“We face each other without terms or convenient words, with nothing to assure us about the meaning of the movement that carries us toward each other. We have to invent, from A to Z, a relationship that is still formless, which is friendship.” Jackie Wang Currently on view at the A4 Arts Foundation is Lindokuhle…
“A dynamic long weekend of gallery, arts & culture programming across Joburg”, reads text on the landing page of FNB Art Joburg’s website, describing the fair’s newly launched initiative called Open City. Taking place from October 28 – 31 2021, Open City will be a four-day art-centred weekend taking place across the Rosebank precinct with…
“To be pierced is to be attached, serving a purpose that hurts but binds.” Reads the line accompanying Sahlah Davids’ body of work Pierced as it explores ideas of the artist’s cultural identity and the intersection between religion and politics. Pierced is a body of work distinct in many ways. To me, it stands as…
“Within this burning planet has always existed another world, and the struggle to realise it,” says Nolan Oswald Dennis. The logic of colonial cosmology insists on the universality of the Western world: a planet rendered as private property, as social violence, as deliberate crisis. Occupying the same space and time as the colonial planet are…
For decades, artists have been welcoming us into alternate worlds that they have created. Worlds that allow them to have a moment of reflection upon their life experiences, how they view themselves and the kind of worlds they are trying to forge through the beauty of self-portraits. I’m talking about worlds created by the likes…
Contemporary African fashion is often a dialogue between the so-called modern and traditional. Under this postcolonial umbrella, contemporary Africans have to walk a thin line between the Western and globalised while trying to hold onto a distant history and disappearing tradition. Tinyiko Makwakwa’s work is interesting in this regard as she looks past this dialogue…
After spending some time reading about African mythologies and our take on spirituality, this body of work was created as a celebration of the coming of a new spirit/guardian angel/ancestor, as well as emphasising to people that we are god-like beings and that God can manifest in human form. The sense of community that can…
Founded in 2018 in an Honours in Curatorship course, Re-curators Curatorial Collective comprised of Amogelang Maledu, Luvuyo Equiano Nyawose and Thembakazi Matroshe, “is interested in developing and cultivating research and artistic methodologies around Black cultural production in Africa and its diaspora.” On July 31, the collective which is moved by an inter-disciplinarily methodology oscillating within…
Curated by 17-year-old, Diana Sinclair, The Digital Diaspora is an exhibition that features Black creatives from around the globe and aims to spotlight Black artists working in the non-fungible token (NFT) market. Produced by Towards Utopia, the exhibition takes form both on and offline with a gallery space in SoHo New York exhibited by Superchief Gallery NFT —the world’s first physical dedicated…
The contemporary art space in South Africa is bursting with talent, and I personally believe that there needs to be particular emphasis on engaging with the works of art graduates stepping into the commercial space of art, especially under the strenuous conditions ushered in by the pandemic. Yonela Doda is one such artist, fresh out…
“Born in South Africa, raised in Zimbabwe, Michele Mathison has a deeply complex personal story. It is one that is characterised by an ongoing process of (re)locating. That is to say, he is somewhat of a journeyman,” writes Houghton Kinsman on Mathison’s solo exhibition Uprooted, in a piece titled Uprooted: A conversation with Zimbabwean artist…
Callan Grecia’s exhibition title, Laps Around the Sun, lends itself to the artist’s hefty post-internet lexicon of signs. Suggestive of the moment when life relinquishes its rose-tint and the arbitrariness of existence begins to take form, the title is both poignantly nostalgic and existential. Birthday… after birthday… after birthday, existence becomes automated: a non-reality considered…
