Unframed — In this episode, I chat with Lucy MacGarry - independent curator, arts advisor and Co-Director of Latitudes Online: a new online marketplace for contemporary art from Africa. In September 2019, MacGarry launched Latitudes Art Fair at Sandton City with partners Roberta Coci, Makgati Molebatsi, Nokwazi Zimu and Anthea Buys. Prior to this she has held positions as - the Curator of the South African Pavilion at the Venice Biennale; Curator of the FNB Joburg Art Fair; Curator of the Spier, Nando's and Hollard Collections and Gallery Director of David Krut Projects. She holds a Masters from Wits and an Honours from UCT's Commerce Dept. Latitudes Online launched on 15 July 2020. Go check it out on latitudesartfair.com Enjoy my conversation with Lucy MacGarry.

Unframed Podcast

EP32 / Interview: 'Latitudes Online' with Lucy MacGarry

Unframed — In this episode, I chat with new media artist and independent curator Brooklyn J. Pakathi. Brooklyn J explores the relationships we manifest with technologies, and through his practice, examines the formations of, enactments with and responses to those manifestations. Working within the fields of mixed realities at Johannesburg's TMRW, his practice merges into the collaborative nature of contemporary art-making centred around the use and inclusion of digital tools. TMRW, spelt TMRW, is a gallery space currently in Keyes Art Mile in Johannesburg and also, as The Mixed Reality Workshop, is a multidisciplinary arts and technology space that engages with the creation, development, production and dissemination of mixed reality art experience. TMRW currently has two virtual exhibitions on, which have emerged as a necessity during this COVID19 pandemic and national lockdown. View the exhibitions here: Refiguring Space: https://nationalartsfestival.co.za/show/refiguring-space-exhibition/ Coexistence: https://tmrw.art/coexistence Enjoy listening to my conversation with Brooklyn J. Pakathi and follow @brook_flowers on all social platforms.

EP31 / Interview: 'Digital Arts & Mixed Reality' with Brooklyn J. Pakathi

Unframed — In this episode, we listen to an online panel discussion hosted by VANSA, the Visual Arts Network of South Africa. At the beginning of June, VANSA hosted an online dialogue with arts practitioners whose practices span various disciplines. They shared their thoughts and experiences of this moment, their reflections on navigating precarity, how they are surviving creatively, and what new or different possibilities exist for us as a visual arts sector. The panel was hosted by VANSA director Refilwe Nkomo @flokomo, with panelists: Naadira Patel (Artist | Researcher | Designer | Project Manager | Sessional Lecturer) @studiostudioworkwork Mika Conradie (Curator | Researcher | Project Manager) @soft_wave Masimba Sasa (Photographer | Filmmaker | Lecturer | Trainer) @masimbasasa Thato Mogotsi (Curator | Scholar | Lecturer | Trainer) @mogotsi.thato

EP30 / Talk: 'Surviving Creatively' with VANSA Covid-19 Perspectives

Unframed — In this episode, I chat with Banele Khoza about his artistic and curatorial practice. This is the final episode in a series on Unframed called "Artists in Isolation” which profiles South African artists during the lockdown period of the COVID-19 pandemic. As we, in South Africa enter Level 3 of lockdown, we end this series but will continue producing content that keeps the art community connected and inspired. Banele Khoza (*1994) is a Swaziland-born and South African-based visual artist. He firstly enrolled at the London International School of Fashion in Johannesburg, but soon realized his passion was drawing. Khoza holds a BTechin Fine Arts from Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria. In 2017 he won the prestigious Gerard Sekoto Award and with it a three-month residency at the CitéInternationale des Arts in Paris. His solo exhibitions include Temporary Feelings at the Pretoria Art Museum (2016); Lonely Nights at Lizamore Gallery(2017) LOVE? at Smith Studio in Cape Town (2018). Khoza also headlined the solo exhibition titled LGBTQI+: Banele Khoza as part of the Curatorial Lab at Zeitz MOCAA (2018). In 2018 he curated A Letter to my 22 Year Old Self, a group show presented to launch his fundraising activities which will give grants to art students dealing with economic hardship at SA universities. In 2019 Khoza opened `'Seeking Love`' a museum touring show around South Africa and has been awarded the M&G 200 Young South Africans. Khoza is the co-curator with Nicole Siegenthaler of Art Joburg: Gallery Lab. Enjoy listening to my conversation with Banele Khoza.

