Broomberg & Chanarin the Tate

The work of Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin has been included in the exhibition Conflict, Time, Photography showing at the Tate Modern in London until 15 March 2015. As featured artists on the exhibition, on 26 January Broomberg and Chanarin presented a unique performance throughout the galleries of Conflict, Time, Photography in collaboration with the youth organisation, the Army Cadet Force. Using Bertolt Brecht and Hanns Eisler’s unfinished opera War Primer as raw material, the performance responded to specific photographic works in this landmark exhibition through procession, poetry and military drumming. Titled War Primer 2, the one off event included the participation of 18 army cadets aged between 14 and 17.

Shield and Spear in Johannesburg

The documentary Shield and Spear directed by Peter Ringbom features the contemporary South African artists, musicians and critics notably Brett Murray and the Goodman Gallery’s senori Neil Dundas. Others include the BLK JKS, Zanele Muholi, Gazelle, The Brother Moves On, Yolanda Fyrus, Fokofpolisiekar, and The Smarteez. Commentary is also given by journalists and editors Ferial Haffajee, Iman Rappetti, Charl Blignaut,Lloyd Gedye and Milisuthando Bongela. The Johannesburg premiere will be held at the Bioscope on 26 February followed by a special appearance by the band The Brother Moves On. With public screenings from 27 February to 6 March.

William Kentridge Retrospective

The William Kentridge retrospective Fortuna curated by Lilian Tone in partnership wirth the Instituto Moreira Salles, the Foundation Ibere Camargo and the Pinacoteca do Estado de Sao Paulo moves to Mexico City’s Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo from March 14 to 26 June, and then to Museo Amparo, Puebla, also in Mexico, from 4 July to 4 October 4, 2015

Goodman at Cape Town Art Fair 2015

For the Cape Town Art Fair 2015 the Goodman Gallery presents works by dynamic and young artists that deal with concepts and themes specific to their time and place. Themes like dislocation after apartheid, violence, insider and outsider statuses and multiple identities. In this time of global conflicts we find artists negotiating the contemporary moment which includes navigating post national identities, the complexities of Diaspora and, in our context, Afropessimism. Artists shown on the Goodman Gallery booth include Carla Busuttil, Kudzanai Chiurai, Nolan Oswald Dennis, Jabulani Dhlamini, Hasan and Husain Essop, Gabrielle Goliath, Gerald Machona, Haroon Gunn-Salie, Mikhael Subotzky, and JessicaWebster.

Matthew Kentridge launches book on sibling William Kentridge

The book The Soho Chronicles: 10 Films by William Kentridge was written by the artist’s brother Matthew Kentridge about William Kentridge’s series of 10 Drawings for Projection (1989 – 2011). The book will be launched by the Goodman Gallery. The series of ten Soho films will be shown at the Labia cinema and there will be a discussion between the Kentridges and a book signing. On 28 February at 10am. The Johannesburg launch of the book takes place at Goodman Gallery Johannesburg on 3 March at 6pm.

Mounir Fatmi in Geneva

Mounir Fatmi’s Permanent Exiles is a mid-career retrospective bringing together 25 sculptures, installations and films produced since the opening decade of the millennium. According to the gallery statement the exhibition ‘tackles issues of discontinuity, physical and mental detachment and the vulnerability they cause.’ At the Musee d’art Moderne et Contemporaine in Geneva, Switzerland until 10 May

William Kentridge at the Cape Town City Hall

At the Cape Town City Hall, Design Indaba presents three performances of the chamber opera Refuse the Hour, a journey to the limits of science, ontology and cosmology with an international cast of eleven including dancers, musicians, performers and vocalists, with Kentridge himself and the dancer Dada Masilo at its centre. Refuse the Hour is the theatrical accompaniment to the five-channel film installation The Refusal of Time and the performance lay the groundwork for the installation that premiered at Documenta(13) in Kassell, Germany, in 2012. The performance was made by Kentridge in collaboration with the composer Philip Miller, video designer Catherine Meyburgh, choreographer Dada Masilo and scientist Peter Galison.
From 26 to 28 February.

All the World's a Stage: Works from the Goetz Collection

Banco Santander Foundation will present in its Santander Art Gallery from February 21, 2015 a performance of works by the most important collection of contemporary art in Germany, the Sammlung Goetz. The theme that serves as leitmotiv to the selection of works by Commissioner Karsten Lockemann is theater. Thus the title of the exhibition All the World’s a Stage. Works from the Goetz Collection, has been borrowed from a famous quote from William Shakespeare’s play “As You Like It” (As You Like It). The show is scheduled to showcase some of the most representative works of the German collection. A selection of 93 works by 27 artists, referring to the subject of theater and scenarios including all types of artistic media will be presented. Some of the artists that will be part of the exhibition are Matthew Barney, Janet Cardiff, Stan Douglas, Elmgreen & Dragset Jeff Wall, Ulrike Ottinger, Candice Breiz, Hans-Peter Feldman, Candida Höfer, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Hans Op de Beek, Michael Kunze, Mike Kelley, Jonathan Meese and Laurie Simmons, among others.

