Phokela set to subvert at Zeitz MOCAA

SOUTH African painter Johannes Phokela will be hosting an exhibition at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA).

Titled Only the Sun in the Sky Knows How I Feel: A Lucid Dream, the exhibition marks nearly a decade since the artist’s last institutional show.

The exhibition, which includes a select survey of his oeuvre from the last three decades, will showcase an installation of archival material encompassing books, letters, photographs, visual references and drawings that provide insight into the artist’s process and practice.

Senior curator Storm Janse van Rensburg says they used Phokela’s concerns with pictorial traditions and images as tools to explore and critique social mores and corrupt value systems in the aftermath of the empire.

“Phokela’s vision is of a world history drenched in the spoils of violence. His sardonic and at times nihilistic take on current affairs and the state of things holds a mirror up to us.

“Despite lushly painted surfaces and allegory, Phokela’s medium is not the message; his painting is a subversive tool in an intellectually rigorous practice that provokes the viewer,” says van Rensburg.

Executive director and chief curator Koyo Kouoh, who co-curated the exhibition, explains that this exhibition is also to remember Phokela’s contribution to the arts industry.

“It’s an important moment for us to consider Phokela’s decades-long contribution to the artistic vocabulary of the continent. His searing visual talent makes palpable the contradictions and ironies of our moment.

“We celebrate him and his unrelenting commitment and intellectual engagement with his subject matter. He inscribes our history into the timline of the world in an uncompromising manner,” says Kouoh.

As the cherry on top, Zeitz MOCAA will be hosting a public opening from 6pm to 8pm on October 28. The public event will be limited to 100 visitors, and all Covid-19 protocols will be in place. Tickets can be purchased via Webtickets.

The exhibition will run from October 28 to May 29 next year.

Phokela is a 55-year old Sowetoborn painter who studied Fine Art at the University of the Arts in London.

He obtained a Master’s degree from the Royal College of Art in 1993 and has been painting ever since.