The Refugee Artist Staying Home While His Art Travels

Serge Alain Nitegeka can’t travel even when there’s not a global pandemic: He lives in South Africa, but he was born in Rwanda, and his family fled during the massacres in 1994. So for an exhibition in New York, “he relied on the gallery team to gather New York dirt, which turned out darker and mulchier than the reddish soil Mr. Nitegeka had pictured. That was fine — adaptation was the point of the piece. But the more tactile and sensory these decisions, the more the distance frustrated him.” – The New York Times