Investec Cape Town Art Fair is hosting its 10th anniversary edition from the 17th until the 19th of February 2023.
Investec Cape Town Art Fair offers an intimate experience of the largest contemporary art fair in Africa, in one of the world’s most vibrant art cities. Investec Cape Town Art Fair has proven to be the place where the fast-growing African art market and the international art world meet.
The 10th anniversary of Investec Cape Town Art Fair will explore the notion of time. This theme is appropriately wide-ranging and encompasses ideas related to the past, present and future, including the ever-important concept of change that comes with the passing of time both for humans and the world around us.
THIS IS NOT A WHITE CUBE (Lisbon, Portugal / Luanda, Angola)
Nicole Rafiki, Green Economy, 2021. Glicée print on Fine Art Baryta paper, 60 x 80cm. Courtesy of the artist and THIS IS NOT A WHITE CUBE.
Presenting: Barbara Wildenboer, Patrick Bongoy, Nicole Rafiki, Malebona Maphutse, and Pedro Pires.
THIS NOT A WHITE CUBE is an international contemporary art gallery with exhibition spaces in Luanda (Angola) and Lisbon (Portugal). Representing and collaborating with international established and emergent artists, the gallery’s program focuses on relevant and powerful narratives and discussions associated with the African continent and its diaspora. Despite the profound connection with Africa, it is the first contemporary African gallery in Portugal that focuses not exclusively on Lusophone circles but also the emerging aesthetics of cultural and artistic productions from the Global South. The gallery maintains a regular and significant presence in important international art fairs.
For more information, please visit THIS IS NOT A WHITE CUBE.
BKhz Gallery (Johannesburg, South Africa)
Talia Ramkilawan, Out of the closet and into the streets, 2022. Wool and cloth on hessian, 89 x 61cm. Courtesy of the artist and BKhz Gallery.
Presenting: Zandile Tshabalala (Main Section), Talia Ramkilawan (Tomorrows/Today), and Lunga Ntila (SOLO Section)
BKhz Gallery was founded by eSwatini born artist, Banele Khoza. Started as a studio space for Khoza to create from and allow the public to witness his process. BKhz (the gallery) came to be when Khoza acted on his desire to grant his contemporaries access to an exhibition space that would prioritise their holistic well-being as best as possible. The gallery continues to operate by this ethos of putting the needs, wants, and vision of the artist first.
Since its opening in August 2018, BKhz Gallery has hosted numerous group and solo exhibitions, showing works by emerging and established artists, locally (South Africa) and in international spaces. The team at BKhz works with intentions to better impact the gallery’s immediate community through: diversity in the selection of artists, deliberately foregrounding women artists, increasing the ease of accessibility to audiences, and providing visual and academic discourse.
For more information, please visit BKhz Gallery.
Madragoa (Lisbon, Portugal)
Buhlebezwe Siwani, Bageze ngobisi 2, 2022. Inkjet print on baryta paper, 150 x 225cm. 2 of 3 + 2 AP. Courtesy of the artist and Madragoa.
Presenting: Buhlebezwe Siwani and Belén Uriel.
Madragoa is a contemporary art gallery founded in 2016 in the homonymous neighbourhood of Lisbon’s historical centre. Since its beginning, the gallery has been an early supporter of a number of international young artists – Adrián Balseca, Rodrigo Hernández, Renato Leotta, Buhlebezwe Siwani, Joanna Piotrowska, and Yuli Yamagata – whose first productions and exhibition have been produced and promoted by the gallery and often presented for the first time in Portugal. Moreover, Madragoa launched the careers of young Portuguese artists such as Sara Chang Yan, Luís Lázaro Matos, Gonçalo Preto, and Jaime Welsh, giving them visibility on the international scene.
From its peripheral location in Europe, Madragoa’s project focuses on how to set a deep conversation with the city and its extraordinary potential, setting a dialogue between global artistic practices and local craftsmanship and ideas. The gallery always created experiences of research and production for its artists locally and promotes its program also through the participation in a number of international art fairs, gallery exchanges, and exhibition projects. Madragoa is currently recognised as one of the most innovative realities in the Portuguese art scene, while it succeeded to obtain visibility internationally throughout its years of its activity.
For more information, please visit Madragoa.
ARTCO Gallery (Aachen/Berlin, Germany / Joshua Tree, California)
Patrick Tagoe-Turkson, Galamsey Chocolate, 2022. Found Upcycled Flip-flop Straps on Jute, 100 x 70cm. Image courtesy of ARTCO Gallery.
Presenting: Justin Dingwall & Roman Hardt, Stephan Gladie, Kufa Makwavarara, Maurice Mbikayi, and Patrick Tagoe-Turkson.
