As we count down the days to FNB Art Joburg this weekend, we bring you 10 art happenings we're particularly looking forward to as part of the fair's exciting line-up. Use these as points of interest as you map your fair experience or attend one of the free curated tours, happening twice daily at 11:30 and 13:30, with art experts Frederico Freschi, Phokeng Setai, and Ashraf Jamal. Find more highlights from the interactive AUX programme here, and keep reading for our picks of the fair.
For something different, join Thabo the Tourist's Red Bus tour on Sat, Sep 7 visiting galleries and artists' studios around Joburg, with FNB Art Joburg as the final stop. Book here.
Sounding Venice – dispatches from the Biennale
On the fair's opening day of Fri, Sep 6, head to the AUX Theatre from 14:30 to experience an excerpt of Dinokana followed by a discussion with artists Moiloa, Mokgotho, and South African Pavillion curator Portia Malatjie.
Penny Siopis in motion
At the AUX Theatre on Fri, Sep 6 from 17:30, Siopis is joined in conversation with the book's editor Sarah Nuttall and contributing writer Sinazo Chiya.
Walking with Mmakgabo Helen Sebidi
From 12:30 on Sat, Sep 7 at the AUX Theatre, Sebidi will be joined in conversation by curator Gabriel Baard. A visionary and trailblazing South African artist well worth hearing from. Read more about Sebidi's lost and found works here.
Legends behind the lens
Coinciding with a three-decade milestone since South Africa's first democratic elections, the fair presents the work of three photographic legends: Alf Khumalo, Ernest Cole, and Peter Magubane. In different ways, these practitioners used their cameras to document and expose the realities of our past, thus contributing to our new dispensation, and played an important role in narrating the beginnings of our nation's democracy. The GIF space also offers purpose-built sections where galleries spotlight photographers on their books.
SMAC attack
From Harare, with love
Paint it purple – Javett-UP in Joburg
Johannes Phokela writ large
Take me to CHURCH
Namibia art now
Bonus: FNB Art Joburg and beyond
FNB ART PRIZE WINNER LINDOKUHLE SOBEKWA'S SOLO
Lindokuhle Sobekwa's "breakout" photo series Nyaope: Everything you give me my Boss, will do, was published in the Mail & Guardian in 2014 – cementing him as a deep seer and a formidable artist. Now a decade into his lens-based practice and off the back of his FNB Art Prize win in 2023, his solo exhibition Umkhondo: Going Deeper opens at the Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG). In this exhibition, two significant and interconnected bodies of work unite under the banner of introspection and discovery, as Sobekwa navigates profound personal loss and grapples with his sense of belonging. Read our interview with Sobekwa here.
OPEN CITY – THREE WEEKS OF ART AND CULTURE AROUND JOBURG
Before we know it, FNB Art Joburg will have come and gone, but fret not: Open City is FNB Art Joburg's initiative to spotlight independent and emerging cultural practitioners, with three weeks of free and paid programming that celebrates the city's art and culture until Thu, Sep 19. From the fair's managing director Mandla Sibeko: "Open City takes our ethos of economic stimulation, inclusivity and better access for all, out of the convention centre, into essential hubs across Johannesburg." Find out more here.
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