IN PICS | Take a step through the looking glass

Good art challenges or provokes, inspires and delights while reflecting who we are in an aesthetically pleasing package.

And if you were in the mood to step through that looking glass, you’d be spoilt for choice, as on Thursday evening in an expansive 5,050m² space bang in the middle of Africa’s richest square mile.

That’s when and where the FNB Art Joburg (many of us still call it “the FNB Art Fair”) opened the doors to Exhibition Hall 2 at the Sandton Convention Centre for its 15th edition.

And while the art cognoscenti (particularly of the buying type) previewed the works from galleries and projects from Kampala, to Lagos and Cape Town, to Los Angeles earlier in the day, the shindig was the vernissage in the evening.

As I made my way down two escalator flights to the venue, I say hello to advertising guru Nathan Reddy before joining a queue heading through the glass doors.

Passing a wall announcing “Welcome to 3 days of the best in contemporary art”, I turn the corner in search of Zanele Muholi, the photographic artist who recently launched a collab with designer Gavin Rajah on a homeware collection, taking its cue from her Somnyama Ngonyama series.

While I am enthralled by the woven mohair throws, I learn Zanele will land back on our shores only the next day after an exhibition in Denmark.

Who I do meet is Dionne Hirschowitz, the daughter of retail tsar Eric Ellerine, and her husband Marc. I compliment Dionne on her loungey two-piece ensemble. Turns out it is from Milanese label La DoubleJ which is gaining a following for its fun take on vintage Italian prints.

On to greeting Mandla Sibeko who took ownership of the fair a few years ago and has given the landmark platform new vigour. 

Along comes  one of my social whirl favs, Wendy Luhabe, a vision in pink with newly shorn locks. “It’s less maintenance, and takes 20 years off,” says the business empress.

I leave Mandla and Wendy to chat next to one of those epic bottle-top tapestries by El Anatsui, the famed Ghanaian sculptor whose work Recycled Dreams fetched an impressive $1.5m at Christie’s New York in 2018.

A quick hello to beauty queen-turned-businesswoman Jo-Ann Strauss (gorgeous in Stephen van Eeeden) who says she’s started a podcast called Artdacity; and then meeting DJ Doowap who, with her faux fur Nike bomber, white-rimmed shades and silver lamé dress looks like she’d stepped straight off the MTV VMA’s red carpet.

An artsy night out also appealed to another musically inclined guest — Maya Wegerif, better known as Sho Madjozi who, instead of a xibelani skirt, turns up in what looks like an awosoke, the robe traditionally worn by Yoruba men in West Africa.

Remarking on her sartorial metamorphosis and wondering whether it will reflect musically in her upcoming album, Sho paints a picture in words.

“I think you grow as a person. When I look at myself as an artist, I’ve taken as much as I can from the village I come from. I was able to show the world how much beauty comes from such a small place. Now I want to expand and show everybody everything that’s happening in my mind,” said the award-winning rapper who was famously surprised by WWE wrestler John Cena when she performed the song bearing his name on a US talk show.

Back to art of the visual kind.

I am enthralled by the huge angelic wings Usha Seejarim refashioned out of hundreds of metal plates from domestic irons which hangs evocatively in the fair space dedicated to larger works.

And surprised to find no balloons in new work by contemporary artist Athi-Patra Ruga at the Whatiftheworld gallery’s booth.

Instead, the patina of Irma Stern is even more evident in pieces such as an oil stick and pastel titled Self Portrait as Clytemnestra. No doubt, Athi’s recent three-month residency at the UCT Irma Stern museum played a role in the progression.

From Usha bringing joy and Athi provoking perceptions of identity and onto a confronting work in oil and gold leaf titled Dark Desire by Nandipha Mntambo.

Having fallen in love with Nandipha’s work through her cowhide sculptures, I'm intrigued to find out more about this canvas featuring a black orb-like shape against a fiery red background.

The statuesque multiform artist explains it followed a recent intense episode when she was hospitalised with an aneurysm not long after holding an installation at Southern Guild.

“I am healing. I lost a kidney,” she said.

Next, amused and inspired by ‘babe, what’s your ETA? Should I order you something? Also, pls call (redacted) and tell him to let us order under your tab, my friends can’t wait to meet you’ which provides a typical snapshot of Gen Z existentiality while showcasing the wood-carved dexterity of this year’s FNB Art Prize recipient, Dada Khanyisa.

Dada tells me they describe their style as “sculptural painting”.

Who else pitched?

Fashion designers ranging from veterans such as David Tlale, to new guard Thebe Magugu, business heavies Nonkululeko Nyembezi, the first female chair of the Standard Bank Group and interior design king Trevor Julius, who followed turning 70 years old in July with paying lobola for his new bride, Khantse Radebe, the recently appointed CEO of asset-based finance for WesBank and FNB.

And then there was me fanboying over Sir David Adjaye, the Ghanaian-British architect whose projects include Dirty House, the house he designed in 2002 which ushered in that black-painted building global trend, and the landmark National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC.

I’d been wondering if David’s project, the presidential library for Thabo Mbeki, was still in the works.

The debonair architect updates me before I could even ask.

“It’s happening,” he says, telling me he had an appointment with the former pres the next day.

It almost feels boorish to mention the grub after being fed so much food for the eyes and the soul, but those who don’t have a shellfish allergy like myself found the Thai-spiced prawn tails scrumptious.

I can’t complain though, because the beef fillets on crispy potato rösti, smoked salmon crostini’s and caprese salad sticks were tasty too.