WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that we are now open by appointment, from Mon – Fri: 10:00 – 14:00.

Please contact any member of our staff should you have any inquiries or to schedule an appointment.

Justin Rhodes  
justin@whatiftheworld.com
+27 (79) 490-7293

Ashleigh McLean  
ashleigh@whatiftheworld.com
+27 (76) 422-2387

Lindsey Raymond  
lindsey@whatiftheworld.com
+27 (82) 522-1528 

Akshar Maganbeharie   
akshar@whatiftheworld.com
+27 (79) 876-9760

Eleonora Marforio   
eleonora@whatiftheworld.com 
+39 348 990 3007 / +27 65 9246720

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to share that Lakin Ogunbanwo was announced as the winner of the Thami Mnyele Residency, announced during the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair in Marrakech.

Nigerian photographer, Lakin Ogunbanwo, is the first artist to be awarded the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair’s new residency programme in collaboration with the Thami Mnyele Foundation, which offers a three-month residency in Amsterdam.

Touria El Glaoui, the founding director of 1-54, says the new initiative of offering a residency to one of the exhibiting artists at each of the fair’s editions in Marrakech, London and New York.

Read more about Lakin Ogunbanwo’s award, the rise in residencies, and their symbiotic relationship with the art market in this article in Art Newspaper. 

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that WHATIFTHEWORLD will be showing Lakin Ogunbanwo and Thania Petersen’s work at Booth 11 at 1-54 Marrakech.

Central to Ogunbanwo’s artistic investigation, is his desire to document the culture of Nigeria’s capital, Lagos; expand the contemporary African visual archive; and portray self-represented African narratives. This is explored in his photographic series depicting Nigerian brides, e wá wo mi, on display at 1-54 Marrakech.

Thania Petersen’s tapestry series comprises of a collection of neon coloured, hand-embroidered musallah, the threads of which gradually fade to black. Musallah, translated as prayer mat is an an arabic word that has been adopted by Muslims globally. Petersen also references Afghan war rugs in this series, addressing themes of warfare, islamophobia, religious dogma, colonialism, European and American imperialism, and the increasing influence of right-wing ideologies.

WHATIFTHEWORLD would like to thank you for your support and engagement this year. 

We are also pleased to announce that Ruby Swinney’s solo exhibition, Hold Still, will be on show over the holiday period. We have altered our opening times to accommodate viewings and appointments. 

Please find our opening times below, or call to schedule an appointment with Justin Rhodes, +27 79 490 7293.

24/25/26 Dec: Closed
27 Dec: 10.00 – 14.00
28 Dec: 10.00 – 13.00
30 Dec: 10.00 – 14.00
31 Dec/1 Jan: Closed 
2/3 Jan: 10.00 – 14.00
4 Jan: 10.00 – 13.00

We will be reopening and continuing with normal times from 6 January 2020.

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce Athi-Patra Ruga’s collaboration with Dior on their Lady Dior Art Bag.

Ruga joins other artists such as Rina Banerjee, Maria Nepomuceno, Mickalene Thomas, Jia Lee, and Eduardo Terrazas in designing bags for the fourth edition of the capsule collection.

“I think that’s the modernist curse: if it’s too beautiful, it’s not art. For me, I find there’s just something so punk about high fashion and high craftsmanship, which is one of the cornerstones of both my studio and the Dior studio,” he said during an interview with Joelle Diderich.

Read the full announcement on WWD here

Athi-Patra Ruga x Dior bags will be available in 27 Dior boutiques worldwide on Dior.com from January 2020.

Please note that the gallery will be closed for the long weekend from the 9th of August. The gallery will also close for the annual winter break from the 12th of August until the 19th of August with Dan Halter’s ‘Cross the River in a Crowd’ and Chris Soal’s ‘ Field of Vision’ which will run until the 31st of August.

Please contact ashleigh@whatiftheworld.com for any queries.

WHATIFTHEWORLD is proud to announce that Sanell Aggenbach will be opening her exhibition, The Heart Has Many Rooms, tonight, 18th of July, at CIRCA Gallery, Jellicoe Ave, Rosebank, Johannesburg.

 Sanell Aggenbach’s ‘The Heart Has Many Rooms’ offers a quiet meditation on affection: actual and implied. The body of work is divided into two distinct areas of interest and both probe the complexities of endearment…Separated over two floors, [the exhibition] traverses the artist’s affections – above, the devotion of mother and child; below, the private affairs of the heart. Vivid bronze tones versus deep blue hues below. For every room its colour, for every love.

For more information on the exhibition, click here.

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Thania Petersen’s exhibition, Between Land and a Raised Foot, had a well-received run at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown. Her work showed at the Monument Basement and Raw Spot Gallery over the 27th of June – 7th of July.

Thania Petersen’s exhibition subtly explores the revolutionary and healing potential of walking, as bodies, minds and spirits connect with land. While everyday walking may seem mundane, walking can be profoundly spiritual and politically charged. Soulful walking can ignite memories, arouse ancestors or register revolt.

For more information on the exhibition, click here.

For a review on works at the festival, click here.

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to invite you to Dan Halter and Chris Soal’s artist walkabouts at the gallery tomorow, Saturday, 29 June at 11.00.

Halter and Soal will walk us through their current exhibitions, ‘Cross the River in a Crowd’ and ‘Field of Vision’, both of which host sculptural works.

In Dan Halter’s solo exhibition, he returns to his reflections on the border between South Africa and Zimbabwe. Using ubiquitous checkered plastic weave “Ghana Must Go” bags as the central motif, he explores themes of migration, dislocation, and the trading of resources.

For more information, click here.

In Chris Soal’s presentation, he centralises his engagement with toothpicks as an artistic material. Soal reviews the value placed on these mass-produced, utilitarian objects – designed to be discarded – to make a commentary on the human condition.

For more information, click here.

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Chris Soal’s work will be included at the inauguration tomorrow of the new cultural centre for contemporary art, performance arts and literature, MECA, in Bordeaux, France.

“The new Maison de l’Économie Créative et de la Culture en Aquitaine, MÉCA, located on the historical riverfront of Bordeaux will house three regional visual and performing arts agencies FRAC, the ECLA and the OARA in one single institution.”

The goal of this collaborative cultural project is to provide the infrastructure to generate creative hybridisation and become a tool for supporting new cultural economies, both for regional and international artistic creation.

Click here for more information.

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Athi-Patra Ruga will be featuring in the exhibition, ‘Transamerica/n: Gender, Identity, Appearance Today’ at the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas. The exhibition will open tomorrow, Thursday June 20th and run until September 15th, 2019.

“Transamerica/n is the country’s first broad survey of contemporary artwork from across North America to explore the construction of identity through gender and outward appearance. Transformative, transcendent, and trans-historical, Transamerica/n breaks down conventional boundaries and celebrates a spectrum of gender identity through individual presentation and societal perception. Transamerica/n showcases artists from underrepresented backgrounds in the United States, Mexico, and Canada who are deeply committed to exploring shifting definitions of gender identity and bravely testing the limits of self-expression. The exhibition also commemorates the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall Riots, which served as a catalyst for the modern LGBTQ+ movement in the U.S. and around the world.”

Athi-Patra Ruga will be showing alongside artists like Catherine Opie, Keith Haring, Sarah Hill, Nan Goldin and Andy Warhol.

Click here for more information.

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Thania Petersen and Athi-Patra Ruga are showing in the exhibition, ‘Radical Love’, which opened at the Ford Foundation, New York last week. the show will be on until 17 August, 2019.

“Love, in the context of this exhibition, is defined by a commitment to the spiritual growth and interconnectedness of the individual, their community, and stewardship of the planet. Guided by the powerful words of bell hooks, ‘Were we all seeing more images of loving human interaction, it would undoubtedly have a positive impact on our lives.’ The works in Radical Love are grounded in ideas of devotion, abundance, and beauty; here, otherness and marginality is celebrated, adorned, and revered.”

Click here for more information.

WHATIFTHEWORLD is proud to announce that Athi-Patra Ruga has been selected to participate in the 2019 African Screenwriter’s Residency with Realness, for their 4th edition. The six participants were announced this past week at Cannes Film Festival.

The 6 selected projects were chosen by an international panel of 16 world cinema stakeholders, including Elias Ribeiro, Efuru Flowers, Anthony Mestriner, Dominique Welinski, and Thandeka Zwana. Realness alumni have proceeded to take part in the Sundance Directors and Screenwriters Labs, Biennale College Cinema and La Fabrique in Cannes. 

The 4th Edition’s participants will begin their journey at the Nirox Foundation residence and sculpture park in the Cradle of Humankind on the 11th of June. 

“Realness Residency is a Pan-African screenwriting initiative seeking diversity in contemporary African perspectives while encouraging risk-taking, originality and authenticity. “

To read the full announcement, click here.

For more information on Realness and Ruga’s project, click here.

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Mia Chaplin will be having her first international solo exhibition, ‘Underbelly’, at No Man’s Art Gallery in Amsterdam.

Chaplin will show several paintings and sculptures that she has made while in residence at the gallery’s permanent space in Bos en Lommerweg.

The opening will be on Saturday, June 8th from 17h00 – 20h00 and the show runs until August 18th on the Ground Floor.

For more information, click here.

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce the success of Mohau Modisakeng’s performance at Click Festival in Amsterdam.

‘No Serenity Here’ formed part of a selected program at this year’s festival, which aimed to “present the work of artists responding to an ever-changing world and it’s moments of misuse, misunderstanding and intervene in today’s structure and moments of turmoil in radical ways.”

For more information click here.

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that leading up to her solo exhibition with No Man’s Art Gallery in Amsterdam, Mia Chaplin will be showing in a group exhibition, ‘Measures of Poetry’, as part of the GoGo Collective.

The Collective formed in Cité internationale des arts in Paris, France in 2018, and consists of international artists exploring content and relationships through site-specific interventions in various global locations.

‘Measures of Poetry’, curated by Jan Van Woensel, applies Vito Acconci’s concept of spatial poetry as a curatorial methodology: “The process of methodologically adding artwork to the exhibition space of Bogarden’s Chapel provokes an evolution from a linear to a rhizomatic reading. ‘Measures of Poetry’ is approached as a situational confrontation of space, artwork, meaning, order, body, sound and language.”

The exhibition opens on 10 May at 6pm at the Bogardenkapel Brugge, Katelijnestraat 86, Belgium.

For more information, click here.

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Lungiswa Gqunta’s work will be included in the exhibition ‘Not a Single Story II’ at the Wanas Konst museum in Sweden,

‘’Not A Single Story II’ is a further development of the large exhibition that Wanås Konst’s leadership duo co-curated at the Nirox Foundation sculpture park outside Johannesburg in 2018.’

The exhibition will run from 5 May 2019 until 3 November 2019.

For more information, click here.

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Athi-Patra Ruga will be featuring in the exhibition, ‘Inside Out’, alongside Nigerian artist, Ayọ Akínwándé.

