BKhz Gallery will have a premier international fair showcase at Also Known As Africa Art & Design Fair (AKAA) in Paris, France, in November 2021. The gallery will present a selection of works by Lunga Ntila, WonderBuhle, Talia Ramkilawan, Tatenda Chidora, and Sthenjwa Luthuli. AKAA has also chosen WonderBuhle as the Fair’s artist, placing his piece A Coat Found In The Museum of Shame by Kids as its official communications image.
WonderBuhle, A Coat found in the museum of shame by Kids, 2021. Courtesy of the artist & BKhz Gallery.
Lunga Ntila: ‘God Among Us’
‘God Among Us’ is an extension to Lunga Ntila’s premier solo exhibition ‘Ukuzilanda’ which showed at BKhz Gallery in 2019. The latter was a journey to discovering and understanding her individual identity while Ntila’s current offering is a recognition of the spiritual in (her) community.
Lunga Ntila, Beez in the Trap, 2021. Courtesy of the artist & BKhz Gallery.
“this body of work celebrates the coming of a new spirit/guardian angel/ ancestor. This show is also a way of emphasizing to people that we are god-like beings and that God can manifest in human form. God Among Us explores the multidimensionality of being a human but the focus is more on being a spiritual person. We get to bask in the glory of the transformation that this entity has experienced, the freedom that they finally have. Unlike Lunga Ntila’s previous bodies of work we see the involvement of community in this series. This community echoes sentiments which are very important to the existence of not only black people but to people as a whole. Community can also be seen as a maximal definition of self/personhood as it can be said that a person comes to know themselves in juxtaposition to the community which they are in.”
-Lunga Ntila
‘God Among Us’ is expected to close on the 18th of September 2021.
Talia Ramkilawan: ‘Heart 4 Sale’
For many artists, working under the constraints of national lockdown regulations have pushed them to find inspiration from what is immediately available to them in their homes. In Talia Ramkilawan’s home, an unexpected element was introduced when she fell in love with her partner who resides in a different country. Love’s ability to bring light to the seemingly mundane and that which goes unnoticed therefore under-appreciated is what has moved her new body of work. Titled ‘Heart 4 Sale’, Ramkilawan will tell tales of the complex emotions demanded by vulnerability and the in-between moments of being at home, working, living, and being in great anticipation of a phone call from her love.
Talia Ramkilawan, A day without lesbians is a day without sunshine, 2021. Courtesy of the artist & BKhz Gallery.
‘Heart 4 Sale’ will be opening on the 2nd of October 2021.
Sthenjwa Luthuli: ‘umthente uhlaba usamila’
‘umthente uhlaba usamila’ is an extension of Luthuli’s first solo exhibition, Inkaba Yami, which he presented at WHATIFTHEWORLD last year. The artist turned his focus inward in the previous show: this time around, it was a reckoning with his bloodline. The works within this collection depict headless figures assembled in a rhythmic arrangement that invokes what appears to be a dreamlike, other-worldly plane. This is what Luthuli describes as the “unknown place”.
Sthenjwa Luthuli, Untold stories, 2021. Courtesy of the artist & BKhz Gallery.
Using a surrealist frame of reference, Luthuli’s work is an evocative contemplation of his past and futurity in conversation with his elders. Growing up, he was taught that the way forward can only be revealed by those who came before. The figures in his work are the people who form part of his lineage, whose clan names he calls when burning imphepho and asking the ancestors for guidance. He portrays them as headless because although we may not always know the identities of our ancestors, we know they exist. Luthuli depicts these guides as existing joyously in the unknown place; a spiritual plane where they are seen floating in “umkhati”.
-Ntombenhle Shezi
‘umthente uhlaba usamila’ was on view from the 5th of June until the 18th of July 2021.
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