First opened in Aachen, Germany in 2003, ARTCO Gallery has recently expanded its geographical repertoire to include a space in Berlin and in Joshua Tree, California. In March 2023 ARTCO will open a new location in Brussels, Belgium. Run by Joachim and Simon Melchers, ARTCO presents a wide portfolio of contemporary artists working across a variety of creative practices – and always with a focus on the African continent, its diaspora, and its cultural and historical influence.
The gallery participates in a number of international fairs, seeking to bring art from the continent to the widest possible audience. In addition to its programme of solo shows and group exhibitions, ARTCO Gallery regularly published artist monographs and exhibitions catalogues.
For more information, please visit ARTCO Gallery.
Eclectica Contemporary (Cape Town, South Africa)
Nedia Were, Feel langa (I feel free), 2022. Acrylic and Oil on Canvas, 237 x 153cm.
Presenting: Ayogu Kingsley, Johannes Phokela, Thebe Phetogo, Nedia Were, Bob-Nosa Uwagboe, Dankyi Mensah, Shaquille Aaron Keith, Ley Mboramwe, and Anthony Lane.
Based in Cape Town, South Africa, Eclectica Contemporary sees itself as an African gallery with an international vision, showcasing practices and materials from art history but which push these boundaries and explore uncharted territories of representation, technique and theory. Given this historical moment, in which Black Portraiture is proving a defining focus, Eclectica Contemporary presents Kenyan artist Nedia Were, who from within the shades, adds a more quiet and mysterious veiled terrain, to allow for greater introspection and reflection.
One of the standout portraits at the 2023 Cape Town Art Fair is that of the late great political activist, Steve Bantu Biko. Painted by the Nigerian artist, Ayogu Kingsley’s portrait is strikingly revisionist. It is not a taciturn closely cropped copy of a black and white photograph, but a dazzlingly colourful Afrocentric vision of a young man reclining in an ergonomically curved and piped brass chair, dressed head to toe in a collared black shirt and pants emblazoned with lurid butterflies. The background – which perhaps includes a bust of Martin Luther King? – is deliberately desaturated, the better to boost the focus on the painting’s subject.
For more information, please visit Eclectica Contemporary.
Barnard (Cape Town, South Africa)
Dirk Salz, 2769, 2022. Resinworks / deep dives, pigments and resin on multiplex, 140 x 100 x 12cm. Courtesy of Barnard.
Presenting: Jo Hummel, Dirk Salz, Tom Cullberg, Jennifer Morrison, Katherine Spindler, Paul Senyol, Jo O’Connor, Alexia Vogel, Jaco van Schalkwyk, Lien Botha, and Richard Mudariki.
Barnard was founded in 2010 by owner and director Christiaan Barnard and collaborates with emerging and mid-career contemporary artists from Africa and Europe. The gallery has launched and developed the careers of a number of artists whose work has subsequently been selected for inclusion in curated group exhibitions at notable museums and institutions. These have included amongst others: BOZAR (Brussels, Kulturhuset, Stockholm); Calouste Gulbenkian Museum (Lisbon); Museo Carlo Bilotti (Rome); Sylt Foundation (Sylt); Foto Museum (Antwerp); Fondazione Giorgio Cini (Venice); Pratt Institute (New York); Center for Book Arts (New York); Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa – MOCCA (Cape Town); Johannesburg Art Gallery (Johannesburg); and, IZIKO South African National Gallery (Cape Town).
The gallery has participated in various local and international art fairs, including: AKAA – Also Known as Africa (Paris); 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair (London / New York); VOLTA (Basel / New York); START (London); Investec Cape Town Art Fair (Cape Town); and, FNB Art Joburg (Johannesburg). Barnard also has an active publishing program – an initiative that aims to further explore and support the work and careers of artists through the medium of the book. To date, these publications have been added to the collections of various notable libraries: University of Cape Town (UCT); Jack Ginsberg Centre for Book Arts, Wits Art Museum (Johannesburg); Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York); Pratt Institute (New York); The Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts (Stockholm); and, the Museum of Modern Art – MOMA, (New York).
For more information, please visit Barnard.
Mashrabia Gallery of Contemporary Art (Cairo, Egypt)
Adel El Siwi, Lovers, 2023. Mixed media on canvas, 60 x 50cm. Courtesy of the artist and Mashrabia Gallery of Contemporary Art.
Presenting: Abel El Siwi
Located in Downtown Cairo, Mashrabia Gallery Of Contemporary Art established itself since the early 1990s as one of the pillars of contemporary art in Egypt. With the mission of discovering and promoting new artistic talent and of supporting both well-known and emerging artists, the gallery has played a pioneering role in the diffusion of contemporary art across Egypt and abroad. In parallel to its monthly exhibitions, the gallery curates projects at other institutions, historical sites and public spaces across the country, in a quest to make visual art accessible to a vast audience.
