A Non-Profit Cultural Organisation
Art of Contemporary Africa
Celebrating Africa’s creativity. Preserving its heritage. Sharing its stories with the world.
Africa has shaped the world’s artistic and cultural landscape in profound and enduring ways — from ancient traditions and centuries of cultural expression to the contemporary movements redefining art, music, literature, fashion, architecture and design.
Yet many of Africa’s most important creative stories remain underrepresented, inadequately documented, or largely absent from the global cultural narrative.
Art of Contemporary Africa (AOCA) was established to help change this.
AOCA is a non-profit cultural organisation dedicated to researching, documenting, preserving and celebrating the remarkable contributions that Africa and her people have made, and continue to make, to global art and culture.
Our mission is to amplify African voices, honour the continent’s creative pioneers, celebrate its contemporary visionaries, and ensure that their stories are accessible to audiences across the world.
We believe that Africa’s creative heritage is not only a source of immense pride for the continent, but an invaluable part of humanity’s shared cultural history. By bringing these stories to life, we seek to challenge outdated narratives, inspire new generations and foster a deeper appreciation of Africa’s influence on global creativity.
What We Do
Research, documentation, preservation and storytelling — the four disciplines behind everything we publish.
Research
We trace the people, traditions, movements and innovations that have shaped Africa’s creative identity, working alongside artists, families, institutions and scholars.
Documentation
We record what has too often gone unrecorded: archives, oral histories, studio practice and the context that surrounds the work itself.
Preservation
We safeguard cultural knowledge so that it survives generations rather than trends, and remains available to those who come after.
Storytelling
We translate research into stories that travel — carefully written, richly illustrated and freely accessible to audiences worldwide.
A Global Partnership
A partnership with Google Arts & Culture to bring African stories to the world.
As part of this mission, AOCA has entered into a partnership with Google Arts & Culture — creating an opportunity to document and share African creative achievement with a global audience through a dedicated Art of Contemporary Africa portal on the platform.
Through the portal, AOCA develops and presents carefully researched, richly illustrated and engaging stories that explore the people, traditions, movements and innovations which have shaped Africa’s creative identity.
Spanning the visual arts, music, dance, literature, fashion, architecture, design and cultural heritage, the portal celebrates both established icons and lesser-known creative voices whose contributions deserve greater recognition.
Our ambition is to build an expanding digital resource that preserves African cultural knowledge, encourages discovery, and makes authentic African stories available to audiences, educators, researchers and future generations around the world.
Our First Feature · Launching 11 November 2026
Dr Esther Mahlangu
The first major presentation on the Art of Contemporary Africa portal on Google Arts & Culture celebrates the extraordinary life, artistry and cultural legacy of internationally acclaimed South African artist Dr Esther Mahlangu.
A pioneering artist whose distinctive visual language draws upon the artistic traditions of the Ndebele people, Dr Mahlangu has introduced African cultural expression to audiences across the globe. Her journey demonstrates the power of art to transcend geographical and cultural boundaries while remaining deeply rooted in heritage and identity.
Her story provides a fitting beginning to AOCA’s undertaking: a celebration of African creativity that honours the past, engages with the present and inspires the future.
Portrait: Photo by Clint Strydom
Our Conviction
Reclaiming narratives. Inspiring generations.
Africa’s stories deserve to be told, preserved and celebrated — and the world deserves to know them. Africa has given so much to the world’s cultural heritage. AOCA exists to ensure those contributions are never overlooked or forgotten.
AFRICA’S STORIES. AFRICA’S VOICES. AFRICA’S LEGACY.