EP 29 / Interview: 'Artists in Isolation' with Banele Khoza

Unframed — In this episode, I chat with Carly Whitaker about her artistic, curatorial and research practice. This is the 6th episode in a series on Unframed called "Artists in Isolation” which profiles South African artists during the lockdown period of the COVID-19 pandemic. We are living through unprecedented times, where we are needing to find new ways of connecting with each other and the broader art industry, of being inspired, and of creating more platforms for artists. Carly Whitaker is an artist, curator, researcher and lecturer based in Johannesburg, South Africa. She holds a BA Fine Arts and a MA in Digital Interactive. She has participated in numerous exhibitions at art spaces in Johannesburg, Freiburg, Casablanca, Miami and Sao Paulo. Her curatorial projects include Floating Reverie, an online digital residency programme, which has been running for over five years and Blue Ocean an online digital project space. She is interested in the positioning of this as artistic research and investigating how artists can develop a practice online. Through her own practice she engages in a constant exploration of how we communicate through media and the ways we use technology to create dialogues, form connections between ourselves and the digital space. Carly is currently extending her practice and research into new areas with her PhD at the University of Reading (UK) with a focus on curating and networked methodologies in South Africa. Enjoy listening to my conversation with Carly Whitaker.

EP28 / Interview: 'Artists in Isolation' with Carly Whitaker

Unframed — In this episode, I chat with Phumulani Ntuli about his artistic practice. This is the 5th episode in a series on Unframed called “Artists in Isolation” which profiles South African artists during the lockdown period of the COVID-19 pandemic. We are living through unprecedented times, where we are needing to find new ways of connecting with each other and the broader art industry, of being inspired, and of creating more platforms for artists. Ntuli is a Johannesburg-based artist who holds BTech in Visual Arts from the University of Johannesburg. In 2017, he completed a Master in Fine Art – in the Public Sphere in Switzerland. Ntuli’s work merges the ambit of artistic research, sculpture, video installations and performative practices, concerning the tensions between documentary and the archive, and fiction and imagined narratives.

EP27 / Interview: 'Artists in Isolation' with Phumulani Ntuli

Unframed — In this episode, I chat with Sandile Radebe about his artistic practice. This is the 4th episode in a series on Unframed called "Artists in Isolation” which profiles South African artists during the lockdown period of the COVID19 pandemic. We are living through unprecedented times, where we are needing to find new ways of connecting with each other and the broader art industry, of being inspired, and of creating more platforms for artists. Sandile is a Johannesburg-based artist whose main area of interest is art practice in both public and private spaces. He explores these spaces through simulating a new reading of graffiti and, more broadly, the way language works to help construct our realities. Sandile visualised graffiti in abstract sculptural forms and creates installations with these forms to create labyrinthine structures akin to walking in the city.

EP26 / Interview: 'Artists in Isolation' with Sandile Radebe

Unframed — In this episode, I chat with Mmbatho Grace Mokalapa about her artistic practice. This is the third episode in a series on Unframed called "Artists in Isolation” which profiles South African artists during the lockdown period of the COVID19 pandemic. We are living through unprecedented times, where we are needing to find new ways of connecting with each other and the broader art industry, of being inspired, and of creating more platforms for artists. Mmbatho Grace Mokalapa, born in Soweto in 1992, is a Johannesburg-based visual artist. She obtained a BA Fine arts degree in 2015 from the University of the Witwatersrand. After graduating, she became a recipient of a studio bursary at Assemblage Studios, funded by the African Arts Trust. Since that time she has been practicing as a full-time artist, and currently has a studio at August House in Johannesburg. Working in drawing, painting, sculpture, sound and video, her art practice is focussed on the subjective sublime experience of physical space, spacial voids, and how we engage with the idea of empty or other worldly spaces. Enjoy listening to my coversation with Grace.

EP25 Interview / 'Artists in Isolation' with Mmabatho Grace Mokalapa

Unframed — This is the second episode in a series on Unframed called "Artists in Isolation” which profiles South African artists during the lockdown period of the COVID-19 pandemic. We are living through unprecedented times, where we are needing to find new ways of connecting with each other and the broader art industry, of being inspired, and of creating more platforms for artists. On today’s show, I chat with Chloë Reid about her artistic and curatorial practice. Chloë Reid is an artist from Johannesburg. She is interested in everyday sociology and the relationship between reading, writing and artistic practice. She holds degrees from the Michaelis School of Fine Art and the Glasgow School of Art and was awarded a year-long fellowship at the Glasgow Sculpture Studios in 2018. She has exhibited and curated locally and internationally and produced two collections of very short fiction. In 2019 she established gallery, gallery with the aim of developing an embodied framework for artists, writers and curators that foregrounds collaboration and exchange. She is currently pursuing an MA in Creative Writing at Wits.

EP24 / Interview: 'Artists in Isolation' with Chloë Reid

Unframed — This is the first episode in a series on Unframed called "Artists in Isolation” which profiles South African artists during the lockdown period of the COVID19 pandemic. We are living through unprecedented times, where we are needing to find new ways of connecting with each other and the broader art industry, of being inspired, and of creating more platforms for artists. On today’s show, I chat with Io Makandal about her artistic practice. Io Makandal is an interdisciplinary artist based in Johannesburg. Working primary with drawing and installation, her practice is concerned with the processes of entropy, the binary between nature and artifice, living and dying, urban ecology and architecture and order and chaos. Makandal holds a BA Fine Art at Michaelis School of Fine Art, UCT in Cape Town (2010) and is currently a Masters candidate at Wits School of Art with Scholarship. Makandal has exhibited in group exhibitions both locally and internationally and has had two solo exhibitions in Johannesburg. Her work is a part of several private and corporate collections.

