Art in September: 16 must-see art exhibitions

Johannesburg has come alive with FNB Art Joburg’s Open City programming alongside solo shows and group exhibitions in the City of Gold.

Durban, Cape Town, and Franschhoek also deliver a series of exhibitions focused on the myriad of female experiences as well as our relation to the natural world through sculpture.

Here are 16 must-see art exhibitions throughout the country this month.

Ruth Ige’s Freedom’s Recurring Dream | STEVENSON JOHANNESBURG

27 August - 30 September 

This is the new Zealand-based and Nigerian-born artist’s first solo exhibition with Stevenson. Her new paintings explore the multidimensional facets and experiences of the black diaspora and community across the world. The multiple expressions, and the recurrence of freedom is explored through imagination and history.

46 7th Avenue, Parktown North, 2193, South Africa.

Transience | KwaZulu-Natal Society of Arts

1 September to 18 September 

Paintings, drawings and sculptural installations resonate with solidarity and the shared ownership of femininity in a South African context. The four artists, Selloane Moeti, Karla Nixon, Jessica Bothma and Siobahn Doughty, are Durban-based and Transience is the physical realization of the virtual presentation on Latitudes online.

166 Bulwer Road, Glenwood, Durban.

Stanislaw Trzebinski’s Solastalgia | Southern Guild Cape Town

8 September to 10 November 

Stanislaw Trzebinski’s fantastical sculptural works explore the relationship between humanity and nature. His creativity, intimately connected to Africa, is expressed through bronze casting and furniture through both bygone, and cutting-edge techniques, technologies and mediums.

His first solo show with Southern Guild was at the end of 2019 and was an immersive exploration of the ocean through functional bronze sculpture. This year, opening on 8 September until 10 November, is Solastalgia, offering a dark vision of nature’s continuation after humanity’s demise. Trzebinski’s work for this show delves into the metamorphosised fauna and flora of the future, focusing on biological necessity and survival.

Silo 5, V&A Waterfront, Cape Town.

Open City | Johannesburg

25 to 9 September 2022

• Jabulani Dhlamini’s To Recall the Past in Present | Play Braamfontein

25 August to 9 September

Jabulani Dhlamini is a renowned photographer represented by Goodman Gallery. His work documents significant and ubiquitous moments in the same lens; capturing the salient and quieter moments of South Africa. This exhibition positions itself as a thread in the social fabric of our country’s memory, exploring private and public contexts.

• Towards New Frontiers | Play Braamfontein

25 August to 9 September 

The fifth floor of 73 Juta Street has evolved into three adjacent pop-up galleries. Curated by Lesole Tauatswala and Nqaba Shakes Mbolekwana, Toward New Frontiers explores multiple realms through the work of young artists.

Gallery 1 is focused on painting and mixed media and includes the works of Kamva Matuis, Shalom Mushwana, Whitney Petersen, Levy Pooe, Refiloe Namise, Baarabile Xaba, Raees Saiet, Mankebe Seakgoe and Reef Sithole.

Gallery 2: Mvelo Manyathela, Chinenye Chukwuka and Jana Cloete.

Gallery 3 includes seven emerging photographers including Kamohelo Mahlatsi, Lunathi Mgxuma, Kgotlelelo B Sekiti, Thando Phenyane, Amira Shariff, Bambatha Jones and Luke Ngcube.

• Open City Film Programme | The Bioscope

6 September 

The French Institute of South Africa (IFAS) in collaboration with FNB Art Joburg and Open City present the second season of CONSTRUCT at The Bioscope Independent Cinema. The film series focuses on female artists, the female lens, and explores societal and individual issues on the artist’s own terms. Featured artists are: Teresa Kutala-Firmino, Reshma Chhiba, Cinthia Sifa Mulanga and Zandile Tshabalala. 

18:00

The Bioscope, 44 Stanley Avenue, Milpark.

• Natalie Paneng’s Ophelia Does Backstroke | Play Braamfontein

25 August to 9 September 2022

Natalie Paneng’s printed artworks are suspended in a multi-dimensional experience that immerses viewers in the space. Paneng’s works aims to inspire thinking, focused on fantasy, in the context of the black female body.

