CURRENT
GROUP SHOW
RELIEF
VILLA LEGODI CENTRE FOR SCULPTURE
29 JUNE - 2 SEPTEMBER
The exhibition focuses on an age-old tradition from a variety of contemporary perspectives, foregrounding different approaches to relief work as a mode of storytelling and its relationship to sculpture in the round.
Held in partnership with Griffin Art Projects, the exhibition includes works by Dada Khanyisa, Collen Maswanganyi, Johan Moolman, Simon Moshapo Jnr, John Nkhoma, Usen Obot, Ben Tuge, and Xwalacktun.
It includes both pre-existing works as well as those produced during a 10-day woodcarving workshop, held in partnership with the Kromdraai Impact Hub in the lead up to the show.
OUPA SIBEKO & KAMOGELO WALAZA
KO GAE
NIROX RESIDENCY & COOL ROOM
3 MARCH - 26 MAY
Experimenting with personal belongings, archival materials, multi-media and installation from a variety of social and cultural perspectives, Oupa Sibeko’s work draws on his own recollections and how they have shaped his personalities, animating his actions and experiences. Ultimately we ask you, the viewer, to consider your own memories; to come into the space, play, and make use of KO GAE to activate your own childhood memories. We invite you KO GAE as an active space to participate and remember the child in you as you play.
ABDUS SALAAM
INSAAN
NIROX RESIDENCY, COOL ROOM, SCREENING ROOM
& COVERED SPACE
3 MARCH - 26 MAY
Abdus Salaam’s first solo institutional exhibition will open April 27th at Nirox Foundation following his six week long residency. This is his first residency during the month long fast of Ramadan and the theme of this work will be that of Love with a capital L in its terrestrial, etherea and Divine forms. The title of this exhibition will be ‘ﺇِﻧﺴَﺎﻥ‘ transliterated as ‘insaan’ meaning human being, a word that when broken down to its roots in Arabic as انـس (uns) meaning ‘intimate or love’ as well as نَسِيَ (nasyia), meaning forgetful, defines the human being as both the intimate one and the forgetful one. This poetic fragrance is often alluded to by the mystics and scholars of Islam as it so poignantly delivers us to the essence of humanity being that of love, a reality that we often forget and one that is most appropriate considering our ongoing communal self harm and the location of Nirox within the Cradle of Humankind where some of the oldest remains of early humans have been found and studied.
Exhibiting across three spaces at Nirox, Salaam will present his largest paintings to date, a series of sculptures, gildings, a video work and an original musical composition that was written and recorded at Nirox - to also be released on sound streaming platforms late April. During these six weeks he will also produce work for 1-54 New York and RMB-Latitudes art fair’s curated sculpture pavilion as well as a permanent sculpture for Nirox Foundation’s Sculpture Park.
RICHARD JOHN FORBES:
PRAXIS
NIROX COVERED SPACE. / SCREENING ROOM
10 FEB – 31 MAR 2024
Held a year after his residency at the Villa-Legodi Centre for Sculpture, Forbes returns to showcase the finished body of work, alongside glass-blown sculptures and prints produced over the course of the year. As writes Sean O’Toole for the forthcoming publication, ‘Forbes’s mesmerising rose quartz sculptures embody sculptural restraint. Often half-formed and incomplete, they showcase his understanding of moderation as a necessary gesture in sculpture.’
The exhibition also includes a new film in the Screening Room, titled Guava (2024), coupled with a cameo appearance of Shy Restrained Pink Thing (ongoing). Sometimes inflated, sometimes deflated, the latter is described by Ashraf Jamal as an ‘anthropomorphised intimate’, that makes evident the ‘wear and tear’ of life through a ‘choreography of movement and stillness, liberation and abduction’. This sense of restraint is echoed in the display of Forbes’s glass-blown works. In contrast, Forbes’s spinning-top prints, produced in collaboration with participants in different parts of the world, are ‘pulled from plates that hold the marks of the spinning tops.’ As writes Chloë Reid in her contribution to the book, ‘Minor imbalances and asymmetries in the tops, in the techniques or gestures of the participant, in the plate itself, and on the surface beneath, contribute to a field of spiralling marks, each infinitely unique... The prints have a celestial quality. Layers of marks and spherical forms revel in oblique space.’
To learn more about Forbes’s practice, and the rose quartz works on exhibition, access the catalogue by clicking the button below.
Both the exhibition and publication are supported by the Claire & Edoardo Villa Will Trust.
SEAN BLEM: RESONANCE
A TEN YEAR RETROSPECTIVE
VILLA-LEGODI CENTRE FOR SCULPTURE
17 FEB – 3 MAR 2024