Open City opens in Joburg ahead of art fair
From 25 August to 9 September, Open City presented by FNB Art Joburg will connect art, music, performance, food, and fashion worlds across the city. On 25 August, Play Braamfontein opens four exhibitions within a stone’s throw from each other: a solo exhibition by Jabulani Dhlamini and a group exhibition with a spotlight on emerging artists at 73 Juta Street; an immersive installation by multidisciplinary artists Natalie Paneng at 68 Juta Street, as well as Fever, Returns at Kalashnikovv Gallery. On 31 August, The Bioscope opens a film series highlighting women artists: Teresa Kutala-Firmino, Reshma Chhiba, Cinthia Sifa Mulanga and Zandile Tshabalala. On 2 September, InfluenZArtwill present a series of short performances, live video projections and sound installations at an iconic Joburg venue in Newtown, Carfax. Curated by artist and choreographer Nelisiwe Xaba in collaboration with Swiss performer Marie-Caroline Hominal, this initiative is supported by Pro Helvetia Johannesburg. Opening 3 September at Toasted on Jan Smuts Ave, a group exhibition curated by Nisha Merit is all about COSMOS, from pixels to stars. This exhibition features art by Bubblegum Club, blk banaana and Francois Knoetze, AR collages by Magolide Collective and Aluta Null, photography by Sukuma Mkhize and sound drawings by Mia Thom.
Cape Town Art Book Fair 2022
Celebrating the visual arts, art publishing and the broader creative community, Norval Foundation presents the Cape Town Art Book Fair from the 26-28 August 2022. Exhibitors from across the spectrum in art publishing will be showing their wares: from monographs and exhibitions catalogues to to artist books, novels and zines. The fair will be held in the Norval Foundation’s atrium space and is completely free. There’s also quite an impressive programme, with a reading by author Xolisa Guzula today; talks by Candice Thiekson, Barbarba Boswell, Amilcar Patel and André Marais tomorrow; and a zine workshop with Vicky Lekone, Sindiswa Busuku and Candice Jezek on Sunday. Not to miss: an ‘artwork reading’ by our very own Georgia Munnik plus a review of the history of ArtThrob with editor Keely Shinners and past editor Andrew Lamprecht, both on Saturday; on Sunday, ArtThrob alumni Amie Soudien and Sinazo Chiya are in conversation, and the incredible Nkgopoleng Moloi will be presenting a talk on identity and food with Kamyar Bineshtarigh and Zayaan Khan.
British Council looks to take early to mid career curators to Venice
The British Council is looking for applications by five early to mid-career visual arts curators from the UK and five early to mid-career visual arts curators from Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa or Zimbabwe whose practices are collaborative and draw from personal experience or interpretation of identity, gender, and race politics. Together, they will travel to the Venice Biennale in November for a programme in celebration of the historic number of black and African women artists participating in this year’s Biennale. They will explore the work of artists such as Golden Lion for Best National Participation winner Sonia Boyce, Alberta Whittle and Zineb Sedira, Golden Lion for Best Participant winner Simone Leigh, Acaye Kerunen and Na Chainkua Reindorf. The delegation hopes to find synergies between curatorial practices in Africa and the UK around shared issues presented by these themes. Apply here by 10 September 2022.
Simone Leigh, Facade, 2022. Courtesy the artist and Matthew Marks Gallery. Photo by Timothy Schenck. © Simone Leigh.
Bubblegum Club about to launch 8th residency
Established by the founders of Bubblegum Club, the Bubblegum Residency programme has been running with the aim to support, platform and develop the careers of emerging artists. The month long residency programme will take place at the Bubblegum Gallery during the month of September — with on-site studio space for the selected artist — and is purely production based. Therefore, artists who submit developed ideas with a thorough production plan will stand a greater chance of selection. The selected artist will receive a studio space to work from, curatorial support along with press and marketing support, and a stipend totalling R5000 for the production and exhibiting of their work at the Bubblegum Gallery in Braamfontein, Johannesburg. Deadline is today, 26 August, so get those applications in.
