NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Frist Art Museum presents New African Masquerades: Artistic Innovations and Collaborations, an exhibition that offers a rare and close look at contemporary West African masquerade. Organized by the New Orleans Museum of Art, in partnership with Musée des Civilisations noires in Dakar, Senegal, the exhibition will be on view in the Frist’s Ingram Gallery from October 10, 2025, through
January 4, 2026.
New African Masquerades highlights the stories of four contemporary masquerade artists, their motivations, artistic choices, and the patronage and economic networks with which they engage. Through the presentation of works of Chief Ekpenyong Bassey Nsa (Calabar, Nigeria), Sheku “Goldenfinger” Fofanah (Freetown, Sierra Leone), David Sanou (Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso), and Hervé Youmbi (Douala and the Grassfields of Cameroon), the exhibition offers fresh research models for contemporary masquerade.
A collaboration between an international team of scholars and artists, this is the first major exhibition on contemporary West African masquerade artists to focus on individual creators rather than presenting of masquerades as products of entire cultures. The term masquerade has many different meanings across different cultures and communities, but it can be loosely defined as a broad set of practices wherein individuals and societies dance in full-body, multimedia ensembles. These ensembles are then activated in many ways, including in performances, processions, and other ceremonies by either the masquerade artist or another practitioner.
The term masquerade has many different meanings across different cultures and communities, but it can be loosely defined as a broad set of practices wherein individuals and societies dance in full-body, multimedia ensembles. These ensembles are then activated in many ways, including in performances, processions, and other ceremonies by either the masquerade artist or another practitioner.
“Masquerade is among the most vibrant, dynamic, and longstanding expressive art forms found around the world today,” writes Amanda M. Maples, the Françoise Billion Richardson Curator of African Art at the New Orleans Museum of Art. “Centering the artists’ voices offers a new perspective on masquerade arts, and their ensembles demonstrate that creativity in African masquerade is fundamentally contemporary, highly collaborative and innovative in nature, socially and geographically mobile, and innately connected to global markets.”
New African Masquerades showcases 13 head-to-toe masquerade ensembles created for social, spiritual, entertainment, and museum contexts. Made from materials including wood, cloth and fabrics, sequins, feathers, gourds, raffia, and cowrie shells, these ensembles represent a wide variety of masquerade practices and societies. Nearly all the ensembles were commissioned expressly for this exhibition, and some genres have not previously been authorized for display to audiences abroad. In addition to ensembles, the exhibition includes photography, recorded interviews, and an immersive video experience showing never-before-seen 360-degree footage, including views of the ensembles being performed, glimpses into the artists’ studios, and clips sharing the perspectives of the artists. Breeze blocks—common architectural elements used in the cities where the artists live and work—are used as an exhibition design component with each artist represented by a unique pattern displayed alongside their ensembles.
Created with the support and participation of the artists, masquerade societies, and their communities, the immersive experience and videos offer visitors the extraordinary opportunity to see masquerades rarely displayed in the U.S. These additional exhibition components underscore the importance of music, movement, libations, skillful presentation, and audience participation to masquerade more broadly. Some masquerades—such as those of Bassey Nsa within the Ekpe Society of Calabar, Nigeria—hold political and didactic significance; others—like Fofanah’s designs for Jollay and Ordehlay in Sierra Leone—are primarily social and celebrate holidays. Still others are created to honor a life well lived—as is the case with some of Sanou’s work in Burkina Faso—or to explore legacies, as Youmbi demonstrates. Some are private, and others are paraded through the streets. And contrary to many static museum presentations, masquerade is almost always defined by movement, theatricality, and audience participation.
In addition to being a featured artist, Youmbi— whose work directly addresses the ethical questions inherent in presenting masquerades internationally—serves as a core member of the exhibition planning and curatorial team.
“My work over the last ten years has taken the form of hybrid masks that challenge the clichés and categories to which masks from Africa have generally been confined,” Youmbi said. “Addressing the question of new masks in Africa today is not just about the aesthetics and ethics of collaborations that govern the creation of new objects and living entities from Africa. It’s also, and above all, a question of envisaging new ways of collecting and exhibiting them.”
Beyond highlighting the works of four specific artists, the exhibition and accompanying catalogue present a case study in the methodology of producing a collaborative, cross-continental exhibition. Considering topics such as the ethics of presenting masquerade works in a museum context, traveling ensembles within and beyond the African continent, provenance, and cultural ownership, with contributions from African and North American scholars and artists, New African Masquerades suggests an ethically grounded transparent model for contemporary exhibition-making related to African art. “In developing this exhibition, it has been crucial to reframe masquerade as a vibrant contemporary practice that both honors past genres and relates to a global present,” says Maples. “Museum visitors will leave with a better view of masquerade as a rich collection of artistic practices today.”
Martin ArtQuest, the Frist’s award-winning art-making space, will feature new interactive stations thematically connected to New African Masquerades. Guests can use beads and string to make textile art pieces, create their own breeze block designs inspired by those displayed in the exhibition, and learn more about the artists’ native languages. At the Drawing in the Round station, the mannequin will be adorned with a Jaguda ensemble from the Jollay society in Sierra Leone. For young guests, there will be a themed children’s book reading list and take-home instructions to make a mini mobile.
Artist Bios
Chief Ekpenyong Bassey Nsa, born in 1973 in Creek Town, Nigeria, is a renowned third-generation Efik artist specializing in the creation of masquerade ensembles, beadwork, chieftaincy attire, cultural knowledge, and funeral shrines. He learned his craft from his father, who is credited with modernizing masquerade ensembles for the Ekpe secret society central to Efik culture as well as throughout southeast Nigeria and west Cameroon. Bassey Nsa’s artistry is deeply tied to the Ekpe society and his father’s legacy. Initiated into Ekpe at a young age, he was conferred with the Ekpe chieftaincy title, Obong Murua Okpoho, in 2009. His art is intertwined with family and tradition, with every work beginning with a libation to his father, seeking guidance through dreams and prayer. His commissions extend throughout the Cross River region as well as to international institutions.