Curated by Isabel Moura Mendes and Natalia Palombo, the artists’s work will be hosted at Factoria Habana in Cuba as part of the curatorial project ‘Intersections’, a larger program curated by Concha Fontenla for the 13th Havana Biennial 2019. The exhibition opens on the 12th of April until the 30th of August, 2019.

“Ruga will exhibit his video work ‘Over The Rainbow’ from the ‘Queens in Exile’ series. This series centralises poignant themes of sexuality, dystopia and queerness, often framed within post-apartheid South Africa. The work embodies a very specific experience to framed within post-apartheid South Africa. The work embodies a very specific experience to explore colonial history, post-colonial present, and his personal experiences as a queer Xhosa man.

The exhibition strikes through particular external representations of a continent. The work opens up conversations about the politicisation of crisis in mainstream media by re-imagining history and the present in light of celebration and resilience. In centralising the nature of human-beings in crisis, the exhibition poses questions around authenticity and appropriation.”

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to share an update on Athi-Patra Ruga’s inclusion in the exhibition Africa State of Mind, now touring to Impressions Gallery, Bradford. The exhibition opens on the 29th of March until the 15th of June 2019.

Africa State of Mind, curated by Ekow Eshun with NAE, explores the work of an emergent generation of photographers from across the African continent. 16 artists from 11 different countries interrogate ideas of ‘Africanness’ through highly subjective renderings of life and identity on the continent, along the way revealing Africa to be a psychological space as much as a physical territory; a state of mind as much as a physical location. The exhibiting artists are: Emmanuelle Andrianjafy, Sammy Baloji, Raphaël Barontini, Neil Beloufa, Girma Berta, Eric Gyamfi, Kiluanji Kia Henda, Lebohang Kganye, Namsa Leuba, Michael MacGarry, Sabelo Mlangeni, Mimi Cherono Ng’ok, Musa N Nxumalo, Ruth Ossai, Athi Patra Ruga and Michael Tsegaye.

Their work is inspired by wide range of subjects: urban nightlife in Johannesburg; Afrofuturism; construction projects in Ethiopia; vodun (voodoo) religion in Benin; and Ghana’s LGBT+ community, among others. What unites these diverse approaches is an emphasis on subjectivity to explore life and identity on the continent, by its inhabitants and diaspora. Together, the artists reveal Africa to be a psychological space as much as a physical territory; a state of mind as much as a tangible location.

Click here for more information.

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Mohau Modisakeng will be participating in the 2019 edition of the Sharjah Biennial 14: Leaving the Echo Chamber (SB14), opening today. Modisakeng will showcase ‘Land of Zanj’ (2019), a new performance and mixed-media installation on Friday, 8 March.

In his SB14 project, Modisakeng draws links between experiences of displacement within South Africa’s history of racial segregation and those of formerly enslaved diasporic Africans. Land of Zanj (2019) is a choreographed procession and site-specific installation named after the island of Zanzibar or Azania, an ancient term used to describe various parts of southeastern Africa. Approaching the body as a bearer of collective memory, Mohau Modisakeng’s work invokes historical mechanisms of violence and grapples with the tensions and contradictions of inequality, exploitation, slavery and race.

For more information, click here.

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Thania Petersen will be doing a walkabout of her solo exhibition ‘IQRA’ with Friends of the South African National Gallery. The walkabout will take place on Friday 1 March at 11h00 at WHATIFTHEWORLD. .

Tickets can be purchased on the Friends of Iziko South African National Gallery’s website here.

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that we will be participating in the 2019 edition of Cape Town Art Fair. The gallery will exhibit a group presentation of works by Sanell Aggenbach, Paul Edmunds, Pierre Fouché, Lungiswa Gqunta, Dan Halter, John Murray, Mohau Modisakeng, Cameron Platter, Athi-Patra Ruga, Ruby Swinney (Booth D6).

The Cape Town Art Fair is taking place from 15 – 17 February at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC).

Opening times are as follows:

Friday: 11h00 – 19h00
Saturday: 11h00 – 19h00
Sunday: 11h00 – 19h00

The gallery will also participate in Investec Cape Town Art Fair’s Gallery Night on Friday, 15 February, during which the gallery will remain open until 9pm that evening. Jump on a City Sightseeing South Africa Double Decker bus from the CTICC and enjoy an evening of chauffeured gallery hopping through the CBD and Woodstock. Buses are free of charge to all ICTAF ticket holders. The busses will travel in 20 minute intervals. WHATIFTHEWORLD is stop 3 on the route.

Click here for more information about the Cape Town Art Fair.

Click here for more information about the Cape Town Art Fair Gallery Night.

Please note that WHATIFTHEWORLD will close on the 22nd of December 2018. The gallery will reopen on the 7th of January 2019 with Mia Chaplin’s exhibition Mouth and Paul Edmunds’ exhibition The Road to Natural Selection is fraught with Random Mutation which will continue running until the 2nd of February 2019.

Please contact akshar@whatiftheworld.com should you require any further information.

Dan Halter and Athi-Patra Ruga are included in the exhibition ‘Crossing Night’ – which takes place across various locations in Oaxaca, Mexico. The exhibition is hosted by IDRIS NAIM A.C. and the National Institute of Fine Arts, Mexico.

“Crossing Night looks comparatively at societal relationships with death in Southern Africa and in Mexico as an entry point to a broader search for shared ways of relating to history in the present in these two postcolonial regions.

The project touches on the fragility and finitude of human experience, the relationship between violence and death, the ethics of how we relate to corpses, our rituals of life, death and the afterlife, our connections with our ancestors, and how our will for form is at the last instance a will to be remembered.”

‘Crossing Night’ takes place from 4 November 2018 to 19 February 2019.

Visit the link below for more information.

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Pierre Fouche was chosen to participate in Escaldes-Engordany’s 12th Textile Festival in Andorra where he presented an artist lecture and a bobbin lace design masterclass  as well as participation in an exhibition.

For more information, click here

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Athi-Patra Ruga will host a solo exhibition at the Somerset House in the UK. The exhibition ‘Athi-Patra Ruga: Of Gods, Rainbows and Omissions’ will open on the 4th of October in the Terrace Rooms of the South Wing, and run until the 7th of January 2019.

“New and rarely seen works from the internationally renowned South African artist Athi-Patra Ruga.”

“In his first major solo UK exhibition, Ruga brings three recent series of work together for the first time to unveil a surreal, mythical utopia, filled with a collection of extraordinary characters. Showcasing his diverse practice, from drawings and sculpture to film and photography, plus beautiful hand-crafted petit point tapestry, the exhibition immerses visitors in Ruga’s vibrant world – an allegory of post-apartheid political, cultural and social systems, and a shimmering vision of a more humanist future.”

Click here for more information.

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce their participation in 1-54 London 2018. The gallery will be located at Booth E2 from 4–7 October at Somerset House, Strand (London), presenting works by Dan Halter, Thania Petersen, and Buhlebezwe Siwani.

Click here for more information. 

WHATIFTHEWORLD is please to announce that Michele Mathison has been selected to participate in Frieze Sculpture 2018 in London.In place from 4 July to 7 October 2018, Frieze Sculpture is located in the English Gardens of The Regent’s Park. Entrance to Frieze Sculpture is free to the public.

Frieze Sculpture will return to The Regent’s Park for three months this summer, featuring works by 25 contemporary and modern artists presented by world-leading galleries. Selected and placed by Clare Lilley (Director of Programme, Yorkshire Sculpture Park), Frieze Sculpture will create an exceptional cultural attraction at the heart of the city, for Londoners and international visitors alike.

Frieze Sculpture will bring together 25 artists from five continents, including: Larry Achiampong, John Baldessari, Rana Begum, Yoan Capote, James Capper, Elmgreen & Dragset, Tracey Emin, Tim Etchells, Rachel Feinstein, Barry Flanagan, Laura Ford, Dan Graham, Haroon Gunn-Salie, Bharti Kher, Kimsooja, Michele Mathison, Virginia Overton, Simon Periton, Kathleen Ryan, Sean Scully, Conrad Shawcross, Monika Sosnowska, Kiki Smith, Hugo Wilson and Richard Woods.

Click here for more information. 

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Lungiswa Gqunta will be presenting new works from her residency at Gasworks at The Showroom. The exhibition, titled Women on Aeroplanes will take place from the 3rd of October 2018 until 29 January 2019. The exhibition will open at The Showroom (63 Penfold Street
London NW8 8PQ) at 18h00 on the 2nd of October.

“The Showroom and The Otolith Collective will raise these questions in a curatorial format in the London iteration of Women on Aeroplanes – an international multi-part research and exhibition project, which loosely borrows its title from the novel by Ghanaian writer Kojo Laing, and its ethos from his implosive deconstructed syntax.

Lungiswa Gqunta will present a new series of drawings reflecting her research into the uses of sound and song as a mode of resistance to the often hidden structures of violence persisting as a result of systemic legacies of colonialism. Created as part of her residency at Gasworks (July – September 2018) they consider western musical score in relation to free Jazz, whilst meditating on the ways in which South African sound and song have been passed on through oral tradition in the contexts of protest and ritual. Accompanying these drawings, a sculptural installation conceived as a ‘garden of exile’ will reflect on the hardships endured by South Africans in exile. Together these works will evoke an experience of collective resistance and history-telling through song, amidst a subtly violent terrain.”

Click here for more information.

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Athi-Patra Ruga is included in Africa State of Mind at the New Art Exchange in London. The exhibition opens on the 29th of September until the 16th of December 2018. The exhibition will tour to the Impressions Gallery, Bradford in 2019.

Africa State of Mind, curated by Ekow Eshun with NAE, explores the work of an emergent generation of photographers from across the African continent. 16 artists from 11 different countries interrogate ideas of ‘Africanness’ through highly subjective renderings of life and identity on the continent, along the way revealing Africa to be a psychological space as much as a physical territory; a state of mind as much as a physical location. The exhibiting artists are: Emmanuelle Andrianjafy, Sammy Baloji, Raphaël Barontini, Neil Beloufa, Girma Berta, Eric Gyamfi, Kiluanji Kia Henda, Lebohang Kganye, Namsa Leuba, Michael MacGarry, Sabelo Mlangeni, Mimi Cherono Ng’ok, Musa N Nxumalo, Ruth Ossai, Athi Patra Ruga and Michael Tsegaye.

The exhibition orientates around three main themes – Inner Landscapes, Zones of Freedom and Hybrid Cities. In the show the modern African city is documented in all its dynamism and contradiction. The fluidity of gender and sexual identity is addressed through compelling portraiture, and the legacy of history, from slavery and colonialism to apartheid, becomes the source of resonant new myths and dreamscapes.

Click here for more information.

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Pierre Fouche’s work will be included in the exhibition ‘Lace, not Lace: Contemporary Fiber Art from Lacemaking Techniques’ at the Hunterdon Art Museum in New Jersey, USA.

