Mia Darling’s work invokes child-like fantasy with cohesive motifs of flowers, butterflies and cherubs in and amongst backdrops of intimate spaces such as bedrooms and boudoirs. Unusually so, she employs plasticine to cement these innocent ideals in swirls of pastel shades, and the detail with which Mia executes a likeness in her pieces is impressive;…
The gaming industry in South Africa has undergone a massive growth spurt over the past five years. South African gamers collected R3.79 million ($220 000) in prize money playing e-sports last year and that excludes sponsorship and endorsement. It is becoming a lucrative industry but women are incredibly underrepresented. According to a survey conducted by…
In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and the national lockdown regulations, The National Arts Festival took place entirely online this year. The festival put out a call for new work and work that could be translated through the digital, encouraging a more intimate relationship with various art forms and technology. Producer Faye Kabali-Kagwa took…
Artist Rooms is a new feature of SMAC Gallery’s exhibition catalogue. Created in response to art fairs and shows being postponed globally as well as travel restrictions as a result of the global Covid-19 pandemic, the gallery team quickly realised that this would have a devastating effect on their artists ability to create work. Artist…
Kalashnikovv Gallery founded by M.J Turpin and Matthew Dean Dowdle has been one of the key institutions in Johannesburg’s art ecology since 2013 – located in Braam and just a jump of the road away from one of the city’s institutions of groove and Gomorrah, Kitcheners. Defined as a gallery that functions both as a…
RAPTURE An expression or manifestation of ecstasy or passion A state or experience of being carried away by overwhelming emotion A mystical experience in which the spirit is exalted to a knowledge of divine things The Rapture Institute; curated in collective communion by Zara Julius and a selection of friends playing and practising in various…
There is no doubt that the world today has many urgencies, one just needs to open a news site or read a newspaper for this to become evident. From the most daring reads—the trend topics on twitter every day; it’s easy to see what the causes of our essential and structured problems are. Perhaps, you…
I believe that the sea will always be an inspiration to art; it is vast, great, and mysterious. Those who venture out into the unknown and cross over are brave, but what about the other side? What lays waiting there? Beyond a division of the skyline, the meeting of the sea with the sky is…
TMRW Gallery presents Coexistence, a virtual experience exhibition presented as an application that can be downloaded by viewers. Navigating this virtual world reminds one of the original Sims game through the first-person perspective. The show and the artworks demonstrate a fluidity and agility of practice that these artists possess, and have stretched while creating under…
That people labelled ‘coloured’ through apartheid social engineering have been excelling in art, sports, music, academics (in fact, in every arena possible) throughout our history, is nothing new. What is of note is that almost three decades after the first democratic elections, we have yet to rid ourselves of the negative stereotypes associated with this…
To argue for or against. To refute, to testify. To admit guilt or defend innocence. The Public Hearings online festival approaches women’s rights issues through a lens of artistic research practices. Co-curated by Annett Busch and Marie-Hélène Gutberlet in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Johannesburg, the festival was prompted by a research trip to South Africa….
“Johannesburg, a city fathered by gold, mothered by money, then commandeered by white men with cruelty and greed.” “This is what I call redistribution, via back door.” Jerusalema, 2008 There’s something about the collage artworks created by artist Benni Mahlangu who makes work under the pseudonym Izinyembezi, that elicits unnamed feelings that have moved through…
