SMAC Gallery in Cape Town
Mongezi Ncaphayi, Age of Inner Knowing (detail), 2017. Indian ink & mixed media on paper, 199 x 140 cm
MONGEZI NCAPHAYI
Which Way is East?
13 . 09 – 07 . 10 . 17
Mongezi Ncaphayi’s latest body of work – produced for his solo exhibition, Which Way is East? – registers a fresh iteration in what is becoming the young painter-printmaker’s unfolding search for the sublime. This new selection of work comprises of a series of vast, horizontal vistas of abstract formulations; works on paper that grow and extend the pictorial vocabulary of his previous works and seem to notably privilege his interest in the art of painting over the medium of print-making.
If we think of cartography as a science or aesthetic practice that builds on the premise that; corporeal reality or its imagined variant can be modelled to communicate spatial information, then Ncaphayi is in the business of teaching us how to navigate, illustrating the nature of its affective force. His work points to his interest in harnessing the power of abstract painted forms and jazz music, along with their capacity to speak to the grand and awe-inspiring world within man.
Excerpt from Which Way is East? by Percy Mabandu
#mongezincaphayi
#whichwayiseast
#smaccpt
CYRUS KABIRU
Pandashuka
13 . 09 – 07 . 10 . 17
SMAC Gallery is pleased to present Pandashuka, a solo exhibition of new sculptures in the Black Mamba series by Cyrus Kabiru. This exhibition is accompanied by an extended text written by Jens Hoffmann.
The term “black mamba” is used in Nairobi to describe simple, typically black-framed, fix-gear bikes that swarmed the city during the 1980’s and 90’s. Used for transportation and business alike, the black mamba was a simple, sturdy, and ubiquitous fixture on Nairobi’s streets. In his sculptural series, Kabiru reimagines these bicycles that dominated his childhood, adding and subtracting elements to and from the simple black frames.
Kabiru’s attachment to the bicycle, and his insistence on its disappearance, points to a fascinating contradiction that we can trace throughout his practice – a tension between a visionary sort of futurity and a nostalgic desire for sameness that seem entangled in all of his creations.
– Excerpt from Cyrus Kabiru: Future Vision, Frozen Past by Jens Hoffmann
#cyruskabiru
#pandashuka
#smaccpt
LHOLA AMIRALAGOM
Breaking Bread with The Self-Righteous
13 . 09 – 07 . 10 . 17
SMAC Gallery is pleased to present LAGOM: Breaking Bread with The Self-Righteous, a short film by Lhola Amira. This piece was created while the artist was on residency in Skövde, Sweden earlier this year. It is her second short film for 2017. LAGOM: Breaking Bread with The Self-Righteous tracks the artist’s exploration of Sweden and touches on the, widely denied, role that this European Country had in the colonisation of the African Continent.
Lhola Amira was born in 1984 in Gugulethu, South Africa and currently lives and works in Cape Town. The artist Lhola Amira was borne from the body of curator and academic Khanyisile Mbongwa, both womxn share a plural existence, co-habiting one body. In essence, Lhola Amira highlights new manifestations of inequality. Her practice speaks of the survival of black individuals, in particular black womxn, in a world dominated by white men. Integral to Lhola Amira’s practice is the continuous challenging of inaccurate and stereotypical descriptions.
#lholaamira
#LAGOM
#breakingbread
#theselfrighteous
#smaccpt
CAPE TOWN
1st floor, The Palms
145 Sir Lowry Road
Woodstock, 7925
T: +27 (0)21 461 1029
info@smacgallery.com
www.smacgallery.com
@smac_gallery
Gallery Hours:
Monday to Friday 9:00 – 17:00
Saturday 10:00 – 15:00
Or by appointment