“A groundbreaking exhibition showcasing the work of contemporary fiber artists applying bobbin and needle lace techniques to a multitude of fibers and filaments in unlimited colors and textures to interpret their world.

This exhibition will explore how lace makers are expanding the traditional boundaries of that art form and creating exciting work that investigates contemporary themes, materials and forms.”

The exhibition will run from 23 September 2018 to 6 January 2019.

Click here for more information. 

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce Cameron Platter’s solo exhibition, ‘GALAXY AS0-730223NMJ-ZSDSSS’ at the KZNSA gallery in Durban!

This exhibition showcases new paintings, collages, video, and sculptural works by Cameron Platter and is running from 06 September until 07 October 2018.

Click here for more information.

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Mia Chaplin has been selected to take part in a 2 month residency programme at Cité Internationale Des Artes in the Marais district, Paris.

“Ever since the Cité internationale des arts was founded in 1965, artists have been coming from all over the world to take part in our artist-in-residence programmes. The Cité encourages cross-cultural dialogue and provides a place where artists can meet with their public and other professionals.”

Click here for more information 

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Lungiswa Gqunta has been selected for the Rijksakademie Residency in 2019.

The Rijksakademie contributes to the development and renewal of the artistic practice by carefully selecting talented and ambitious artists for a work period. This two-year program offers artists theoretical, technical and artistic facilities. Research into, experimentation with, and development of the work are central aspects in the programme. The new group joins the 25 artists who started their residency in 2018.

The selection committee consists of internationally renowned artists and professionals who are attached to the Rijksakademie and act as advisors. The advisors guide and coach the artists during their residency through studio visits and theoretical guidance.

Click here for more information

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that works by Buhlebezwe Siwani, Athi-Patra Ruga and Mohau Modisakeng will be included in the exhibition “Continental Drift” at the Cairns Art Gallery in Queensland, Australia which will take place from 6 July to 23 September 2018

Continental Drift highlights the shared experiences of contemporary blak/black artists from South Africa and north Australia.  While both countries have different histories, British colonisation had dramatic effects on their black peoples, many of which continue to be experienced today.

Australian artists represented in the exhibition are Fiona Foley, Tony Albert, Michael Cook, Dale Harding, Hannah Bronte, Gordon Hookey, Paul Bong and Archie Moore; South African artists represented in the exhibition are Mohau Modisakeng, Berni Searle, Mary Sibande, Zanele Muholi, Buhlebezwe Siwani, Kudzanai Chiurai and Athi-Patra Ruga.

The supporting publication includes essays by Professor Neelika Jayewardene and Carly Lane. Neelika is an Associate Professor of English at the State University of New York-Oswego, a founding member of the online magazine, Africa is a Country, and grew up in Zimbabwe. Carly Lane is a Murri woman from Queensland and is the Curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art at the Art Gallery of Western Australia.

Click here for more information. 

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce Lungiswa Gqunta’s residency at Gasworks in London, which runs from 2 July – 17 September 2018.

During her residency at Gasworks Lungiswa plans to further extend the notion of displacement explored in her previous works by creating interventions that evoke and represent some of the physical discomfort experienced as a result of displacement and living in and among violent structures of oppression.

As part of her residency, Lungiswa will also engage with The Showroom and the London iteration of the international project Women on Aeroplanes, which is being developed together with The Otolith Collective (Kodwo Eshun and Anjalika Sagar). Led by curators Annett Busch, Magdalena Lipska and Marie-Helene Gutberlet, the overarching Women on Aeroplanes project is conceived as five exhibitions at five different spaces in Africa and Europe (2017–19), including ifa-Gallery (Berlin), Centre for Contemporary Art (Lagos), Iwalewahaus (Beyreuth) and The Museum of Modern Art(Warsaw). It will look closely at the largely untold stories of women and the important roles they played in the long history of the struggle for independence by African nations in the 1950s and 60s, as well as in the avant-garde art history of the continent. Through contemporary women’s and feminist voices and art practices, the project will make visible women’s contribution within the context of communities and relations; going far beyond the mere replacement of the heroes of independence with the heroines of liberation.

For more information, click here.

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that new works by Athi-Patra Ruga are to be included in a group exhibition ‘Ravelling Threads‘ which opens on Thursday, 21st of June at the Sean Kelly Gallery in New York. The exhibition will open from 6-8 pm at 475 Tenth Avenue.

Sean Kelly is delighted to present Ravelled Threads, a thematic exhibition of recent work by ten artists from Africa who utilize fabric to create textiles, weavings, embroidery, performances and installations. These disparate artists are united in their backgrounds, both living and working throughout Africa. Each artist is distinguished by the diverse and complex relationships that run through their varied geographical, political, and gendered narratives. Ravelled Threads is organized in collaboration with Mariane Ibrahim. 

Click here for more information. 

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Lungiswa Gqunta is participating in this year’s Manifesta taking place from the 16th of June until the 4th of November 2018  in Palermo, Italy.

Manifesta, the European Nomadic Biennial, originated in the early nineties in response to the political, economic and social changes following the end of the Cold War and the subsequent steps towards European integration. Since then, Manifesta has developed into a travelling platform that focuses on the dialogue between art and society in Europe. Manifesta is a project based on community: its success depends on the collaboration between the international and local actors and the involvement and engagement of the local communities.

The City of Palermo was important for Manifesta’s selection board for its representation of two important themes that identify contemporary Europe: migration and climate changes and how these issues impact our cities. The multi-layered and deeply condensed history of Palermo – being occupied by almost every European civilization and having long-term connections with Northern Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean over the last 2000 years – has left its traces throughout this multi-cultural society at the heart of the Mediterranean area.

For more information, click here.

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Mohau Modisakeng’ work Passage (2017) is included in the exhibition In Pursuit of Eden as part of Art Capital 2018 in Hungary.

This year’s festival centres on the concept of the garden, and – with its 24 new exhibitions, 52 programs and 136 artists – welcomes visitors in Szentendre, the Hungarian capital of visual arts. The exhibitions, along with a wide variety of fine art, literary, music and family programs, explore the possibilities of a lost and recreatable Garden of Eden – of solitary retreat, artistic recreation, and diverse modes of unfolding. Visitors are offered countless colourful examples for all that potentially awaits us in a garden, from Cape Town to Iceland, from Japan to the USA, as well as, of course, in the Central Eastern region and its heart, Szentendre.

The exhibition opens at 19h00 on the 9th of June, and will run until the 2nd or September at the at the Szentendre Gallery (2000 Szentendre, Fő tér 2–5).

Click here for more information. 

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Cameron Platter will host three solo exhibition aboard during the months of May and June. The exhibitions will take place in1301PE, Los Angeles; Éric Hussenot, Paris; and  Ever Gold [Projects], San Fransisco.

See below for the various dates and addresses.

Teen Non_Fiction at 1301PE.
19 May – 16 June, 2018
6150 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90048, USA
Click here for more information

You Look Like Your Face at Éric Hussenot
9 Jun – 21 Jul 2018
5 bis rue des, Haudriettes, 75003, Paris
Click here for more information

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Ruby Swinney will host a solo exhibition title Human Nature at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary African Art.  There will be a preview on the evening of the 30th of May at 7pm. Please note access to preview events are on presentation of membership card and ID. The exhibition will run from from the 1st of  June until 31 October 2018.

“It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn; and whether it was the outward substance of things or inner spirit of nature and the mysterious soul of man that occupied me, still my inquiries were directed to the metaphysical, or in its highest sense, the physical secrets of the world.” – Mary Shelley, Frakenstein

Please RSVP to ziphozethu.shude@zeitzmocaa.museum for the preview evening on the 30th of May at 7pm.

Zeitz MOCAA
V&A Waterfront, Silo District, S Arm Rd, Waterfront, Cape Town, 8001

For more information click here.

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Lungiswa Gqunta will be involved in a research project, Women on Aeroplanes, to be hosted by the Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos, Nigeria. The project is titled after Ghanaian writer Bernard Kojo Laing’s critically acclaimed second novel, Women of the Aeroplanes, written in 1988.

The project will comprise of a series of lectures, Search and Research: Looking for Colette Omogbai, dedicated to unfolding and mobilising various theoretical, artistic, academic and non-academic strategies of investigation that  centre the representation of women out of in the history and the writing of history.

The project will run from from 23 May – 26 May 2018.

For more information click here

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Olaf Hajek will be presenting a solo exhibition of new work at Southern Guild. The exhibition Paravent will open on Tuesday, the 24th of April, and run until the 12th of July 2018.

Paravent by Olaf Hajek, presented in collaboration with WHATIFTHEWORLD, is the internationally renowned German painter’s third solo show in Cape Town. The acrylic paintings in this new body of work depicts still-lives, interiors, portraits and landscapes, whose theatricality is heightened by the recurring motif of a folding screen (“paravent” in French).

“The screen creates its own mysterious space. Behind it, you find a hidden world but it also provides security and shelter,” Olaf explains.

A technically perfect illustrator, he creates enchanting visual patterns, scenes and creative characters in which nature and artifice are intertwined. Olaf collects mental images everywhere he goes: on his travels, in magazines, or on the internet. African traditions, Indian temple art, South American folklore, and pop culture are all expressed in new ways in his almost surreal tableaux. He plays with motifs of flora and fauna, archaic symbols and current themes, working them all into his pieces in great detail and vibrant colour.

The works on show were all painted by Olaf during a recent residency in Cape Town, which he calls his “second home and addiction”. Grouped in pairs, they tell different stories that reference myths, folklore and dreams. The Big Globe, for example, is inspired by old taxidermy objects but here the birds have come to life as they try to escape the threat of a snake. In its partner painting, Departure, all the decorative elements come to life as they embark on an unknown journey.

Click here for more information.

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Athi-Patra Ruga’s work; which was awarded the grand prize at the 11th Edition of the African Photo Biennale in Bamako, will travel to The Netherlands to be exhibited at The Afrika Museum. The exhibition will open on the 14th of April until the 2nd of September 2018.

On Friday, April 14th, the largest contemporary Pan-African photographic exhibition called AFROTOPIA opens in the Africa Museum near Nijmegen. The exhibition was shown earlier during the 11th edition of the African Photo Biennale in Bamako. For the first time in the history of the biennial this exhibition can be seen outside of Bamako. The Afrika Museum feels honored to be able to show this leading exhibition to the Dutch public. 

Click here for more information. 

Please note that WHATIFTHEWORLD will close on the 28th of March for the deinstallation of  Dan Halter’s solo exhibition Patience can Cook a Stone. The gallery will be closed until the opening of our new premises in Cape Town towards the end of  April. Please follow our social media channels here and here, for updates with regards to the opening of the new space. Or sign up to our mailing list here.

Alternatively, please send an email to matthew@whatiftheworld for any queries.

The Fruits of Our Labour: A tour with Michele Mathison

‘The Fruits of Our Labour’ is a walking tour with the artist, Michele Mathison and Zeitz MOCAA Assistant Curator of Sculpture, Marijke Andrea Tymbios.

