the painting Yachinboaz Ben Yisrael II (2021) by Kehinde Wiley, who borrows from European art history and portrait traditions to create his portraits of urban black and brown men. The sales of the deck support Black Rock, Wiley’s artist-in-residence program in Dakar, Senegal.
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- Zanele Muholi: Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness
This is a monograph of the visionary South African photographer and activist Zanele Muholi’s striking collection of 90 black-and-white self-portraits. The personal photographic document is an attempt to “encourage individuals in my community to be brave enough to occupy spaces – brave enough to create without fear of being vilified,” she writes. “To teach people about our history, to rethink what history is all about, to reclaim it for ourselves – to encourage people to use artistic tools such as cameras as weapons to fight back.” Beginning with the cover itself, which features a 2016 portrait, Ntozakhe II, Parktown, Johannesburg, each work is a poignant statement on identity and race, and can be considered a form of resistance.
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- Njideka Akunyili Crosby Tote Bag
This beautiful tote bag features artist Njideka Akunyili Crosby’s painting Nwantinti, inspired by Nelly Uchendu’s popular 1976 rendition of an Igbo folk song that describes the experience of finding true love.. Using a variety of materials, the artist has been known to create large-scale paintings that often depict intimate scenes inspired by her daily life. Akunyili Crosby employs a photo-transfer technique to incorporate the album’s cover art and other personal and culturally significant images into a collage. The photos blend into the private space of a bedroom, where the artist gazes tenderly at her partner.
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- Michael Armitage x Stella Jean Wearable Art
The ultimate travel piece is wearable art, especially when it teams up Haitian-Italian fashion designer Stella Jean and Kenyan artist Michael Armitage. Armitage’s inky imagery becomes a sweater story. There is the Kiziwani sweater, which is an original piece that depicts an indigenous forest, while the Samburu sweater is based on a pre-existing artwork that investigates exoticism and tourism in Kenya. Each sweater is a limited edition of 450 pieces, and is made of 100% cozy wool. All proceeds benefit the educational and outreach activities of Torino-based arts centre Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo and Nairobi Contemporary Art Institute
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- A Visual Art Dictionary
The Art Book is a great introduction to multiple art periods and styles. It includes works from popular artists such as Takashi Murakami, Joan Mitchell, El Anatsui, Jacob Lawrence, Zanele Muholi, Takashi Murakami, Wolfgang Tillmans, and more. This A-Z guide showcases pieces from over 600 artists, showing their bios and major works. The eye-catching cover makes the book a great coffee table piece, and it’s also an easy and enjoyable way of learning more about the most notable artists of all time.
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- Yinka Ilori Homeware
London-based Yinka Ilori specialises in design, architecture, and sculpture, fusing his British and Nigerian heritage to define contemporary design in a humorous, provocative, and fun way. Yinka Ilori began his practice in 2011 by up-cycling vintage furniture, and now runs a blossoming studio of colour-obsessed architects and designers. Working with a small supplier in Portugal, the stoneware collection is individually finished by hand, displaying Ilori’s signature bold, geometric artwork which is applied using the decal process.
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- David and Peter Adjaye: Dialogues, Vinyl
Image courtesy of Studio Museum
Dialogues is a limited edition vinyl-only album showcasing the ongoing architectural and sonic collaborations that have been developed over the last decade between music composer Peter Adjaye aka AJ Kwame and his brother, the award-winning architect David Adjaye OBE. This album explores the creative process of the two brothers’ collaborations; each track corresponds to a piece of work by David Adjaye and traverses the intersection between music and architecture, between sound and space. It is a series of site-specific architecture and sound collaborations that span from Reflections of a Golden Dream, the soundscape for the Stephen Lawrence Centre in Deptford, through to Three Views of Light which forms part of the Genesis Pavilion in Miami, Florida.
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- Chris Ofili: Afro Muses Tea Towel
Image courtesy of Studio Store
With a customized border, these linen tea towels feature Chris Ofili’s Afro Muses (1995-2002). The tea towels are digitally printed, preserving the vibrancy of the original watercolours. They are intended as a set but are sold separately. The material is linen and it is 49.8 x 10.8 cm in size.
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- Osei Bonsu: African Art Now
Author and curator Osei Bonsu‘s engaging profiles of leading African artists—along with gorgeous full-colour reproductions of their work—introduce readers to a generation of movers and shakers whose innovative artwork reflects on Africa as both an idea and an experience. The use of diverse forms, languages, and expressions to articulate what it means to be a part of the world and how these artists generate alternate histories and imaginative futures is personal and political, universal and incredibly specific. Their work helps define contemporary African art as a vast artistic and cultural movement.
Featured in this offering to artists, collectors, and art lovers: Amoako Boafo, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Tunji Adeniyi-Jones, Bronwyn Katz—from household names to up-and-coming artists, African Art Now features some of the most exciting artists working today.
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- Malick Sidibé: Mali Twist
Discover a vast collection of vintage photographs and timelessly beautiful portraits from the archives of Malian photographer Malick Sidibé, who was known for his black-and-white images chronicling the exuberant lives and culture in his native Bamako, Mali, in the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s. His striking work documents an important moment when Mali gained independence from France and transformed into a more modern and independent country.
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