Features

Post-lockdown, post-hype strategies in African art sectors: How the turbulence of the post-lockdown art market is also proving to be a dynamic and optimistic time for art in Africa and, most excitingly, primarily thanks to local initiatives.

The exciting new art experience will include a dynamic food and wine offering. RMB Latitudes has partnered with the Franschhoek Wine Valley, one of the most celebrated wine destinations in South Africa, to bring 12 top vignerons to the event. Visitors will also be able to enjoy fare by sustainable chef, James Diack.

Titled Kilelo Milelo (Today we Cry), Munguanzo’s debut solo exhibition, which was held at the AVA Gallery’s mezzanine in Cape Town, captured and contemplated the life of the ordinary people of the DRC in the post-covid lockdown era when life worsened for most.

It is perpetually summer and winter with photography from South Africa, the news both good and bad, all at once. On the upside, there is much to be enthused by. A new generation of photographers, among them Tatenda Chidora, Lebohang Kganye and Lindokuhle Sobekwa, are exhibiting widely, publishing well-received books and winning prestigious awards.

The collection is an exploration of the changing landscapes of South Africa, framed through our abundance of raw materials and beauty. KARROO, Land of Thirst, is inspired by the surreal beauty of the magical Karoo landscape, that only really reveals itself, as one drives through this scorched, thirsty land.

AI technology has infiltrated image-making, how will this influence traditional art-making and how we conceive of creativity?

Visitors will be able to enjoy a curated contemporary art experience, while attending art talks and walkabouts. What’s more, a partnership with Franschhoek Wine Valley, will see vignerons from the winelands fly to RMB Latitudes to share their top wines and bubblies with visitors. All of this will be complemented by a seasonal, fresh food offering by sustainable chef, James Diack.

We chat to artist Farhana Jacobs to get to know her practice a little more.

Here's a brief glimpse into what’s been happening outside the formal gallery system.

"One of my favourite takeaways from this year’s ICTAF are found in the textile works of women artists who carefully explore the everyday through the work of their hands."

Red carpet events, flashy outfits and celebrity status surrounded the opening of Zeitz MOCAA When We See Us. Beneath the fanfare was an exhibition centred on the simple joys of life.

Celebrating a decade of magnetising galleries from all corners of the continent and beyond in the past, this iteration will explore the notion of time. Chaze Matakala is curious to hear from the different regions on the artists of the moment and the future of contemporary African art.

Micha Serraf’s practice is centred around rewriting the trauma of displacement with the imagined memory of celebration, homage and childlike wonder.

RMB Latitudes 2023 is proud to launch the International Galleries Platform as a sustainable means for galleries and artists on the continent and in the diaspora to show in South Africa.

As regional and global art trade join collectors in Cape Town next week, the inaugural Art Business Conference Africa, the first event of its kind to take part on the Continent, will explore the opportunities and challenges in the African Art Market today.

"Music will doubtlessly continue to change lives, this as future generations of artists look to music and sound, consanguineous media that are defiantly ephemeral, temporal and invisible..."

In May 2023, RMB Latitudes will partner with OpenStudios.Joburg. Over the same weekend, not only will you be invited to explore a plethora of art from the continent at RMB Latitudes, but you'll also have access to a network of artist studio spaces throughout Johannesburg's inner city.

The South African Friends of the Israel Museum (SAFIM) is dedicated to supporting art education and opportunities, both locally in South Africa, and at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

Considering generational and embodied knowledge by way of ‘unlearned’ art-making, this exhibition opens 28 Jan 2023, 11am and runs until 25 Feb, Keyes Art Mile.