Born in South Africa, raised in Zimbabwe, Michele Mathison creates work inspired by his surroundings. Addressing issues of labour, agriculture and humanity’s treatment of- and dependence on natural resources in his work, this tour includes a discussion of the socio-economic and political climates that impact on these concerns.

The tour commences at Mathison’s triptych on level 0 in Zeitz MOCAA and concludes at ‘Angular Mass’, his newly unveiled installation in the Silo District.

Date: Thursday, 15 March 2018
Time: 1 – 2:30 pm
Venue: Scheryn Collection Arena, level 0, Zeitz MOCAA

This event is free. RSVP to receive complimentary tickets for museum admission.
Email marijke.tymbios@zeitzmocaa.museum

Click here for more information.

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce its participation in The Armory Show 2018. Athi-Patra Ruga will be exhibiting a solo presentation of works in the Presents Section (P3). The fair will take place this weekend, 8-11 March 2018 at Armory Show Piers 92 & 94 in New York.

Click here for more information.

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Mohau Modisakeng is included in the group exhibition More Aphrike #7 »Afrofuturism is now« at M.Bassy in Hamburg, Germany.

Afrofuturism is a pop-culture movement which ensued in the African-American communities in the 1950s as a result of racism and discrimination. It then wanted to serve as a contrast to the sad state of current affairs, with an own vision of a future full of hope built on a mythology and aesthetics full of blackness, science fiction, the idea of liberation, surrealism and pop. Many of the issues surrounding society back at that time remain unresolved today. Perhaps this is also the reason why so many creative people have chosen to reawaken the idea of Afrofuturism today.

At the last event within the ‘More Aphrike’ series, we want to learn more about Afrofuturism and, at the same time, view it from an African-centric perspective. What relationship do artists from African countries have to Afrofuturism? Is the latest hype surrounding Afrofuturism a chance to be taken seriously on an international level? Or is Afrofuturism just another label which the Western-dominated art market is slapping on art from African countries? In the talk with professor and doctor of philosophy Nana Adusei-Poku, we want to discuss this in depth. The talk is supported by a showing of Afrofuturism films and videos presented by M.Bassy, including the classic Space Is the Place by Sun Ra from the year 1974, now in a remastered quality.

Program:
24.02.2018, 19.30 Opening & Talk with Nana Adusei-Poku
24.02 – 17.03.2018 Exhibition
10.03.2018, 21.45 Filmscreening: Sun Ra in »SPACE IS THE PLACE« in the Metropolis Kino, Hamburg

Opening hours:
Monday-Thursday 11.00-16.00
Satursday 12.00-18.00

Reservations : reservation@m-bassy.org

For more information click here.

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Michele Mathison’s commission – ‘Angular Mass’ will be unveiled at the Silo District this month. The unveiling will take place at 6pm on the 15th  of February at the V & A Waterfront

The sculpture comprises of five large flywheels that formed an integral part of the original Grain Silo machinery when it was first constructed in 1921. When our historic building was repurposed, the flywheels were given to artist Michele Mathison. He used the wheels to create a static sculpture that nevertheless captures the dynamic motion of their rotational drive, and the sheer weight and size of the wheels.

The sculpture forms part of the V&A Waterfront’s Art in Public Places programme. This ongoing initiative brings creative outdoor elements to the property, allowing visitors to interact with and enjoy sizeable works of art on a free, open-air platform that is open 24-hours a day.

RSVP: Email njappie@waterfront.co.za

WHATIFTHEWORLD is proud to announce our 10-year anniversary, celebrating a decade of forging new paths in the South African contemporary art scene.

To mark this milestone in the development of the gallery and looking forward to the next 10 years, we are pleased to announce the launch of our new premises in central Cape Town opening April 2018.

With the opening of our new custom designed space we look forward to continuing to grow with our artists whilst drawing on the experience, aesthetic identity and relationships we have established over the past 10 years.

Moving forward we have decided to consolidate our efforts and focus solely on our Cape Town gallery space. The program will be dedicated specifically to ambitious solo projects and multi-disciplinary installations. With this renewed focus it is our intention to create an environment that will allow artists the freedom to create significant exhibitions.

We are excited to move forward into this next chapter with the support and commitment of our artists, collectors and community.

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Buhlebezwe Siwani is included in the group exhibition Tell Freedom at the Kunsthal KAdE in the Netherlands. The exhibition will take place from the 27th of January to the 6th of May 2018.

The exhibition Tell Freedom comprises new and existing work by fifteen young artists from South Africa. In it, they reflect critically on the past, present and future of their country in a global context.

The artists featured in Tell Freedom are inspiring representatives of a generation of South African artists who have grown up largely since the abolition of apartheid. They carry the burden of their country’s history of violence and injustice, but at the same time look to the future and the rest of the world with optimism. Their work examines and comments on social, political and economic injustices rooted in the colonial era and period of apartheid. Through it, they seek to understand their own position in the changing society of South Africa and at the same time to imagine the future. 

The works of art in the exhibition confront visitors with the social inequality that exists in South Africa, but also in the Netherlands. A number of the artists have been asked to produce new works especially created for this exhibition and reflecting on the future: is it possible to envisage a future based on principles of humanity and equality, rather than on exclusion and division? 

Kunsthal KAdE
Eemplein 77, (Eemhuis)
3812 EA, Amersfoort
Open hours:
Tue – Sun from 11h00 to 17h00

Click here for more information.

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Mohau Modisakeng will be included in the upcoming exhibition – ‘Ex Africa’, at the Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil in Rio de Janeiro. The exhibition will open on the 20th of January, and run until March 26th 2018.

Bringing together dozens of names that attract international attention, but are little known in Brazil – as well as two Afro-Brazilian artists – the exhibit offers a look into the dilemmas and challenges of the continent today.

The major CCBB exhibition is composed of more than eighty works, including paintings, sculptures, installations, videos and performances, with a privileged space for photography.

“Photography may be, next to sculpture, the main highlight of African art today, especially in South Africa, whose photographers, I believe, are among the most original in the world,” said German curator Alfons Hug.

Click here for more information.

WHATIFTHEWORLD is please to announce that Dan Halter’s work is included in the exhibition Baggage Claims, which was first exhibited at the Orlando Museum of Art last year. The exhibition will now travel to its second location at the Weatherspoon Art Museum in North Carolina, where it will open on the 26th of January at 18h30.

Baggage transports and holds our belongings, and by implication our thoughts. As objects, trunks, suitcases, luggage, and crates suggest the extreme mobility of our global culture. As ideas, in this exhibition, they refer to the humanitarian and political concerns that instigate this mobility and that dominate national and international conversation and policy. The term baggage also carries a psychological meaning: things that encumber one’s freedom, progress, or development.

Baggage Claims presents its featured artworks through the lens of global mobility. This mobility is the result of political, economic, and natural and social conditions. It affects broad sectors of the population, through the benign commodification of hospitality (think Airbnb) to the horrific displacement of millions of immigrants and refugees as a result of crises occurring around the globe. Each work in the exhibition suggests multiple readings. On the one hand, each tells the story of individuals: their journeys, suffering and memories, their hopes for possibilities ahead.Simultaneously, they refer to the politics and policies that create and shape those individuals’ experiences: ethnic cleansing, contested borders, lack of social services, and environmental cataclysms. The works in the exhibition—some humorous, others eliciting heartbreak—address both personal experiences and global policies, as well as the consequences and catalysts of mobility.

For more information click here. 

For dates and locations of upcoming exhibitions click here. 

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Athi-Patra Ruga will be premiering his performance ‘Queens in Exile’ – featuring Angel-Ho and Tanya Tagaq, at the Nordwind Festival in Hamburg on the 16th of December 2017 .

In this performance, the South African performer and visual artist Athi-Patra Ruga and the Canadian singer Tanya Tagaq gives voice to Throat Singing, a traditional First Nations songform animating Athi-Patra Ruga’s epitome The Versatile Queen Ivy (2013-Present). In his interdisciplinary work spanning video, dance, photography and performance, Athi-Patra Ruga questions identity constructions that are clearly determined by gender, nationality and sexuality. For NORDWIND, Athi-Patra Ruga and Tanya Tagaq are working together for the first time to present songs of expulsion and unrequited love, which set the attitude to life of a generation in exile and build a musical bridge between the Canadian throat singing and the overtone singing (“umngqokolo”) of the Xhosa. With the concert performance QUEENS IN EXILE they celebrate together with the musician and performer Angel-Ho a dystopian ritual of abysmal energy.

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Dan Halter will be exhibiting a solo exhibition titled ‘Zimbabwean Traffic’ in the museum at the Skövde Kulturhus. The exhibition will open on this Thursday (14th of December) at 17h00, and run until 18 March 2018.

Dan Halter left Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe’s major land reforms in the early 2000s and has since lived in South Africa. In his artistic practice, he often departs from his own experiences, where he is both carrying on the refugee’s absence and longing for his homeland while, as a white man, he also wrestles with questions about guilt and inherited privileges. He often works in various craft traditions with simple materials when he makes pictures and installations in which colonialism and its consequences are explored, and topics such as South Africa and Zimbabwe’s history and contemporary are dealt with alongside themes such as migration, national identity and borders.

Click here for more information.

Please note that the WHATIFTHEWORLD (CPT & JHB) will close on the 23rd of December 2017. The Cape Town gallery will reopen on the 8th of January 2018 with Athi-Patra Ruga’s exhibition – ‘Queens in Exile 2014–2017’, which will run until the 27th of January 2018.

Please contact mia@whatiftheworld.com should you require any urgent information.

Happy Holidays!

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Athi-Patra Ruga has been awarded the Seydou Keïta Prize (Grand Prize) of Les Rencontres de Bamako by the Malian Ministry of Culture. Ruga’s work is included in the Pan African Exhibition at the National Museum of Mali, as part of the Rencontres de Bamako/ biennale africaine de la photographie which will run until the 31 of January 2018.

The selected artists – as witness bearers and agents for change for Africa – have been invited to examine the transformations of the modern world and possible new developments for the continent. By means of the various projects chosen, this collective exhibition showcases the scope of possibilities and unprecedented freedom of the artists in depicting the world for us. The project is similar to what Achille Mbembe has called “the memory’s poetic output”: a work of reassembly in the present, producing meaning. Through their great diversity of approaches and visual languages, the 40 artists and collectives generate alternative narratives about Africa that build new bonds with the past, shed light on the present and open up perspectives for the future. After Bamako, the 11th Rencontres will be shown in the Netherlands in April 2018 in partnership with the Museum of World Cultures.

For more information on the awards click here and for more information on the biennale click here. 

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Cameron Platter will exhibiting a new body of work at blank projects in his solo exhibition ZOL. The exhibition will open this Thursday (19 October) at 10 Lewin Street, Woodstock.

