Lionel Smit: In Studio — Everard Read, Cape Town
Everard Read Cape Town invites visitors into the vibrant world of Lionel Smit with In Studio, an exhibition born from the immediacy of creation, opening on November 12.
Featuring an eclectic mix of portraits and sculptural fragments, Smit’s work reflects the energy of experimentation in his studio. Sculptural elements, fragments of eyes, noses, and mouths, echo traditional clay studies, emphasising the incompleteness and fluidity of the creative process.
Rather than presenting finished works, In Studio offers a glimpse into the artist’s laboratory of ideas, where painting and sculpture collide, overlap, and transform. The exhibition celebrates both the act of making and the studio itself as a living, dynamic environment.
Lionel Smit’s In Studio runs until November 27 with an opening reception on November 12 at 6pm. Everard Read Cape Town is open from Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm and Saturdays from 9am to 1pm. Entry is free.
everard-read-capetown.co.za/exhibition/385/
Azibuyele Emasisweni (Return to the Source) — Ditsong National Museum of Cultural History, Pretoria
From November 1 2025 to April 30 2026, the SA Gallery of Legends, in partnership with Ditsong Museums of SA, presents Azibuyele Emasisweni (Return to the Source), a landmark exhibition by legendary artist Prof Pitika Ntuli.
Featuring 45 evocative bone sculptures, Ntuli’s work explores African spirituality, ancestry and healing. The exhibition has earned global recognition, winning the People’s Choice “You-2” Award at the 7th Annual Global Fine Art Awards in Paris in 2021.
The sculptures invite audiences to reconnect with African roots, offering a meditation on collective memory, ancestral knowledge and the enduring power of art to heal. Visitors are encouraged to engage with this timeless celebration of cultural heritage and spiritual reflection.
The exhibition is open Monday to Thursday, 7.30am to 4pm, at the Ditsong National Museum of Cultural History in Pretoria. Admission is R50 for adults and R35 for children.
ditsong.org.za/en/our-museums/museum-of-cultural-history/
iNgqweji — Andile Dyalvane, Southern Guild, Cape Town
Opening November 22, iNgqweji is a solo exhibition by Andile Dyalvane at Southern Guild.
A meditative exploration of spiritual ecology, the exhibition features earthenware, glass, and copper sculptures inspired by desert, forest and cave environments. Many works incorporate light, sound and collaboration with artisans, including composer Dr Nkosenathi Koela, glassblower David Reade and blacksmith Conrad Hicks.
Dyalvane’s journey began as a pilgrimage to honour Zulu Sanusi Credo Mutwa, tracing landscapes, bird migrations, and natural rhythms to craft immersive, communal works. The sculptures echo the architecture of social weaver birds’ nests, reflecting shared vision, interconnection and reverence for life.
iNgqweji celebrates reciprocity and ethical responsibility toward the living and unseen, blending ancestral teachings, sound and ritual to create a sensorial and transformative exhibition.
The exhibition runs until February 5 2026 at Southern Guild Gallery in Cape Town. Open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5.30pm, and Saturdays from 10am to 2pm. Entry is free.
southernguild.com/exhibitions/ingqweji
David Goldblatt | Fragments of Fietas — Goodman Gallery, Joburg
From October 30 to November 29 2025, Goodman Gallery presents Fragments of Fietas, a poignant exhibition of photographs by legendary SA photographer David Goldblatt.
Taken predominantly in the late 1970s and 1980s, Goldblatt’s images document the dismantling of the vibrant Fietas community west of Joburg under apartheid.
Known officially as Pageview, Fietas was a rare enclave of social coexistence where Indian, black, Chinese and coloured residents shared homes, businesses, and lives until the Group Areas Act forcibly removed families to distant townships, demolishing homes and shops in the process.
Goldblatt’s work bears witness to this turbulent history, capturing life before, during and after the removals, and reflecting on the aftermath of apartheid’s destructive ambitions. These photographs are not only historical documents but also a meditation on memory, resilience and the consequences of systemic injustice.
The Goodman Gallery is open from Tuesday to Friday from 9am to 5pm and on Saturday from 9am to 2pm. Entry is free.
goodman-gallery.com/exhibitions/johannesburg-gallery-david-goldblatt-fragments-of-fietas
Metamorphosis — Ingrid Uys & Elli Wahl, Candice Berman Gallery, Joburg
Candice Berman Gallery presents Metamorphosis, a compelling duo exhibition by SA artists Ingrid Uys and Elli Wahl, running from November 8 to 26 2025. The exhibition explores transformation in its many forms, from shadow to light and from becoming to being.
Uys’s luminous paintings on perspex, paper and canvas meditate on light, fragility and resilience, reimagining the feminine form through ethereal imagery and sacred glass.
In contrast, Wahl begins in darkness, with gestural, abstract canvases that reveal figures and symbols emerging from shadow, guided by celestial constellations and the emblematic dung beetle as a symbol of renewal.
Together, their works create a dialogue between light and dark, presence and absence, and inner and outer worlds. Metamorphosis invites viewers to witness transformation not as a beginning or an end, but as an ongoing continuum of being.
The Candice Berman Gallery in Joburg is open from Monday to Friday from 8am to 5.30pm, Saturdays from 9am to 4.30pm and Sundays from 9am to 1.30pm.
candicebermangallery.co.za/exhibitions/73-metamorphosis-2025-ingrid-uys-elli-wahl/overview/
At the Water’s Edge – David Lurie, Gallery F, Cape Town
Running from 30 October to 18 December 2025, At the Water’s Edge at Gallery F presents the latest solo work by David Lurie, inviting audiences to confront the sea and reflect on their own place in an uncertain world.
The exhibition positions the ocean as both mirror and metaphor, capturing the tension between beauty, solitude and unease. While the sea has traditionally symbolised peace and renewal, Lurie’s work reframes it to reflect contemporary dislocations, isolation and societal uncertainty. The horizon becomes a meditation on fragility and resilience, offering a space for contemplation amidst a fractured world.
Gallery F is open from Monday to Saturday from 9am to 5pm and Sundays from 10am to 2pm.
galleryf.co.za/at-the-waters-edge-solo-exhibition-by-david-lurie/
