Standard Bank launches Standard Bank Art Lab gallery in the heart of Sandton

The inaugural exhibition features the works of Penny Siopis, Judith Mason, Sam Nhlengethwa, William Kentridge, and Miriam Ndebele, running from June 5-to August 31, 2025, Nelson Mandela Square, Sandton.

By Edward Tsumele, CITYLIFE/ARTS Editor

So the Standard Bank Gallery will remain in the inner city even as the bank has launched a new initiative that looks like it is going to be exciting and has the potential to attract new art audiences right in the heart of Sandton, Nelson Mandela Square.

The launch of the new Standard Bank Art Lab, a place that was described as a place for showcasing the rich heritage of the Standard Bank Collection, and where “innovation, legacy, and art intertwine.” on Thursday, June 5, 2025, at Nelson Mandela Square, was a huge event. Not only because of its ambitious scope that was explained elaborately during the media function, but also because the space, is expected to fuse multi-disciplinary approach to art curation. It is but also because the heavyweights from the bank were there to explain what this was all about.

This in fact is the first time for the longest time this has happened ever since I started attending arts events oragnised by the bank especially at the bank’s gallery space in Johannesburg CBD.  In a way that on its own, gave some weight as to the expectations of this space by those who created it, that is the attendance by the bank’s top leadership.  Also in attendance to lend her support to the initiative was award winning artist and academic Nandipha Mntambo, who won the Standard Bank Young Artist Award in 2011, shortly after she graduated with a Masters Degree in fine arts from University of Cape Town. She is found her niche in art through the innovative use of cowhide to create art works that have since found connection with art lovers from around the world.

Against the backdrop of the launch seems to be a determination to approach curation in this space differently.

For example, gallery curator Dr Same Mduli explained that the curatorial approach is going to cut across multiple arts mediums, for example poetry, fashion and even music.

“This is going to be a space for experimentation with regards to curating, a space of collaboration, taking into account the environment of the place where it is. For example if Black Coffee wants to do a set here, it is possible to do so.  We are also aware that this is a place that also boasts shops and fashion with high fashion, and therefore we have to take that into consideration when it comes to the possibilities of collaboration, Mduli said.”

The bank also sent a powerful delegation to the event, perhaps a demonstration of how this space is regarded in the corridors of power within the bank. The delegation was led by none other than Standard Bank Group Chief Operations Officer Margaret Nienaber, who said that the bank took art seriously.

“For over four decades, Standard Bank has proudly supported the arts, a commitment deeply rooted in our purpose: ‘Africa is our home, we drive her growth.’ The launch of the Standard Bank Art Lab marks an exciting extension of our arts portfolio – which includes the Standard Bank Gallery and Corporate Art Collection, the Standard Bank African Art Collection (jointly owned with Wits Art Museum), The National Arts Festival and Standard Bank Young Artists Awards.

“We’re thrilled to present this contemporary art exhibition at Sandton City, part of our Liberty2Degrees property portfolio. This space is designed to foster collaboration among artists, clients, and the wider community, all in support of a thriving creative economy,” said Nienaber.

The current inaugural exhibition has put the bar very hard, hosting works of influential South African artists, whose works were created between 1976 and 1986.

Founded in 1862 to support the booming wool trade of the Eastern Cape, Standard Bank Group’s early operations were closely tied to the textures, economies, and movements of textiles. What began as financial infrastructure for agricultural exchange evolved into a broader commitment to the networks of production and expression that define culture today.

Woven into the group’s ethos, the premise of the inaugural exhibition theme, “Follow the Blue Thread: It’s Woven Into Who We Are”, is an exhibition that celebrates the transformative power of African art through the medium of tapestry. Woven from mohair and realised through collaborations between artists and master weavers, the works reflect a longstanding connection between the textile and visual arts and as an extension, between commerce, craft, and culture.

“Featuring works by Penny Siopis, Judith Mason, Sam Nhlengethwa, William Kentridge, and Miriam Ndebele, the exhibition reimagines the corporate collection not as static archive but as a living resource. In doing so, it asks vital questions: What cultural memory do collections preserve? Whose stories do they tell? And how might they contribute to the creative economies of tomorrow?”

