Creator
Athi Mongezeleli Joja is an art critic based in Johannesburg, South Africa. A member of the art collective Gugulective, he is currently studying toward his MFA at the University of the Witswatersrand on the critical practice of late critic Colin Richards. His writing has appeared in publications such as The Mail and Guardian, Art Throb, Contemporary And (C&), Chimurenga Chronic, and Africanah.
The group exhibition at SMAC gallery, curated by Gcotyelwa Mashiqa, revisited the chromatic and social properties of blackness in contemporary South African visual art
We should be wary of taking theories of commitment and agency as self-evident; we should instead question their unspoken assumptions as we also question the motivations attendant…
Judy Ann Seidman’s retrospective shows the complicity of antiblack racism in the white left
A Black Aesthetics as being uninventive and politically questionable
Simphiwe Ndzube’s solo show in Cape Town offers no easy answers to deracinated utopias
There is much more to the way Jody Paulsen uses his palette in ‘Water Me’
The artist says our errors may give us the wisdom needed to confront these difficult times
Despite seeming flamboyant or childlike, the artist’s latest exhibition As If You Care tackles pertinent issues and shows his penchant for politic.
Athi-Patra Ruga’s National Arts Festival show brings to mind a neo-avant-gardist catwalk display or an opening act for Lady Gaga, writes Athi Joja.
Simon Gush’s latest exhibition interrogates the central role played by work in the construction and perception of our identities.
Now based in Berlin, South Africa’s ‘poet of street art’ is back home with an exhibition that signals his intent to keep ‘flipping’ the art world.
Photographer Cedric Nunn’s travelling exhibition puts the spotlight on the South Africa’s past that’s been neglected, distorted or forgotten.
Many of Kemang wa Lehulere’s signature items are present in his latest show, giving it a sense of being ongoing and transmuting.
An exhibition of works by well-known artists and newcomers at Gallery Momo liberates the viewer.
The award-winning duo have put together a thought-provoking exhibition highlighting society’s tendency to perceive Muslim men as one and the same.
The discourse about colour in art ignores the uncomfortable sociopolitical ramifications of race.
Wangechi Mutu’s depiction of the black female form explores current experiences and the way history and politics frame and shape that experience.
The images in Kings County question the sexuality, the banality of work and studio practice – the everyday routine of many artists.
Mohau Modisakeng’s work reflects on violence and race, not in an autobiographical sense, but in terms of black existentiality.
Jared Sacks’s distortions are compatible with the historical white left’s hegemony, writes Athi Mongezeleli Joja.
