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  • Visual Art

DanceAfrica Visual Art

May 5—Sep 30, 2026
Curated and commissioned for BAM DanceAfrica 2026 by The Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA)
    Part of
  • DanceAfrica Festival 2026 Program
DanceAfrica boasts offerings for all the senses. Listen to heart-pounding music on stage and at parties, take in smells at the outdoor bazaar, and feast your eyes upon stunning visual artwork—like “Voices of Peace” by Sanaa Gateja.

Alongside our partners at The Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA), we’re excited to share a piece of the Ugandan artist's practice, giving new life to post-consumer paper through intricate beadwork.

Using bark cloth as canvas, Gateja concocts works of ornate beadwork that invoke pointillism in their vivid imagining. “Voices of Peace” (2023) produces different viewing experiences from afar and up close. In its full scale: colors blur in a rendition of fifteen figures standing before a forest ablaze, an ode to peace and the importance of environmental protections. Up close, each vibrant bead represents the labor of rolling post-consumer paper (offering glimpses of posters, pamphlets, or textbooks), and these constellations beget smaller masterworks embedded in a larger tapestry.

Through a uniquely singular practice, Gateja, also known as “The Bead King,” produces work that demands extended viewing, as each closer investigation reveals new aesthetic and thematic moments.


ILoveNewYork

UPCOMING Performances

      VENUE

      Peter Jay Sharp Building
      Dorothy W. Leavitt Lobby

      TICKET INFORMATION

      Free
      Located along the escalator wall
      All performances will adhere to protocols developed in accordance with New York State regulations and in consultation with medical professionals for the safety of our artists, audiences, and staff. 

      Leadership support for
      BAM’s strategic initiatives provided by:

      Mellon Foundation

      Leadership support for
      BAM Access Programs provided by
      the Jerome L. Greene Foundation

      JL Greene

      Leadership support for
      BAM programming provided by:

      Howard Gilman

      • Share the Brooklyn magic! Donate to BAM today at BAM.org/support
      • Sanaa Gateja
        Sanaa Gateja (b. 1950, Kisoro, Uganda) makes intricate works from post-consumer paper that he rolls into beads, sewing them onto bark cloth supports in tapestry-like assemblages. Up close, the beads offer glimpses, between folds, of their past lives—as vintage posters, pages from wig sales pamphlets, and outdated textbooks, among other things. His distinctive method requires the involvement of members of his community, whom he has trained and employed since the early 1990s. Gateja envisions artists as agents for social, political, and environmental transformation, and art-making as an act of ecological and spiritual repair. Disrupting conventional distinctions between figuration and abstraction, and two-dimensional work and sculpture, the resulting swirling, mosaic-like pieces instead draw affective connections between people and their surroundings. Gateja lives in Kampala, Uganda.

        Gateja had his first American solo exhibition at Karma in 2023 and was included in the Carnegie International (2022). His works are held in museums and private collections worldwide including the Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh; de Young Museum, San Francisco; Field Museum, Chicago; National Scottish Museum, Edinburgh; and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. He has exhibited at institutions and fairs including ARCOlisboa; Cape Town Art Fair; FNB Art Joburg, Johannesburg; Art Paris; AKAA Paris; Themes & Variations, London; and the Museum of Art and Design, New York.

        Gateja represented the Ugandan Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale in 2024.
      • MoCADA
        The Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA) celebrates the cultural breadth of Africa and its diaspora via the production and presentation of visual, literary, and performing arts, and uses art, education, and advocacy as vehicles for social change. More than a museum, MoCADA is a community bridge, advocating for equity and access for underserved residents in every sector, and an arts incubator that has given a platform to over 100 artists from 20+ countries across the African diaspora.

      EXPLORE DANCEAFRICA

      • Dance

        DanceAfrica Performance

        May 22—25, 2026

        DanceAfrica Performance

        May 22—25, 2026
        Enchanting Brooklyn for its 49th year, DanceAfrica 2026 culminates in a dance and music performance celebrating the culture of Uganda.
        More
        Dance

        DanceAfrica Performance

        May 22—25, 2026
        DanceAfrica culminates in a dance and music performance celebrating the culture of Uganda.
      • Community

        DanceAfrica Bazaar 2026

        May 23—25, 2026

        DanceAfrica Bazaar 2026

        May 23—25, 2026
        RAIN OR SHINE!
        DanceAfrica’s beloved bazaar returns, transforming the streets around BAM into a global marketplace with more than 150 vendors offering African, Caribbean, and African-American food, crafts, and fashion.
        More
        Community

        DanceAfrica Bazaar 2026

        May 23—25, 2026
        DanceAfrica’s beloved bazaar transforms the streets around BAM into a global marketplace.
      • Classes

        DanceAfrica Classes 2026

        May 17—25, 2026

        DanceAfrica Classes 2026

        May 17—25, 2026
        Learn fundamentals of African Diasporic movement and music in DanceAfrica classes.
        More
        Classes

        DanceAfrica Classes 2026

        May 17—25, 2026
        Learn fundamentals of African Diasporic movement and music in DanceAfrica classes.
      Voices of Peace, by Sanaa Gateja, 2023

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