Face(t)s of the City, a solo exhibition by Kagiso Pat Mautloa captures a multi-layered and complex city in flux

Bra Pat’s art practice is therefore, an intersection of imagination, hand work and ability to see life where most of us, see discarded materials which have reached their sell-by date, and therefore, in our eyes, deserve the fate assigned to them by their owner.

By Edward Tsumele, CITYLIFE/ARTS Editor

If you have been in Johannesburg for sometime, and let’s say, for example, 10 to 15 years, you have seen how its streets, social structure, street level informal economic activities, faces in the streets and infrastructure have changed.  It is a city in flux, and has been like this since gold was discovered. Different players, same place with the same rules of survival, toiling, taking changes by grabbing on opportunities. Sometimes, of course missing.

I am talking about us ordinary people, observing these things in a sort of casual way, but still see or discern the changes in front of our eyes.

Can you then imagine seeing, feeling and discerning these changes as an artist, meticulously observing, recording and thinking around all these fragments of a major metropolis, and create art works that hit on a viewer’s senses. I mean all. Seeing. Feeling. Hearing. Tasting. Smelling, and even more, as you pound Johannesburg’s streets.

Welcome to Face(t)s of the City, an exhibition by stalwart and cofounder of Bag Factory Artist Studios Kagiso Patrick Mautloa, or simply Bra Pat in Johannesburg’s close-knit art circles.  Bra Pat has not familiarised himself with the city for 10 or even 15 years, but a whole 70 years, ever since he was a toddler.

He knows the streets, the main ones as well as the backstreets of the city. What sign was there only a few months ago, which is no longer there. He notices what we ordinarily do not notice.

This is because Bra Pat works mainly with discarded objects he observes in the streets, and those that pique his intellect, he chooses and pics, taking them to his giant studio at Bag Factory Artist Studios in Newtown.

Safe in his studio, he studies these objects again. This time, meticulously, before giving them a new lease on life.

He turns these objects, some large, some small, such as thrown-away forks, into art objects inviting a viewer to collect.

But Bra Pat, is a multi-media artist, who besides creating the lovely sculptures from the discarded material he retrieves in the streets of Johannesburg, also paints, draws and takes a camera here and there, to capture what he sees. Turning such photographs into a transformed and elevated piece of art, by sometimes embellishing them by painting over them, putting light where the light is dimmed, creating a new image that breathes. That morphs into a new identity. An identity that immediately strikes you as a piece of collectable art work.

Bra Pat’s art practice is therefore, an intersection of imagination, hand work and ability to see life where most of us see discarded materials which have reached their sell-by date, and therefore in our eyes, deserve the fate assigned to them by their owner. That in fact is what we do wi things we no longer like. We throw them away, and never look back.

But under Bra pa’s artistic eye, these are not useless objects. Life can be breathed into them by creating something new out of them on their own. But a lot of times, by creating assemblages. Creating a mosaic that is pleasing to the eye.

But these objects out of which Bra pat has made art, contain more than we at face value thing. Yes, they are beautifully transformed into something beautiful. But they are more.

If you think of it, every object he picks up and elevate its status by way of embellishing the aspects of each object that attracts his artistic mind, he is in fact adding another layer of a complex story and journey travelled by that object and its previous owners.

These objects are in fact stories of Johannesburg and its people. They have several tales embedded in them. Unrealised dreams. Broken promises, fortune acquired and lost. Starting again and again, even when it looks like the path is rocky.

Thse are stories that make Johannesburg a great story. Still rocking even as its infrastructure is under stress. It’s a city attracting people from all over the world, even in its old age. They keep on coming, just like they did when Gold was discovered under its belly in 1886. The faces may have changed, but migration continues.

The city has a story to tell. In fact stories to share with whomsoever is patient to listen.

Therefore, Bra Pat’s solo exhibition, after what appears like a long time, Face(t)s of the City, tells the multi-layered and complex metropolis, located South of Africa. You can feel the streets by looking at the art works in this exhibition. These art objects have a familiar feel to anybody who has lived at least in Johannesburg long enough to know, its streets, how they feel and engage you.

Where the city ends and Kagiso Patrick Mautloa’s studio starts is not easily determined. Face(t)s of the City leans into this porous border by showing the process alongside completed works. This exhibition draws on long unseen works on paper, mixed media paintings, and sculptures born of found objects. Each work offers a different way of seeing the city, its buildings, its detritus, and its inhabitants.

This exhibition beautifully captures all that.

.Face(t)s of the City,a solo exhibition by Kagiso Pat Mautloa, curated by NsthadiMofokeng runs from August 20 –September 19, 2026 at Bag Factory Artist Studios,10 Mahlathini Street, Newtown.Gallery Hours:     Monday – Friday 10 am – 4 pm.