Koop Projects

Congratulations to Senzeni Marasela on her inclusion at the Arsenale for In Minor Keys at the 2026 Venice Biennale with this monumental presentation These pieces are a chapter from an epic narrative that tells the story of the artist's muse, Theodorah. Through her vast body of work Senzeni offers a deep, immersive, reflection on memory and identity through the very specific history and geography of Johannesburg's mining industry and the indelible marks it has left on the city's landscapes and people. @senzenimarasela 📸 @carloscabralnunes

It’s a pleasure to see work by Georgina Maxim included at the 61st Venice Biennale as part of In Minor Keys at the Arsenale. The work holds themes of loss, memory, and transformation through the deconstruction and reconstruction of clothing, books, text and textiles. Congratulations @georgina_maxim_ 📸 Carlos Cabral Nunes

Baudouin Mouanda has been nominated for the Prix Pictet 2025 award alongside eleven other outstanding artists. Congratulations @baudouin_mouanda and to everyone on the shortlist. The @prixpictet is the world’s leading award for photography and sustainability. It was founded in 2008 by the Pictet Group with the goal of harnessing the power of photography to draw global attention to the critical issue of sustainability.  This year's theme is "Storm" and Baudouin is recognised for his spectacular series Ciel de Saison in which he created tableaux vivants in the waterlogged basement of an abandoned building in Brazzaville, after devastating floods swept through the city. Please find out more about the series in stories and links in bio. I lose myself for hours when I wander through these photographs, discovering new things each time I look at them: the discretely placed, self-referential film cartridge I hadn't noticed before, a glimmer of surreal dark humour here, a nod to Holbein's Ambassadors there.. Scroll to see some of them. But this monumental image is the one I return to most often. A heartstopping moment of quiet, after the storm. I still haven't found all of its hidden angles and I truly don't know how he made it... Whether it was a single miraculous fraction of a second that allowed him to capture all those triangular folds in the cloth, the t-shirts, the limbs... Or if it took hours and hours of trial and error to perfect the placement. Thank you, Baudouin, for your work and for the trust you placed in us to exhibit it. The winner of the prize will be announced at the Victoria and Albert Museum in September. @spectrumlab @photofringe @timharbridge @photolondonfair @__sophie.parker__ @simoncroberts

About first loves... A friend reminded me that exactly 20 years ago, in July 2005, she and I took a spontaneous city break, catching the first flight available from London City Airport, which happened to be heading to Antwerp. Not having any idea what to expect or do, we spent the days wandering around and happened upon the Fashion Museum's exhibition Beyond Desire, about African influences on Western fashion. As a result of which, I became fascinated with and sought out books and photographs of the Sapeurs of Kinshasa and Brazzaville. This journey led me to the photographer @baudouin_mouanda , whose work seamlessly blends art photography with documentary storytelling. Known as "Photouin" since starting photography at 13, Mouanda has produced impactful series like La Sapologie (2008), documenting the flamboyant Sapeurs of Brazzaville as symbols of cultural pride; Pavements of Knowledge (2011), depicting students studying under streetlights amid power outages; Congolese Dreams (2013), portraying women in a wedding dress in unexpected, sometimes stark, settings like rubbish dumps; and the brilliant Ciel de Saison (2020), which won the Roger-Pic award for its exploration of climate change in Congo. Like many of Africa's artists, Baudouin uses his art successes to support his community in profound ways. In 2017, he founded @classpro_culture in Brazzaville’s Massissia neighborhood using proceeds from his awards and sales to build a cultural hub in the same derelict building that forms the backdrop of his series Ciel de Saison (images 5+). Initially envisioned as the city’s first photography school, it has evolved into a space for workshops, exhibitions, and environmental initiatives like the Kimia project, fostering young artists and celebrating Congolese identity through art and community. I had the honour of showing Baudouin's work at the gallery, @photofringe and @photolondonfair . I hope that all the people who have bought "Photouin's" photography over the years, simply because they fell in love, like I did, with his art, also know that through their purchases they have contributed to the development of this incredible project.