Incorporating aspects of sculpture, drawing, video, collage, poetry, tapestry, and web, Cameron Platter’s practice appropriates and filters, in a highly personal and idiosyncratic way, the enormous volume of information available today. Blurring the distinction between high and low, his eclectic and multi-disciplinary approach to art making, typically draws from sources as disparate as fast food, art history, photography, psychedelics, landscape, advertising, therapy, collage, and consumerism.

Click here for more information. 

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Athi-Patra Ruga will be particapating in the Nordwind Festival 2017 in Germany. Ruga will be performing on the 9th of November at 8.15pm at the silent green Kulturquartier (without Tanya Tagaq) and in December in Hamburg at Kampnagel – Internationales Zentrum für schönere Künstel

In his performance The BEATification of Feral Benga, Athi-Patra Ruga will carry out the BEATification of the cabaret artist and dancer Feral Benga, who saw himself as the male equivalent of Josephine Baker. Combining pictures of the Cabaret Nègre in Berlin in the twenties and performances by the two dancers, the question of which images nations and nationalism depend on will be critically explored. In a celebration that switches between exoticism, its parody and ecstasy, Ruga will unite both artists in himself and, in a ritual full of dystopian energy and dark power, allow the audience to take part in a dance it will not be able to resist losing itself in.

Click here for more details.

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Mohau Modisakeng is included in PERFORMA 17, with his performance ‘Zion’.

For Zion, Modisakeng choreographs a street procession of twenty dancers, each one carrying an array of personal possessions, various pieces of baggage, and furniture via an exodus choreography of walking, running, jumping, falling, leaning, and sitting—enacting the blistered legacy of segregation, violent displacement, colonialism, and apartheid coursing through South African history. Occupying himself with the consequences of his compatriots’ exploitation, this performance acknowledges both the grief and catharsis of a population subject to the machinations of violence, forced migration, and subjugation.

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce its participation in 1-54 London 2017 from the 5-8th of October at Somerset House (Strand, London, WC2R 1LA). We will be exhibiting a group presentation (Room CR30) including new works by Dan Halter, Mohau Modisakeng, Lakin Ogunbanwo, Athi-Patra Ruga, and Buhlebezwe Siwani.

Opening Hours.
Thursday 5 October: 11:00 – 19:00
Friday 6 October: 11:00 – 19:00
Saturday 7 October: 11:00 – 19:00
Sunday 8 October: 11:00 – 18:00

Click here for more information.

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Michele Mathison, Mohau Modisakeng and Moffat Takadiwa are included in African Voices, a new exhibition at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe. The exhibition will run until the 31st of October 2017.

The exhibition’s main thrust is centered on confronting frontiers. It is time to take stock of the past and present by tapping into into social, cultural, economic and biogenetic transmutation realities that confront Africans daily. Questions stand: To whom does Africa belong? Whose Africa are we talking about? Where is our Being African? The legacy of colonialism has been so influential that we have lost who we are. Self­hate is seen as normal. The freedom of movement remains dream in the Africa that was envisioned by the nationalists decades ago. Decolonisation and the common passport remains another fantasy. As it stands, culture continues to feed from a ruptured world, and from a ruptured people.

For more information click here.

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Dan Halter and Pierre Fouché are included in the group exhibition You & I at The A4 Arts Foundation. The exhibition will open in conjunction with Gallery Night (hosted by Cape Town Art Fair) at 18h00 on Wednesday, 13 September. You & I will run from 13 Septmeber until 31 October 2017.

Click here for more information.

WHATIFTHEWORLD will be participating in (in association with Cape Town Art Fair) on Wednesday, 13 September, between 16h00 and 21h30. On the night we’ll be opening Mohau Modisakeng’s Solo exhibition – Passage, which will include a performance commencing promptly at 18h00. We will also be presenting a group exhibition titled ‘Every Anomaly’ including work by Lungiswa Gqunta, Dan Halter, Yashua Klos, Simphiwe Ndzube, Athi-Patra Ruga, Rowan Smith, Moffat Takadiwa, and Xhanti Zwelendaba.⠀

Shuttle Buses will run from 6-9 PM (every 15min) between all the participating venues.

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Sanell Aggenbach’s exhibition Bend to Her Will will travel to Johannesburg, to be exhibited in our gallery in Rosebank. The exhibition will open on the 6th of September 2017, and run until the 14th of October.

Please join us for the open on the 6th of September at 18h00 until 20h00.

WHATIFTHEWORLD
19 Keyes Avenue,
Trumpet, Keyes Art Mile
Rosebank, 2196
Johannesburg, South Africa
T. +27 (10) 594 5062

Please note that the Cape Town gallery will close for the annual winter break from the 12th of August until the 27th of August. We will reopen on the 28th of August with Pierre Fouché’s exhibition – ‘Vreesaanjaende Verligting’ which has been extended until the 2nd of September.

The Johannesburg gallery will close on the 19th of August and will be closed until the 28th of August. The gallery will reopen with Michele Mathison’s exhibition – ‘States of Emergence’ which has been extended until the 1st of September.

Please contact mia@whatiftheworld.com should you require any urgent information.

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Mohau Modisakeng and Athi-Patra Ruga are included in the Another Antipodes Inc Exhibition: Urban Axis taking place in Perth, Australia.

In an Australian first, Another Antipodes/urban axis exhibition project is poised to deliver the freshest of new art from Africa this winter in Perth and Fremantle and one of the largest African art exhibitions in the world this year. “Although there are a multitude of historical and cultural connections, Australia is yet to experience the richness of the African contemporary art movement, which has been taking the world by storm over the past several years.

“Like Australia, Africa is emerging from a colonial past to forge a new contemporary cultural identity, acknowledging the pain of the past and struggles of the present, but with eyes firmly on the future with courage, honesty and optimism.” Urban Axis lays the foundations for effective collaboration and artistic innovation across our two continents. Perth and Fremantle occupy a unique central place between Australia, Africa and Asia and together have the capacity to play a pivotal role in cultural exchange between these three regions,’ says Gerald Sanyangore, founder and co-curator.

The exhibition will present over 100 works by 44 Southern African artists, spanning all media from painting to video and performance, who assert themselves not just as important new voices in the world of art, but also important interlocutors for cultural engagement and dialogue between our two continents. Artists like Mary Sibande, Athi-Patra Ruga, Mohau Modisakeng and Larita Engelbrecht and others who have previously featured at MoMA NYC, Guggenheim Bilbao, Tate Modern and the Venice Biennale will headline the exhibition which is set to challenge Australian perceptions of African art.
Click here for more information on the exhibition. 

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Lungiswa Gqunta is exhibiting her solo project Poolside Conversations at KELDER Projects in London. The exhibition will open on the 5th of October at 18h30, and will run until the 17th of December 2017 at KELDER (Basement of Mercer & Co.,  26A Chapel Market, London N1 9EN)

Lungiswa Gqunta creates installations, sculptures and audio-visual work revealing the hidden structures that perpetuate the legacy of colonialism in South Africa as presented to us in the quotidian form of the suburban garden and the leisure activities that takes place there.

Poolside Conversations, the first solo presentation of Gqunta’s work in London, will be hosted by KELDER this autumn together with a programme of talks and events that further explore notions of decolonisation, landscape and protest.

Click here for more information. 

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Athi-Patra Ruga and Buhlebezwe Siwani are include in the Art/Africa, le nouvel atelier exhibition at Fondation Louis Vuitton.

Ruga and Siwani’s work will feature in the section titled Being There: South Africa, a contemporary scene.

A selection of artists born in the 1980s, whose works examine South African identity struggles in the aftermath of apartheid (from 1994 to the present), among them Jody Brand, Kudzanai Chiurai, Lawrence Lemaoana, Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi, Athi-Patra Ruga,Buhlebezwe Siwani, Kemang Wa Lehulere.

These artists each rely on a range of different media, such as installations, photography, painting, textile and video works, to critically revisit their countries’ past, focusing in particular on the history of colonisation. They also firmly anchor their work in the present day by asserting an identity that defies race, colour and gender.

For more information click here and here

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Buhlebezwe Siwani will be participating in  Documenta 14 with the artist collective iQhiya. IQhiya will be presenting two performances and installations titled  The Portrait (2016) and Monday (2017).

The Portrait is an endurance performance that speaks to the role forced upon Black women in society, referencing the tensions between suffering and violence.

The Portrait will take place at Athens School of Fine Arts (ASFA)—Pireos Street (“Nikos Kessanlis” Exhibition Hall), in Athens at 19h10 on  the  9th of April.

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Moffat Takadiwa and Mohau Modisakeng are included in the group exhibition Le Jour Que Vient in Paris. The exhibition will take place from the 28th of March until the 10th of June 2017 at Galerie Des Galeries, 1st floor, Galeries Lafayette, 40 BD, Haussmann, 75009 Paris

This exhibition designed by Marie-Ann Yemsi, offers an encounter with a brand new generation of artists from the African continent and its diasporas, some of whom are being exhibited for the first time in France. Cosmopolitan artists fully in touch with the changing world, with a clear-sighted freedom, they are playing with multiple registers and drawing on a range of art forms, including painting, drawing, video, photography and sculpture. Featuring Igshaan Adams, ruby onyinyechi amanze, Clay Apenouvon, Yesmine Ben Khelil, Julien Creuzet, Frances Goodman, Bronwyn Katz, Lebohang Kganye, Banele Khoza, Lawrence Lemaoana, Mónica de Miranda, Turiya Magadlela, Mohau Modisakeng, Emeka Ogboh and Moffat Takadiwa, this artistic journey through critical, dense and promising creative expression invites us to transform the way in which we see and perceive things. Although the exhibition cannot be seen as a mapping of contemporary creative pursuits on the African continent, it does reflect the reality of the circulation of ideas, cultures, and objects, as well as individuals and their migration. Artists show us their vision of the world which lies ahead, as they imagine it.

Opening hours :
From Tuesday to Saturday
11am – 7pm
Free entrance

Click here for more information.

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce it’s participation in Art Paris 2017. The fair will take place from the 30th of March to the 2nd of April at the Galeries Nationales, Grand Palais in Paris. We will be presenting a solo booth (C8) of photographic and video works by Mohau Modisakeng.

Hours.
Thursday 30st March / 11.30am – 8pm
Friday 31st March / 11.30am – 9pm
Saturday 1st April / 11.30am – 8pm
Sunday 2nd April / 11.30am – 7pm

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce its participation in the fifth edition of  Cape Town Art Fair, with a group presentation by artists Mohau Modisakeng, Dan Halter, Athi-Patra Ruga, Sanell Aggenbach,  Michael Taylor, and Buhlebezwe Siwani (Booth C4).

The Cape Town Art Fair is taking place from 17 – 19 February at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC).

Opening times are as follows:

Friday: 11h00 – 19h00
Saturday: 11h00 – 19h00
Sunday: 11h00 – 19h00

Click here for further information 

Please note that WHATIFTHEWORLD will be closed from the 25th of December for the Christmas and New Year season. The gallery will reopen on the 3rd of January 2017 or by appointment.

