Front and Center; ART: In London, it's the year of African art.

Byline: Ginanne Brownell and Sarah Sennott

By Tony Blair's reckoning, 2005 is the year of Africa. The British prime minister and his chancellor, Gordon Brown, are keen to move the continent to the top of the international agenda this year during Britain's presidency of both the European Union and the G8. Last week Brown talked debt relief with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during her stopover in London. And at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Blair remarked that Africa's poverty is "a scar on the conscience of the world." While politicians tackle Africa's problems, exhibitions across London this spring are in turn celebrating the continent's diverse artistic cultures.

Beginning this month, more than 40 venues--from mainstream museums and galleries to tube stations and street fairs--will be inundated with African art, music and fashion. Kicking off the "Africa 05" series is the Hayward Gallery's flagship show, "Africa Remix: Contemporary Art of a Continent" (Feb. 10-April 17). Featuring more than 60 artists from 25 countries across the continent--as well as artists of the African diaspora--it is the largest exhibition of contemporary African art ever assembled in Europe. "Africa Remix" (which opened in Dusseldorf last summer and continues on to Paris in May and then Tokyo in June 2006) hopes to dismantle the stereotypes that dominate the headlines, says exhibition curator Simon Njami. "Our aim is to deconstruct ideas that people have about Africa."

Those ideas are in desperate need of updating. Western artists like Picasso were influenced by tribal carvings and bright prints, and for most people the notion of African art stopped there. "African art has moved on and, obviously, contemporary artists do not have 19th-century concerns in 2005," says the Nigerian-raised, Turner Prize-nominated artist Yinka Shonibare. His "The Victorian Philanthropist's Parlor" installation explores this anachronistic sentiment, using brightly colored patterned fabrics--including ...