AFRONOVA GALLERY is a Johannesburg, South Africa-based gallery. Owned and directed by Émilie Demon since 2020, the gallery focuses on discovering, developing, and gaining international recognition for a new generation of progressive artists from the vibrant art scene in South Africa and the Southern Hemisphere. AFRONOVA is known in particular for its roster of artists in the realms of photography and the moving image. The original gallery, AFRONOVA Modern and Contemporary Art Gallery, was founded in 2005 by Henri Vergon, a pioneer in South Africa’s contemporary art world. Located first in Newtown, far from the mainstream commercial galleries and in a center of artistic upheaval in the 70s, 80s and 90s, the cutting- edge gallery set out to introduce the rest of the continent to South African artists and bring African artists from elsewhere in Africa and the diaspora to Johannesburg with memorable exhibitions of major figures such as Malick Sidibé, Ricardo Rangel, Mario Benjamin, Gerard Sekoto, and Gera Mawi Mazgabu. In 2010, gentrification was transforming the historical district of Newtown. Faithful to its pioneering spirit, AFRONOVA moved to a new home across the central business district, spearheading an urban project in the former ‘no-go zone’ of Braamfontein. Then, in 2012, another radical move: To further the aim of promoting its artists internationally, AFRONOVA closed its physical gallery space in Johannesburg to concentrate its resources on the representation of its artists outside of South Africa and the African continent, through international art fairs such as 154 Contemporary African Art Fair, Paris Photo or the Armory Show. Today, AFRONOVA Gallery is under the leadership of Emilie Demon, who took the helm of the newly established gallery following the untimely death of Henri Vergon in 2020. Among the prominent institutions the gallery has partnered with are Iziko South African National Gallery, The Studio Museum, The Smithsonian Institution, Mass Mocca, and the Musée dArt Moderne de Paris, Fondation Louis Vuitton (Paris), Prada Fondazione (Milan), Fondation des Galeries Lafayette (Paris), JP Morgan Chase Foundation (New York), and Fondation Antoine de Galbert (Paris), to name a few.