Yassmin Forte is shortlisted for the Vevey Images Book Award 2025/2026 for her deeply moving and personal project: This Is A Story Of My Family. For this series Yassmin used collage techniques with her own portrait photographs, melding them with the bodies and histories of her parents and juxtaposing personal images with found photographs of her country, Mozambique, from the time of its liberation from occupation by Portugal to the present day. I can't think of many higher forms of praise than that an artist's work should touch and deeply impact another human being's inner world. With this work, Yassmin changed the way I see myself, my own family, and the two countries that my split personalities call home. Lately, I've been going back to Zimbabwe more often, connecting in new ways with my birthplace, and Yassmin's parents' story, their commitment to each other and to the place they met and called home, resonates more with me as I trace my own family's history in Africa, Europe and the UK. Yassmin was born and grew up in Quelimane, Mozambique in the 1980's, during her country's brutal civil war. I was born 10 years earlier on the outskirts of a small town in Zimbabwe, on the border with Mozambique, during my own country's war for independence. Through her story, I am reminded that Zimbabwe and Mozambique share much more than a border - the two countries have bled together, and into each other, for many decades. Today, their neighbourhood struggles continue under new forms of governance, same-same-but-different politics of extraction, new migrations, exiles and returnings.... Recent events in the region are testament to the resolve and courage of their people. Thank you for your important, life changing work, Yassmin. And thank you also @michelleloukidis for connecting us. Please seek out and follow the progress of the artist and her stories here: @yassminforte_photos @images_vevey @photolondonfair @__sophie.parker__ @omfgnoway

....another of the artists at Somerset House was Tshepiso Moropa, whose beautiful collage work received an incredible response at the fair from collectors, curators, publishers, photography enthusiasts and institutions. Last week, the Victoria & Albert Museum, in partnership with Peckham 24, announced that Tshepiso, is a recipient of the V&A Parasol Foundation Prize For Women In Photography, 2025. There are four winners in total and all of them will be exhibiting at The Copeland Gallery in Peckham between the 16th and 25th of May. If you can, do go visit. It was love at first sight when I saw Tshepiso's work. The curious characters and bold colour palette drew me in, and then the storytelling held me. Over time, I've come to describe these little curiosities to myself as "African Gothic" - which, btw if it isn't already a thing, maybe it could be...They have a whimsical prettiness on the surface - that reminds me of old family portraits and the antique cameo brooches my grandmother wore, and belies their slightly unsettling subject matter...the Bronte sisters meet Brothers Grimm in a fusion of Victoriana with digital techniques, African folklore with contemporary histories, found images and self portraiture. Shown here is "The Woman Who Worked On The Sabbath Day" from the series Dineelane that was specially created for Photo London in 2024, along with a short collage animation which you can find in a previous post @koopprojects . Not only is Tshepiso an extraordinarily talented artist with a very promising future, she is also whip smart and kind and I'm super grateful for her gentle patience with me over the last year or so. Please find her work here: @tshepisomoropaa @vamparasolwomenphoto @peckham24photo @photolondonfair @__sophie.parker__ @omfgnoway

A year ago, I was busy at Koop Projects preparing to exhibit the work of four brilliant female African artists at Photo London, Somerset House. A LOT has happened since then, both personally and professionally (IYKYK), and I've been remiss about keeping up with and sharing some of the more joyful moments that have happened along the way.... At the end of 2024, one of those four artists, Maheder Haileselassie, went on to deservedly receive the prestigious Seydou Keita Grand Prize at Les Rencontres de Bamako - Africa's most influential Photography Biennale - for her series "Between Yesterday And Tomorrow". The images in this body of work were constructed from archival documents, family albums, 18th + 19th century European explorers' illustrations, and the artist's own contemporary photographs. Through a layering process Maheder creates a magical quality and depth - a kind of three dimensional transparency - which makes me want to walk right into the frame and wander around inside her mysterious visions of Ethiopia.The entire series is a fascinating portal into the complex histories, past present and future, of the artist's country and its people. I first came across Maheder's photographs online via the equally brilliant Michelle Loukidis and the work she does with her project Through The Lens Collective. Michelle and Maheder (who is also the founder of the Centre For Photography Ethiopia) are collaborating on a mentorship programme for Ethiopian photographers. It will surely lead to some outstanding visual stories by a new group of artists. I urge you to look out for both of these inspiring human beings who are doing such important work in Africa. Follow them here: @maheder_haileselassie @cpethiopia @throughthelenscollective @rencontresdebamako2024 @photolondonfair @__sophie.parker__ @omfgnoway Shown here: Exploration IV from Between Yesterday And Tomorrow

