To cap off a year that has been dominated by the resurgence, return, and rediscovery of African art on an international scale, two of the top museums’ exhibitions happening in the United States this December are centered on the phenomenal art from the continent, from historical to contemporary art.

First, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City on Tuesday opened the "The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality" exhibit featuring forty-two pieces of African art covering five millennia. The items on display include artifacts from Egypt dating back to 3650 and 350 B.C., paired with 21 works from sub-Saharan Africa, ranging in date from the 16th to the mid-20th century and representing more than a dozen distinct artistic traditions.

"The exhibition serves as a springboard for a series of installations of important sculptures from West and Central Africa in permanent collection galleries across the museum," the museum said. "These 'guest appearances' introduce unexpected cross-cultural connections between works of art from different places and times."

The artifacts have been discovered in tombs and other archaeological contexts that reflect well-established trade networks between ancient Egypt and Europe and Western Asia. The museum said the interconnections of the civilizations of ancient Greece, Rome, and Egypt can be seen by shared motifs and artistic forms. 

Similarly, on the opposite West Coast, the recently reopened Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco, straight from scoring a generous grant from the NBA Foundation, is hosting Ghanaian artist Amoako Boafo’s first museum show ‘Soul of Black Folks’ till February 27, 2022. 

“As arresting as Boafo’s portraits are in thumbnails or digital pics, they astound in person. To enter the gallery is to be surrounded by images of Black people existing freely outside of the white gaze and the histories of oppression,” an excerpt from The Chronicle’s review of Boafo’s show read.

Also on display at San Francisco's Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) this December are the works of Johannesburg-based tapestry artist Billie Zangewa. The exhibition titled Thread for a Web Begun “employs a labor-intensive collaging technique using pieces of silk tapestries and other cloth to create jewel-toned scenes and figures with hyper-contemporary resonance.”

If there wasn't already an ultimate marker that 2021 was the year of the renaissance of African art, then these two monumental events happening on the North American subcontinent are strong markers signifying the global emergence of African art and artists.