The imagery and material in Madolo's works both reflect and refuse, blurring forms until they vibrate with a spiritual, ancestral weight. Madolo's works lie in the friction between indigenous cosmologies and the rapidly urbanising African landscape as he repositions water not as a commodity to be managed, but as a relational presence to be entered.
Drawing from the Kuomboka ceremony’s rhythmic movement with the floodplains, an annual migration of the Lozi people from the flooded plains of the Upper Zambezi River to higher ground, Madolo’s art resists the urge to turn sacred knowledge into something easily consumable. The works withhold fragments, slowing down the viewer’s perception in a world that demands instant clarity in a way that allows the spiritual to persist within the urban grid, not as nostalgia, but as an ongoing, living reality.
Taking place at Asisebenze Art Gallery in the heart of the hum of the inner city, this exhibition feels like a vital psychic shift. It challenges us to look past the utility of the tap and acknowledge the deep, inhabited memories of the rivers that precede the ordered concrete of today.
Exhibition details: Kuomboka by Mncedi Madolo
Dates: Sat, May 9 – Sat, Jun 13, 2026Times: Mon – Fri 09:00 – 17:00, Sat 10:00 – 15:30
Tickets: Free admission
Venue: Asisebenze Art Gallery (Aegis Building, 34 Loveday St, Marshalltown)
This exhibition shows alongside Sepekere by Mmutla Mashishi. Both exhibitions open Sat, May 9, from 10:30 – 15:30.