“While the Standard Bank Art Lab is located within a commercial district, it invites unexpected intersections—where art meets fashion, where music and movement collide, and where analogue craft exists alongside digital storytelling. In this hybrid space, new audiences, spontaneous encounters, and moments of resonance take place. The Standard Bank Art Lab is a space that values curiosity over convention, and community over exclusivity—a space where legacy meets possibility,” says Mdluli.

However as this presentation was being made, a big question was probably lingering in the heads of arts journalists, particularly those that have over the years made several trips to No….Simmonds Street, Johannesburg CBD, where the Standard Bank Gallery is situated. There we were given an opportunity to attend over the years, the opening of notable exhibitions, including those of the Standard Bank Young Artist Award winners, the David Koloane Retrospective and the Picasso In Africa Exhibition, among other iconic exhibitions: Big Question is what will now happen to the gallery that now the Standard Bank Art Lab, which for all practical reasons, will curate and showcase the sort of great shows that were once the preserve of the Standard Bank gallery, as it looks.

This is not a relocation of the Standard Bank Gallery. Rather, this is an expansion of our art offerings,” Mduli said.

The fact that she said this without a prompt, raises the question of the bank’s awareness of the implication of this move, particularly in the consciousness of those that had long made the gallery their home for viewing exhibitions in the city. Prompted by CITYLIFE/ARTS to reflect on the impact of this move with regards to accessibility, particularly by those used to the ease accessibility of the Standard Bank Gallery in the city centre, Mdluli answered that the new space should find favour with particularly young people of the city. Here Mdluli must have been talking about the young and happening crowd that hang around malls, in the northern suburbs, including such places as Rosebank and of course Sandton.

In a conversation on the side lines of the launch with this writer, Nienaber however emphasised the point that the bank was not abandoning Johannesburg CBD entirely.

“The city is very important to us. In fact at Simmonds Street, we have a number of staff who work there, numbering over 5000. Standard Bank is also involved in initiatives to revitalise and revive the city, for example through Jozi My Jozi with other partners. There will soon be an announcement with regards to that. We are also working hard to make Johannesburg CBD a lovely city ahead of the G20 Summit,” she said.

What the COO is referring to is the Non-Profit Organisation, Jozi My Jozi, formed by several businesses with interest in the city, such as financial institutions, including Standard Bank and global South African chicken chain, Nandos, among others. The organisation provides essential services in the city, such as security and cleaning, filling in the gaps left by the City of Johannesburg.

However with the bank now set to showcase their top art, curated from their extensive collection in the lab, instead of the gallery, there will always be the question around whether Johannesburg CBD will still be able to recapture its traditional reputation of being a culturally thriving place where the diversity of South Africa art and culture once thrived, especially after this recent moves by and similar moves by others in recent years and months.

For example, another Bank that for the longest of time prided itself for hosting exciting exhibitions at Its gallery, ABSA, has this year not held a single show in Johannesburg CBD gallery. Instead it has been partnering with commercial galleries in northern Johannesburg to host its exhibitions, for example its long running ABSA L’Átelier Awards.  The recent case in point is the 2023 winner of the ABSA lÄtelier Gerard Sekoto Award Bulumko Mbete’s exhibition, which is currently being hosted at Gallery MoMo in Parktown North.

My friend and I for the longest of time, witnessing Johannesburg CBD’s steady but sure descent from a once desirable cosmopolitan and culturally exciting metropolis, to a decaying and rotting, almost forgotten city, often joke that the whole of Johannesburg has been reduced to a gigantic museum that nobody wants to visit anymore.

With the latest move by both Standard Bank and ABSA to showcase their most important exhibitions in spaces in Johannesburg north instead of their spaces in the Johannesburg CBD, that joke unfortunately  in fact might not be a joke anymore by some naught and bored friends. This in fact could be the reality of our times. The reality of what Johannesburg has become –an unsafe, dirty and rotting of shell its former self, as the real new Johannesburg is steadily re-emerging geographically and philosophically shifting to the north –Rosebank, Sandton, Fourways and Waterfall. Cry the Beloved Johannesburg. Or is it so?

The Standard Bank Art Lab is at shop 33-34, Nelson Mandela Square, 2 Maude St, Sandton. Undercover parking is available at Mandela Square, entrance on West St North Tower – (next to Michelangelo Hotel).

Art Lab hours:

Monday-Saturday: from 9am to 4.00pm

Sunday and public holidays: from 9am to 1pm. Entrance is free.