These are five SA art events in May not to be missed

Swamp by Mia Chaplin | WHATIFTHEWORLD Cape Town

“A swamp is not quite solid ground, not quite flowing water. It is a liminal ecology that generates life in abundance. In the cultural imagination, swamps are the subject of much suspicion and fear — a site of immense unknowability from which any number of monsters might emerge,” says Chaplin.

Chaplin’s highly expressive works are characterised by her visible brushstrokes and impasto surfaces with oil on canvas and paper. Swamp emphasises a muted colour palette of fleshy tones and golden highlights.

16 Buiten Street Cape Town City Centre Cape Town.

Spring Awakening | Southern Guild Cape Town

A multisensory group exhibition at Southern Guild continues until the 15th of June. More than 20 artists and designers will showcase works encompassing painting, sculpture, photographic work, ceramics, wearable art, textiles and sonic pieces. Notable works to see are by Andile Dyalvane, Rich Mnisi, Chuma Maweni and Jozua Gerrard.

Coode Crescent, Port of Cape TownV&A Waterfront, Cape Town.

Abstract*d | StateoftheART Gallergy Cape Town

This artist-run group exhibition, curated by Tanja Truscott, is focused on the passion of abstract art. Five artists — Balekane Legoabe, Odette Marais, Karla Nixon, Tanja Truscott and Shui-Lyn White — explore what cannot be explained in words, from beyond physical reality. The exhibition runs until May 28.

50 Buitenkant Street, Cnr Roeland & Buitenkant Street, Cape Town.

Déjà Vu by Neo Matloga and Stage by Mack Magagane | STEVENSON Cape Town

Matloga’s first solo exhibition in Cape Town moves away from the cinematic and interconnected narratives that characterised his previous work, focusing instead on individual scenes, ushering in a new era of formal experimentation.

Magagane’s Stage is a multiple-chapter photographic series that was created over four years. His work blends “blends pop cultural motifs, philosophical allegory and classical iconography to explore the mechanics of meaning-making specific to conceptions of postcolonial youth.” This quasi-epic narrative weaves a story in Magagane’s allegorical world of gods, paradise lost and restoration.

Déjà Vu and Stage run concurrently until June 25.

160 Sir Lowry Road, Woodstock, Cape Town.

The Tenderness of Ghosts by Nicola Bailey | Everard Read Johannesburg

Nicola Bailey’s solo exhibition will take place at Everard Read Johannesburg until May 28. Her practice engages with the interspecies relationships of the domestic environment, exploring the entangled existences between us and companion species. Bailey primarily used bronze sculpture as it “acts as an evocative contrast, to the ephemeral nature of life and the natural world,” in her words.

6 Jellicoe Ave, Rosebank, Johannesburg