The Beautyful Ones
Dineo Seshee Bopape, Kudzanai Chiurai, Georgina Gratrix, Andrew Gilbert, Kiluanji Kia Henda, Gerald Machona, Gerhard Marx, Meleko Mokgosi, Athi-Patra Ruga
An exhibition curated by Storm Janse van Rensburg

20 April – 6 July 2013
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Works

2013 The Beautyful Ones

Georgina Gratrix
The History of Dad
2011
Oil on canvas
160 × 130 cm

2013 The Beautyful Ones

Andrew Gilbert
Exhibit 22a Ulundi Ethnographic Museum
2013
Mixed materials
ca. 240 × 210 × 90 cm

2013 The Beautyful Ones

Dineo Seshee Bopape
Sketch of Landscape Painting
2013
Mixed media installation
Dimensions variable

2013 The Beautyful Ones

Athi-Patra Ruga
The Future White Woman of Azania #1
2012
Lightjet print
90 × 120 cm
Edition of 5, 2 AP

2013 The Beautyful Ones

Athi-Patra Ruga
Deadboyz Auto Exotica #2
2009
Lightjet print
74 × 107 cm
Edition of 5, 2 AP

2013 The Beautyful Ones

Meleko Mokgosi
Africanis
2013
Oil on canvas
243 × 548 cm


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2013 The Beautyful Ones

Meleko Mokgosi
Africanis (Detail)
2013
Oil on canvas
243 × 548 cm

2013 The Beautyful Ones

Gerhard Marx
Cumulus III
2011
Plant material, acrylic paint and glue on cotton paper
153 × 103 cm

2013 The Beautyful Ones

Gerhard Marx
Cumulus III (Detail)
2011
Plant material, acrylic paint and glue on cotton paper
153 × 103 cm

2013 The Beautyful Ones

Gerhard Marx
Scion (Mother & Child)
2013
Bronze
70 × 100 × 30 cm
Edition of 5

2013 The Beautyful Ones

Gerald Machona
People from Other Places
2013
HD projection
15 minutes

2013 The Beautyful Ones

Kiluanji Kia Henda
Black Swan Caroucel
2013
Inkjet print on aluminium
110 × 170 cm

2013 The Beautyful Ones

Kiluanji Kia Henda
Balance Chairs
2013
Inkjet print on aluminium
170 × 110 cm

2013 The Beautyful Ones

Andrew Gilbert
Queen Victoria Holding Head of King Cetshwayo ka Mpande
2013
Mixed media on paper
100 × 70 cm

2013 The Beautyful Ones

Georgina Gratrix
The Baroness
2012
Oil on board
Diameter 120.5 cm

2013 The Beautyful Ones

Kudzanai Chiurai
State of the Nation (Detail)
2011
Bronze
153 × 120 × 110 cm
Edition of 5

2013 The Beautyful Ones

Kudzanai Chiurai
State of the Nation (Detail)
2011
Bronze
153 × 120 × 110 cm
Edition of 5

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About

In 1968 the Ghanaian author Ayi Kwei Armah published a brutal and visceral novel of (then) contemporary, post-Independent Ghana, titled “The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born”. Armah recounts an unnamed man’s struggle in a society rotten to the core, a result of the aftermath of colonialism, and the failures of the new regime. A dream deferred…

The exhibition The Beautyful Ones takes as its starting point Armah’s utopian lament for a better Africa, and the ongoing problematics of the representation of the continent, especially in the popular European imagination. Africa is often perceived as a monolithic entity, whilst the complexity of its multiple realities, histories, narratives and voices are often lost.

For The Beautyful Ones, South African curator Storm Janse van Rensburg has brought together nine young international artists: Dineo Seshee Bopape, Kudzanai Chiurai, Georgina Gratrix, Andrew Gilbert, Kiluanji Kia Henda, Gerald Machona, Gerhard Marx, Meleko Mokgosi and Athi-Patri Ruga. Originating from Angola, Botswana, Scotland, South Africa and Zimbabwe, they are now operating, working and living between many places, but with a common thread linking them and aspects of their practice to Southern Africa. Exemplary of a generation of contemporary artists that are mobile, and whose practices resists easy classification, the exhibition includes a selection of works that connects to the artists’ social and political realities, entangled with their personal lived experiences.

On the one hand, the exhibition might suggest that these are ‘The Beautyful Ones’ yearned for by Armah, whilst on the other hand some artists perhaps presents ideas and realities that questions, if indeed, the dream is not deferred once again.