Candice Breitz premieres in Johannesburg

Treatment by Candice Breitz is exhibited for the first time in Johannesburg at Goodman Gallery as part of the group show Other People’s Memories until 26 February. FreePort [No. 008]: Candice Breitz is on exhibition at Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts until 1 March and Candice Breitz: Working Class Hero is exhibited at ZeitHaus Museum in Wolfsburg, Germany until 24 April. Candice Breitz: Treatment opens at the Kaufmann Repetto in New York on 28 February.

Opening: William Kentridge – Tapestries

The South African artist’s sketches turned trick film animations first moved the art world’s heart when he appeared on the international scene in the mid-1990s. His last show in the early 2000s here in Berlin was a milestone moment for our city in the development of Unter den Linden. This magical show, set in the backdrop of the homey space of Galerie Kewenig, will be a moment you take with you forever. Bring your MP3 player and some time to spend contemplating the political crying for the utopic home, ever present in this cycle of Kentridge’s works. Through April 18.

Candice Breitz videos at City Gallery Wellington

City Gallery Wellington is thrilled to present three clever and curious video works from acclaimed international artist, Candice Breitz. On show for the first time in New Zealand, from 28 March until 26 June, these spectacular multi-screen video installations explore identity and the way we are shaped by popular culture.

City Gallery Chief Curator, Robert Leonard, says, ‘Breitz is a world-renowned artist who uses familiar mass-media conventions as sources of amusement and insight. The show is a great chance to see three major works – including her latest, The Woods – representing different aspects of her thinking.’

King (A Portrait of Michael Jackson) (2005) is a multi-channel video installation that portrays the pop icon in his absence. Sixteen passionate Michael Jackson fans re-perform the Thriller album, sampling and remixing Jackson’s public persona in their own quest for individual expression.

In Factum (2010), Breitz edits interviews with identical twins and triplets, playing on similarities and differences in what they say and how they say it.

The Woods (2012) refers to three of the world’s largest film industries, Hollywood (US), Bollywood (India) and Nollywood (Nigeria). Traversing three continents, it explores the on-screen and off-screen personae of professional child actors and of adult actors who have become famous playing children.

Candice Breitz says, ‘I think of myself a little bit as a “translator”. I’m very interested in the cultures in which we grow up, the countries in which we grow up, the political system, the social system, the family system. I’m very interested in how we are shaped and sculpted by the very particular ingredients that make us who we are.’

Breitz was born in Johannesburg in 1972 and lives in Berlin. She has been a Professor of Fine Art at the Braunschweig University of Art since 2007. Her work can be found in the collections of Hamburger Kunsthalle (Hamburg), Museum of Modern Art (New York), and Fonds national d’art contemporain (Puteaux, France). Over the past decade, she has seen a steady rise in international recognition, including a slew of solo museum shows and participation in the biennials of São Paulo, Istanbul, Johannesburg, Singapore, Gwangju, Taipei, and Venice.

Candice Breitz is represented by White Cube (London), Kaufmann Repetto (Milan), and the Goodman Gallery (Johannesburg and Cape Town).

Goodman Gallery at Art Basel Miami Beach

The Goodman Gallery attends Art Basel Mail Beach from the 4th to 7th of December at the Miami Convention centre, exhibiting the works by Willem Boshoff, Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin, Mounir Fatmi, Kendell Geers, Alfredo Jaar, William Kentridge, Liza Lou, Mikhael Subotzky, Hank Willis Thomas and Jeremy Wafer. This year’s Art Basel Miami Beach’s Art Public sector features work by Goodman Gallery artists Jaar and Thomas while young artists Haroon Gunn-Salie and Gerald Machona both have work on the film sector. Tracey Rose will present a continuous performance piece in the Positions sector where she will be represented by Dan Gunn.

Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse are shortlisted for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2015

Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse are shortlisted for their publication Ponte City (Steidl, 2014) for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2015. The publication comprises 17 booklets containing essays and personal stories that complete a narrative of the well-known Johannesburg landmark. The annual award of £30,000 rewards living photographers, of any nationality, for a specific body of work in an exhibition or publication format, which is felt to have significantly contributed to photography in Europe between October 2013 and September 2014.

Subotzky & Waterhouse in Scotland

Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse’s photographic exploration of the changing fortunes of Ponte City, the tallest residential building in Africa, is exhibited at the Photography Gallery at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, from 6 December 2014 to 26 April 2015. The only scheduled showing of the Ponte City collection in the United Kingdom, the exhibition is accompanied by the Steidl publication Ponte City which was nominated for a Paris-Photo Aperture Foundation Photo book Award 2014.

Subotzky and Waterhouse nominated for Ponte City

Mikhale Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse’s photographic book Ponte City (Steidl) has been nominated for a Paris Photo-Aperture Foundation PhotoBook award for 2014. The shortlist for the award was announced by Todd Hido at the New York Art Book Fair on 26 September. Initiated in November 2011 by Aperture Foundation and Paris Photo, the Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards celebrate the photobook’s contribution to the evolving narrative of photography, with two major categories: First PhotoBook and PhotoBook of the Year. For this, their fourth edition, the Awards introduced a new third category: Photography Catalogue of the Year. Subotzky was nominated in 2011 for his book Retinal Shift (Steidl).