Happy Holidays!

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Stellenbosch University Woordfees have selected Athi-Patra Ruga as the 2017 Festival Artist, and will be presenting a retrospective exhibition of tapestries, video, and photograph works at the SU Woordfees 2017. The exhibition will run from the 3rd until the 12th of March, with a performance taking place on the 4th of March, and an artist walkabout on the 5th of March.

Click here for more information.

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Dan Halter and Siwa Mgoboza have been included in the The Third Nanjing International Art Festival in China. Historicode: Scarcity and Supply opens on the 12th of November 2016 and will be on show until the 12th of February 2017.

Regardless of your viewpoint regarding the contemporary, it would be connected with your view of the Renaissance, because we have not completely emerged from Ruskin’s era, given that we still use the internal combustion engine and petroleum remains the main source of energy and may remain so for many years yet. A discussion of the correctness or otherwise of these two viewpoints is meaningless, because it would be swept aside in one fell swoop by Hegel’s dialectic. Yet in terms of observable facts, the whole of Asia is gradually reversing Ruskin, and for the last thirty years, an Asia that has seemed like a somewhat frozen world has become reactivated and is trying to establish new classical standards of beauty and excellence. Of course, the most recent situation is mainly attributable to the rise of China.

Click here for more information

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce its participation in Untitled Art Miami Beach 2016 with a solo presentation by Paul Edmunds (Booth B46).

Untitled Art Miami Beach is taking place from 30 November – 4 December at Ocean Drive and 12th Street, South Beach, Miami.

Opening times are as follows:
Wednesday, Nov 30, 11am–7pm
Thursday, Dec 1, 11am–7pm
Friday, Dec 2, 11am–7pm
Saturday, Dec 3, 11am–7pm
Sunday, Dec 4, 11am–5pm

Click here for more information. 

Athi-Patra Ruga has been invited to give a series of lectures hosted by the University of Michigan’s Penny Stamps Speaker Series.

Titled “Queens in Exile,” Ruga’s lecture will come first to the MOCAD, on Friday, Nov. 4, from 7-10 p.m. The following Thursday, Nov. 10, he’ll be making his official Penny Stamps Speaker Series presentation at University of Michigan, and finally Friday, Nov. 11 at Bona Sera, 200 W. Michigan Ave. in Ypsilanti.”

Penny Stamps Distinguished Speaker Series is a lecture series established by the University of Michigan School of Art & Design. With the support of A&D alumna Penny W. Stamps, the Stamps Series presents visionary leaders who use their creative practice effectively. It celebrates those who transcend tradition and are progressive and influential with their work. Speakers are a range of emerging and established artists and designers from a broad spectrum of media.”

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Mohau Modisakeng will be presenting a solo exhibition hosted by the Laumeier Sculpture Park, at the Whitaker Foundation Gallery in St. Louis, Missouri, USA.

Laumeier presents an indoor multimedia exhibition by South African artist Mohau Modisakeng in the Whitaker Foundation Gallery at the Adam Aronson Fine Arts Center, November 5, 2016–January 29, 2017.

Mohau Modisakeng’s exhibition is the second project organized in collaboration with Mark Coetzee, Founding Executive Director & Chief Curator, Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA), Cape Town, that explores issues of Truth & Reconciliation from two distinctly different historical perspectives.

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WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Mohau Modisakeng has been selected to represent South Africa, along with Candice Breitz, at the South African Pavilion in the 57th Venice Biennale.

The South African Department of Arts and Culture has appointed Connect Channel to organise the South African pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017. It is a pleasure to announce that Candice Breitz and Mohau Modisakeng will represent South Africa at the world’s most prestigious contemporary art event. Breitz and Modisakeng will present a major, two-person exhibition in the South African Pavilion, running from 13 May to 26 November 2017 in Venice, Italy.

Christine Macel, Artistic Director of the 57th International Art Biennale, has outlined a curatorial framework emphasising the important role artists play in inventing their own universes and injecting generous vitality into the world we live in. In response to the Biennale’s theme, the South African Pavilion exhibition will invite viewers to explore the artist’s role in visualising and articulating the notion of selfhood within a context of global marginalisation. What is it to be visible in everyday life, yet invisible and disregarded at the level of cultural, political or economic representation? Placing new works by Breitz and Modisakeng in dialogue, the exhibition will reflect on experiences of exclusion, displacement, transience, migration and xenophobia, exploring the complex socio-political forces that shape the performance of selfhood under such conditions.

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WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Mohau Modisakeng, Lakin Ogunbanwo, and Siwa Mgoboza are included in the seventh LagosPhoto Festival. ‘Rituals and Performance: Inherent Risk’ opens on the 22nd of October, and runs until the 21st of November.

The act of posing as a repetitive act that constructs an image or images which morph into an idea or identity is an act of courage for both the subject and photographer. The concept of the ‘decisive moment’ is a gamble in the sense that other constructs are neglected in its determination.

LagosPhoto 2016 explores the role of acts of repetition that shape gender, image, identity, social agency, power and social constructs in contemporary society. The repetitive acts imbued with belief become coercive and normative. It shapes our general idea of what is true in determining an African image, gender, religion, beauty, social class and so forth. Michel Foucault’s (1980) conception on the transmissions and representations of power not just in its ability to contain and control but in its ability to enable individuals to function within cultural roles and allows for alternative self-definitions and self-presentations. Contemporary visual representations directly affect the cultural meanings associated with image construction and interpretation.

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WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that  Athi-Patra Ruga will be performing a collaborative piece titled Over the Rainbow –  at the 2016 Performa Gala in New York. Beloved Country’ will feature a special tribute to the power of the visual arts and performance in South Africa in honour of renowned curator Okwui Enwezor on the 1st of November 2016.

New York—Performa announces its fall 2016 gala, Beloved Country, to honor acclaimed curator, museum director and writer Okwui Enwezor. The special celebration will take place on November 1, 2016 in New York City and will pay tribute to the rich history and power of the visual arts and performance in South Africa. In advance of this occasion, Performa announces its curatorial investigation and research program focused on Kenya, Morocco, Senegal and South Africa which will serve as one of the major components of the Performa 17 biennial. Beloved Country is co-chaired by Richard Chang, Wendy Fisher, Rashid Johnson, Toby Devan Lewis, Shirin Neshat, and Cindy Sherman.

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The award is accompanied by a grant of R100 000, and is awarded to a young artist who has critical acclaim but limited resources to realize the full potential of their work.

Previous winners include: Wim Botha, Churchill Madikida, Mustafa Maluka, Zanele Muholi, Nicholas Hlobo, Paul Edmunds, Sabelo Mlangeni, Serge Alain Nitegeka, Ian Grose, Kemang Wa Lehulere, Portia Zvavahera and Mawande Ka Zenzile

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Dan Halter will be included in the group exhibition 100 Geographies, at the Stellenbosch Museum. The exhibition, hosted by the SSAG (Soceity of South African Geographers, will take place 29 September to 21 December 2016. The reception will take place at 18h30 on 29 September, at the Stellenbosch Museum, 52 Rynerveld Street, Stellenbosch.

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Castle in the Air is Lyndi Sales’ second solo exhibition at Circa Gallery in Johannesburg.

This new body of work exists at the interface of art and rationalism, reason and wonder. Working with hand-woven textiles, sculptural installation and collage, she uses the “basic building blocks of the universe” as a departure point for her artistic enquiry.

Whilst located in a scientific register – an interrogation of the properties of light or the cold crystalline structure of chemicals – this original departure point is refracted through the lens of art and infused with a deeply personal aesthetic sensibility. Conceived symbiotically, Sales’ surprising melding of art and science take on new and curious configurations. For Sales, it is wonder that binds art and science in mutually beneficial exchange.

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WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to introduce the launch of its new gallery space in Johannesburg, in collaboration with Southern Guild.

The gallery is located at Trumpet, 19 Keyes Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg.

This collaboration of contemporary art and collectible design presents a strong focus on leading artists and designers from Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal and South Africa.

Gallery operating hours are as follows:
Tues. – Fri. : 10h00 – 17h00
Sat. : 10h00 – 15h00

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Dan Halter has been included in ENERGY FLASH – The Rave Movement at the Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen.

Rave culture from the 1980s and 1990s was Europe’s last big youth movement. During this period of radical social and political change, rave, in its various guises, migrated around the continent from its epicentre of Great Britain, Belgium and Germany. As a movement, it enacted a desire to be autonomous, with a belief in tolerance and experimental living, all built around the latent energy of electronic music. As a music-based culture, it embraced self-practice, invention and unbridled creativity, arguably leading to the densest period in history for the diversification of music. Energy Flash will be the first museum exhibition for considering rave, as well as the social, political, economic and technological conditions that led to the advent of rave as an alternative movement across Europe. It will look at the ideologies as well as the aesthetics of rave, along with its effects on wider culture.

The exhibition opens on 17 July, and will run until 25 September 2016 at M HKA, Leuvenstraat 32, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium.

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WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Lakin Ogunbanwo is included in the exhibition ‘Dey your Lane!’ as part of ‘Summer of Photography 2016’ in Brussels.

‘Dey your Lane!’ is a typical Lagos expression for ‘mind your own business’. When you realise that Lagos is one of the fastest growing cities in the world, with a population of over 18 million, you can imagine this phrase comes in handy. With photography, video and soundscapes, the exhibition depicts the individualistic and creative dynamic generated by the huge city. See how the inhabitants of this megalopolis appropriate the public space and make their personal and collective ambitions come true. This exhibition is accompanied by a great selection of Nigerian cinema, literature and contemporary dance.

The exhibition, curated by Azu Nwagbogu (director Lagos Photo), will take place from 17 July until 04 September 2016 at the BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts, Rue Ravenstein 23, 1000 Bruxelles, Belgium.

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WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce Lefa La Ntate, an exhibition of work by Mohau Modisakeng as part of his 2016 Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Visual Art. The exhibition takes place at the Monument Gallery in Grahamstown during the National Arts Festival 2016. The exhibition will run from 30th June until the 10th July 2016.

The exhibition then travels to numerous locations around South Africa towards the end of the year, as well as into early 2017. Exhibition venues include; the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum, Port Elizabeth; IZIKO South African National Gallery, Cape Town; the Johannes Stegmann Art Gallery, University of the Free State; the Tatham Art Gallery, Pietermaritzburg; and the Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg.

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Athi-Patra Ruga presents the newly conceived performance ‘The Decimation’ as part of the ‘An Age Of Our Own Making’ Performance Festival which is held from the 25-26 June 2016 in Roskilde Denmark.

‘An Age of Our Own Making’ is an exhibition project in three parts, the first part in Holbaek. The project examines the human and material life and circulation and the tracks they put themselves in environments worldwide. The exhibition is part of the nationwide art program IMAGES 2016.

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Mohau Modisakeng will be opening a solo exhibition, Bophirima at Tyburn Gallery, London, UK from 10 June to 17 September 2016.

