20 April 2023
Arts and culture
Celebrate African art through curation, culture and connection
Multi-disciplinary artist, curator and cultural broker Nkhensani Mkhari sees art collecting as a 'research-based practice' and curation as a 'spatial and atmospheric practice' that supports collectors by involving them in the world of creativity itself. It's a new approach locally, but Mkhari and the Latitudes Online team are not averse to exploring new avenues.
'I work with people to produce amazing things, promote new material cultures, generate new ideas and ways of looking at things, to support a joy of discovery for our audience and our collectors,' Mkhari, Production Manager at Latitudes, told RMB Private Bank. Above all, he is passionate about putting exciting young artists on the map.
Like Mkhari, RMB Private Bank draws inspiration from the arts and, as such, is an avid patron of the creative economy. From RMB Starlight Classics to the RMB Turbine Art Fair and the Art@First pop-up exhibition, the consistent thread running through our bank's support of creative endeavours is to help unlock and develop the diversity of talent that exists in the continent's visual arts, dance, music and theatrical spheres.
Finding the right canvas on which to showcase such talent requires creativity on its own, one that recognises how the energy exchange in appreciating art is sometimes served by a large, international biennale-type exhibition and other times through small, bespoke opportunities to engage directly with artists in a location that amplifies a work of art's best attributes. RMB Latitudes 2023 offers the best of both worlds.
What is RMB Latitudes 2023?
The new RMB Latitudes 2023 art experience is an example of an intimate networking opportunity which marries traditional art fair booths, galleries and curators with exuberant access to emerging talents, allowing buyers and the public to connect directly with artists and galleries. The unique indoor-outdoor event takes place at Shepstone Gardens in Mountain View, Johannesburg from 26-28 May.
'Exhibiting at Shepstone Gardens is a dream,' says Mkhari, noting that the location enabled the Latitudes team to create flows and achieve a distinct exhibition effect. 'I think Shepstone Gardens lends itself to that kind of practice within curation. The environment is such a fabulous atmosphere and then bringing art into that space just elevates it to another level.'
For art collectors, the end result is an exhibition experience which feels like a gallery exhibition at an art fair. 'I find this very comforting, it's not as scattered as an art fair would be and there is a sense of convenience in having all this art, from all over the world, in a single place,' says Mkhari, singling out INDEX, an exciting component of the event which highlights the work of independent artists.
'All of these young artists are raising our flag high and are a big part of unfolding South African art history. They have the potential to go into the history books,' believes Mkhari.
While the event puts artists at the forefront of the experience, it is the backstory to RMB Latitudes 2023 that highlights another sort of artist, a curator whose personal brand of hybrid, multi-disciplinary creativity has skilfully combined global best practice with a uniquely African perspective.
In conversation with RMB Private Bank, Nkhensani Mkhari explains how merging storytelling and technology, connection and discovery can create a space in which both investor and artist can find their true expression.
A personal voyage
Born and raised in Pretoria, Mkhari studied information design at the University of Pretoria after his dream of studying fine arts was crushed following a freak accident that made it hard for him to even hold a paintbrush. Fortunately, his chosen degree included a course on visual culture studies, which explored the history of cinema and visual culture. He fell in love with cinema and, after university, he enrolled at the Open Window Institute in Pretoria to study film. This opened doors to a position at BKhz gallery, which houses the work of Banele Khoza, the renowned visual artist from Eswatini whose work is celebrated for its reflective and personal nature.
'Initially we were a pop-up, and we were only supposed to exist for three months, showcasing Banele's solo exhibition. We decided to wing it and see if we could actually operate a gallery. It seemed like we were good at it, and we had an audience. So, as time went by I went from being a designer and a gallery assistant to being a curator,' Mkhari recalls of a two-year journey which opened doors to working with independent and emerging artists.
It was during these formative years that he developed a unique and strategic curatorial approach that showcased established and emerging artists side by side, thereby exposing collectors to fresh and different perspectives. This was the first step towards him becoming a cultural broker, rather than a curator in the recognised sense of the word.
'Curation, for me, sort of speaks to the museological,' he explains, referencing the tenets that underpin museum organisation and management. 'But a lot of the work that I do seems more cultural.'
Mkhari continued to develop this personal philosophy at the A4 Arts Foundation, a non-profit laboratory for the arts located in District Six, Cape Town. In this experimental space, he was able to run his own projects in a transdisciplinary manner that encouraged cross-sector collaboration between artists and creative thinkers in a variety of other fields, such as architecture, biology and anthropology. By encouraging an open exchange of ideas, 'we could find commonalities, we could find intersections between all these myriad of possibilities', recalled Mkhari, noting that even computer-generated imagery and artificial intelligence were on the table.
