Sam Nhlengethwa
28 February - 20 March 2020

This exhibition is a culmination of a thought that began 10 years ago. Perhaps on some subconscious level it is very fitting that parallel to this show is the year we celebrate 10 years of democracy. The title of this exhibition is 'Glimpses of the Fifties and Sixties'. I have chosen to work in the style to which I have become accustomed (collage) and to also explore my printing via the photogravure process. I think one of the reasons I like this process is that it has an element of collage in it, but the process is more physically involved and delicate. It entails digitizing an initial collage and working through at least five plates before even considering the trial print to be used for the series.

I sourced material from the Drum magazine archives and I also looked through my own family albums. The use of my own archive was important because I wanted to reflect an intimacy and a familiarity that would make the images accessible. Looking through the albums I reminisced about growing up in my grandmother's house and how I always found the dining with the wedding photograph so intriguing. I also recalled enjoying a softball match in Westonaria amidst the many dompas and curfew laws. Today these images have now been revived in the music videos of Mafikizolo and the 'Stoned Cherry' fashion label. I think I'm lucky in the sense that I have used art as an outlet for the frustrations I encountered during this time. My visual expression through painting was therapeutic and has now been transformed into what I believe to be a historical retrospective.

Also showing in:
New York - Florence Lynch Gallery. 7 February - 6 March 2020
Johannesburg - Goodman Gallery. 21 February - 13 March 2020

The Flower Girls, 2003. oil and collage on canvas, 45 X 60cm
Hard at Work I, 2003, hand printed photolithograph, 50 X 30cm
Pass Raid, 2003, hand printed photolithograph, 50 X 30cm