68 Juta Street, Braamfontein.

Nicholas Hlobo’s Yongamela Ubumnyama | Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg

30 August 2022 at 18:00 - 5 November 

Curated by the incredible Shea Machiri, the newly renovated Goodman comes alive with Hlobo’s first exhibition with the gallery. Yongamela Ubumnyama introduces new work that explores a less inhibited approach from minimal acrylic paint to his signature materials of ribbon and canvas. The visual language of clean, white canvas is contrasted by incisions of ribbons, speaking on the pain of introspection along with the ethos of rebuilding and finding joy.

Naughty Aughties | SMAC Art Gallery Johannesburg

3 September

Naughty Aughties is a group exhibition celebrating South African artworks from 2000 – 2010.

25 7th Street, Parkhurst, Johannesburg.

Fabrication: A Message Folded, Moulded And Stitched | Stateoftheart Gallery

24 September - 15 October

Fabrication: a Message Folded, Moulded and Stitched is a group exhibition of eight female artists. The featured artists are, Willemien de Villiers, Maia Lehr-Sacks, Katja Abbott, Lindsay Quirk, Laurel Holmes, Kristen McClarty, Cathy Abraham, and Jo Roets.

50 Buitenkant Street, Cape Town.

Lerato Motau’s Ten Thousand Women | Art In The Yard

21 August - 16 September 

Motau presents a series of artworks, in a similar aesthetic, with a variety in colours, stitches and textures. Materials are imbued with the collective history of the women who donated them, and the exhibition serves as an ode to female support.

Heritage Sq. 9 Huguenot Street. Franschhoek.

Neill Wright’s A New Solitude | Everard Read Johannesburg

25 August - 24 September 

Wright’s photographic documentation of the world around him underpins his painted works. Abstract and literal elements exist in in multi-layered paintings through the digital sampling, redrawing, collaging and simplification of his photographs. Sculptural elements of the exhibition explore the artist’s discarded objects rendered from wood and resin, exploring use and nostalgia.

6 Jellicoe Ave, Rosebank.

2022 Sasol New Signatures Art Competition Exhibition | Pretoria Art Museum

25 August - 2 October 

The solo exhibition of the competition’s 2021 winner, Andrea du Plessis, uses AR and VR technology to subtly evolve her traditional oil paintings; a juxtaposition of contemporary and traditional society. The exhibition launched along with the announcement of this year’s winner, Mondli Mbhele.

Cnr Francis Baard & Wessels Streets, Arcadia Park, Pretoria.

Where Do I Begin | STEVENSON Cape Town

20 August  -  23 September 

Where Do I Begin is a group exhibition and education experiment that plays with links of curation, perception and within the artworks themselves. The exhibition follows a game-like design, allowing the audience to explore, traverse and make connections between artworks, giving an individual an interactive experience for all ages and knowledge levels.

Exhibiting artists: Moshekwa Langa, Igshaan Adams, Zander Blom, Ian Grose, Bonolo Kavula, Dada Khanyisa, Lebogang Mabusela, Gerhard Marx, Neo Matloga, Unathi Mkonto, Nabeeha Mohamed, Sam Nhlengethwa, Simphiwe Ndzube, Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi, Thania Petersen, Jo Ractliffe, Robin Rhode, Gerda Scheepers, Viviane Sassen, Penny Siopis, Sitaara Stodel, Mikhael Subotzky, Thato Toeba and others.

Buchanan Building, 160 Sir Lowry Road, Woodstock,  7925.

Unseen Dimensions of the Known by Patrick Bongoy | Southern Guild

4 August - 30 September

Unseen Dimensions of the Known is Bongoy’s first solo exhibition with the gallery. The Cape Town-based artist reinterprets forced migration, extraction, and exploitation in his native DRC.

This exhibition explores broader themes of the human condition, provoking a questioning of purpose beyond the physical aspects of our identities. Sculpture, painting, site-specific installations and woven tapestries use natural materials to pursue an innovative visual language and exploration of the human condition. Bongoy continues his collaboration with the local poet, Malika Ndlovu.

Silo 5, V&A Waterfront, Cape Town.

Urban Soundscapes — Crafting Spaces of Belonging by Pat Mautloa | UJ Art Gallery

6 August  - 30 September

Urban spaces are constantly evolving and taking on multiple forms. Mautloa explores notions of power, authority and the sociopolitical environment through a series of works curated by Thabo Seshoka. The beats and rhythms of imagined urban worlds serenade the viewer in a symphony of the cosmopolitan.

UJ APK Campus, Cnr Kingsway/ University Road, Auckland Park.