Durban Art Fair
06.07 - 08.07.2023

We sat down with Durban Art Fair Director Lungelo Mkhize to discuss its origins, the KZN art scene and all we have to look forward to in July.

ArtThrob: Can you tell us a little bit about your background in art?

Lungelo Mkhize: I had an interest in art back in high school. I tried to do art, but my mother said, “Art doesn’t pay.” So, I studied business. Lo and behold, ten years later, I was working in art. In 2015, I moved from Durban to Joburg. I started as a registrar at Stevenson in Joburg. Working on logistics there, I had a lot of interaction with artists, curators and directors. End of 2016, I moved to Cape Town to take up my then-manager’s position at the Cape Town Stevenson. I lasted about three months. I thought, “This is a lot of pressure. It’s not for me.” I called up my boss and told him I was resigning. He said, “We should sit down and talk.” When we did sit down, he asked how I felt about starting a logistics company for art. I said, “Yeah, sure.” I spent that year doing the research and all the basics. By the end of 2017, I was working full time at Section9, which offered me more opportunity to interact directly with artists and galleries. 

When I got into the art industry, the one thing that my then-boss tried to align me with was art fairs. They taught me about installation, moving works, what it means to be in the space of the art fair. Eventually, I was running the art fairs at Stevenson in terms of production, all around the world. My first international art fair was Art Basel Miami Beach. I thought it would be fun, but it was a lot of stress. But the thing I took away from it was the production of the art fair from the Miami side. How they turned such a big space into a world-class art fair really blew my mind. I related that to the Cape Town Art Fair which, at the time, had just outgrown Joburg Art Fair. Relating also to Art Lagos, the production, for me, stood out. 

I then was like, “Well, I know the logistics of it. I need to learn the production of it and how to put it together.” With that in mind, I focused my energy in learning which artists really did well at art fairs and the galleries whose business models were based around them. Since then, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic, a lot has changed. The smaller galleries now are able to move into art fair spaces, because art fairs are now more open to them. I think that’s because the bigger galleries have now tried to dim themselves from the art fair space. 

Just as Section9 started, we didn’t have a premium art logistics company in South Africa, nor Africa as a whole, that made museum-grade crates. We filled that gap. I thought, I love my life in Cape Town and Joburg, working with art in this country. I wish I could do the same in my hometown. Well, maybe we should start a gallery or something? At the time, I’m talking to my ex-boss. He suggested, maybe we should try to start an art fair. I said, “Listen, I think it’s a stretch, but I’ll look into it.” I looked into it for two years. One of the biggest factors was, of course, the cost and how you fund this cost. But Section9 was able to raise funds for the fair and also get sponsors. So I was like, “Why not?” 

In addition to doing the research into what it meant cost-wise, I was also looking into how we actually get this done. This was back in 2021, when I came across the current art fair designer and architects. We all agreed that it wouldn’t be feasible to produce a quality art fair in 2022, so we decided to move it to 2023 and buy ourselves more time. We approached probably everyone we could. Replies were slowly incoming. But they came. Now, we have reservations and paid booths. It’s crazy to be like, “Okay, there’s no way to turn back.”  

You said were thinking about starting some sort of space in Durban. You decided that a gallery wouldn’t work, and an art fair might be a better idea. Why did you come to that conclusion?

Traditionally, how art cities come to be – think Joburg and Cape Town, as well as Paris, New York, London – is, firstly, you build institutions. Those institutions multiply. Then, you build a trade show to showcase the institutions. In Durban, that has not worked, purely because there’s not enough traffic in and to those institutions. The people who made the art, who work in art, have migrated out of Durban to these other cities. For example, BKhz, Banele Khoza’s gallery, shows mostly Durbanite artists, and employs several Durbanites, but they are based in Joburg. So, we thought, if we start a gallery, we’re going to be ten to fifteen years behind. So, let’s work backwards. 

Let’s create a focal point in KZN, once a year. Then, everybody in KZN has something to aim for, and everybody outside of KZN has something to come for. Instead of building institutions and hoping that they will stimulate enough growth so as to attract an art fair, why don’t we just have an art fair? Hopefully, five years from now, it becomes its own self-sufficient industry and helps to grow the KZN art ecosystem. Creating the traffic is the first step. 

As you’re building and designing this fair, are you looking at Cape Town Art Fair, Art Joburg and international fairs? How are you going to differentiate yourselves?  

