Lizamore and Associates kicks off the year with three solo exhibitions, by the graduates of Lizamore's Johannes Stegmann Mentorship Programme. 

In Free(State), Nhlanhla Nhlapo, who was mentored by painter Jaco van Schalkwyk, explores his personal history within the 'politics of the self’. Drawing inspiration from 17th-century Dutch landscapes, his family photo albums and his small Free State hometown of Frankfurt, Nhlapo explains that his imagery “deals with concepts of nostalgia, community, survival and decolonization.”  

The mentee of multimedia artist Senzeni Marasela, Manyatsa Monyamane’s Serithi challenges the lack of representation of women of colour in art, stating that “we are not in an age where women of colour are able to start sculpting their own narratives, voices and images;  women of colour have never been encouraged to embrace their beings as freely as should have been the case”. The 2017 winner of the Thami Mnyele Fine Art Award, Monyamane celebrates the multitude of characteristics that make each African culture and its women unique, while also challenging the hypersexualisation of the black female form.

Alka Dass was mentored by 2015 Face of African Youth Foundation Award winner Benon Lutaaya. Capturing her personal experiences of being a South African Indian, Where does the pain go, when it goes away? explores her desires and anxieties and the cultural ideals and stereotypes attached to her ethnic background. “I draw inspiration from Hindu mythology and ritual, alongside reconfigured experiences from my childhood, into an imaginative realm. Adopting found objects which are commonly found in an Indian home and are attached to the female identity, is a medium I commonly use, transforming these into a personal visual language” she explains.

Opening event Thu Feb 7 from 18:00.