ARTISTS
I'm just a Boy
I鈥檓 Just a Boy dares us to see the boy within the man. To witness softness without shame. To hold space for a masculinity that breathes. This exhibition explores the multifaceted experience of African masculinity by revisiting its earliest, rawest form: the boy. Through the lenses of ten contemporary African artists, the exhibition captures an emotional landscape rarely afforded to Black male subjects鈥攖enderness, uncertainty, curiosity, vulnerability, and quiet rebellion.
This is not a retreat from manhood, but a re-rooting. Each work becomes a window into how masculinity is inherited, performed, resisted, and remade. The boy in these works is not na茂ve鈥攈e is watching, absorbing, becoming. I鈥檓 Just a Boy is not about nostalgia. It鈥檚 about reclamation.
It honors the full emotional range of Black and African masculinity at a time when vulnerability is an act of resistance. In every gaze, gesture, and painted figure, these artists offer us a radical proposition: The boy never disappeared. He was simply waiting to be seen.
Recommended for you
I鈥檓 Just a Boy dares us to see the boy within the man. To witness softness without shame. To hold space for a masculinity that breathes. This exhibition explores the multifaceted experience of African masculinity by revisiting its earliest, rawest form: the boy. Through the lenses of ten contemporary African artists, the exhibition captures an emotional landscape rarely afforded to Black male subjects鈥攖enderness, uncertainty, curiosity, vulnerability, and quiet rebellion.
This is not a retreat from manhood, but a re-rooting. Each work becomes a window into how masculinity is inherited, performed, resisted, and remade. The boy in these works is not na茂ve鈥攈e is watching, absorbing, becoming. I鈥檓 Just a Boy is not about nostalgia. It鈥檚 about reclamation.
It honors the full emotional range of Black and African masculinity at a time when vulnerability is an act of resistance. In every gaze, gesture, and painted figure, these artists offer us a radical proposition: The boy never disappeared. He was simply waiting to be seen.
Related articles
I鈥檓 Just a Boy revisits the formative years of Black and African masculinity.
What's on nearby