A passion for merging spaces, ideas and artistic methods was born, further cementing Mkhari's credentials as a cultural broker. Time spent beyond South Africa's borders - as he furthered his studies in Seattle and undertook curation projects in Berlin and Cape Town - allowed Mkhari to develop his thinking into co-emergence, which he describes as the idea of how our universe operates in binaries and how this plays out within the concept of African-ness. He explains: 'In his book The Invention of Africa, VY Mudimbe wrote about this framework called Africa. And when I go to Europe they say I come from Africa, not South Africa, but our cultures and countries are so vastly and radically different. There is something very wrong with this vision, especially when it comes to how people view art in Africa - they put us all into the same box and that doesn't give room for nuance.'
It isn't just Africa that battles this monolithic overview, he adds, but artists in countries as diverse as Brazil, the UK and the US.
It was an opportunity to answer these assumptions and delve more into addressing co-emergence that lured Mkhari back to Johannesburg, to take up a position with Latitudes. 'I jumped at it,' he recalls. 'Latitudes was just up my alley, they are an online art market and a lot of my work has to do with technology, so I felt I could make a real contribution.'
A merging of minds
Mkhari says that from first contact his vision was in sync with the Latitudes approach. 'When Latitudes co-director Lucy MacGarry and Ravi Naidoo (founder of Interactive Africa) first called me I was in Europe working as a consultant, I had just been to the Venice Biennale, Art Basel and the Liste Art Fair Basel in Switzerland,' he recalls. 'Lucy and Ravi told me they wanted RMB Latitudes to have a biennale feel. I'm quite sentimental and nostalgic and the idea of bringing back the Johannesburg Biennale sparked something in me. I want to create a space where people could share memories and have fun while experiencing really beautiful art.'
Mkhari was excited by the opportunity to prompt artists and art institutions to enter into a debate about co-emergence, by inviting exhibitors to create artworks that echo each other and explore the commonalities and differences.
The end result is an event which promises provocation while spotlighting the quality of art coming out of Africa in recent years. 'There is a bloom happening,' believes Mkhari, making special mention of the captivating black portraiture which is finding a complex and exciting expression in the work of illustrator turned-artist Terence 'Tako' Maluleka. He also singles out the likes of Lebogang Mogul Mabusela, Gaelen Pinnock, Jody Brand, Thokozani Mthiyane, Bulumko Mbete, Phillip Newman and Benjamin Salvatore; all of whom are part of the RMB Latitudes 2023 line-up. Creating a space that was curatorial but also embraced the collective consciousness of the creative was exciting for Mkhari, who describes the approach as a 'totally different model' and one that enables all the elements to work 'in chorus with each other'.
'I work with people to produce amazing things, promote new material cultures, generate new ideas and ways of looking at things, to support a joy of discovery for our audience and our collectors,' Mkhari, Production Manager at Latitudes, told RMB Private Bank. Above all, he is passionate about putting exciting young artists on the map.
Like Mkhari, RMB Private Bank draws inspiration from the arts and, as such, is an avid patron of the creative economy. From RMB Starlight Classics to the RMB Turbine Art Fair and the Art@First pop-up exhibition, the consistent thread running through our bank's support of creative endeavours is to help unlock and develop the diversity of talent that exists in the continent's visual arts, dance, music and theatrical spheres.
Finding the right canvas on which to showcase such talent requires creativity on its own, one that recognises how the energy exchange in appreciating art is sometimes served by a large, international biennale-type exhibition and other times through small, bespoke opportunities to engage directly with artists in a location that amplifies a work of art's best attributes. RMB Latitudes 2023 offers the best of both worlds.
The new RMB Latitudes 2023 art experience is an example of an intimate networking opportunity which marries traditional art fair booths, galleries and curators with exuberant access to emerging talents, allowing buyers and the public to connect directly with artists and galleries. The unique indoor-outdoor event takes place at Shepstone Gardens in Mountain View, Johannesburg from 26-28 May.
'Exhibiting at Shepstone Gardens is a dream,' says Mkhari, noting that the location enabled the Latitudes team to create flows and achieve a distinct exhibition effect. 'I think Shepstone Gardens lends itself to that kind of practice within curation. The environment is such a fabulous atmosphere and then bringing art into that space just elevates it to another level.'
For art collectors, the end result is an exhibition experience which feels like a gallery exhibition at an art fair. 'I find this very comforting, it's not as scattered as an art fair would be and there is a sense of convenience in having all this art, from all over the world, in a single place,' says Mkhari, singling out INDEX, an exciting component of the event which highlights the work of independent artists.
'All of these young artists are raising our flag high and are a big part of unfolding South African art history. They have the potential to go into the history books,' believes Mkhari.