Sheku “Goldenfinger” Fofanah, born in Freetown, Sierra Leone, in 1976, is known for his intricate and innovative designs. Based in the Fourah Bay community, he is the resident kotu (builder/artist) for the Gladiators Power Ordehlay Society (co-founded by his father) and contributes to other societies such as Tourist Ojeh and Omo Jessah Hunting. Fofanah’s work spans various masquerade genres, including Jollay, Ordehlay, and Hunting, and his designs are sought after in Sierra Leone, the Gambia, and internationally in Australia, Canada, and the UK, illustrating how masquerades serve not only as performative art forms but also as symbols of identity and connectivity in a rapidly changing world. Fofanah’s designs are part of prestigious collections, including that of Sierra Leone National Museum. His work has been displayed for national celebrations, such as the British Museum’s commission for Sierra Leone’s golden independence anniversary.
David Sanou, born in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, in 1969, is a third-generation master sculptor based in Bobo-Dioulasso. He assumed artistic control over his father’s studio in 2009 and has continued to innovate within existing practices, while simultaneously creating new masquerade forms such as Compromise Kimi headpieces, “emblematic portraits” of recently deceased community members that are danced in annual funeral celebrations. David Sanou’s artworks are featured in both secular and ceremonial occasions. His clientele includes chiefs and affluent patrons of masquerades in the region as well as museums abroad. Sanou has gained a reputation for quality and creativity, adhering to the standards of regional mask genres, while innovating new forms and types.
Hervé Youmbi, born in 1973 in Bangui, Central African Republic, and raised in Douala, Cameroon, is a celebrated contemporary artist deeply influenced by Africa’s complex history. Youmbi’s work explores issues of identity, power, and the legacy of colonialism through portraiture and hybrid masks bridging the gap between traditional African rituals and global contemporary art, questioning what is considered “traditional” or “contemporary.” Youmbi has been featured in, among others, the 2017 Münster Skulptur Project, Germany; the Into Nature Biennial, Holland (2018); exhibits at the Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac, France (2022); the Uchiboso Art Festival, Ichihara City, Japan (2024); and the Louvre Museum, Abu Dhabi, UAE (2025). His work is included in multiple global collections, including the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art and the Menil Collection.
Catalogue
Available in the Frist’s gift shop, the accompanying 264-page exhibition catalogue is published by the New Orleans Museum of Art and D Giles Limited and distributed by Yale University Press. Authored by Jordan A. Fenton, Lisa Homann, Amanda M. Maples, and Hervé Youmbi and with additional contributions from Kevin Dumouchelle, Ndubuisi Ezeluomba, Ishmeal A. Kamara, and Aimé Kantoussan, the volume includes 188 color and black-and-white illustrations; artist biographies; in-depth analyses of masquerade ensembles in relation to themes of collaboration, economics, innovation, and mobility; and a discussion of the methodologies for ethically commissioning and acquiring masquerade art.
U.S. Exhibition Tour:
April 4–August 10, 2025: New Orleans Museum of Art, Louisiana
October 10, 2025–January 4, 2026: Frist Art Museum, Nashville, Tennessee
February 27–July 5, 2026: San Antonio Museum of Art, Texas
September 2026–January 2027: Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida
February 19–September 26, 2027: Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African Art, Washington, DC
Africa Exhibition Tour:
May–September 2026: Musée des Civilisations noires, Dakar, Senegal
Fall 2026: Sierra Leone National Museum, Freetown, Sierra Leone
2027: National Museum, Calabar, Nigeria
The presentation of New African Masquerades at these African venues will include parallel commissioned masquerade ensembles that will remain in the care of communities and institutions on the continent.
Program
Thursday, October 9, 6:30 p.m.
Opening Conversation: New African Masquerades
Auditorium
Gallery admission required; first come-first seated
Join the New African Masquerades curatorial team, Jordan A. Fenton, Lisa Homann, Amanda M. Maples, and Hervé Youmbi, for this conversation moderated by Maples about the exhibition and its innovative approach to researching and exhibiting contemporary West African masquerades.
Exhibition Credit
New African Masquerades: Artistic Innovations and Collaborations is organized by the New Orleans Museum of Art, in partnership with Musée des Civilisations noires in Dakar, Senegal, and received generous support from the National Endowment for the Humanities
Supporter Acknowledgment
Platinum Sponsor: HCA Healthcare/TriStar Health
Education and Community Engagement Supporters: Nissan Foundation and Windgate Foundation
Supported in part by Ameriprise Financial
The Frist Art Museum is supported in part by The Frist Foundation, the Tennessee Arts Commission, Metro Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Connect with us @FristArtMuseum #TheFrist
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Buddy Kite: 615.744.3351, [email protected]
Ellen Jones Pryor: 615.243.1311, [email protected]
About the Frist Art Museum
Accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, the Frist Art Museum is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit art exhibition center dedicated to presenting and originating high-quality exhibitions with related educational programs and community outreach activities. Located at 919 Broadway in downtown Nashville, Tenn., the Frist Art Museum offers the finest visual art from local, regional, national, and international sources in exhibitions that inspire people through art to look at their world in new ways. Information on accessibility can be found at FristArtMuseum.org/accessibility. Gallery admission is free for guests ages 18 and younger and for members, and $20 for adults. For current hours and additional information, visit FristArtMuseum.org or call 615.244.3340.
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