Over the last few weeks some unexpectedly sudden and significant personal events have meant that many plans and announcements have had to be put on hold. So we are very very late to tell you that an absolutely beautiful exhibition has been happening in the gallery and is on view until Sunday. The wonderful South African born, Kemptown based artist Susan Bamford, has been showcasing a collection of exquisite expressions of the sea. The title of the exhibition - Belonging - could not be more appropriate for this moment. As an immigrant, it is hard to feel that one truly belongs in their adopted country. Susan has often felt a yearning for the dramatic landscapes of South Africa with its crashing oceans, huge skies and vast plains of wildflowers. In the winter of 2024, she began an intense period of painting the landscape on her East Sussex doorstep, exploring themes of loss, longing and acceptance through her work. The Artist works with mixed media, primarily oil and cold wax to which she applies moulding paste which she sculpts and scrapes to achieve a highly textured effect. Seldom using brushes, she employs spatulas, scrapers and various other tools, leaving traces and marks in the work and imbuing each piece with a powerful energy. Belonging closes on Sunday 7 July Image: Beautiful Monster. @susan_bamford_art #belonging #kemptownartist

A very special opening this Friday, 31 May: Tales the Land Tells is an exhibition that focuses on the passage of time and the stories we can tell using the land around us. Featuring a delicate collection of work from, Esme Papa - The Seaweed Experiments, Zosia Szymanowska -  Place & Passing and Joe Charrington - 'Lay Like The Folds of A Bright Girdle Furled’. As part of our commitment to supporting our local art community, we have regularly gifted the gallery space in Kemptown to young artists and curators in Brighton and Sussex to help them realise their projects in a commercial setting. We could not be more delighted to have these three wonderful young photographers making a guest appearance with us. We hope you'll come along to the opening on Friday between 5pm and 8pm. @aceagrams @esmepap.a @zosiiasz @joecharrington

The Woman Who Worked On A Sabbath Day by Tshepiso Moropa. Especially created for our presentation at Photo London 2024. It's hard to believe that a whole week and another Sabbath day has already gone by since we were at Somerset House. Thank you to @photolondonfair @omfgnoway @__sophie.parker__ @kammaleki for the opportunity and to the amazing technicians in your team who were always available with advice and spirit levels. To our neighbours in Discovery for being so generous and good humoured and kind: @nottonart @ginacross_projects @bright.artgallery @nuud.berlin @upgallery2009 And thank you to the artists @tshepisomoropaa @senzenimarasela @maheder_haileselassie @yassminforte_photos who trusted us with their work

It's the last day of the @photolondonfair and we've had a wonderful time introducing four brilliant artists to a new audience from all around the world. Thank you for such a lovely response and all the support we've received from old friends and new. We hope to meet many more people today and share stories about the work of @senzenimarasela @maheder_haileselassie @yassminforte_photos and @tshepisomoropaa Come find us at D13 in the Discovery Platform at Somerset House until 6pm.

In our Brighton space we are showing the South African artist Peter Mammes' extraordinary rubber drawings alongside Brighton based Brian Britton's interventions on paper. Mammes spent many months alone in the studio in 2023, inventing a completely unique way of presenting his work. Experimenting with various materials, methods and techniques to transfer his technically complex line drawings into a single piece of polyurethane rubber, the resulting hexagons form a fifteen piece series of artworks made using UV light exposure, 3-D printing, resin moulding, casting and vacuum packing. Known for his large murals, paintings on canvas and relief sculptures made from cast resin and metal, in recent years Peter has found himself yearning to return to his first love - drawing. Frustrated by what he sees as a diminishing regard for this most fundamental of art forms, he set himself the task of re-inventing his drawings in order to present them to the viewer as completely new objects. Through his artwork Peter Mammes aims to surpass language barriers posed by the written and spoken word and develop a new, comprehensive way to visually relay complex ideas. His work manifests a universal artistic language that, rather than depict reality, presents concepts and ideas and encourages the viewer to think more broadly. Shown here: Lioness The Kiss Spirit Of Wonder Afro Future Rubber 40cm by 40cm by 2cm Edition of 5 Series: Hexagons Signed, verso @petermammes