Iowa City, IA – The Stanley Museum of Art at the University of Iowa presents Portraiture & Archives in African Photography, its first exhibition devoted entirely to photography from across Africa and its diaspora. On view August 22 through December 13, 2026, and organized by the Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art at Indiana University, the exhibition brings together six modern and contemporary artists whose work, made between 1963 and 2024, explores culture, identity, memory, and modern life through photography.

The exhibition is anchored by the works of two celebrated photographers from the African continent, Malick Sidibé and Tijani Sitou, who practiced portrait photography in Mali through the middle and late twentieth century. Sidibé earned global recognition for his depictions of Malians in the years after independence from France in 1960, an intimate view of everyday culture, leisure, and identity that had rarely been seen outside the country. Featured works by contemporary artists Zohra Opoku, Ibrahima Thiam, Hassan Hajjaj, and Zanele Muholi respond to that legacy, extending their photography practice into textiles and painting.

"Malick Sidibé and Tijani Sitou produced some of the most important portrait photography of the twentieth century, and this exhibition lets audiences in Iowa see how living artists build on that foundation." said Cory Gundlach, curator of African Art at the Stanley Museum of Art, "Adding works by Hassan Hajjaj and Zanele Muholi from our own collection continues a rich exchange between the two museums with a shared legacy in African art scholarship."

This traveling exhibition deepens a longstanding partnership between the Stanley Museum of Art and the Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, which have shared exhibitions in the past and are part of the Big Ten Academic Alliance. In 2024, curators at the Stanley and the Eskenazi co-taught a cross-campus course whose students curated a collaborative exhibition drawn from both collections. Portraiture & Archives continues that exchange and reflects a growing practice in the field of inviting diverse voices to develop exhibition narratives.

Engaging with photographic archives—a core theme of the exhibition—is also expressed in the works of Ibrahima Thiam, who co-curated the exhibition and is a practicing artist and photographer based in Dakar. In his own Portraits "Vintage" series, young sitters hold historic portraits in front of their faces, choosing what to carry forward.

"The archive is not only the past, it is material for the present," said Ibrahima Thiam. "When a young person holds an old portrait in front of their face, they decide what to carry forward. I wanted families and communities, as they pictured themselves, at the center of this exhibition."

A companion exhibition, Maam Njaré: Goddess of Water, presents recent work by Thiam in an adjacent gallery. The series honors a Lebou water spirit from Senegal's coast, using photography to bear witness to its spiritual and oral heritage.

"This is the first time the Stanley has given its galleries entirely to photography from Africa and its diaspora, and it comes through a partnership we value deeply," said Lauren Lessing, director at the Stanley Museum of Art, "What stays with me is how personal these pictures are — families and communities as they chose to be seen. We hope visitors across Iowa find something of themselves in them."

The public is invited to an opening reception and artist talk with Ibrahima Thiam on Thursday, August 27, 2026, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.