His new work’s title, Bophirima, is from the artist’s mother tongue Setswana, meaning ‘West’ or ‘where the sun sets’, but can also be interpreted as ‘twilight’ or ‘before dusk’.

The series reflects on his own personal experiences of growing up in Apartheid and Post-Apartheid South Africa, with central themes which revolve around violence, labour, security and ritual.

Originally trained in sculpture, Modisakeng uses the technique of the self-portrait – through large-scale photographs, performance and video installations – to mediate on his own identity and the political processes within his country.

The artist uses his body to explore the influence of South Africa’s violent history, allowing his body to represent a marker of collective history.

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Lakin Ogunbanwo’s latest series of photographs will form part of the group exhibition Nataal: New African Photography at Red Hook Labs in New York. The group show, which runs from 7 to 15 May 2016, features six contemporary photographers from Africa and its diaspora. The works of the selected artists, both emerging and internationally recognised, express the diversity of narratives informing the continent’s rich visual language today. The exhibition explores multiple themes that challenge accepted notions of belonging and identity; the everyday and the fantastical; the past and the future; the public and the private.

A debut curatorial collaboration between Red Hook Labs and global media platform Nataal, the show encompasses documentary, fashion and portrait photography. Through the lens of these rising talents, we hope to tell universal and inspiring stories that traverse 21st century Africa and beyond.

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WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce Michael Taylor’s second solo exhibition at M Contemporary in Sydney Australia. The exhibition titled Jungle Husband will be on display from 7 to 29 May 2016.

In his portraits, Taylor explores notions around masculinity, selfhood, and personal mythology. Themes of disillusionment, escapism, solitude, and longing, were important for the artist’s own interpretation of Stevie Smith’s poem, of which the paintings are based on. Contradicting the idealized image of a husband, this character represents an antihero for Taylor.

Taylor’s jungle husband is alone in his wilderness, except for the company of an imaginary friend, and the occasional appearance of the devil. Dressed confidently, he seems familiar and at ease with the nature of things in his private world. He is, in Taylor’s depiction, the jungle’s husband.

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WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce the participation of Mohau Modisakeng and Moffat Takadiwa in the group exhibition When Tomorrow Comes.

When Tomorrow Comes is currently on show at the Wits Art Museum in Johannesburg until the 29th May, after which it will move to the Michaelis Galleries in Cape Town from 11 July to 5 August. Other exhibiting artists include Jane Alexander, Willem Boshoff, Steven Cohen and Michael Macgarry amongst others.

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that works by Dan Halter and Mohau Modisakeng will be exhibited, alongside other works from the Reydan Weiss Collection, at the Weserberg Museum in Germany. The exhibition, I Prefer Life marks the occasion of the 25th Anniversary of the founding of the Weserberg Museum.

I Prefer Life will run from 20 May until 26 November 2016

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Dan Halter forms part of the Rennie Museum’s permanent collection and current exhibition titled  Winter 2015: Collected Works – a major group exhibition featuring 41 prominent and emerging artists. The exhibition, which runs until 20 May 2016, brings together a variety of practices and media and aims to reveal the chaos of the world by addressing enduringly pertinent issues, from migratory displacement to an in-depth examination of identity and history.

Rennie Collection is a leading collection of contemporary art that focuses on issues related to identity, social commentary and injustice, appropriation, and the nature of painting and photography. While based in Vancouver, the collection is usually spread across the globe, on loan to institutions such as MoCA Los Angeles, the MET, Centre Pompidou and Tate Modern, among many others.

Rennie Museum opened in October 2009 in historic Wing Sang, the oldest structure in Vancouver’s Chinatown, to feature art from Rennie Collection. The dynamic exhibitions, showcasing works by artists from around the world, are open free to the public through engaging guided tours. The Museum’s commitment to providing access to arts and culture is also expressed through its education program, which offers free age-appropriate tours and customized workshops to children of all ages.

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Mohau Modisakeng’s new solo exhibition titled ENDABENI  is currently on show at Galerie Ron Mandos in Amsterdam. ENDABENI, which opened on the 17th of February, is Modisakeng’s first solo exhibition in The Netherlands and will be on until the 2nd of April.

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WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce its participation in The Armory Show 2016 with a solo presentation of work by Dan Halter (Booth 550). The Armory Show will take place from 3 – 6 March at Pier 94 in New York.

Dan Halter’s work engages with empire and the continued impact of colonialism on the African continent. Through sculpture, assemblage and woven text, he examines the vestiges of the colonial experience as lived through exile and migration. Originally rooted in his experience as a displaced Zimbabwean, Halter looks at the mobilisation of large sections of the global population and the underlying economic and political forces that have precipitated these migrations. Halter uses the language of craft and curio ubiquitous to his native Zimbabwe to literally weave together unexpected paradigms and comment, on amongst other things, the growing presence and economic influence of China in resource rich African countries. Halter’s work is a response to global current events and a wry analysis of the continued ramifications of historic exploitation and the failure of the post-colonial state.

Dan Halter was born in Zimbabwe in 1977. In addition to five solo exhibitions Halter has participated in numerous group shows including US at the Iziko South African National Gallery, curated by Simon Njami, Zeitgenössiche Fotokunst aus Südafrika at the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (NBK), 2009 Havana Biennale and Earth Matters at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington DC. He has completed four international residencies, in Zürich, Rio de Janeiro, Scotland and Turin. Recent exhibitions include Brave New World…20 Years of Democracy at the Iziko South African National Gallery and The Original is Unfaithful to the Translation at WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town. Dan Halter lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa.

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Michele Mathison’s debut solo exhibition at Tyburn Gallery (London) titled Uproot will be on show from 5 February until 19 March.

Through the manipulation of various materials, Mathison transforms everyday objects into charged artistic declarations. Informed by his own migratory experience, living primarily in South Africa and Zimbabwe, his sculptures and installations form a visual language commenting on both the personal and political. Together, the works in the exhibition form a conversation on themes of labour and migration, a visual narrative of Sub-Saharan Africa’s collective concerns.

Tyburn Gallery is located at 26 Barrett Street, London W1U 1BG.

Please note that WHATIFTHEWORLD will be closed over the Christmas and New Year season. The gallery will however be open on the following dates:

• Tuesday, 29 December & Wednesday, 30 December.

WHATIFTHEWORLD will reopen on the 5th of January 2016 or by appointment.

Happy Holidays!

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Nico Krijno will be participating in the group exhibition Romantik at August Produzentengalerie, Cologne, Germany. The exhibition runs from the 26th November until the 6th December 2015.

Romance – What it is capable of, where are its limits?

There is the thesis, that romance is displaced by the humans putative need to be in control of everything that happens in their lives, which causes a lack of passion, mysticism and thirst for adventure. Theoreticians raise the question of whether romance is in ultimate danger or if it nevertheless finds its way into society in new appearances and if so, what does it look like nowadays?

In the exhibition we want to show the artists views on what romance looks like to them, what they think about traditional forms and new possibilities of being romantic, where they (don’t) see romance and if they either have a emotional or rational way of dealing with it.

August Produzentengalerie presents the group exhibition ‘Romantik’ with works by: Daniel Angermann, Lukas Höh, Ralf Garbe, Nico Krijno, Frauke Schneider, Timo Schmidt, and Helmut Smits

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WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce the inclusion of Pierre Fouché and Athi-Patra Ruga in the group exhibition Queer Threads curated by John Chaich, and organised by the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art.

Twenty-six artists from around the world remixing fiber traditions and materials to explore contemporary LGBTQ identities and ideas.

The exhibition opens at 5pm, 11 December and runs until 13 March 2016 at the Decker Gallery, MICA, 1301 W. Mount Royal Avenue, Baltimore, MD, 21217

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WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that artist Mohau Modisakeng wins the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for 2016.

“Bringing visual art to the table is Soweto born Mohau Modisakeng. Known primarily as a sculptor, Mohau is a multidisciplinary artist who has ventured into film, installation, performance, and large-scale photographic prints.

A Masters graduate from UCT’s Michealis School of Fine Art, he has racked up a considerable number of exhibitions both locally and internationally as well as receiving the Sasol New Signatures Award in 2011.

Mohau’s work highlights the position of the black body situated in the violent context of South Africa’s past and present. It explores how we understand our own socio- political and cultural roles as human beings in the country. A perfect example of the type of art that Mohau creates is his sobering and poignant video piece Inzilo (isiZulu for ‘mourning’ or ‘fasting’) where he makes use of his own body to enact a mourning ritual. Recently, Mohau has worked on public performances and interventions, and his work may soon be moving towards the theatrical.”

Mohau Modisakeng was born in Soweto in 1986 and lives and works between Johannesburg and Cape Town. He completed his undergraduate degree at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, Cape Town in 2009 and worked towards his Masters degree at the same institution. His work has been exhibited at the Museum of Fine Art, Boston (2014); 21C Museum, Kentucky, Massachusetts (2014); IZIKO South African National Gallery, Cape Town (2014); Saatchi Gallery, London (2012); and the Dak’Art Biennale, Dakar (2012). Public Collections include the Johannesburg Art Gallery, IZIKO South African National Gallery, Saatchi Gallery and Zeitz MOCAA.

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WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Athi-Patra Ruga’s debut performance It is Only in the Black of Night That You Can See the Stars will take place from 3-5 November at Theatre National De Chaillot in Paris, France.

This performance will form part of the Lumières d’Afriques initiative.

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WHATIFTHEWORLD and Zeitz MOCAA are pleased to announce that Michele Mathison’s installation Harvest will be presented at the Zeitz MOCAA Scheryn Pavilion. Originally previewed at the exhibition Dudziro in the Zimbabwean Pavilion, Venice Biennale 2013, Harvest opens on 7 November (12pm – 8pm) and will run until 17 January 2016. Entry is free and open to all.

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Mohau Modisakeng will be participating in the group exhibition DIS/PLACE at the Museum of Contemporary Diasporan Arts (MoCADA) in Brooklyn, NY. The exhibition opens on Saturday, 17 October and will run until 17 January 2016.

Displacement, or a state of being rooted in uprootedness, is a consequence of colonial conquest in Africa and the Americas that has come to frame dominant perceptions of diasporic identity and nationhood. DIS/PLACE maps the somatic, psychological and infrastructural violences of displacement in the contemporary African Diaspora from the perspectives of those living in its throes. Through material and contextual inquiries into objects ranging from firearms to fruit, the collection of works by Aisha Tandiwe Bell, Kudzanai Chiurai, Mohau Modisakeng, Valerie Piraino, Sable Elyse Smith and Ralph Ziman render visible the power relations produced by and through displacement, and the innovative strategies that transform even its most foreboding effects into dynamic and grounding cultural formations.

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WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Pierre Fouché’s work is included in Crafted: Objects in Flux at the Henry and Lois Foster Gallery (Gallery 158), Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

This group exhibition, which runs until 10 January 2016,  is the first of its kind within an encyclopedic museum to explore the broad possibilities of contemporary artistic engagement with craft. By examining these interactions in proximity to historical examples in the MFA’s collection, Crafted demonstrates the vitality, viability, and variety inherent in choosing craft as a foundation for contemporary artistic practice.

