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Jan 8, 2025 | 
bubblegumclub.co.za | Sabrina Roman |Thembeka Heidi Sincuba |Lindiwe Mngxitama |KNeo Mokgopa
One question played recurrently throughout my mind as I went through the motions of Nikhil Vettukattil’s ‘Defund The Police’ exhibition with Arcadia Missa. This being, “Who precisely is watching who?” It doesn’t make this facile to interrogate on the observer’s part, and something gives me the impression this exhibition, with its numerous, surveillance nodding TV screens and couches that are positioned in full view of the windows on either side, isn’t supposed to.
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Dec 16, 2024 | 
trebuchet-magazine.com | Sabrina Roman
A nefarious nostalgia suffused Soup London’s Welcome To The Island Of Misfit Toys art exhibition. Take participating artist DaddyBears’ riffing off a previously condemned doll’s house with bulging baby-pink stuffing and flimsy hand-rendered embroidery. Or Dean JF Hoy’s pensive band of Bears Who Care, which straddled the paradigm between the innocence of youth and the cynicism of adulthood by being mounted to the front grille of a Dodge pick-up.
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Dec 11, 2024 | 
bubblegumclub.co.za | Sabrina Roman |Thembeka Heidi Sincuba |Lindiwe Mngxitama |KNeo Mokgopa
Impression and expression, both are quickly becoming ingrained into the DNA of Basalto Collective, whose philosophy is to emphasise the artistry of Mexico, before coalescing it with contemporary design. They are also two idioms that are continuously being sculpted, forged, and created, by the designers its founder, Paulina Reséndez chooses to platform.
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Dec 8, 2024 | 
emergentmag.com | Sabrina Roman
“Commodities promise to lift and separate people from feelings of inadequacy and unloveliness, but they can also betray us, give us dirty looks, and make us feel unworthy of them.”– Rhonda Lieberman, Artforum (1992)“We live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable – but then, so did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art.”– Ursula K.
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Dec 7, 2024 | 
emergentmag.com | Sabrina Roman
One lonesome sunflower desperately reaches for daylight inside number 60 Walker St, New York. Inevitably, this bloom is going to wither and droop, its leaves will shrivel and curl into themselves and the presence it once occupied will be consumed by something. If anything, this would most likely be another imitation of the flora given this is where Stuart Middleton’s 18 art show at Chapter NY has found its roots.
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Nov 22, 2024 | 
bubblegumclub.co.za | Thembeka Heidi Sincuba |Lindiwe Mngxitama |KNeo Mokgopa |Sabrina Roman
It is undeniable that The Qwellers are currently the front runners of the current crop emerging from the South African Hip-Hop scene as they continue to release music and blaze a trail that will be spoken about for years to come. If you are familiar with them it would not be a surprise to you that all members of the group release music as individuals apart from the street anthems they create as a collective, similar to The Wrecking Crew.
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Nov 20, 2024 | 
bubblegumclub.co.za | Sabrina Roman |Thembeka Heidi Sincuba |Lindiwe Mngxitama |KNeo Mokgopa
Oldy Blaq is a proverbial enigma in that for this artist, there doesn’t seem to be an earnestness to go back into the past or step into the future, on the contrary, there’s merely a contentment with breathing in the present. More often than not, this intrinsic contemplativeness is a profound facet that spontaneously reflects itself through their work.
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Nov 14, 2024 | 
bubblegumclub.co.za | Thembeka Heidi Sincuba |Lindiwe Mngxitama |KNeo Mokgopa |Sabrina Roman
There is a fervor that only young people possess. When one thinks of most catalytic moments that have changed the course of history young people are at the fore. Whether negatively or positively the youth cannot be denied their rightful inheritance; tomorrow belongs to them. In the Zulu language, there is a saying that says “ligotshwa lisemanzi”.
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Nov 11, 2024 | 
bubblegumclub.co.za | Sabrina Roman |Thembeka Heidi Sincuba |Lindiwe Mngxitama |KNeo Mokgopa
When picking through the projects that have been realised by Ghana-based, community-first organisation THE REVIVAL, the philosophy “one man’s rubbish may be another’s treasure” almost immediately springs to mind. Although for them, this appears to be more a way of being than anything else, and it breathes through the numerous projects they’ve undertaken.
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Nov 4, 2024 | 
bubblegumclub.co.za | Thembeka Heidi Sincuba |Lindiwe Mngxitama |KNeo Mokgopa |Sabrina Roman
This weekend, on November 2, Kujenga, the fast-rising star on the South African jazz scene, thrilled audiences at the BMW Art Generation at Nirox Sculpture Park. The event featured an intergenerational conversation with artists Mmakgabo Helen Sebidi and Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi, live performances by Kujenga and Thandiswa Mazwai, and a variety of food and fashion offerings.
