Revamped FNB Art Joburg, a feast of art and other cultural activities around Johannesburg attracts huge crowd
The art fair is currently taking place at Sandton Convention Centre September 8-10, 20234
By Edward Tsumele, CITYLIFE/ARTS Editor
This year the edition of the country’s longest art fair FNB Art Joburg was a compelling affair that anyone who is interested in exploring the pleasure of collecting art objects, or simply viewing beautiful things painting a narrative of the contemporary world we live in, should have attended.
At this year’s art fair, not only were you as a viewer able to immerse your mind into the imaginations of the artists represented by various galleries, but your imagination was carried deep into the complexity of African societies. Gallery representation was also quite notable including the big names in the game – Goodman Gallery, Everard Read Gallery, Stevenson Gallery, Smac Gallery, David Krut Gallery, and those representing emerging artists on the African continent, such as Guns & Rain, BKhz, First Floor Gallery from Harare, Zimbabwe, and Kalashinikovv Gallery, to name but just a few of them.
The art works on display told various stories representing the pain, the unease, difficulties and of course the beauty, diversity and the colourful rich heritage of the African continent. In other words, the good, the bad and the ugly that is intrinsically part of this complex continent wre poignantly captured by the contemporary artists represented here. You would marvel at how photographer Andrew Tshabangu for example, represented by Gallery Momo, how his photographs captured certain moments in a country coming from a painful past, such as the protests that gained momentum in South Africa in the turbulent 80s and early 90s.
You would also find yourself celebrating a good life of dance, love and every day intimate connections between human beings by the paintings of Congolese born, but South African based artist Thonton Kabeya, represented by Everard Read Gallery in its huge boot divided into several smaller sections representing individual artists the gallery hand-picked to showcase at this year’s FNB Art Joburg Fair. Kabeya’s section, which showcased six powerful works, some of couples mainly dancing to rhumba music, with some just mingling in the streets, while others posing as if they are readying themselves for a self –this is a powerful portrayal of happy moments.
His exhibition was aptly titled Poetry in Motion. Perhaps this reminds us of the fact that irrespective of challenges humanity constantly faces in contemporary times, such as the outbreak of Covid-19 in 2020, life is still beautiful and worth living. This year the stars are favouring Kabeya because he currently is enjoying a limelight at Wits Art Museum, where he has an introspection, an exhibition of his extensive art collection running into several years. The exhibition opened on August 15, 2023, and the artist has been taking visitors on a walk-about on Saturdays that are well attended.
The point is this year’s edition of FNB Art Joburg was a must-see show if you happened to be in Johannesburg this past weekend. Even if you are yet to catch up on the pleasure of collecting art, your mere presence at the art fair, which opened to the public at the Sandton Convention Centre on Friday, September 8, 2023, its home ever since it was founded, would have left you with a memorable experience. Not only would you have bumped on old friends with whom you might have disconnected from ever since Covid-19 disruptions of 20/21, but you would have been able to enjoy the pleasure of looking at art objects on the walls and on the floor as far as the painting, photography and drawings are concerned, as well as sculptures respectively. There were several, even eye catching art objects of the type I have described above at this year’s art fair.
CITYLIFE/ARTS had a glimpse of what was in store for visitors this past weekend when we were invited to the VIP opening of the art fair on Thursday. We joined a media group in the afternoon that was taken on a tour of the art fair, led by a curator from Javett-Art Centre at the University of Pretoria, Gillian Fleishmann, before we were joined by VIP guests later in the evening.
By 6pm a long queue started forming at the entrance as guests honoured the invite in huge numbers. By 7pm the queue was still snaking outside with guests making their way toward the entrance. By 7.30pm the fair was so packed that it resembled a music festival, with guests walking up and down, viewing art, talking animatedly and obviously excited to be part of the art fair. This suggests that this year’s art fair, was visited by several people, perhaps happy to be out without a mask after three years of being free from the fear of being infected by the global pandemic.
However this year’s edition of FNB Art Joburg was preceded by several events that took place leading up to the art fair, such as the opening of last year’s winner of the FNB ART Joburg Art prize Dada Khanyisa’s exhibition at Johannesburg Art Gallery, showcasing beautiful art works the artist has been creating since last year.
The exhibition ironically titled Cape Town, is currently on and is worth viewing. Another precursor event was the launch of the BMW Art Generation event at Maboneng last weekend, which saw lively art talks, a lifestyle market, music performances, a dance production by Gregory Maqoma and a theatre showcase with multi-disciplinary world renowned South African artist William Kentridge explaining to people the process of creating a production.
Both Maqoma’s performance and Kentridge’s theatre making process presentations were both well received by the audience, and so were the art talks. I liked especially the session moderated by Berlin based increasingly influential curator of contemporary art from Africa Azu Nwagbogu titled The Uneresable Archive that featured artists Lebogang Kganye, Thuthuka Sibisi, Nolan Oswald Dennis and Ayana Jackson.
The discussion was deep, at times opening up healed wounds caused by apartheid, racial segregation and colonialism that was suffered by black bodies on the African continentand those in the diapora over many years of repression by white people. The unresolved issue of white intergenerational guilt appeared to trigger a lot of emotions from both white and black members of the audience and the participating artists.
This is clearly an issue that is far from being resolved, it appeared during the discussion. Opinions are divided on this issue. The performances, the talks, and the life style market all took place at the Centre of Less Good Idea, housed in the Arts on Main Building. This, it is understood is a bid to try and bring back the once artistic vibrant culture of Maboneng, which now seems to have been overtaken by the culture of youthful clubbing within the gentrified area, east of Johannesburg.