REVERB 23 | Abstract Resonances // Contemporary Voices

REVERB 23 | Abstract Resonances // Contemporary Voices Presented by Latitudes Online Contemporary Abstract artists from Africa synchronised.

REVERB is a group exhibition that showcases the work of over fifty contemporary artists from Africa as they collectively forge a sensorial map of sight, sound and texture through abstract art.

The show, which runs from 8 February to 24 March on Latitudes Online, brings together 70 artworks by 51 artists from Africa and the Diaspora.

Art enthusiasts can engage in a multi-sensory experience by listening to Latitudes’ Afro Jazz-inspired playlist while browsing the Reverb online exhibition, and reading Sean O'Toole's article on uncovering the love affair between art and music.

Thematic Curation:

● Paper Phenomenon: This selection of works celebrates the transmutation of paper into two-dimensional and three-dimensional artworks. The experimental fragility that anchors the processes of visual artists Isheanesu Dondo and NomThunzi Mashalaba is rediscovered, while Karla Nixon and Sunali Narshai seek to distort paper altogether, experimenting with the addition (and removal) of dimension.

● Textural Alchemy: Texture embeds meaning in the structural compositions of Dela Anyah’s rubber tyre tube tapestries, Benjamin Salvatore’s perforated pine wood and Atang Tshikare’s wooden sculpture of a brain. This facet of the show aims to expand upon the understanding of the malleability of material, but also to evaluate the ways in which the meta-abstract ideas of the artists make their way into the physical.

● Surrealistic Allegories: Symbolism, form and figures combine for artists processing the bizarre and confusing aspects of their lives as they seek resolution. For Keabetsoe Makgoane and Nicola Holgate, a journey of self-discovery is illuminated, whereas painters Blessing Ngobeni and Lwando Dlamini include a mutation of landscapes in pursuit of serenity. The artworks selected highlight the inextricable link between the power of Abstraction and its relationship with the unknown.

● Chromatic Vibrations: By means of a colour spectrum that is not only visually appealing but mood-provoking, this part of the show prioritises one of the most fundamental aspects of Abstraction: the emotional range that different artworks provide to cater to the vast human experience. The high vibrational energy of the bright colours moving on the canvas of Khotso Motsoeneng, Justin Southey and James de Villiers is evident, but the inclusion of more muted vibrational artworks by artists such as Virginia Mackenny, Juria Le Roux and Kirti Ranchod balance out a need for retrospective solitude as an equally powerful measure of emotional perceptiveness. Reverb 23 | Participating artists

Ablade Glover | Khotso Motsoeneng | Akshar Maganbeharie | Kirti Ranchod | Andiswa Bhungane | Lwando Dlamini | Atang Tshikare | Maia Lehr-Sacks | Babalwa Tom | Matt Slater | Bastiaan van Stenis | Mbali Tshabalala | Benjamin Salvatore | Mfezeko Gumada | Blessing Ngobeni | Mika Marffy | Boemo Diale | Natasha Norman | Dela Anyah | Nicola Holgate | Dewald Bruwer | Nicollette von Wiese | Dumisani Mabaso | Nkuli Mlangeni | Emma C. Aspeling | Nomthunzi Mashalaba | Frans Smit | Ogorogile Nong | Georgina Gratrix | Petra Shutte | Hedwig Barry | Ros Koch | Hemali Khoosal | Rose-Marie Shultz | Isheanesu Dondo | Sera Holland | James de Villiers | Sunali Narshai | Jo Roets | Thembalethu Manqunyana | Juria Le Roux | Tony Nkotsi | Justin Southey | Virginia Mackenny | Karla Nixon | Vusi Khumalo | Kay-Leigh Fisher | Water Dixon | Keabetsoe Makgoane | Zarah Cassim | Kedirile Kemakets

View the full show online here.