Writing Art History Since 2002
Ashraf Jamal examines the intricate interplay between precarious, reparative, and biological ecologies through the lens of ‘Imminent and Eminent Ecologies’, the groundbreaking exhibition curated by Leora Farber and Brenton Maart at the FADA Gallery, University of Johannesburg […]
HUMANLY POSSIBLE: Rethinking Ecology Through Art and Matter Read Article
At Artyli Gallery, Frans Thoka’s Latest Exhibition Reflects on South Africa’s Complex History as Explored by Ashraf Jamal Frans Thoka. Courtesy of Artyli Gallery. Frans Thoka’s gallerist, Karen Cullinan, and I, are driving through Johannesburg’s
Frans Thoka: Land as the Silent Witness in Monochrome Read Article
A throw of the dice will never abolish hazard, Mallarme remarked. A game of chance cannot override chaos. Portrait of Mongezi Ncaphayi. Photographer: David Altman This conclusion, which will surely irk those in love with fixed
The Arranger: Mongezi Ncaphayi Read Article
Gilles Deleuze, the French philosopher who threw himself out of his apartment window, reminds us that we cannot judge a life by how it ends. Similarly, one cannot read a life solely through how it
Outside Open Time: Jan-Henri Booyens Read Article
In 2021, at the Nirox Foundation – located at ‘The Cradle of Humankind’ in South Africa – we see the manifestation of a global counter-intuitive project. Pitted against perversity, in search of tomorrow’s health today,
Only Connect! Ashraf Jamal reflects on monumental sculpture exhibition at Nirox Read Article
The title of Serge Attukwei Clottey’s recent solo show – ‘Beyond Skin’ – at the newly opened Simchowitz Gallery in LA, is baffling. Whether it is smart or merely provocative is hard to tell, especially
Beyond Skin? Ashraf Jamal reflects on Serge Attukwei Clottey’s recent solo Read Article
Roos’ pieces reflect on Africa’s historical co-dependence on global superpowers and how histories are constructed and written in our emerging inter-connected world cultures. ‘The East is a career, Benjamin Disraeli declared. An imperialistic vision, it
The East is a Career: Ashraf Jamal explores the work of artist, Nicola Roos Read Article
Juan Stockenstroom is no Jean-Michel Basquiat wannabe, though the comparison is unavoidable. The difference, however, lies in the way in which Stockenstroom occupies space. Basquiat arrives at the butt-end of Abstract Expressionism, in the slipstream
A Bunch of Doughnuts: Ashraf Jamal reflects on the work of Juan Stockenstroom Read Article
The Billy Monk Collection A sexually fluid bouncer who worked in the nightclubs of Cape Town’s dock area in the 1960s, Billy Monk was able to capture the lives of people redeemed from apartheid’s scrutiny,
Underground Culture Club a hidden world Read Article
Eastcoast Gold – Robyn Denny’s latest series of work on exhibition with Berman Contemporary – challenges the documentation of single narrative stories and reimagines the multifaceted history of the East African coast. “The sense
Fragments of History Read Article
