The Art Limitless programme within the BE OPEN Art online gallery is happy to announce Justine Watt @jussywatt , a sculptor based in the UK, as the February 2026 monthly winner. Watt works across installation, sculpture, and contemporary craft. By reworking materials that have reached the end of their functional life, she creates modular sculptural forms that can be assembled and reassembled in different ways, reflecting ideas of renewal and transformation.
Art Limitless is a programme within the BE OPEN Art platform exploring sustainability in the arts. Each month, a winning artist is selected and featured in the online gallery. At the end of the year, three artists will be chosen from the monthly winners by members of the BE OPEN community to receive monetary awards and greater international visibility from the BE OPEN Foundation.
#BeOpenART #BeOpenNEWS
The BEOPEN Art community continues to celebrate inspiring creative voices. Discover the artists shortlisted for February 2026 Artist of the Month and explore the distinctive styles and ideas that make their work stand out.
#BEOPENArt #ArtistOfTheMonth #ContemporaryArt #EmergingArtist #ArtistsToWatch #ArtSpotlight #VisualCulture #CreativeVoices #ArtWorld #SupportArtists
HAPPY NEW MONTH ❤️
JUST DO IT!!!
Perfection Kills The Sense Of Creativity In You
I Am Joseph Christian Ekom-obong A Son Of The Soil Promoting The True Essence Of My Existence, Of Our Culture And Traditions As A Black Man.
#africanartist #contemporaryart #blackexcellence✊🏾 #EmergingArtist #african
ART in NATURE
Pic of the week
Jim Denevan
@jimdenevan
“Self Similar”
Originating as a circle drawn in the sands of Abu Dhabi, artist Jim Denevan used a simple stick before Self Similar” evolved into one of the largest land art installations ever created. Sculpted as a central part of a city-wide light art exhibition, Manar Abu Dhabi, it spans nearly one square kilometer and reaches a towering height of twenty-seven meters.
Visitors are invited to engage with the installation. E.g. they are invited to climb two observation mounds to enjoy panoramic views of the surrounding natural landscape.
@beopenfuture
#landart #abudahbi #sandart #pyramids #artinstallation
BE OPEN Art is pleased to announce Sayda Shukri @saydartt as the March Regional Artist of the Month in the Northeastern Africa stage of its 2026 global art competition running from January through April. Sayda Shukri is a young self-taught artist from Sudan whose work celebrates the richness of Sudanese cultural heritage.
As the third monthly winner in this regional stage, Sayda Shukri now joins January winner Reem Aljeally and February winner Aissa Joud in the run for the title of Regional Artist of Northeastern Africa, to be announced at the end of April. The selected Regional Winner will receive a €500 cash prize and increased international visibility through the BE OPEN Art platform.
#BeOpenART #BeOpenNEWS
VALUE FOR VALUE
Religion has shaped belief, identity, and community but it has also contributed to the gradual fading of African culture and traditions.
Practices that once defined entire civilizations were labeled as diabolic, fetish, or evil. Over time, these labels created distance from heritage, from ancestry, and from identity. What was once sacred became something to question, to hide, or even to abandon.
This mindset has extended into newer generations, passing down not only faith, but also doubt and misunderstanding about our own cultural foundations.
What remains striking is the contradiction a traditional sculpture may be dismissed in its original cultural setting, yet admired and valued when placed in a gallery or collector’s space. The object does not change only perception does.
Value for Value questions this imbalance.
If religious texts are studied, preserved, and honored with devotion, then African traditions, cultural practices, and ancestral knowledge deserve that same level of respect and commitment.
Not everything rooted in our heritage is diabolical or evil, as it has often been portrayed especially to the youth and generations to come.
Because this is ours.
Our identity.
Our history.
Our inheritance.
And value must be met with value.
Title:- FRAGILE HERITAGE IV (Value For Value )
Charcoal pencil and acrylic on canvas
(Y) 2026
Size:- 36x48inches
#africanartist #contemporaryart #blackartist #artoftheday #blackexistence
This painting reflects on the fragile state of African cultural identity in a rapidly changing world. As part of the Who We Were series, this work looks back at the traditions, values, and ancestral knowledge that once defined us, questioning what remains and what is at risk of being forgotten.
The painting presents heritage as something precious yet vulnerable something that must be consciously held, protected, and preserved. The central figure stands as a custodian of memory, carrying culture with care, aware that neglect could lead to loss. The ancestral forms surrounding her speak of continuity, while the marked fragility of the cultural object emphasizes the urgency of preservation.
Before It Slips Away is a call to the younger generation to recognize the responsibility they carry. It reminds us that culture does not vanish suddenly; it fades when it is no longer valued. To remember who we were is to protect what we still have before it slips away.
Title:- FRAGILE HERITAGE III (Before It Slips Away )
Charcoal pencil and acrylic on canvas
(Y) 2025
Size:- 36x46inches
Photo- @anistephenn
#africanartist #contemporaryart #blackartist #artoftheday #blackexistence
BE OPEN Art is pleased to announce Aissa Joud @aissajoud from Morocco as the February Regional Artist of the Month in the Northeastern Africa stage of its 2026 global art competition. Running from January through April, this stage recognizes outstanding emerging artists from across the region, including Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Libya, Egypt, and Madagascar.
As one of four monthly awardees in this regional stage, Aissa Joud joins the competition for the title of Regional Winner, to be announced in April. The selected winner will receive a €500 cash prize and increased international visibility through the BE OPEN Art platform.
#BeOpenART #BeOpenNEWS
Culture does not vanish suddenly it fades gradually through indifference, replacement, and forgetting. When traditions, languages, symbols, and values are no longer practiced or respected, they lose their presence in everyday life and eventually survive only as distant references or disappear entirely.
African culture carries the voices of ancestors, the wisdom of lived experience, and the identity of a people shaped over generations. These elements are not self-preserving. They require attention, participation, and deliberate protection. When the present generation fails to uphold them, the chain of transmission is broken, leaving future generations without access to their roots.
The danger lies not only in external influence but in internal neglect. When younger generations grow disconnected from their traditions, culture becomes something observed from afar rather than lived. Stories once told through songs, rituals, clothing, and communal practices lose their meaning when they are no longer understood or valued. What remains is silence where memory once existed.
To protect culture is to actively choose remembrance. It is to recognize heritage as something fragile yet essential, worthy of care and responsibility. If this protection is ignored, the future inherits absence instead of history. The stories that once defined identity are lost, and with them, the ability to fully understand who we were, who we are, and who we might become.
Ultimately, preservation is not about resisting change but about safeguarding meaning. If we fail to protect our cultural heritage today, tomorrow will inherit only fragments stories untold, identities unfinished, and histories erased. What is lost cannot be recovered, only mourned.
#blackartist #contemporarypainting #blackcommunity #blackexistence #blackhistorymonth
According to Okot p’Bitek in the book Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol, African culture is a living heritage handed down by our ancestors and must be valued in its original form. He emphasizes that traditions, language, songs, and rituals carry the identity and memory of a people, and when they are neglected or replaced by foreign influences, cultural identity begins to fade. The book calls on the younger generation to consciously protect and preserve African traditions, not as something outdated, but as something fragile, valuable, and essential for the survival of cultural heritage. Without this effort, future generations risk losing the stories, values, and foundations laid by those who came before them.
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#africanartist #contemporaryart #blackartist #artoftheday #newpaintingseries
