Art is called a universal language. While art has always been a medium for the people, gallery spaces have not. The Standard Bank Gallery, in Johannesburg, aims to turn this notion on its head by opening up the four walls of their exhibition.
The gallery’s latest exhibition, ‘WE ARE CULTURE’, curated by inimitable creative director, stylist, and editor Bee Diamondhead, marks the re-opening of the gallery space after a two-year pandemic hiatus. The exhibition showcases 13 boundary-pushing young South African artists with multidisciplinary talents – from music and performance art to jewellery, painting, fashion, and sculpture. Bee told Art Africa:
WE ARE CULTURE is not about tradition. It’s not about the gatekeepers or the highbrow discourse. This show is about the artists, whose visions are so clear that giving them the resources and the platform helps us more than it helps them.
“We are in uncertain times, and it is our role to seek out these voices – voices that illuminate things we haven’t fully realised about the world around us. Creativity fights the rigid ways of thinking that we adopt as a mechanism of survival,” she says.
The range of disciplines is a real-world illustration of the fluidity and boundary-defying nature of art. In bringing together this diversity of disciplines and artists, Bee ushers in a new vanguard of accessibility and African sensibility in the art world – one that reminds us that art is meant for anyone who wants to make it, view it, and be changed by it.
Standard Bank has 40-year history of supporting arts development, creating spaces to amplify the work of local artists, and democratising access to art. The website states, “We have redefined the status quo, shaken the table, and shred the rule book. Art is no longer for an elite few.” The ‘WE ARE CULTURE’ exhibition, and the re-launch of their gallery space, proves this to be true. It is culture in the making. Here is a glimpse of what you can see on the walls:
Fikile Sokhulu
Muofhe Manavhela
Khumo Morojele
Wezile Harmans
Lorraine Kalassa
Natalie Paneng
Rebecca Moolman
Kgotlelelo Sekiti
The full list of featured artists include:
- Kgotlelelo Sekiti
- Lelo Meslani
- Leon John
- Muneyi
- Natalie Paneng
- Philisa Zibi
- Setlamorago Mashilo
- Khumo Morojele
- Fikile Sokhulu
- Lorraine Kalassa
- Muofhe Manavhela
- Rebecca Moolman
- Wezile Harmans
- The exhibition is on at the Standard Bank Gallery, in Johannesburg, from the 19th of September until the 8th of October 2022. Entrance to the gallery is free. For more information, check out Standard Bank Arts on Instagram.
- Images: Supplied by Standard Bank