Crafted explores this moment of “flux” in the field, focusing on contemporary craft-based artists who bridge cutting-edge concepts and traditional skills as they embrace and explore the increasingly blurred boundaries between art, craft, and design. Featuring a selection of works from across the landscape of contemporary craft, the exhibition includes more than 30 emerging and established international artists. Looking to a broad range of materials and practices, the exhibition explores the connections between craft and performance; the opportunities provided by new technologies and materials; and the power of rethinking craft’s interactions with architecture and space.

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WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Sanell Aggenbach was selected as the festival artist for the 2015 Aardklop festival.

A solo exhibition of Aggenbach’s work, titled Atopia, will be presented at the North-West University in Potchefstroom from 5  – 10 October 2015.

Through this presentation of a new series of paintings and scukptures, Aggenbach renews her ongoing interest in new botanical ‘hybrids’ and the Japanese artform of Ikebana.

Aggenbach is firmly rooted in South Africa, yet also grounded in a Western contemporary art practice whose members do not have territorial boarders, but often roam between hosting cities. As a whole, the artist uses these contradictions to create extraordinary works that are not necessarily of any specific place, which is a central concept of Atopia (meaning a placessness or ‘a place without borders’). Drawn to the formal language of Ikebana which embody a sense of balance, restraint, formality, spirituality and intuition, Aggenbach has produced a series of large botanical-like sculptures and paintings that are at the same time delicate, peculiar and playful. 

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that artists Dan Halter, Michele Mathison, Mohau Modisakeng, Lakin Ogunbanwo, Athi-Patra Ruga,  and Moffat Takadiwa are participating in ‘Broken English’ at Tyburn Gallery, London.

The ‘Broken English’ group exhibition is the Tyburn Gallery’s inaugural exhibition and will be on display from 18 September to 28 October 2015.

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In Situ Gallery, presents the exhibition A Land Without A People… For A People Without A Land by WHATIFTHEWORLD artist Athi-Patra Ruga. The exhibition runs from 10 September until 31 October 2015 at In Situ, Paris, France.

Azania is a borderless country, one without geography. “A Land without a People for a People without a Land”. Azania is a utopian region characterized by fantasy, resistance, affirmation and frivolity. A kingdom for outcasts seeking refuge or a stage to express themselves. A region adorned with tropical colors, which is populated by characters whose identities are in a state of transformation. Athi Patra-Ruga constructs, through protean writing, a universe where South African and odd aesthetic traditions meet, where ancestral mythologies are a part of festive artifacts, with cheap accessories and an irresistible insouciance.

For further information click here

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Athi-Patra Ruga is featured as the first icon on Season 3 of 21 Icons which will be showcased on SABC 3 this Sunday, 6 Septmeber at 19:27.
21 Icons is the next generation of South African leaders, influencers and role models exploring these creative and exceptional young people’s lives who are shaping our future.

Watch a preview of Athi-Patra Ruga’s interview here

For further information about 21 Icons click here

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Nico Krijno will be participating in the group show re:GROUP – A Visual Collaboration with Nico Krijno, Roelof Petrus van Wyk & Dokter and Misses.

When Art, Architecture and Design collide in a massive mashup celebrating spring break. A selection of works from Krijno’s most recent exhibition, New Gestures: Fabricated to be Photographed, courtesy of WHATIFTHEWORLD, will also be on view.

re:Group will run from 03 September until 30 September 2015 at Dokter and Misses in Braamfontein, Johannesburg

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WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Nico Krijno’s book New Gestures: Fabricated to be Photographed (2015); designed by Ben Johnson, has been shortlisted for The Unseen Dummy Award 2015.

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Please note that WHATIFTHEWORLD will be closed from the 15th of August until the 1st of September.

Please contact mia@whatiftheworld.com should you require any urgent information.

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that artists Bogosi Sekhukhuni and Athi-Patra Ruga will be participating in The Film Will Always Be You: South African Artists on Screen at the TATE Modern in London, UK.

This exhibition, curated by Zoe Whitley and Abrie Fourie, forms part of SA-UK Seasons 2014 – 2015 and the screenings will be presented from 10 -12 July 2015. 

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Athi-Patra Ruga Presents The Elder of Azania a work that is part of his ongoing performance series The Future Women of Azania. First performed at the Yerba Buena Centre/SFMOMA in 2014 and at the Venice Biennale in 2015 this performance will enjoy its first continental premier at the Grahamstown National Arts Festival.

The Elder is a new addition to the avatars that populate Athi-Patra’s practice and like his predecessors The Elder is a spiritual figure that straddles two identities that seem at loggerheads with their own meanings and roles. The Elder is both King and Trickster and in this work he is rendered a being and non-being through the various acts of the The Future Women of Azania who slip in and out of space.

Drawn from both classical Greek and Roman accounts of Southern Africa and an activists’ dreams of a pre- and post-apartheid black African utopia, Azania occurs as a state in flux.

The performance has elements of video (work credited to Ben Johnson) and it is driven by music arranged by Nicholas Van Reenen. The piece as is a study in absurdist procession, revolt and the National myth.

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce its partnership with Artsy.

Follow WHATIFTHEWORLD on Artsy to keep up to date with upcoming exhibitions and art fairs.

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WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Athi-Patra Ruga will be participating in the group show AFRICA: Architecture, Culture and Identity at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art.

This exhibition, which will run from 25 June to 25 October 2015, is the third chapter in Louisiana’s major series Architecture, Culture and Identity. In 2011, the museum unveiled the first chapter – NEW NORDIC – and in 2012, it turned attention toward the Arab world with the ARAB CONTEMPORARY exhibition. Finally, the trilogy’s third chapter focuses on sub-Saharan Africa.

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The Johannesburg Pavilion and WHATIFTHEWORLD are pleased to announce a performance by Athi-Patra Ruga on 5 May 2015 at the Bauer Hotel, Venice. The performance is co-hosted by the Bauer Hotel, Blain Souther and 154 Art Fair as part of the Johannesburg Art Pavilion programme.

The Johannesburg Pavilion is curated in memory of the final Johannesburg Biennale curated in 1997 by Okwui Enwezor, the current and first African, Director of the 56th Venice Biennale 2015. Initiated by a collective group of artists, writers and curators, the project encapsulates the spirit of the expansive and mythical African city of Johannesburg, both in its provocative title as a non-official ‘city pavilion’, and as a temporary intervention in the everyday urban fabric of the city of Venice.

Click here for further information on The Johannesburg Pavilion

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce its participation in the 2015 Cape Town Art Fair (Booth A11). The gallery will be presenting a selection of works by artists Cameron Platter, John Murray, Maja Marx, Rowan Smith and Lakin Ogunbanwo. The Art Fair will take place from 26 February to 1 March at the Avenue, Dock Road at the V&A Waterfront.

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WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that an installation of Athi-Patra Ruga’s work is currently on show at the I.T Beijing Market, Comme des Garcons store in Beijing.

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WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Cameron Platter has been confirmed as the 2015 Artist in Residence at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA).

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Nico Krijno’s book, Synonym Study made the shortlist for the The Paris Photo Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards 2014.

Krijno’s book is self-published, with support from the 133 Arts Fund and has been shortlisted under the First Photobook category. The book is also part of a travelling exhibition that visits New York, Tokyo and Melbourne.

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WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that Lakin Ogunbanwo has been recognised as one to watch for 2015 by the British Journal of Photography in their annual Ones To Watch edition.

Out of the 300 emerging photographers nominated in the annual survey of global talent, Ogunbanwo was placed on the Top 25 Photographers for 2015 list.

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WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce Athi-Patra Ruga as the 2015 Winner of the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Performance. The Standard Bank Young Artist Award is arguably the most prestigious accolade to be awarded in South Africa, and is given to young South African artists who have demonstrated exceptional ability in their chosen fields. Designed to encourage the recipients in the pursuit of their careers, a key aspect of the awards is that they guarantee the artists a place on the main programme of the next National Arts Festival. In addition to a cash prize, each of the winners receive substantial financial backing for their Festival participation, whether this involves the mounting of an exhibition or the staging of a production.

Ruga’s performance pieces are a combination of processions and interventions, using the procession as a way in which to extend and deepen communication with the audience. Ruga’s most recent and ambitious work titled The Future White Woman of Azania is an ongoing series of performances engaging new definitions of nationhood in relation to the autonomous body. Other themes in Ruga’s works are the interrogation of utopic ideals and rhetoric, racial ideologies and the body as a communicative tool.

Recent performances include The Founding Myth staged for the opening of the South African Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale; The Elder of Azania commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art San Francisco and YBCA as part of the exhibition Public Intimacy; and Next Future hosted at the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon Portugal.

We would like to congratulate Athi-Patra Ruga and his studio for this well deserved award and extend our thanks to the patrons and supporters of his work who have been instrumental in allowing us to realise this ground breaking performance work.

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WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that the works of artists Dan Halter, Cameron Platter, Athi-Patra Ruga and Pierre Fouche are on display at the Iziko South African National Gallery. These artists’ work form part of the latest exhibition at the Iziko South African National Gallery entitled Brave New World…20 Years of Democracy, which will be on show from 3 July to 1 November 2014.

The exhibition commemorates this major milestone through a selection of works from ISANG’s Permanent Collection, acquired between 1994 and 2014.

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to announce that the works of Dan Halter and Rowan Smith will be on show at the START Art Fair (booth 7.2) in London, UK.

The inaugural START Art Fair presented by Prudential is held at the Saatchi Gallery in London from 26 – 29 June 2014. The fair is dedicated to supporting international galleries from both the world’s most exciting emerging markets, and established artistic centres.

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Over the weekend of 10 and 11 May 2014, four WHATIFTHEWORLD artists will be exhibiting their work at the NIROX Foundation Sculpture Park in Johannesburg. Cameron Platter, Michele Mathison, Rodan Kane Hart and Daniella Mooney will all be showcasing some of their latest sculptures as part of The 2014 Mastercard Winter Sculpture Fair, situated in the Cradle of Humankind.

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Dan Halter’s work will be on show as part of an exhibition titled Earth Matters: Land as Material and Metaphor in the Arts of Africa at the Fowler Museum at the University of California (23 April – 14 September 2014).

The exhibition features more than one hundred exceptional works of art from the 19th–21st centuries, including powerful ritual sculpture and masks as well as paintings, photographs, videos, and sculpture by forty-one internationally recognized and emerging contemporary artists from the continent and its diasporas. Earth Matters invites us to consider the earth as a sacred or medicinal material, the site of mining and burial, a source of inspiration, and an environment in need of protection.

The photograph by Athi-Patra Ruga entitled Night of the Long Knives I is the cover image for the March 2014 edition of Art South Africa magazine. Anal Beads

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