On Saturday, January 25, at 4 pm, join Masud Olufani for a conversation with Stephen Satterfield, creator of the Netflix series High on the Hog, as they discuss some of the narrative elements of food culture as depicted in Olufani’s current exhibition, A Sorcery of Sustenance. This conversation will be moderated by Floyd Hall, Atlanta Contemporary Executive Director.
A Sorcery of Sustenance is a collection of recently completed sculptures that trace the cultural retentions of the African Diaspora through food. Inspired in part by the popular Netflix series High on the Hog, this diverse gathering of mixed media works examines food production within the Black community as an alchemy that satiates the body as well as the spirit. In this context, nourishment or sustenance, has a double meaning that refers both to the corporeal and the incorporeal–to this world and to “other” worlds.
Masud Olufani is an Atlanta based multidisciplinary artist born in Los Angeles, California and raised in multiple cities including New York, Miami, New Orleans, Dallas, and Atlanta. He is an assistant professor of art and visiting arts fellow at Morehouse College and he also teaches at the United States Federal Prison in Atlanta, Georgia. The artist has exhibited his work nationally and internationally. He is a featured artist in the 2024 Dakar Biennale in Senegal. The artist has completed residencies at The Vermont Studio Center; The Hambidge Center for Arts and Sciences; and Tallier Portobello Norte in Panama. He is a 2018 Southern Arts Prize State Fellow; and a recipient of a 2015-16’ MOCA GA Working Artist Project Grant. The artist enjoys traveling, exercise, reading and long meandering conversations.
As an actor, he had a recurring role on the BET series The Quad, and has appeared in numerous television shows including Greenleaf; Being Mary Jane, Devious Maids, Satisfaction, and Nashville. He is a featured actor in the film biopic All Eyez on Me. He was the co-host of the PBS news based investigative journalism show Retroreport, which premiered nationally in the fall of 2019. He is the co-host of the podcast series Undaunted, which centers the work of social justice changemakers. He is the lead actor in No Cowards in Our Band about the life of Frederick Douglass, set to premiere at Hudson Valley Opera in Hudson Valley, New York in the fall of 2024.
As a writer, Masud has published articles for Burnaway; Baha’i Teachings; and is a featured contributor for the Jacob Lawrence Struggle Series catalog, produced to coincide with a major exhibition of the Struggle Series paintings. His forthcoming memoir is presently in production.
Stephen Satterfield is an award-winning food writer, sommelier, producer, and media entrepreneur. He is the founder of Whetstone Media and the host of the Netflix docu-series High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America.
Event offsite at Emory University’s Michael C. Carlos Museum
Register
Event Offsite at Emory University’s Michael C. Carlos Museum
Join us at Emory University’s Michael C. Carlos Museum for a conversation between renowned Guyanese-British artist Hew Locke, whose work explores empire and power, and Guyanese-American curator Grace Aneiza Ali. The landmark exhibition, Donald Locke: Nexus, curated by Ali and on view here at Atlanta Contemporary, honors the life and legacy of Guyanese-born artist Donald Locke (1930–2010), one of Atlanta’s most influential artists. It focuses on how the concept of “nexus” permeates his artistic and intellectual journey and his engagement with themes of migration, cultural hybridity, and the histories of colonialism.
