Art lovers are invited to Springs Art Gallery today (Saturday) at 12:00 to witness Blessed By The Bees, a solo art exhibition by acclaimed South African writer, artist, and academic, Zakes Mda.
The exhibition will be curated by Chepape Makgato and Thabo Sekoalia, featuring guest speaker Sam Nhlengethwa.
Mda (77) is a globally acclaimed South African novelist, playwright, poet, and visual artist. While recognised for his extensive literary contributions, Mda is also a multi-disciplinary artist whose work includes painting, film, and animation.
“My practice is largely intertextual, utilising mixed media dominated by acrylic or oil on canvas, collaged with fabric and newsprint and an assembly of conceptual three-dimensional found objects.
“Each painting functions as a narrative of domestic, gender and workplace tensions. Some works pay homage to performance – particularly dance and music,” Mda said.
He also occasionally indulges in conventional modes of expression, focusing on acrylics and oils on canvas, pre-renaissance encaustic wax on canvas, and black-and-white and linocuts on paper.
“The works are a fusion of styles drawing variously from Basotho traditional mural called liteme and dipatrone, South African township art and European expressionist modes, particularly Braque-inspired Cubism.
“Quite often, there is symbiosis between my painting and writing as some of my art is influenced by or loosely interprets scenes and characters of my novels,” he said.
One of the curators at the SAG said selecting works for the exhibition was both an honour and a demanding curatorial undertaking.
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“Each piece carries its own narrative weight, making the act of selection an exercise in careful distillation rather than exclusion.
“Blessed by the Bees, as a title, finds poetic and conceptual resonance within Mda’s lifelong community work.
“For those familiar with his life and practice, the reference to bees is neither incidental nor decorative – it speaks directly to his longstanding commitment to beekeeping in the Eastern Cape, an activity that exists in parallel with his artistic and intellectual pursuits,” Sekoalia said.
The exhibition will run until July 31. Confirm attendance through email: Kgothatso.Cokoto@ekurhuleni.gov.za
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