Tracey Rose and race theory in Mexico City

Work by Tracey Rose is included in the exhibition Theory of Colour, curated by Cuauhtemoc Medina at the Museum of the National University of Mexico until 7 February 2015. According to the curator’s statement the exhibition showcases contemporary art produced over the past decade that deals with racism from a diversity of approaches: “nationalism, scientism, homogenisation, exoticisation, colonisation, exploitation and sexualisation”. Her work will also be included in the group exhibition Body Talk: Feminism, Sexuality and the Body in the Work of African Women Artists, curated by Koyo Kouoh at WIELS Contemporary Art Centre, in Brussels, from 18 February 2015 until May 2015.

William Kentridge / Fortuna / opening Medellin 30 July 2014

William Kentridge’s first large-scale solo exhibition in South America, Fortuna, has been travelling since October 2012. This extensive retrospective – conceived in close collaboration with the artist and designed especially for this tour – highlights Kentridge’s unique artistic process rather than focussing on a particular theme. The exhibition features six to seven rooms or sections comprising works ranging from 1989 to 2012. The retrospective has travelled to Instituto Moreira Salles (IMS) in Rio de Janeiro, Fundaçao Ibere Camargo (FIC), Porto Alegre, Pinacoteca Do Estado De Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo. Museo de Arte del Banco de la Republica, Bogota. It will run at Museo de Arte Moderno, Medellin from 30 July to 03 November 2014.

Hank Willis Thomas / Africans in America

Goodman Gallery is pleased to announce Africans in America, a three-part project curated by Hank Willis Thomas. The focus of the project is on artists who are African immigrants or first generation Americans of African parents living in the United States. Africans in America will launch in 2015 and alternate between Goodman Gallery spaces in Johannesburg and Cape Town leading up to the Gallery’s 50th anniversary in 2016. Thomas is a photo-conceptual artist working primarily with themes related to identity, history and popular culture. He has a longstanding interest in the strains and connections between Africa, America and related notions of diaspora and home.

Ponte City | Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse

Rising 54 storeys high, Ponte City is the tallest residential building in Africa. Since 1975 this iconic structure has punctuated the Johannesburg skyline, originally offering cosmopolitan living for white South Africa. In the post-apartheid years the building became more integrated, with many people relocating from townships and recently it has become home for immigrants from other African countries. In 2007 developers planned a major refurbishment of the tower block; although the renovation began it was never completed—leaving the structure in a semi-destructed state, while tenants, those who had not yet been evicted or were simply squatting, still occupied flats in the block.

It was during this time period that the tower became the subject of a creative collaboration between South African photographer, Mikhael Subotzky and British artist, Patrick Waterhouse. They interviewed the remaining tenants and recorded the half-occupied building through a series of photographs and a collection of documents and other debris from the abandoned units. They began working at the monolithic block in 2007 and over the next five years they returned repeatedly to document the building: photographing every door in the multi-level structure and the view from every window; archiving the lives of the residents, from capturing what they were watching on TV to gathering discarded belongings. Cumulatively the work provides a cross-section of an iconic South African landmark that continues to symbolize the hopes and fears of the country’s most populous city, and in turn, this post-apartheid nation.

These images of Ponte City are featured in an exhibition that will open at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery on 6 December 2014 and will be the only UK showing. The exhibition is accompanied by the Steidl publication, Ponte City, which is nominated for a Paris Photo-Aperture Foundation Photobook Award 2014.

Mikhael Subotzky (b.1981) graduated with distinction from the Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town. He is an associate of Magnum Photographs and his work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the South African National Gallery, Cape Town and Victoria & Albert Museum, London. Patrick Waterhouse (b. 1981) graduated with a BA from the Camberwell College of Art in 2003. He works in different media including drawings, prints, photographs, and artist’s books. He has published a fully illustrated version of Dante’s Inferno.

The exhibition is organized by Le Bal, Paris and Foto Museum, Antwerp.

Various artists at the Walther Collection in Ulm

Distance and Desire: Encounters with the African Archive brings into dialogue various documents from the late-nineteenth and early twentieth-century and recent photographic and video work by contemporary artists engaged with photographic archives, to offer new perspectives on the legacy of anthropological and ethnographic visions of Africa. The exhibition, curated by Tamar Garb, is on view at the Walther Collection in Ulm, Germany until 2015, and features work by Candice Breitz, Kudzanai Chiurai, David Goldblatt, and Sue Williamson. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue published by Steidl.

Candice Breitz at Harvard and Peabody

Candice Breitz exhibits her work in a solo exhibition at Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, from 11 October to 1 March 2015. Her video installation The Woods explores how we create, define and perform identities in a world of mass media saturation by portraying the cinematic culture of three centres of global filmmaking – Hollywood, Bollywood and Nollywood. Group shows that include works by Breitz take place in October at Stockholm’s Färgfabriken (exhibition titled UrSenses) and at the David Winton Bell Gallery, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island (exhibition titled She). Breitz will be giving a talk on 6 October at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.