Cape Town

This summer Stevenson presents When Works Meet, an expanded iteration of our two-person exhibition series, Juxtapositions. The title is drawn from observations made by Zoe Hopkins while reviewing exhibitions by Ming Smith and Rotimi Fani-Kayode at the Wexner Center for the Arts. Showing concurrently, in close proximity, the artists’ works were given a chance to connect across time and place, prompting new associations and dialogues on affinities and art-making. When Works Meet follows this logic, arranging the works of 50 artists in pairings and groupings that offer unexpected resonances.

The show largely comprises works from the gallery’s collection, in addition to works from artist’s studios and pieces from collections in the process of being reconfigured – and which were more often than not shown with the gallery in the first instance. The return of these images reflects the circuitous life of artworks - moving in and out of collections, studios, galleries and auctions, often returning to attention years or decades down the line.

This exhibition is about these essential and ongoing conversations – between galleries, artists and collectors, and between artworks themselves – and how the story of an artwork is shaped to a greater or lesser degree by its movements, and by other works within its gravitational field.

In some instances, shared conceptual concerns and material processes prompt works into dialogue with one another. In other moments, pieces made at the same time come together to call us back to a particular moment in history – and then have encounters with works made decades later, threading that history into the present moment.

For some configurations, early and more recent works by the same artist are brought together, making visible enduring threads within their practice. Other constellations look at particular subjects or fields of inquiry – bodies in motion as expressions of power, the eroticisation of labour and its relationship to race, meditations on strangeness in foreign lands, the eternal joys and fears of the bride – through collections of work that speak to one another, sometimes as echo and sometimes as dissonance.

In these encounters space is left for awkwardness, perhaps even discomfort, as artworks enter one another’s orbit and find their exchange with other works, maintaining their singularity while joining a collective where narrative and meaning are opened up and taken in unexpected directions.

Artists on show include Jane Alexander, Samuel Babarinsa, Walter Battiss, Zander Blom, Wim Botha, Peter Clarke, Christo Coetzee, Steven Cohen, Ernest Cole, Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Dumile Feni, David Goldblatt, Georgina Gratrix, Ian Grose, Simon Gush, Pieter Hugo, Ruth Ige, Farhana Jacobs, Mawande Ka Zenzile, Moshekwa Langa, Neville Lewis, Glenn Ligon, Turiya Magadlela, Ernest Mancoba, Neo Matloga, Sabelo Mlangeni, Meleko Mokgosi, John Muafangejo, Paulo Nazareth, Simphiwe Ndzube, Hylton Nel, Serge Alain Nitegeka, Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi, Jabulani Ntuli, Odili Donald Odita, Frida Orubapo, Grayson Perry, Deborah Poynton, Alexis Preller, Jo Ractliffe, Robin Rhode, Rorke’s Drift collective, Fabian Saptouw, Viviane Sassen, Claudette Schreuders, Gerard Sekoto, Penny Siopis, Guy Tillim, Barthélémy Toguo and Portia Zvavahera.

View the catalogue here.

Previous iterations of Juxtapositions paired Jane Alexander with Shine Shivan, Unathi Mkonto with David Goldblatt, and Moshekwa Langa with John Muafangejo.

Walkabouts of the exhibition will take place on Saturdays from 11am - on 11 January with gallerist Sinazo Chiya; 18 January with critic Ashraf Jamal; 25 January with auctioneer Frank Kilbourn; 1 February with artist Penny Siopis. All are welcome.

The exhibition opens Saturday 7 December 10am to 1pm.

The gallery is open throughout the summer season, except on public holidays.