Bag Factory Artists' Studios | Making Sense Of The Same Story

Bag Factory Artist's Studio is delighted to present Nyakallo Maleke's debut exhibition in Johannesburg, titled Making Sense of the Same Story, curated by Boitumelo Makousu

This display is deeply rooted in restoring the fundamentals of drawing as an expressive form of communication that transcends language barriers, both in physical and fictional spaces. The exhibition aims to guide the audience through multi-layered fragments that explore the processes of making a drawing. Drawing serves as an alternative approach for understanding, processing, and conveying information. Abstract expressionism and materiality lens guide the exhibition space, facilitating an intricate and interactive encounter connecting the practice of drawing to personal, social, and collective experiences within space and movements.

In its undiluted form, Maleke's work fearlessly communicates vulnerability through the transformative language of materials, emotions, and actions. The exhibition encourages individuals to articulate their ideas, emotions, and observations through drawing, mark-making, reading, and play as powerful means towards self-discovery and connection with the world.

The actions of mark-making manifested in Maleke's work open up a layer that demonstrates the artist's willingness to investigate a concept and the physical act of using, for example, a pencil, charcoal, paintbrush, needle, and more. Each stroke, line and splash of colour corresponds with the artist's innermost feelings rather than conforming to predefined forms. It becomes a celebration of the raw and authentic connection between the artist and the canvas, a dialogue between the hand and the heart demonstrating the artist's willingness to experiment with techniques, using vivid yet arbitrary colours, reshaping forms, and defying conventional three dimensional perspectives.

This exhibition invites the viewer to delve into the layered spheres connected to intuition, mapping, improvisation, translation, and serendipity. It encourages us to embrace the unpredictability and uncertainty of the creative process, the moments of discovery that emerge through spontaneity and chance.

Maleke's work challenges us to step outside our comfort zones by bridging the gap between information and allowing ourselves to restore the intuitive acts of drawing, painting and mark making. A provocation of thought, emotion, a space for contemplation is created in Maleke's work, through activations, connects us more deeply with self and also strengthens our shared human experience.