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Mail & Guardian

Sculpture

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Interpretation: Instead of offering fixed meanings, Bronwyn Katz creates space for conversation between the artwork, the material and the person standing before it. Photo: Supplied
SOUTH AFRICAN ART

Bronwyn Katz digs beneath the surface to uncover stories held by the land

Bronwyn Katz, the 2026 Standard Bank Young Artist for Visual Arts, creates sculptures and installations that delve into ancestral memory, the history of Kimberley, and the quiet…

  • Lesego Chepape
6 min read
Mandy Johnston’s latest exhibition uses burning steel wool sculptures and ash paintings to explore ritual, transformation and the transitions that shape our lives
AFRIKABURN

Mandy Johnston burns art to rekindle lost traditions

The Joburg-born artist’s latest exhibition uses burning steel wool sculptures and ash paintings to explore ritual, transformation and the transitions that shape our lives

  • Unathi Kondile
6 min read
Migrating Homes — Gateways of Our Conventional World by Kibera Arts District. Photo: Anthea Pokroy
ACCRA

‘Atlas of Uncertainty’ reimagines the African city through art and flux

A sprawling exhibition at the Origins Centre challenges colonial narratives and reframes African cities as spaces of resilience, creativity and constant transformation

  • Zada Hanmer
6 min read
A chance gallery stop becomes an intimate encounter with Amogelang Maepa’s sensual, emotionally charged exploration of fleeting desire and lasting residue
AMOGELANG MAEPA

A ‘One-Night Stand’ with Amogelang Maepa

A chance gallery stop becomes an intimate encounter with Amogelang Maepa’s sensual, emotionally charged exploration of fleeting desire and lasting residue

  • Unathi Kondile
4 min read
Manifestation: A 2024 artwork, titled we wanted to come home, by Hank Willis Thomas.
AFRICAN AMERICAN ART

Layers of meaning

Exploring shared struggles and the power of love, Hank Willis Thomas’s latest exhibition layers American and South African histories into thought-provoking artworks

  • Kibo Ngowi
8 min read
What does it mean to truly take your time? Artist shows us through a devotion to detail that transforms everyday materials into meditations on life, loss and transformation
ARMOUR AND LACE

Walter Oltmann and the alchemy of wire

What does it mean to truly take your time? Artist shows us through a devotion to detail that transforms everyday materials into meditations on life, loss and transformation

  • Thembeka Heidi Sincuba
6 min read
Beyond words: Brett Murray’s latest show Brood, which is on at the Circa Gallery in Johannesburg, consists of 24 sculptures and reliefs, devoid of the text with which he has come to be associated.
BROOD

The soft heart of a stone thrower

Brett Murray speaks about the shift in the work that appears on his new exhibition This content is restricted to registered users and subscribers. Get Your Free Account The Mail…

  • Charles Leonard
1 min read
Depth of feeling: Zanele Muholi’s photographs ‘Manzi III’, from a series which shows them swimming in the Atlantic Ocean
ART

Split does nothing to slow down artist

Zanele Muholi has left her long-time gallery but they are as alive and productive as ever

  • Sean O Toole
8 min read
Work from Noria Mabasa’s exhibition Shaping Dreams at the Nirox Sculpture Park. (Supplied by Lucky Lekalakala)
AFRICAN ART

Sculptor is shaping dreams

The work of 84-year-old artist Noria Mabasa explores traditions, mythology and spirituality

  • Oupa Nkosi
6 min read
Roger Ballen’s ‘Show Off’ (2000)’. (Roger Ballen)
ART

Ballenesque: The Organised Chaos of Roger Ballen

Visual artist Roger Ballen has a distinctive style that has evolved over a 50-year period

  • Kimberley Schoeman
5 min read
ART

See through the Red Mist

‘Let Me Tell You About Red’, artist Mary Sibande’s third instalment in the tricolour Sophie series, is on in Durban

  • Lumumba Mthembu
14 min read
Boundary objects: In Irma’s Sterns Zanzibar series the traditional Zanzibari wooden door frames are an integral part of the art
ART

Art: What’s in a frame?

A walk through the Norval Foundations inspires thoughts on frames as anchors, thresholds and art

  • Simon Abbott
5 min read
Joseph Ndandarika, who was once described as one of the three greatest living stone sculptors. (Image courtesy of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe)
AFRICAN ART

In praise of African art: How Shona sculpting emerged

How Shona stone art came into its own after independence

  • Percy Zvomuya
35 min read
Nothando Nyathi makes a cake at her home in Thulani, Soweto. She taught herself how to bake and decorate cakes and runs a small business called ‘Extraordinary Cakes’. Photographer: James Puttick.
BAKING

The cakes that dreams are baked of

Nothando Nyathi always associated baking with happiness and she knew that her creations would bring joy to many others, including her son

  • Ryan Lenora Brown
4 min read
A collection of Jackson Hlungwani’s sculptures of fish, showing at the Norval Foundation as part of the Alt and Omega exhibition. (Photo: Michael Hall)
AFRICAN TRADITION

On Jackson Hlungwani: A close encounter with an artistic deity

A survey of Jackson Hlungwani’s practice presents a transcendental experience, even for non-believers

  • Mary Corrigall
7 min read