Curated by Wilhelm van Rensburg, senior art specialist and head curator at Strauss & Co, and Kagiso Pat Mautloa, artist and Johannesburg Art Foundation affiliate, the exhibition brings together paintings, works, and archival materials from Ainslie and other artists connected with the Johannesburg Art Foundation to explore freedom, abstraction, and community.
The Johannesburg Art Foundation thrived between 1982 and 1992 and its focus on anti-racialism, participatory workshops, and art as a way to bring about personal and social transformation made it a space of creativity, experimentation, and freedom in an otherwise oppressive society. Central to the Foundation's ethos was a shared mutual respect and equality in the learning process, with this bringing about both personal and community discoveries. While the Foundation is no more, other spaces emerged from it, most notably Bag Factory Artists' Studios. And, as Intersections shows, its influence still ripples into the present.
The exhibition places Ainslie's emotive paintings alongside various works by artists who in some way passed through the Johannesburg Art Foundation. Though abstraction and its place in South African art is one focus of the exhibition, what shows through more strongly is the radical freedom of the works, interconnected yet each boldly individual in its expressive capacities. Together with an archive assembled by Michael Gardiner, academic and friend of Ainslie, and alongside objects and memories collected by Kagiso Pat Mautloa, the exhibition paints a new picture of the Johannesburg Art Foundation. It's a treat for those familiar with the Foundation, and a wonderful introduction for those who are not.
Intersections: Bill Ainslie and the Johannesburg Art Foundation runs until Fri, Mar 20, 2026 at Wits Art Museum. Note: WAM will be closed for the festive period from Sat, Dec 13, 2025 – Tue, Jan 13, 2026.