While the event puts artists at the forefront of the experience, it is the backstory to RMB Latitudes 2023 that highlights another sort of artist, a curator whose personal brand of hybrid, multi-disciplinary creativity has skilfully combined global best practice with a uniquely African perspective.
In conversation with RMB Private Bank, Nkhensani Mkhari explains how merging storytelling and technology, connection and discovery can create a space in which both investor and artist can find their true expression.
Born and raised in Pretoria, Mkhari studied information design at the University of Pretoria after his dream of studying fine arts was crushed following a freak accident that made it hard for him to even hold a paintbrush. Fortunately, his chosen degree included a course on visual culture studies, which explored the history of cinema and visual culture. He fell in love with cinema and, after university, he enrolled at the Open Window Institute in Pretoria to study film. This opened doors to a position at BKhz gallery, which houses the work of Banele Khoza, the renowned visual artist from Eswatini whose work is celebrated for its reflective and personal nature.
'Initially we were a pop-up, and we were only supposed to exist for three months, showcasing Banele's solo exhibition. We decided to wing it and see if we could actually operate a gallery. It seemed like we were good at it, and we had an audience. So, as time went by I went from being a designer and a gallery assistant to being a curator,' Mkhari recalls of a two-year journey which opened doors to working with independent and emerging artists.
It was during these formative years that he developed a unique and strategic curatorial approach that showcased established and emerging artists side by side, thereby exposing collectors to fresh and different perspectives. This was the first step towards him becoming a cultural broker, rather than a curator in the recognised sense of the word.
'Curation, for me, sort of speaks to the museological,' he explains, referencing the tenets that underpin museum organisation and management. 'But a lot of the work that I do seems more cultural.'
Mkhari continued to develop this personal philosophy at the A4 Arts Foundation, a non-profit laboratory for the arts located in District Six, Cape Town. In this experimental space, he was able to run his own projects in a transdisciplinary manner that encouraged cross-sector collaboration between artists and creative thinkers in a variety of other fields, such as architecture, biology and anthropology. By encouraging an open exchange of ideas, 'we could find commonalities, we could find intersections between all these myriad of possibilities', recalled Mkhari, noting that even computer-generated imagery and artificial intelligence were on the table.
A passion for merging spaces, ideas and artistic methods was born, further cementing Mkhari's credentials as a cultural broker. Time spent beyond South Africa's borders - as he furthered his studies in Seattle and undertook curation projects in Berlin and Cape Town - allowed Mkhari to develop his thinking into co-emergence, which he describes as the idea of how our universe operates in binaries and how this plays out within the concept of African-ness. He explains: 'In his book The Invention of Africa, VY Mudimbe wrote about this framework called Africa. And when I go to Europe they say I come from Africa, not South Africa, but our cultures and countries are so vastly and radically different. There is something very wrong with this vision, especially when it comes to how people view art in Africa - they put us all into the same box and that doesn't give room for nuance.'
It isn't just Africa that battles this monolithic overview, he adds, but artists in countries as diverse as Brazil, the UK and the US.
It was an opportunity to answer these assumptions and delve more into addressing co-emergence that lured Mkhari back to Johannesburg, to take up a position with Latitudes. 'I jumped at it,' he recalls. 'Latitudes was just up my alley, they are an online art market and a lot of my work has to do with technology, so I felt I could make a real contribution.'
Mkhari says that from first contact his vision was in sync with the Latitudes approach. 'When Latitudes co-director Lucy MacGarry and Ravi Naidoo (founder of Interactive Africa) first called me I was in Europe working as a consultant, I had just been to the Venice Biennale, Art Basel and the Liste Art Fair Basel in Switzerland,' he recalls. 'Lucy and Ravi told me they wanted RMB Latitudes to have a biennale feel. I'm quite sentimental and nostalgic and the idea of bringing back the Johannesburg Biennale sparked something in me. I want to create a space where people could share memories and have fun while experiencing really beautiful art.'
Mkhari was excited by the opportunity to prompt artists and art institutions to enter into a debate about co-emergence, by inviting exhibitors to create artworks that echo each other and explore the commonalities and differences.
The end result is an event which promises provocation while spotlighting the quality of art coming out of Africa in recent years. 'There is a bloom happening,' believes Mkhari, making special mention of the captivating black portraiture which is finding a complex and exciting expression in the work of illustrator turned-artist Terence 'Tako' Maluleka. He also singles out the likes of Lebogang Mogul Mabusela, Gaelen Pinnock, Jody Brand, Thokozani Mthiyane, Bulumko Mbete, Phillip Newman and Benjamin Salvatore; all of whom are part of the RMB Latitudes 2023 line-up. Creating a space that was curatorial but also embraced the collective consciousness of the creative was exciting for Mkhari, who describes the approach as a 'totally different model' and one that enables all the elements to work 'in chorus with each other'.