When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting has been highlighted and acclaimed internationally as one of the most significant exhibitions in contemporary art.
The exhibition features over 148 works from institutional and private lenders located across 16 countries, bringing together artworks from the past 100 years, created by Black artists worldwide. The exhibition places these works in dialogue with Black thinkers, writers, and poets active today. When We See Us is the largest exhibition of Black figuration that is underpinned by joy.
When We See Us is conceived and organized by Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA), where it deeply resonated with its audience and subsequently travelled to Kunstmuseum Basel in Basel and Bozar in Brussels. With a primary focus on painting, the exhibition celebrates how artists from Africa and its diaspora (people of African descent living outside the continent) have envisioned, positioned, memorialized and asserted experiences from Africa and of African descent. The exhibition is co-curated by the late Koyo Kouoh, appointed Curator of the 61st International Art Exhibition of the 2026 Venice Biennale, and Tandazani Dhlakama, former Zeitz MOCAA Curator and current Curator of Global Africa at Royal Ontario Museum (ROM).
The exhibition is organized around six themes: The Everyday, Joy and Revelry, Repose, Sensuality, Spirituality, and Triumph and Emancipation. Based on these themes, the exhibition offers a rich and nuanced picture of Black life and thought, emphasising the resilience, essence and political charge of Black Joy. The exhibition is grounded in a curatorial premise that shifts away from centering violence and trauma – subjects that have traditionally been associated with art from Africa and its diaspora.
“When We See Us presents an alternative modernity, highlighting artistic practices that have been historically excluded in Western Art History. The exhibition offers visitors a unique opportunity to experience art that has never been shown in Sweden,” says Joanna Sandell Wright, collaborating curator of the exhibition, director and artistic leader of Liljevalchs.
Exhibition dates: 10 October 2025 - 30 August 2026
Installation views: When We See Us, Liljevalchs 10 Oct 2025 – 11 Aug 2026. Photo: Jean-Baptiste Béranger. When We See Us – A Century of Black Figuration in Painting is organized and conceived by Zeitz MOCAA
