Art Exhibitions

6 April 2024

 

The University of Johannesburg Art Gallery in partnership with Everard Read Gallery and the Embassy of Sweden Pretoria, proudly presents: 'Keiaha Ntlo E Tsamayang' (The Walking House); a compelling exhibition co-curated by Gabriel Baard and Prof. Kim Berman. This exhibition honours the remarkable artistic journey and commitment to Indigenous Knowledge Systems of Mmakgabo Helen Sebidi.

Opening on 6 April, 2024, the exhibition commemorates the recovery of 28 lost artworks, discovered at the Nyköping Folk High School after 32 years of their disappearance in Sweden. Join us at the UJ Art Gallery as we unveil these long-lost treasures to the public for the first time.

‘Keiaha Ntlo E Tsamayang’ is a triumphant celebration of Sebidi's artistic journey, confronting themes of self-positioning, power, responsibility, and healing. This exhibition reflects on the exchange of knowledge between South Africa and Sweden, highlighting Sebidi's dedication to facilitating communication of the socio-political conditions that govern day-to-day existence.

 

Sebidi's artworks serve as a powerful reminder of the enduring connections forged through artistic expression and cross-cultural dialogue. These artworks not only reclaim lost masterpieces to the public eye but crucially resurrect a critical chapter in the national artistic consciousness. Each artwork communicates an acute and unbounded search into the relationship between humanism and spiritualism of the contemporary black African lived experience.

 

This exhibition highlights not only Sebidi's early artistic endeavours but also a pivotal juncture in her practice, heralding a significant moment of stylistic transformation into a new idiom that would pulsate with energy; part figuration, part abstraction, yet continuously seeking to escape the boundaries of both. Her art depicts the disordered and often uncomfortable process of decolonising, through which she has cultivated a visual language that compels us to feel things and perhaps even devote our own lives to the cause.

UJ ART GALLERY

---