May art exhibitions roundup

Re-Connections | Berman Contemporary SA Art

Sculptor and ceramicist Natalie de Morney is presenting her first solo exhibition curated by Els van Mourik. Titled Re-Connections, the showcase is a designated space to honour De Morney’s ancestors, to remember her San ancestry lineage and to create an opportunity for people to explore their ancestral roots. Objects and symbols are displayed in different ancestral traditions to embody the ancestors’ energy. De Morney’s installation of 500 ceramic curls carry an energetic signature that connects with a sense of history and imagination, revealing parts of history that may be lost or forgotten.   

Re-Connections is on at the Berman Contemporary South African Art gallery until June 2. The gallery is open Monday to Friday 9am- 5.30pm and on Saturday 9am-4.30pm. 

Something Old, Something New | Christopher Moller Gallery

Frans Smit’s Something Old, Something New explores how art techniques from the past hold historical significance as they reflect the social, cultural and artistic practices of different periods. This is to understand and appreciate artistic traditions and legacies that have shaped the art world. In considering Europe’s past, its dark history of colonialism, slavery and Apartheid are acknowledged as well as its contributions to literature, music, architecture, science and art. With Something Old, Something New, Smit focuses on the tradition of the technique of painting, paying homage to the craftsmanship of the Dutch, Flemish and Italian painters between the Renaissance and Baroque eras of the 15th and 17th centuries.

Something Old, Something New is on at the Christopher Möller Gallery in Cape Town until June 4. The gallery is open Tuesday to Friday from 10am-4pm.

Tsalwa Lerintswa | Everard Read Johannesburg

Artist Fumani Maluleke centres the grass mat as a surprising and culturally significant canvass in his Tsalwa Lerintswa exhibition. Maluleke entered the world on a grass mat — knowledge he stumbled upon long into the process of the exhibition, which gives it a deeper personal meaning. His tribe uses it for many reasons including praying, sitting or sleeping.

Taking the form of scrolls (the title translates into New Scrolls) the artworks reveal images of cloudy skies casting shadows over thorn trees and patches of veld. Elsewhere, a dirt road, shepherded by old electricity and telephone cables disappears into the distance. Maluleke innovates through exploring, revealing and celebrating an often-overlooked culture of SA’s rural population. Of Tsalwa lerintswa he says, “The use of straw mats today is as novel and almost forgotten as the biblical scrolls themselves. My work is a cultural script written in the language of art on a forgotten medium”.

Tsalwa Lerintswa is at the Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg until May 25. The gallery is open Monday to Friday 9am-5pm and on Saturday 9am-1pm.  

The System Absorbs All Opposition | Everard Read Johannesburg

The System Absorbs All Opposition gives a glimpse into the mile-a-minute mind of its artist, Michael MacGarry. With it he ricochets between erudite comments about hierarchies and the abstractions of economics, to ideas behind individual pieces and responses to questions. The show is divided between paper works, two-dimensional wall-based pieces, and sculptures and the design and flow of the exhibition has been painstakingly thought out by MacGarry.

The System Absorbs All Opposition is on at the Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg until June 15. The gallery is open Monday to Friday 9am-5pm and on Saturday 9am-1pm. 

Odyssey | The Viewing Room Art Gallery

Inspired by Homer’s epic poem, “The Odyssey”, Seretse Moletsane’s solo exhibition embodies the spirit of adventure, challenges and growth. Moletsane invites the viewer into his artistic process, providing the opportunity to witness his fusion of ideas and mediums. Odyssey is a diverse body of work conceptually rooted in intuitive art and while tapping into the mundane, spirituality, and ancestry through photography, painting, drawing, and sculpture. 

Odyssey is on at The Viewing Room Art Gallery until June 4. The gallery is open Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 10am-3pm, and on Saturday from 9am-2pm. 

Kitendi | The Gallery at Steyn City 

This is Cape Town based Congolese young artist, Joel Mamboka’s first solo exhibition in Johannesburg. Titled Kitendi, the work reflects Mamboka’s fascination with African societies and communities as seen in his depiction Congo’s Sapeur culture; a movement that pays homage to the elegantly dressed young men and women of Brazaville and Kinshasa who have turned their sartorial style into a political statement about colonialism. Through his contemporary eye, Mamboka works with traditional aesthetics mixed with a stylish use wax loincloth and fabrication to comment on the movement.

Kitendi is on at The Gallery at Steyn City until June 16. The gallery is open from Tuesday to Sunday 9am – 6pm.