AVA: UPCOMING EVENTS

REGIONAL RE-LINEATIONS: CARTOGRAPHIC RESEARCH 

Saturday 22 March | 10 for 10:30 - 12:30 | 35 Church St

Join us this Saturday morning at the SADC* Biennale for a mapmaking workshop. 

With 25 places available for this hands on programme, RSVP via this link to reserve your spot.

If a group of white men could gather in Berlin and 'Scramble for Africa' by mapping out the continent for imperial pillage, then why can't we gather in a small gallery in Cape Town and unsettle those maps and their still-pervasive ideologies of nationalism? 

This creative research is a reimagining of the lines that define and divide our region. Biennale* hypothesisers Raul Jorge Gourgel and Rory Tsapayi will lead a workshop of collaborative paper-based map-making and un-making experiments, testing out ways to read and write our shared geographies anew and otherwise. 

The SADC* Biennale critiques two institutions founded roughly a century apart. First: the biennial, and especially La Biennale di Venezia (est. 1895) which is a defining form for 'global' contemporary art and, with its national pavilions, a vessel for soft power. Second: SADC, the Southern African Development Community (est. 1992), a 'postcolonial' and dysfunctional grouping of nations whose borders are the direct inheritance of the 1884-85 Berlin Conference.

Discursive Programme at the SADC* Biennale

Saturday 29 March | 11am | 35 Church Street

Joins us next Saturday for a talk symposium exploring the ideas conceptualised in The SA*DC Biennale, an exhibition hosted in our Long Gallery.

The SA*DC Biennale a hypothetical fiction, a satirical misconception, and a subversive provocation. Both a parody of and a good-faith engagement with the defining structures of the biennial form and our regional bloc of nation-states, the S*ADC Biennale is a conceptual, anti-establishment, and experimental retort. 

Raul Jorge Gourgel and Rory Tsapayi invited individual cultural workers and creative collectives to ‘represent’ eleven different countries with ‘national pavilions’ that, by design, unsettle nationalistic ideologies, arbitrary borders, and the logic of the state. These are housed in the SAD*C Giardini, a diorama of the imagined exhibition complex that hosts the Biennale*. Each pavilion hosts an exhibition of its own, curated under the theme of Towards a Common Relic.

More details to follow. 

Artists’ Walkabout: Keiskamma Artists in Profile

Saturday 5 April | 10am

Artists: Nomonde Mthandana, Nombulelo (Kwandi) Paliso, Cebo Mvubu, Lindiswa Gedze, Olwethu Nkani, Zukiswa Zita, Nolusindiso Jakavula, Nosiphiwo Mangwane, Sinoxolo Zita, Nombulelo Jack, Siyabonga Maswana, Ncomeka Gedze and Nokuzola Mvaphantsi.

Curated by Michaela Howse and Cebo Mvubu.

This exhibition, marking twenty five years since Keiskamma Art Project’s inception, gives voice to individual artists within the well-known collective. It is the start of a move to nurture and profile artists who are developing their own voices within the context of the communal project. Within the moving currents of Ubuntu, strong individuals are still needed to lead, because if we are who we are through each other, uniqueness begets uniqueness. Expressions of integrity, beauty and rich inner worlds start the conversation collectively of what these could mean for each of us.

Nombulelo (Kwandi) Paliso with Sinoxolo Zita and Nombulelo Jack, Ameba ayandihlaba, 2025 (detail)

ALSO ON VIEW:

Watching the Sky Fall | Dale Washkansky

Front Gallery: 06.03.25 - 16.04.25

Dale’s Washkansky’s exhibition, Watching the Sky Fall (2025), is an inquiry into the visualisation of Gaza by platforms such as Google Maps and news media to explore how we can access this space in spite of the mediation of the screen.

Featured work: : Dale Washkansky, Error in the Sky, 2025

A Collection to a Degree | Jean-Claude Nsabimana, Rory Emmett, Nobukho Nqaba and Ulriche Jantjes

Main Gallery: 06.03.25 - 16.04.25

A Collection to a Degree is a group presentation that contextualises contemporary issues by reflecting on the artists  personal histories, cultural heritage and lived experiences. The exhibition features a selection of work submitted as part of their individual Masters in Fine Art degrees completed in 2022 and 2023. Thematically, the artists explore ideas of identity, home, migration, and marginalised histories. This group exhibition showcases their personal reflections in a range of media including video works, photography, mixed media paintings and installation.

Featured work: Rory Emmett, (Un)becoming/Remnant #4, 2022 |Nobukho Nqaba, Imihla ngemihla lIl, 2022 (Detail) | Ulriche Jantes, Exhausted Landscape, 2022

We hope you’ve been enjoying your experience with the AVA. We would like to remind you that your membership may be due for renewal. 

Your AVA Membership Makes a Difference! From our annual open call, we curate up to 28 exhibitions per year at our gallery space at 35 Church Street. As a non-profit art organisation, AVA relies dedicated members like you to sustain our mission. 

Support the AVA by becoming a member for just R150 / year. 

Our member’s support allows us to exhibit the work of both independent and emerging contemporary artists through the promotion of art and cultural interaction, exciting exhibitions, walkabouts, and a variety of other art activities. 

Become a part of South Africa’s contemporary art history. Renew your membership to ensure that your voice is heard – and ours is made louder. 

The AVA is generously supported by our partners: