Beninese artist Gbaguidi’s exhibition among October’s art

The Colours are the Bark — Goodman Gallery Cape Town

The Colours are the Bark is Beninese artist Pelagie Gbaguidi’s first exhibition with Goodman Gallery and in SA. The show brings together a collection of works that trace Gbaguidi’s extensive oeuvre over a number of years. It features paintings, drawings and mixed media artworks that explore “the big and small stories that take our beings towards the burning questions of the world, urging us to go beyond the surface”, the artist says.

The exhibition is on at Goodman Gallery Cape Town, 37A Somerset Road, De Waterkant, until November 13. The gallery is open Tuesday to Friday 9am-5pm and Saturday 9am-2pm.

Let the Fire Lead You Home — Everard Read Cape Town

Everard Read Cape Town presents Keabetswe Seema’s first solo exhibition, Let the fire Lead You Home. Seema is the winner of the Blessing Ngobeni Art Prize — an award aimed at assisting young and emerging visual artists to launch their careers in the art industry. With the exhibition, Seema explores an unknown home that beckons in dreamscapes. The body of work uses fantasy to present an outwardly promised land while questioning the importance of imagination for black femmes. Seema is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice interrogates the function and impact of an internal, personal spiritual experience while participating in a secular, socio-communal world.

The exhibition opens at Everard Read, 3 Portswood Road, V&A Waterfront, Cape Town, on October 1, with a walkabout on October 5 at 11am, and closes on October 23. The gallery is open Monday to Friday 9am-5pm and Saturday 9am-1pm.

Mitsheketo Yale Makaya (Stories from a Place I Call Home) — Everard Read Johannesburg

Mitsheketo Yale Makaya (Stories from a Place I Call Home), the latest work from artist Phillemon Hlungwani boasts cinematic qualities. With his trademark charcoal and pastel, Hlungwani brings an entire world, and a particular community, to life — with children playing, women collecting water and children on their way to a soccer game. These frozen slices of life pulsate with colour, pattern and humanity. The exhibition is a commentary on home, people and community.

The exhibition opens at Everard Read Gallery, 2 Jellicoe Avenue, Rosebank, on October 5 and runs until November 2. The gallery is open Monday to Friday 9am-5pm and Saturday 9am-1pm.

Ndijongile — Berman Contemporary SA All Women Art

Berman Contemporary presents a solo exhibition by Athenkosi Kwinana curated by Candice Berman.  “Ndijongile” translates into “I have looked”, and the work provides a platform for representations of people with albinism (PWA) in SA visual culture over the past two decades (2004-24). Alongside her own work, Kwinana has included a group exhibition featuring the artistic voices of other artists who share her interest in depicting albinism. The collaboration challenges the historical lack of representation of PWA and seeks to broaden the scope of how albinotic bodies are portrayed in art and society.

The exhibition is on at Berman Contemporary, 223, Jan Smuts Avenue, Rosebank until October 20. The gallery is open Monday to Friday 9am-5.30pm and Saturday 9am-4.30pm.

Lights in Darkness, Darkness in Light — Sisonke Gallery

Lights in Darkness, Darkness in Light, a solo exhibition by Sandile Ashar Mhlongo, explores the contrasts of life in Cape Town. Exhibited by House Union Block (HUB) at the Cape Heritage Hotel’s Sisonke Gallery, the work embodies the principle of choosing to look at light, even in times of immense darkness. Known for his evocative acrylic paintings, Mhlongo’s work is both personal and political: giving insight into first-hand experiences set in the sociopolitical landscapes shaping (and reshaping) the nation. As visual metaphors the paintings work with hope and despair for a depiction of a Capetonian’s perspective of life in SA.

The exhibition is on at Sisonke Gallery, Cape Heritage Hotel, 90 Bree Street, Cape Town City Centre until October 27. The gallery is open daily 9am-5pm.