An expansive exhibition at Springs Art Gallery reveals the celebrated novelist, playwright and thinker as a visual storyteller of rare depth and imagination.
18 June 2026
Few cultural figures have navigated the intersections of art, literature and public life with the dexterity of Zakes Mda. Opening at Springs Art Gallery, ‘Blessed by the Bees’ offers a compelling encounter with the visual practice of one of South Africa’s most influential creative minds. The exhibition brings together a selection of paintings that illuminate Mda’s lifelong engagement with memory, storytelling, social observation and personal mythology.
Known internationally for his literary achievements, Mda approaches painting with the same narrative intensity that defines his novels. Vibrant compositions unfold through layered surfaces, collaged materials, and expressive forms, drawing on Basotho mural traditions, township aesthetics, and modernist experimentation. Across the exhibition, recurring self-portraits, symbolic bees, and imagined landscapes become vehicles for exploring questions of belonging, labour, migration, and identity.
Curated by Chepape Makgato and Thabo Sekoaila, the exhibition foregrounds the interdisciplinary nature of Mda’s practice, revealing how visual and literary languages continually inform one another. The bee emerges as both motif and metaphor, invoking collective effort, resilience and creative transformation.
At once intimate and expansive, ‘Blessed by the Bees’ invites viewers into a richly textured world where art becomes a site of reflection, imagination and renewal.
This Exhibition is on view at the Springs Art Gallery in Springs, Johannesburg, until 31 July 2026.
