Fire and smoke recurring theme in Kim Berman’s solo exhibition, subtly echoing the tragedy of the fire that destroyed a young art mind in 1998 in Newtown

By Edward Tsumele, CITYLIFE/ARTS Editor

In 1997, a mystery fire broke out in a building that housed the Artist Proof Studio in Newtown, gutting down the building, destroying some artworks, but most tragically destroyed the life of a young artists who was a change maker, Nhanhla Xaba in the process.

Nhlanhla Xaba, the 1998 Standard Bank Young Artist Award winner, burnt to death in a fire that razed the Artists Proof Studios in President Street, Newtown in the early hours of Sunday, March 9. Xaba (43) had reportedly taken to sleeping at the studio occasionally.

A highly respected figure amongst his peers, Xaba first worked with the Bayajabula Cultural Group (a multimedia group of visual artists, musicians and performers) in the early 1970s

Xaba first studied art at the influential Rorke’s Drift centre in KwaZulu Natal, in 1981, the centre closing down (due to unrelated factors) soon after he joined. In 1986 he joined the African Institute of Art at the Funda Centre in Soweto, where he trained as an art teacher and taught both children and adults. Xaba joined the Artists Proof Studio in 1991 as a teacher.

That fire in Newtown, is an event that left many in the art sector distraught, traumatised and in grief about the loss of a relatively young life, still young and promising at 43. Almost 30 years after that tragedy, that tragedy still haunts many in the art community as they remember with pain, the painful event of that doomed evening when Xaba’s fate among the living was sealed in this tragic manner.

Oner such person who still grapples with that event through her art practice is Professor Kim Berman, who together with Xaba co-founded the Artist Proof Studio, which for the longest of time, offered an alternate opportunity for mainly those from the township, to study art professionally in the genre of printmaking. These were people who would not have gotten this opportunity as access to art education at universities then put restrictions to admission to black students. Xaba and Kim, offered an alternative, and today the country has a number of graduates from Artist Proof Studio, who are doing well professionally, among who are well known names in art such as Blessing Ngobeni and Bambo Sibiya, to name just a few of artists doing well professionally, and who had an opportunity to pass through the doors of this now famous art education institution in the country.

However, this is not a piece about the history of Artist Proof Studio, but about the opening of an exhibition, whose story is in a way linked to Artist Proof Studio anyway. It is not easy to separate Kim from the history of Artist Proof Studio. The professor of visual art at University of Johannesburg is Artist Proof Studio, and Artist Proof Studio is Kim.

That perhaps explains why her solo exhibition which opened at UJ Art gallery on Kingsgway Campus last week Friday, August 7, 2025, attended by a huge number of a who is who in the art sector, has a subtle echo of that tragic event in 1997.

Kim in one of the sections that constitute this exhibition has created art that visits the theme of fire – the fire that recently broke out in her office and consumed everything in it. It is almost like revisiting the fire that broke out in the Artist proof studio almost 30 years ago, that destroyed a life, the building and some art work.

 Remembering and Forgetting: Landscapes in Dialogue, a powerful solo exhibition by artist and activist Kim Berman, running from 7 August until 4 September 2025, as part of the University’s 20-year celebrations.  

 
Remembering and Forgetting: Landscapes in Dialogue attempts to hold the paradoxes of landscapes damaged by purposeful destruction while containing within them the hope of empathetic humanity. Broadly organised into six overlapping themes: State of Urgency  Sunflowers in Mourning, Fire and Smoke, Mining and Damaged Landscapes, Artists Books and Fire Revisited, the exhibition explores the recurring dialogue between different landscapes within Kim’s oeuvre, bringing new perspectives on enduring social and political issues while revealing how historical themes continue to resonate in contemporary contexts.
  
Central to the exhibition’s core themes is Kim’s exploration of “rusted ghosts” – reclaimed rusted etched plates that have been cut and re-used to link past with present. These works often show “foreboding traces of war and destruction over faded burnt landscapes,” yet always contain “a glimmer of light on the horizon, and somewhere in the image, a sign of life.” according to Berman.

Landscapes, Artists Books and Fire Revisited, the exhibition explores the recurring dialogue between different landscapes within Berman’s oeuvre, bringing new perspectives on enduring social and political issues while revealing how historical themes continue to resonate in contemporary contexts.
  
Central to the exhibition’s core themes is Berman’s exploration of “rusted ghosts” – reclaimed rusted etched plates that have been cut and re-used to link past with present. These works often show “foreboding traces of war and destruction over faded burnt landscapes,” yet always contain “a glimmer of light on the horizon, and somewhere in the image, a sign of life,” according to Berman.

Fire and smoke are pervasive in Kim’s work but took on particular significance in preparing for this exhibition. A recent home fire that burnt down her office and destroyed all its contents proved extraordinary in its nature and timing. The limited but significant damage awakened memories and feelings about the devastating destruction of the fire at Artist Proof Studio in 2003 – bringing alive Berman’s deep creative connection with the power and metaphor of fire to destroy and recreate.
“Smoke evokes fire while also obscuring it,” explains Berman. “In that way it masks and reveals, it chokes and beautifies. Fire burns and destroys, it also renews the earth.”
This landmark exhibition marks Berman’s first solo exhibition in fifteen years and arrives at a significant juncture – both UJ’s milestone anniversary and Berman’s retirement year after 31 years of tenure at the university.

“Smoke evokes fire while also obscuring it,” explains Berman. “In that way it masks and reveals, it.

“While I have sporadically created work over this time, my energy and time have been directed to my work as an educator, researcher and activist. But it feels wonderful to be making art artist in my retirement year.” again. Having facilitated over 20 post graduate student exhibitions at UJ, this exhibition has been an opportunity to reflect, renew and reinvent myself as a visual artist in my retirement year.”