Special Projects
INDEX: The orchid and the wasp: thin lines of becoming
With this particular exhibition, entitled The Orchid and The Wasp: Thin Lines of Becoming, the curatorial curiosity is in the meaning-laden words that build up worlds around us. This platform relishes in the contrast between the idealism of words, and the realism of practice. Independent artists – often positioned as existing on the periphery of the otherwise streamlined commercial art world – exhibit in a large-scale fair. Independent artists, almost connotatively boxed into an isolationism, exhibit in this group platform, negotiating together one space.
“In grappling with the disconnect between ideas and practices, collage becomes both a material and conceptual method through which to understand. In its unique practice of context extrapolation, it positions unrelated elements together, and beautifully forges new meaning in this juxtaposition. From this resolve-of-tensions, The Orchid and The Wasp: Thin Lines of Becoming, broadens an understanding of collage to include our family, our memories and our culture.” - INDEX curator, Denzo Nyathi
International Galleries Platform
Latitudes’ International Galleries Section provides a sustainable means for galleries and artists on the continent and in the diaspora to show in South Africa. The platform is supported by Project Advisory Committee members; Azu Nwagbogu, Valerie Kabov and Lucy MacGarry. The 2024 show, led by curator Nina Carew, showcases African-focused galleries from Botswana, Spain, Switzerland, Nigeria, Germany, Angola, Portugal, England, France and Uganda.
Artist Spotlight: Insaan: human being by Abdus Salaam Presented by THK Gallery in collaboration with Nirox and Latitudes
This solo exhibition features selected works by Abdus Salaam created over the course of six weeks in residence at Nirox during the month-long fast of Ramadan. The work ties together the land on which it was made, and its hominid remains, the nearby river and its polluted state, notions of our global environmental shortcomings alongside intimate and personal moments. It asks if perhaps love – or the reminder of it, being the essence of our being and therefore our sanctuary across multiple planes – might ease the anxieties, tensions, and personal fears that we project outwardly into the echo chamber of forgetfulness.
The ANNA Award: A solo presentation by Nada Baraka
Egyptian artist Nada Baraka is the winner of the 2023 ANNA Award, run by Latitudes. The aim of the award, which is sponsored by ANNA Pure Organic, South Africa’s first locally manufactured, environmentally friendly and organic feminine hygiene product range, is to discover, recognise and nurture a new generation of women-identifying artists from the African continent and the diaspora.
For both ANNA and Latitudes, it is crucial that the ANNA Award is as inclusive as possible. As such, no formal art training is required in order to apply, there are no age restrictions for applicants, and the competition is open to women-identifying artists working in any medium. Applications for 2024 are currently open, closing on 28 June.
threads by Kate Otten Architects
Created for La Biennale di Venezia, La Biennale Architecturra, this architectural installation, titled threads, tells a visual story of Johannesburg. It is a story about how gold came to be here, the mining thereof and the outcomes of this process, narrated by women through different weavings and readings that describe this long history.
Kate Otten Architects designed, crafted and drew the various parts of the piece and then worked closely with two creative collectives, namely The Herd Designs (exhibiting in the RMB Latitudes). This 3-dimensional, immersive space invites the viewer to experience the piece from above and below, from ‘inside’ and from ‘outside’ as one would any built work of architecture.
The Everard Read Sculpture Garden
For the 2024 edition of RMB Latitudes, Everard Read Gallery has curated a presentation of more than 20 outdoor sculptural works, set throughout the beautiful Shepstone Gardens. Of the decision to present sculpture, curator Stephanie Le Roy said the venue for the fair offered a strong prompt. “Shepstone Gardens provides a wonderful, almost other-worldly backdrop that seamlessly integrates art with nature, showcasing how sculpture can really shine outdoors.”
Be sure to browse the gardens to view works by Atang Tshikare, Brett Murray, Nicci Bailey, Githan Coopoo, Rina Stutzer, Michael MacGarry, Deborah Bell, Nandipha Mntambo, Gail Catlin, Norman Catherine, Guy Pierre Du Toit, Dylan Lewis, Brett Murray, Shany Van Den Berg, Jop Kunneke and Angus Taylor.
Nelson Makamo Studios at RMB Latitudes 2024
In September 2024, Nelson Makamo Studios and Latitudes will partner to host a groundbreaking retrospective solo show of the famed South African artist’s work. Taking place at Latitudes Centre for the Arts, the show will offer a rare opportunity for visitors to view decades of Makamo’s work, and to be taken on a journey of his prolific career. In the lead-up to this exhibition, Nelson Makamo Studios and Latitudes have curated a preview of the show, which can be viewed on the rooftop RMB Latitudes.
ESSAY: A showcase of artist couple, Wendy Vincent and Geoffrey Armstrong
This year, RMB Latitudes Special Project, ESSAY focuses on the work and artistic lives of artist couple, Wendy Vincent and Geoffrey Armstrong. Co-curated by Orlando Vincent Truter and Lucy MacGarry, this rare presentation brings together selected pieces from a body of work created over the past 25 years in the couple’s Magaliesburg Rock Garden in South Africa.
An innate rapport with the natural world is the heartbeat of works by artist partners and stewards of the earth, Geoffrey Armstrong and Wendy Vincent. Armstrong’s masterpieces sculpted from wood or choreographed with rocks, stones, wood and concrete reveal hidden forms and flows, elements of a symbiotic dance of discovery and revelation in an interconnected universe, where form evolves out of and dissolves into its milieu.
Everard Read Johannesburg Presents Lucinda Mudge x Frederic Malle
RMB Latitudes proposes a bespoke activation with 5 fragrances and 5 sculptural artworks by exciting South Africa artist, Luncinda Mudge. Presented in collaboration with Frederic Malle and Everard Read Gallery, the ceramic work of Luncinda Mudge will be exhibited alongside five fragrances at RMB Latitudes 2024.
Lucinda Mudge is a contemporary South African artist working primarily in the medium of ceramics. Mudge's extraordinary vases captivate the eye with their rich colours and intricate details. Yet beneath thier glimmering surfaces is a familiar world simmering with paranoia and tension. Both a visual and a socio political record, her collection of vases draws inspiration from a wide variety of references , inculding cartoons, pop songs, fabric designs and Art Deco vase patterns, resulting in whimsical collisions of the popular and refined, the mundane and elevated, the violent and the beautiful.
Modern Section by Strauss & Co.
Strauss & Co is pleased to present an exhibition of highly important South African modernist painters and sculptors working in the country and abroad for most of the 20th century at the 2024 RMB Latitudes Art Fair.
The focus is on back modernists such as Gerard Sekoto, George Pemba and Sydney Khumalo. The show demonstrates a shift from modernism to Contemporary African Art by including work by such artists as Nelson Makamo. These works will be auctioned at our premises at 89 Central Street, Houghton Estate on Tuesday 28 May.
