Micha
Serraf
If
we
do
not
dream,
we
cannot
rest

Cape

Town

27 Mar - 19 Apr 2025

Goodman Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition of new work by Cape Town-based artist Micha Serraf. Marking a significant milestone, this is the first time a body of Serraf’s tapestries will be exhibited on the African continent.

If we do not dream, we cannot rest precedes Serraf’s upcoming solo exhibition at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in September 2025. It follows his participation in Marvellous Realism—the first and largest exhibition of African photography in Asia—at Fotografiska Shanghai, and his 2023 residency at Gasworks in London.

For Serraf, working in the dark symbolises resilience and adaptation in the face of difficult circumstances.

Micha Serraf, Exhibition, If we do not dream, we cannot rest, 2025

Micha Serraf’s tapestries emerge from his sculptural and drawing practices. His clay sculptures are created in complete darkness, using blackout curtains to eliminate light.

Guided by intention and a sense of ancestral or spiritual form, darkness becomes a critical element in his process—rooted in his experiences growing up in Zimbabwe and later moving to South Africa, both countries shaped by persistent power supply challenges.

He builds his figurative sculptures from the base upwards, allowing his eyes to slowly adjust to the limited light. This process results in bases that are rough and indistinct, gradually transitioning into more refined, recognisable forms toward the shoulders and head. The sketches of these sculptures are then incorporated into tapestry works, placed within landscapes drawn from memory, nostalgia, and imagination—depicting figures navigating or contemplating their surroundings.

“The figures and forms in my work shift between worlds, their presence neither fixed nor fleeting but in constant negotiation with time. Through the lens of my own odyssey as a young boy, familial tales become maps that guide me through histories I have never lived but somehow remember."

Installation Views

“In recontextualising displacement, I reconstruct a world where the unfamiliar becomes a place of return. My work is an assertion of joy, abundance, and belonging—each tapestry a conversation between past and present, between what is remembered and what is waiting to be recalled.”