Among these initiatives are Noubar (NOmad Urban Breaking Art, 2005–2006), El Azhar Park meets Contemporary Arts (2005, 2006), Invisible Presence (Looking at the Body in Contemporary Egyptian Art, 2009–2010) and the From Rags to Riches project (2016). Moreover, Mashrabia Gallery has participated in several International Art Fairs such as Bologna Arte Fiera (2015), 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, London (2016, 2018, 2019, 2021) and Marrakesh (2020), Beirut Art Fair (2016, 2017, 2018), Investec Cape Town (2022).
For more information, please visit Mashrabia Gallery of Contemporary Art.
THK Gallery (Cape Town, South Africa)
Johno Mellish, Untitled, 2023. Courtesy of the artist and THK Gallery.
Presenting: Johno Mellish (SOLO Section), Dominique Cheminais, Driaan Claasen, Nonzuzo Gxekwa, Mmangaliso Nzuza, Guy Simpson, Abdus Salaam, Jake Michael Singer, Trevor Stuurman, and Thomas Wachholz.
THK Gallery is a dynamic contemporary art gallery situated in the heart of Cape Town, South Africa, with an experimental space in Cologne, Germany. Founded by German photographer and collector Frank Schönau in 2018, who was joined by auctioneer Linda Pyke.
Working with established and emerging artists from Africa and the diaspora, as well as international artists, it presents a diverse array of developing contemporary visual art forms. It contributes to the contemporary art discourse by showcasing, to a global audience, art that presents alternative perspectives and aesthetics to the status quo.
For more information, please visit THK Gallery.
Galerie EIGEN + ART (Leipzig/Berlin, Germany)
Maja Behrmann, Untitled (KWR-BOB), 2022. Wood, Lacquer, Metal, Epoxy resin, 27 x 27 x 2cm. Knitted material: 42 x 45cm. Courtesy Galerie EIGEN + ART Leipzig/Berlin. Photographer: Studio kela-mo
Presenting: Maja Behrmann (SOLO Section), Gabrielle Kruger, Brett Charles Seiler, Natalie Paneng, Martin Grossm Ulrike Theusner, Malte Bartsch, Madeleine Roger-Lacan, and Melora Kuhn.
Galerie EIGEN + ART was founded in 1983 as an unofficial gallery project in Leipzig (East Germany). Their locations in both Leipzig and Berlin reflect the processual structures of the gallery’s history. Since 1991 they have participated in numerous important international art fairs, including Art Basel, Frieze London, Art Cologne, Armory Show New York and Art Basel Hong Kong. In March 2012, the gallery established a third location, EIGEN + ART Lab, which regards itself as a project room and innovative field of experimentation for contemporary artistic positions. In July 2021 Galerie EIGEN + ART launched a fourth space in the digital world, EIGEN + ART Plus, to share videos, interviews and publications relating to their artists and projects.
For more information, please visit Galerie EIGEN + ART.
Anna Laudel Gallery (Istanbul/Bodrum, Turkey / Düsseldorf, Germany)
Ramazan Can, Herşeyi Güllük Gülistanlık Yapan Adam – Otoportre, 2022. Oil on canvas, neon, wood 232 x 186 x 10cm. Courtesy of the artist and Anna Laudel Gallery.
Presenting: Daniele Sigalot, Mathias Hornung, and Ramazan Can.
Founded by Anna Laudel to support the work of Turkish, German and international artists, the gallery is dedicated to promoting artists by providing a prominent contemporary exhibition platform and developing a greater understanding of contemporary art.
Following its first location in Istanbul, Anna Laudel opened its second gallery in Düsseldorf-Germany in 2019 to expand internationally. Directed by Ferhat Yeter, both galleries host solo and group exhibitions by artists from Turkey and beyond. The gallery also represents its artists of diverse backgrounds and generations in the global art scene by showcasing their latest artworks at leading international art fairs.
For more information, please visit Anna Laudel.
AGorgi Gallery (Tunis, Tunisia)
Ymen Berhouma, MUNDUS ARCHETYPUS, 2022. Ink, watercolour and pencil on canson paper, 75 x 70cm (triptyque). Courtesy of the artist and AGorgi Gallery.
Presenting: Ali Tnani, Aymen Mbarki, Bachir Tayachi, Ibrahim Mattouss, and Najah Zarbout.
Oriented exclusively towards emerging Tunisian artists, AGorgi is a contemporary art space that provides experimental perspectives on the region’s art landscape.
Founded by Tunisian artist Abdelaziz Gorgi in the early 1990s as the Ammar Farhat Gallery, Aicha Gorgi shifted the gallery’s focus in 2010 towards identifying and nurturing new talent and artistic expression. Since then, AGorgi has aimed to renew the language of art in Tunisia by showcasing new articulations of contemporary art.
With a rigorous exhibition program featuring cross-cutting themes of local concern, AGorgi promotes a greater appreciation for artistic production amongst its local public. The gallery also draws on its extensive network to connect Tunisian art forms to international currents of modern and contemporary art.
For more information, please visit AGorgi Gallery.
