Zak Ové (born 1966) is a British-Trinidad visual artist who works between sculpture, film and photography, living in London and Trinidad. His themes reflect "his documentation of and anthropological interest in diasporic and African history, specifically that which is explored through Trinidadian carnival."[1] In work that is "filtered through his own personal and cultural upbringing, with a black Trinidadian father and white Irish mother", he has exhibited widely in Europe, the United States and Africa,[2] participating in international museum shows in London, Dakar, Paris, Dubai, Prague, Berlin, Johannesburg, Bamako and New York City. His father is the filmmaker Horace Ové and his sister is the actress Indra Ové.
Zak Ové
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Ové in 2018
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| Born | 1966 (age 57–58)
London, UK
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| Education | St. Martin's School of Art |
| Occupation | Visual artist |
| Parent | Horace Ové (father) |
| Relatives | Indra Ové (sister) |
| Website | www |
Born in London, UK, Zak Ové throughout his teens assisted his father Horace Ové on numerous film shoots, before earning a BA in Film as Fine Art from St. Martin's School of Art (1984–87).[3][4] Ové provided the video for the segment "Begin the Beguine" performed by Salif KeitaonRed Hot + Blue, a 1990 compilation album featuring contemporary pop performers reinterpreting songs of Cole Porter.[5]
In July 2015, Ové's "Moko Jumbie" sculptures, commissioned to tie in with the Notting Hill Carnival and inspired by aspects of African masquerade, were installed in the Great Court at the British Museum as part of the Celebrating Africa exhibition there,[6] before ultimately being moved to the Africa Galleries, with Ové as the first Caribbean artist to enter the museum’s permanent collection.[7] In March 2017, Ové's Moko Jumbie figures were installed at the British Museum as part of the Sainsbury African Galleries,[8] the first time in the museum's history that work the work of a Caribbean sculptor has been on permanent display in the African collection.[9]
In October 2016, his installation Black and Blue: The Invisible Man and the Masque of Blackness, comprising an "army" of 40 two-metre-high graphite statues, was assembled in the courtyard of Somerset House, where the 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair was taking place.[10][11] The journal Art Radar described Ové's work as "one of the standouts of the fair",[12] and the Financial Times reported that it had quickly found a buyer: "Modern Forms, a contemporary art platform founded by Hussam Otaibi, managing partner of the investment group Floreat, and Nick Hackworth, the curator who previously ran London’s Paradise Row gallery, bought one of three editions of the 40 identical, life-size sculptures of Nubian masked men, priced at £300,000, through London’s Vigo gallery. The plan is for Ové's installation to be part of a sculpture park that Modern Forms is creating at a property in Berkshire."[13] Ové's Black and Blue: The Invisible Man and the Masque of Blackness is part of a series of new open-air displays celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.[14]
Ové curated the major exhibition Get Up, Stand Up Now; Generations of Black Creative Pioneers mounted at Somerset House from 12 June to 15 September 2019, celebrating "the past 50 years of Black creativity in Britain and beyond ... spanning art, film, photography, music, literature, design and fashion".[15] Described by Ové as "a review and a celebration of our Caribbean and African culture that has permeated and contributed to British society", and taking its starting point as the radical work of his father Horace Ové, the exhibition showcased interdisciplinary contributions from 100 Black creatives, including Armet Francis, Black Audio Film Collective, Charlie Phillips, Dennis Bovell, Ebony G. Patterson, Gaika, Glenn Ligon, Hank Willis Thomas, Hassan Hajjaj, Jenn Nkiru, Larry Achiampong, Margaret Busby, Ronan McKenzie, Vanley Burke, Yinka Shonibare, Denzil Forrester, Martine Rose, Grace Wales Bonner, Steve McQueen, Betye Saar, Zadie Smith, among others.[15][16]