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The global Africa project is a newly opened exhibition exploring contemporary African art, design and craft currently on show at the museum of arts and design in New York. The show features work by over 60 artists in Africa as well as Europe, Asia and North America. The works involved all mediums covering everything from , fashion, architecture, painting, to basketry, photography, textiles. Etc. Rather than separate the works into traditional art historical groupings, the global Africa project makes no distinction, placing profession artist next to self-taught craftsmen, exploring the impact and influence of Africa on contemporary design. "The exhibition challenges conventional notions of a singular African aesthetic or identity, and reflects the integration of African art and design without making the usual distinction between professional and artisan." Works by African artist span various dimensions, due to that; the Global Africa Project was organized around several thematic ideas. They ranged from the phenomenon of intersecting cultures and cultural fusion, to the impact of the art-market on the economic and social conditions of local communities. It also reflected on the branding and co-opting of cultural references, how art and design is promoted in the international market as well as the use of local material. The project surveyed a rich pool of new and talented emerging artist from Africa and its influence on artist around the world. I think that the show not only brought an in-depth analysis to what entails African art, but also it brought together artists who have never been exposed to the American Audience. It also created the opportunity for the artist themselves to interact with each and form new and enriching friendships from all over the continent.
* *To see to it that African art in the international scene is on the rise, we not only need the artist, weather acclaimed or new talents, but also curators and critics who are deeply immersed in the understanding of language of African art. There are a few prominent African curators on the international scene but none surpasses the ability and creativity of the Nigerian born curator Okwui Enwezor. Born 1963 in Kabala, Nigeria, Enwezor has become one of the most influential curators and theorists in contemporary art. In 1998, he became known to a broader public when he was appointed as the first representative of a non-Western country to be artistic director of the Documenta 11. In 2002, he set a new attendance record for a medially and regionally diverse exhibition in Kassel. Five international "platforms" preceded the actual exhibition, creating an impressive format and expanding it to a global scale both theoretically and conceptually.He contributed significantly to the international art market's rejection of solely focusing on art within a Euro-American context, and globalized the art world both commercially and intellectually. Conceptually Enwezor repeatedly insisted on making a distinction between economic globalization, which essentially reinforces the supremacy of the old elites, and a true internationalization not only of the art market, which focuses on participation in political, social and cultural spheres.
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Bernie searle is a south African artist who explores her own and a broader South African identity by branding her body. sSearle originally was trained as a sculptor, now she utilizes large-scale digital photographic prints and combines them with found materials to make compelling installations. She works with different mediums, such as photography, video, installation and performing art. Searle's works focus primarily on narratives of gender, race and memory as they have been configured in apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa. Like a number of contemporary artists working in lens-based media and digital technology, her works are often autobiographical and challenge the viewer to confront his or her own role as voyeur of the demarcated body. The interesting thing about searles work is that even though they confront issues of apartheid, something that is very personal to south Africans, they found admirations in the west greatly. When she came to Cornell in 2010 to give a talk on her artistic carrier, I asked her that "My concern was that I believed people who experienced the harsh treatment of apartheid do not want to remember them or have them re-iterated in anyway as it was only going to incur more pain and hurt, so how do they people feel about her re-enactment of the whole thing." She said that people were scared to talk about and that she was putting her life at risk doing what she is doing because it was necessary to have these issues brought out for a peaceful reconciliation program. I believe that the west is embracing it peacefully because it is an issue related to humanity and maybe they find it as a way of mending the hurt they incurred during the process.
Yinka Shonibare to me is one interesting artist, as with his double identity as a British-Nigerian, his works tends to focus on those two cultures. He works across diverse artistic media to explore ideas about African contemporary identity and the legacy of European colonialism in the present. His works strives to open up debate about the social, cultural and political issues that shape our histories and construct identity. They rend challenge assumptions about representation. In a video interview with him, when asked why his sculptures are headless, he said it is to conceal the issue of race and identity, and to express the idea of oneness, in so doing people realize their mistakes so as not to repeat it again. He is know for his headless sculptures cloth in African batiks. I think that it is a way blurring the boundaries between stereotypically Western ideas about 'high' art and traditional categorizations of 'African art. 
When I was first introduced to works of William kentridge, I did not for once perceive him to be an African artist because of the medium of his work. He is mostly known for his video and animation works, something very new to Africans and he is able to do a very good job merging the two. He is a South African artist best known for his prints, drawings, and animated films. His works although have very much western form of production, they depict everyday life under apartheid. In exploring this field, he broadens his themes leaving the audience to examine other political conflicts. He takes on a different approach when addressing political issues such that he ends up having his works create contradictory aggressiveness which entangles perpetrators, witness and victims involved. As he has progressed, he has developed a new conceptual theme where even though he is still using the animation medium, he has introduced his body, where he uses his body "himself" as the main character. Kentridge goes beyond the usual manipulations of animation to bring forth a world conceived as a theatre of memory. 
Ibrahim el Salahi is a Sudanese whose works fueling modernism has fused the diverse traditions of Sudan to make an art that is universal in its importance. Interesting enough amongst the entire internationally acclaimed artist, it is only Salahi who has served time in prison by his countries government and has had to go into exile. His most famous work, which is temporarily housed in the Johnson museum in Cornell, is called the inevitable. It is said that it is his reaction to his time spent in prison. These nine panels of artwork are Africa's, "Guernica", a testimony of war and revolution, which raises the global consciousness about the imminent threat of dictatorship and civil unrest. It makes frequent trips abroad but the one place it never goes is the Sudan. Ibrahim has always maintained that the Sudanese people should own the 9-panelled Masterpiece, yet he refuses to allow the painting to travel to the Sudan until the country enjoys, public liberties and democratic institution. "The Inevitable", challenges the notion of warfare and depicts the chaotic, exposing the brutal acts of destruction and genocide. It is popularly believed that never before has an African artist made such a social statement, which has echoed the sentiments of an entire Nation and is as relevant today as it was in when it was made in 1985. 
OBSERVATION
By looking at these artists, one theme that runs through each others concept are all social commentaries relating to mis-happening governing their countries, as well as interference to past situations. In addition they have found a way to implement a western concept or standard, either through the medium they used or the language in works are expressed. Personally I think that these strengths are what drives their work into the international scene. The traditions and culture of Africa are enriched with so much that even the people of the continent have a hard time to graps it all, thus having a western feature in it makes it not only easier but pleasing as well to interact with it.
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