That was the first question. In order to differentiate ourselves, we needed to, firstly, equate ourselves to them in terms of quality and production.. Right now, Cape Town Art Fair and Art Joburg are at convention centres. We tried to go that route, but we couldn’t get the Durban ICC, purely because it’s block-booked for the next three to five years. We then looked at international art fairs that used alternative venues: Frieze New York, the Marquee Art Fair, which makes use of this beautiful lawn space. We then settled on the Moses Mabhida Stadium. We realised that this production would differ from the two that already exist in the country. We wanted to be like them, but we would be in competition with them, off the bat, which doesn’t work well for us. In being in competition with them, we are running away from our emerging-market strategy. 

That is, in order for us to cater to the emerging market, instead of just having blue chip galleries come on board, and only having solo booths for artists who are associated with those blue chip galleries, we opened up the solos to artists who apply directly. The only prerequisite is that it has to be an emerging artist with some relation to KZN. The group shows, same as well. It has to be an emerging point of view. There are lots of exhibitors who are pulling together resources to explode into the market, so we’re offering that platform. We have a few galleries who are not necessarily blue chip, but they have at least five emerging artists who they represent. They’re also trying to break into the scene, whether locally or internationally. We said, whatever we can get in this emerging market portfolio, that’s what we want to play. 

We also looked at Turbine Art Fair, which is a sales-based art fair. That is, they don’t care who’s there, just that sales are made. We wanted to communicate what’s emerging out of KZN to the rest of the country. So, the question was to break down the barriers. That’s how we differentiate ourselves: to break down the barriers in terms of who can be exhibited here. Of course, we have a selection process whereby we look at the portfolios and so forth. But definitely, the emerging market is the role we’ll play. It’s an artist’s art fair. 

Will there be fringe events around the Durban Art Fair? 

The fair is the biggest point. The second biggest point is showcasing Durban. We are trying to have art fair dinners and art fair talks outside the fair – DUT, the Chairman, KZNSA – just to be able to move people around Durban and have them see what we have to offer. There is a residency space in Durban that teaches young artists how to make their artwork more presentable for sale; we also have that in our programme. Our programme is highlighting the emergence of Durban and/or the possibility of Durban having its own art industry, just like any other city. Of course, the art fair itself takes precedence. But from there, we need to show the growth of Durban, not just within the first edition but, each year, add a little bit to that programme.

In that vein, in general, the South African art world marginalises Durban. That is, it doesn’t see Durban as a player on the scene as much as it sees Joburg or Cape Town. What excites you about the artmaking that’s happening in KZN at the moment?

I think the way that you’ve presented the question is exactly what excites me. Firstly, the marginalisation of Durban (and KZN as a whole) comes from a simple question: can we make money in KZN? Are there buyers in KZN? Listen, the best way we can find out is by putting a marketplace in Durban. The marketplace being the art fair. If we have the marketplace, we’re going to get clients coming out of the woodwork. Also, if buyers outside of KZN feel like they need to find some new blood, they know they can go to the Durban Art Fair in July. That excites me: the possibility of changing the marginalisation by playing it to our strength. 

Secondly, the art that comes out of Durban is very present in the South African art space right now. Artists such as Cameron Platter, Deborah Poynton, Zanele Muholi, Georgina Gratrix, Callan Grecia, Tyra Naidoo – all come out of Durban. A lot of those artists are now pushing to the forefront in terms of what we look like as the arts in South Africa, they come from Durban. But when you come to South Africa, you don’t come to Durban. You come to Joburg or Cape Town, but you shake hands with Durban artists. So, why don’t you go to their hometown? Why don’t you see their studio, where they work? Why don’t you see what inspires them? 

Is there anything else you would like to add?

I’m excited. I’m nervous. I really hope it’s a general success, not for the Durban Art Fair team per se, but for the people who will be at the art fair. Hopefully, they come back next year. I hope we have fun. I hope that we really just have a big jol. We don’t put pressure on ourselves as exhibitors and at the fair. Let’s party everyday and enjoy Durban. 

At the end of the day, we would have started something that nobody dreamed of. Nobody thought it would happen. We took a chance on it. Five years from now, we’ll look back on it and say, yeah, we did that shit as a collective. Not just us at Durban Art Fair. Maybe people will look back and say, “I remember when ArtThrob covered Durban Art Fair.” And you’ll say, “We were there. Where were you guys?”