Exhibition, Atelier programme, and webinar series

Zeitz MOCAA presents a new research-based exhibition by Mary Evans and invites guests to experience Igshaan Adams’ Atelier residency, “Not Working (Working Title)” and the ongoing “When We See Us” webinar series.

Mary Evans: GILT
February 17, 2023–October 29, 2023

GILT is a solo exhibition by Nigerian-born, British artist Mary Evans. The exhibition title is a phonetic play on the words “gilt” and “guilt.” While the former refers to something that resembles gold laid on a surface, the latter suggests the feeling of inadequacy and, in the context of the Black experience, what may be a consequence of surviving the historical wounds of slavery, colonialism, apartheid and even late-stage capitalism. Evans subverts the idea of the resilient Black body and rather points to its fragility.

“Since 2019, Zeitz MOCAA has presented a considered programme of in-depth solo exhibitions that tell the stories of an essential part of contemporary art history from Africa and its diaspora. Inviting Mary Evans to be part of this narrative gives our audiences access to a multilayered engagement with the social, historical and aesthetics of Black visuality and iconography. We are also excited by the newly commissioned works that Evans offers in this exhibition, as they take into consideration both the South African context and that of her own lived experience as a British-Nigerian artist,” says Koyo Kouoh, Executive Director & Chief Curator at Zeitz MOCAA.

As part of GILT, Evans offers a new series of site-specific responses that are informed by a period of research and exploration in Cape Town, which she undertook in August 2022. In looking at the history and psychogeography of specific cultural and heritage sites in the city, Evans has conceived an installation that draws from the rich iconography of shared histories of resistance and resonance. 

GILT by Mary Evans forms part of an ongoing series of in-depth, research-based solo exhibitions by Zeitz MOCAA that bring into focus and contextualises the practices of important artists from Africa and the diaspora.

Curators: Koyo Kouoh and Thato Mogotsi, assisted by Khanyisile Mawhayi

Atelier: Igshaan Adams, Not Working (Working Title)
October 20, 2022–April 23, 2023 

Not Working (Working Title) is part of Zeitz MOCAA’s Atelier residency programme. The programme provides artists living and working in Cape Town with the opportunity to create new work, conduct research and develop ideas for future projects in a multi-gallery area on the museum’s second floor. 

As part of his residency, Adams foregrounds the people, practices and networks that are so intricately woven into his work. He works collaboratively and communally to produce increasingly complex and large-scale works, and the Atelier has provided him with a space to reconsider the routes of his practice and revive projects that have lingered in his storage for “not quite working yet.” He also explores the movement and dance traditions of Namaqualand, bringing performative aspects into his work through collaborations with the Garage Dance Ensemble.

Curators: Storm Janse van Rensburg and Beata America

“When We See Us” webinar series
March 29, 2022–September 5, 2023

Conceived by Zeitz MOCAA in collaboration with the Institute for Humanities in Africa (HUMA) at the University of Cape Town (UCT), the When We See Us webinar series is an online discursive programme that accompanies a major eponymous exhibition that opened at the museum in November 2022. The exhibition and its accompanying programming aim to unveil the deeper historic contexts and networks of complex and underrepresented artistic genealogies that stem from African and Black modernities and span several generations from the early 20th century to the present. 

The series is free and will take place via Zoom on selected Tuesdays through September 5, 2023. No registration is required. Speakers will be announced ahead of each upcoming session.

Zeitz MOCAA’s curatorial and exhibition programming is generously supported by Gucci.