In the lush setting of Shepstone Gardens in Johannesburg’s suburb of Houghton Estate, artists, collectives and galleries will come together for the 2023 RMB Latitudes Art Fair from 26 to 28 May.
In the lush setting of Shepstone Gardens in Johannesburg’s suburb of Houghton Estate, artists, collectives and galleries will come together for the 2023 RMB Latitudes Art Fair from 26 to 28 May.
Latitudes, one of the largest online markets for African art with more than 1 500 artists from about 200 countries, will exhibit these artworks to a physical space and reframe the art gallery and exhibition model into a year-round online platform.
“We aim to be inclusive, accessible and optimistic,” says Lattitude’s co-founder, Roberta Coci. “It’s a rebellion against the rigid rules of art fairs.”
And Open Studios Joburg will show art lovers the city’s universe of studios.
Work by Frances Goodman (left and right) can also expected to be seen at Shepstone Gardens
The RMB Latitude Art Fair also aims to be a more democratic affair that does not only serve wealthy collectors. Artists’ names and access to studios breaks the industry’s opaque nature. Like the Turbine Art Fair in Johannesburg, Latitude is an opportunity for people to buy their first piece of art.
“We don’t want another art fair in Sandton with pieces priced in dollars or without prices, or without artist’s names. The more art fairs that exist, the more opportunities to buy and sell art,” says RMB’s Carolynne Waterhouse.
The fair will host the RMB Young Artists’ Playground, a place for children to explore art through a play dough party.
The gothic and Mediterranean architecture of Shepstone Gardens will house artworks from 31 South Africans, with the likes of Art Africa, Delaney Studio x Lady Skollie, Everard Read Gallery and Kalashnikovv Gallery. Seven international exhibitors include No Man’s Gallery in the Netherlands, Suburbia from Spain and Germany’s Artco Galerie.
Expect works from artists such as Katlego Tlabela, known for his bright blue hues or Frances Goodman’s punchy pink tones that will juxtapose the neutral backdrop of Shepstone Gardens.
The venue for the 2023 RMB Latitudes Art Fair
Co-emergence of African art
The fair’s central theme is “co-emergence”, says Nkhensani Mkhari, the RMB Latitudes special project curator.
The spectator of the arts approaches art with their own life experiences, realities and perspectives, while the artist communicates their own messages.
“This is not just for the rich collectors, but how families create the journey in a space, about growing up and creating a third space between two bodies”.
Mkhari says Africa is seen as a monolithic place, but there is a nuance to the cultural diversity of Africa. This RMB Latitude Art Fair will show the diversity, and how we echo and reflect each other.
Katlego Tlabela’ work will be on display at Shepstone Gardens
The theme looks at how these diverse and often vernacular aesthetic and cultural influences echo each other in the diaspora and African contemporary art. After all, “diaspora” also refers to a distance, and “echo is both a product of and a symbol for space”, says Mkhari.
The collage city
Johannesburg’s centre houses a smorgasbord of artist studios, and is considered an international art city. On 27 and 28 May, The OpenStudios.Joburg project will drive people to art buildings and projects in the city, coined a collage city.
“The studio space is a complex, confusing, and weird world. But, it is the artist’s natural habitat,” says Sara Hallat, the founder of OpenStudios.Joburg.
The art world most often presents the final product, but not the artist’s studio where the incomplete works are seen, says Hallat.