Always Moving Forward: Contemporary African Photography from The Wedge Collection, is a selection of images by contemporary photographic artists of African origin.

Through a wide range of photographic practices, Always Moving Forward speaks to a world in which migrations, economies and cultures have all gone global. In these photos, emerging technologies, urbanization, and the influence of corporate advertising become source material for explorations of African identity.

Product packaging is used as wallpaper in Zwelethu Mthethwa’s powerful images of urban residents in post-apartheid South Africa. In Mohammed Bourouissa’s carefully staged tableaux, cellphones serve as documentation device and social signifier. In his survey of the new moneyed subculture from Soweto known as the “Black Diamonds”, Antony Kimani presents a t-shirt that re-imagines the ubiquitous “I (Heart) NY” as “I (Africa) NY”. Globalization is the subject of Hassan Hajjaj’s mash-up of corporate logos. Each of the artists in this exhibition responds to the realities of African societies in transition and the ever-present forces of capitalism. In doing so, they rework the codes of visual culture into their own relevant vocabularies.

For a panel discussion and curator's tour see events. Concurrently, the Gallery 44 vitrines will feature new work from Wedge Collection artist Megan Morgan, Mrs. White, Mrs. Brown, Mrs. Black, 2010.

Curated by 0

• Dawit L. Petros (Eritrean/Canadian, b. 1972) is a visual artist, researcher, and educator. He holds an MFA in visual art from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts/Tufts University, Boston. Recent exhibition venues include Remai Modern and the University of Saskatchewan’s College Art Galleries, Saskatoon (2025); the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago (2024); Oslo Kunstforening, Norway (2020); the 13th Biennial of Havana, Matanzas, Cuba (2019); and Addis Foto Fest, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (2018). 

  Petros has been awarded an Independent Study Fellowship at the Whitney Museum of American Art (2012) and an artist residency at the Studio Museum in Harlem (2008), both in New York City. A winner of the Duke and Duchess of York Prize from the Canada Council of the Arts (2021), he is an associate professor of studio art at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire. Petros is represented by Bradley Ertaskiran, Montreal, and Tiwani Contemporary, London, UK.

   

• Hassan Hajjaj (b. 1961, Larache, Morocco) is a Moroccan-British artist, designer, filmmaker, and photographer known for his vivid, joyful celebration of Moroccan culture. His work blends Western pop-art influences with Moroccan aesthetics, drawing inspiration from West African studio photography traditions, including those of Samuel Fosso, Seidou Keïta, and Malick Sidibé. Hajjaj’s portraits often feature friends posed in intricately styled settings that fuse street culture, consumerism, haute couture, and hip-hop. Through this layered visual language, he challenges cultural clichés and elevates the everyday and overlooked.