A landmark retrospective celebrating three decades of artistic resilience, spirituality, and community storytelling
Sophie Peters, The Night When Hamburg Died. Oil on canvas, 100.5 x 95cm. Courtesy of William Humphreys Art Gallery.
The William Humphreys Art Gallery (WHAG) in Kimberley will soon present ‘Running with the Wolves Whilst Playing with the Eagles’, a major retrospective exhibition by Johannesburg-born artist Sophie Peters. Curated by Chepape Makgato, Chief Curator at WHAG, the exhibition opens on 27 November 2025 and runs through 28 February 2026. Professor Debra Meyer, Acting Vice-Chancellor and Principal of Sol Plaatje University, will deliver the opening address.
A poetic contradiction at the heart of an artist’s journey
To run with the wolves whilst playing with the eagles is to inhabit a duality of courage and gentleness, to navigate danger while nurturing tenderness, to resist the storm yet cradle peace within it. This poetic contradiction forms the conceptual foundation of Peters’ first museum retrospective, a celebration of more than three decades of visual storytelling.
Born in Kliptown, Johannesburg, in 1968 and largely self-taught, Peters began her creative journey during apartheid South Africa, carving tomato trays into makeshift linocut plates and transforming scarcity into innovation. Her art, spanning painting, printmaking, ceramics, mural, and sculpture, embodies both vulnerability and defiance, echoing the exhibition’s title through a poetic dance between survival and tenderness.
Her work straddles two worlds: the repressive past of apartheid and the fragile promise of democracy. Through images of women in conversation, children at play, and scenes of township life rendered in bold lines and vivid colour, Peters captures both the everyday and the eternal. Her practice reflects the resilience of a generation of artists who transformed exclusion into expression and hardship into visual poetry.
In an interview with art historian Mario Pissarra, Peters once said, “When things go wrong and nobody wants to talk about it, I make some art and I let it go through the press and there I tell my story.” This sentiment anchors her as both witness and storyteller, turning silence into statement and survival into art.
Reclaiming the narrative of South African art
The William Humphreys Art Gallery has, in recent years, deepened its commitment to curatorial justice by reasserting the value of artists who shaped South African art history from the periphery. Each year, WHAG dedicates its third quarter to celebrating an established yet under-recognised artist. In 2025, that honour fittingly belongs to Sophie Peters.
‘Running with the Wolves Whilst Playing with the Eagles’ will mark Peters’ first museum retrospective and her first solo exhibition in more than two decades. The exhibition will reactivate her body of work for a new generation, situating her within the broader lineage of South African printmaking and community-based art education through institutions such as the Community Arts Project (CAP) and Barbara Jackson’s ceramics training in Cape Town.
Through a blend of archival material, key artworks, and personal reflections, the exhibition maps the emotional and political terrain of an artist who has turned adversity into artistry and isolation into collective memory.
About the Artist
Sophie Peters (b. 1968, Johannesburg) is a self-taught multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans printmaking, public murals, painting, sculpture, ceramics, and illustration. Her work engages themes of memory, spirituality, community, and womanhood, chronicling the lived experiences of Black South Africans with warmth, humour, and resilience.
Having emerged from the township-based art movement of the 1980s, Peters’ work remains significant within the country’s printmaking legacy and continues to inspire younger generations of artists across disciplines.
About the William Humphreys Art Gallery
Founded in 1952, the William Humphreys Art Gallery in Kimberley is one of South Africa’s three national art museums. The gallery houses a wide-ranging collection that includes European old masters, South African modernists, and leading contemporary African artists.
Under its renewed curatorial direction, WHAG has committed itself to access, inclusion, and curatorial justice, foregrounding artists and narratives that have been historically marginalised within museum spaces. Through its exhibitions, residencies, research, and educational programmes, WHAG continues to serve as a vital platform for artistic exchange, dialogue, and innovation in the Northern Cape and beyond.
‘Running with the Wolves Whilst Playing with the Eagles’ by Sophie Peters opens on 27 November 2025 and runs until 28 February 2026 at the William Humphreys Art Gallery, Kimberley. For more information, visit whag.co.za.
