Art and about: Five local exhibitions not to miss this June

1. In Conversation — group exhibition | Everard Read CIRCA gallery Cape Town

In Everard Read Cape Town’s latest group exhibition, In Conversation, pairing up takes on a new meaning. “Gallery artists invited friends, acquaintances or even strangers to produce an artwork to pair with one of their own,” says the description of the exhibition. The result is pairs of artwork that speak to one another.

Twenty-three artists were invited to participate in the exhibition, including Beezy Bailey and Paul Benny, Blessing Ngobeni and Madikotsi Khumalo, Brett Murray and Sanell Aggenbach, Lady Skollie and Ilze Wolff, and Nigel Mullins and John-Michael Metelerkamp.

• In Conversation opens on June 9 and will run until June 30. Visit the website for more information.

2. Markers of Presence by David Goldblatt | Goodman Gallery Cape Town

Markers of Presence features a cross-section of colour photographs by renowned SA photographer David Goldblatt, which forms part of a body of work the artist produced between 2001 and 2012 under an essay titled “Intersections” — later published as Regarding Intersections and Intersections Intersected.

In this body of work, Goldblatt explores values in society through themes of people, landscapes, towns, and monuments. The exhibition itself is divided into five sections: landscapes, fences, possession and dispossession, mortality and memory, and multiple views.

Under the Fences section, for example, Uitkyk, Bushmanland, which Goldblatt produced in 2004, is symbolic of the division and possession of land in SA.

“I don’t see a farmer’s fence so much as an intrusion as man’s way of being in the landscape. It seems a necessary way of adapting himself to the land and the land to him,” Goldblatt wrote in Regarding Intersections.

• Markers of Presence opens on June 10 and will run until July 8. Visit the website for more information.

3. The River by Wim Botha | Stevenson Johannesburg

In his 10th exhibition with Stevenson — which can also be viewed online — Wim Botha has created a landscape of miniature dioramas made with walnut carvings.

Having started the work in 2019, the artist says the advent of Covid-19 added a layer of nuance and immediacy to his work, and he has used this to explore themes of history and historical images.

Writing of his work, the artist says, “I use historical images when it turns out that an idea I had or a sensation I experienced was already described by somebody else. In a way, it’s paying homage to that thinking and to those who have come before us.”

• The River will run until June 25. Appointments are recommended but not required. Visit the website for more information.

4. KASSARAM by Thania Petersen | Zeitz MOCAA

Meaning a “big mess”, “out of place”, or “upside down”, KASSARAM is the title of Thania Petersen’s recent art film which looks at how cultural divides are perpetuated through art among people of colour.

As a multi-disciplinary artist, Petersen uses performance, installation and photography to interrogate the complexities of her identity in contemporary SA.

KASSARAM is also the title of the open studio investigation by the artist, which forms part of the Zeitz MOCAA’s Atelier Residency programme — a residency and experimental platform for Cape Town-based artists that provides space for artists to use the museum as a studio where visitors can interact and access the resident’s work first-hand.

• Petersen’s residency will run until October 17. The open studio can be found at the Atelier on level two of the Zeitz MOCAA. Visit the website for more information.

5. Collectors Corner — Durant Sihlali | Gallery MOMO Johannesburg

Gallery MOMO has launched Collectors Corner — a selection of artworks that will be open to view in the office section of the gallery alongside exhibitions in the main gallery space.

The inaugural selection of artwork on display depicts mostly historical rural and mining scene landscapes by SA artist Durant Sihlali, who is considered one of the watercolour masters of 20th-century SA art.

• For more information, contact Odysseus Shirindza at odysseus@gallerymomo.com or phone 011-327-3247.