EP23 / Interview: 'Artists in Isolation' with Io Makandal

Unframed — The discussion will explore how these artists conceive of their practice and engage the public. MODERATOR: Lorenzo Fusi (Director/Curator Yerevan Biennial 2020, London) PANELLISTS: Kemang wa Lehulere (Artist, Cape Town) François-Xavier Gbré (Artist, Abidjan)

EP22 / Talk: ‘Artists in Dialogue: Kemang Wa Lehulere & François-Xavier Gbré’ at Cape Town Art Fair

Unframed — The panel examines the current and possible future model of art platforms and institutional spaces as self-sustainable entities. Challenges around sustainability for art platforms are well theorized and yet remains a question that most non-commercial entities grapple with. Competing for the same shrinking pot of funds and maintaining the intellectual autonomy of the projects while juggling the needs of the funder is a real challenge. How do we keep our doors open while occupying the space and practitioners that the museums and commercial entities do not reach? MODERATOR: Nkule Mabaso (Curator, Michaelis School of Fine Art, Cape Town) PANELLISTS: Premesh Lalu (Factory of the Arts, UWC) Georgina Maxim (Village Unhu Collective, Harare) Angela Shaw (Director of KZNSA, Kwa-Zulu Natal) Kabelo Malatsi (Independent Curator, Johannesburg)

EP21 / Talk: 'The Quest for Sustainable Art Platforms' at Cape Town Art Fair

Unframed — Traditionally art museums have functioned as a sanctuary, a place for meditation whilst also offering education. They have also been a cultural resource contributing to the economic engine that has strengthened local businesses through cultural tourism. In recent years, this model of museums as a shrine to history has been rethought particularly with an interest to dramatically increase audiences of every kind, whilst also recognizing the role technology plays in everyday lives. It is said that museums have gone from, “being about something to being for somebody”. Such a shift in perspective has raised many questions about what was and could be a museum in the 21stcentury. This panel will explore the various ways museums respond to pressures and challenges of the coming decade. MODERATOR: Tumelo Mosaka (Curator, New York) PANELLISTS Adriana Rispoili  (Independent Curator, Italy) Koyo Kouoh (Dir. Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town) Sonia Lawson (Dir. Palais de Lomé, Lomé) Nana Oforiatta-Ayim (Founder and director of ANO Institute of Contemporary Arts, Accra) (text courtesy of Investec Cape Town Art Fair)

EP20 / Talk: ‘Museums in the 21st Century’ at Cape Town Art Fair

Unframed — Episode 19 is a very special and important one to me - with my friend and colleague Louise van Der Bijl. In 2010, Louise and I co-founded Assemblage, a non-profit artist-run organisation, which aimed to provide support, education and networks for emerging artists. After 9 years of hosting many workshops, peer mentoring sessions, exhibitions and studio spaces - all of which encouraged community, sharing, collaboration and professional practice for hundreds of artists - Assemblage has decided to close its metaphorical doors. In this episode, Louise and I reflect on how and why Assemblage started, our failures and successes, the ever-changing Johannesburg arts landscape and our ultimate decision to close the organization.

EP19 / Interview: '9 Years of Assemblage' with Louise van der Bijl

Unframed — This episode is another recorded talk from the art fair week in September of this year, 2019. It was recorded at Art Joburg and is a conversation about the great and influential David Koloane who passed away at the age of 81 in June this year. I was so happy to hear that this talk was happening at Art Joburg, as I was planning an episode remembering the life and work of David Koloane. Both speakers, art historian and curator Thembinkosi Goniwe and Goodman gallery curator Justin Davy, worked intimately with David in the last few months of his life, pulling together his prolific and profound body of work for a major retrospective exhibition. Fortunately, David was able to see the first incarnation of the exhibition at Iziko National Gallery in Cape Town in June this year but sadly would not live to see its second incarnation at the Standard Bank Gallery in Johannesburg which opened just last week and runs until 6 December. Thank you to Art Joburg for allowing me to record this talk and to publish it on Unframed, and to Thembinkosi and Justin for an insightful and poignant tribute to David Koloane.

EP18 / Talk: 'On David Koloane' with Thembinkosi Goniwe & Justin Davy

Unframed is a podcast exploring the contemporary arts in South Africa. Through conversations with visual arts professionals - including artists, curators, gallerists, writers, collectors - we hope to gain inspiration and insight into the industry and people’s careers. The series is hosted by Anthea Pokroy, a Johannesburg-based artist, photographer and founder of Assemblage.

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Unframed Podcast

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