On the banks of the Keiskamma River, at the Keiskamma Art Project studio in Hamburg, are artists (from left: Nombulelo Jack, Nombulelo (Kwandi) Paliso, Sinoxolo Zita, Nolusindiso Jakavula and Cebo Mvubu.

Keiskamma Artists in Profile

Nomonde Mthandana, Nombulelo (Kwandi) Paliso, Cebo Mvubu, Lindiswa Gedze, Olwethu Nkani, Zukiswa Zita, Nolusindiso Jakavula, Nosiphiwo Mangwane, Sinoxolo Zita, Nombulelo Jack, Siyabonga Maswana, Ncomeka Gedze and Nokuzola Mvaphantsi

Curated by Michaela Howse

Mezzanine Gallery: 06.03.25 - 16.04.25

Major iconic artworks made by Keiskamma Art Project (KAP) over the past twenty five years are collective visions. Originally, the impetus to create monumental works came from the founder, Dr Carol Hofmeyr. Together with the community of Hamburg, they were driven by the desire to have a collective rural voice heard. This desire, alongside the need for dignified work and a means for the community to regain their self esteem, fuelled creative skills development in artmaking, with textiles and embroidery becoming the main means of both expression and income generation. The aim of iconic artworks, like the Keiskamma Altarpiece (2005) and Keiskamma Guernica (2010), was to articulate the reality of marginal lives lived alongside the Keiskamma River, impacted by a lack of education, poor health services, the HIV/AIDS pandemic and all the changes (economic, environmental and technological) that have come with globalisation. This expressive engagement has been balanced in offering both critique of circumstances and hope for improvement, further set against a backdrop (and resource) of the natural environmental beauty of Hamburg (Eastern Cape) and a strong Xhosa cultural history.

This exhibition, some 25 years since the project's inception, gives voice to individual artists within the collective. It marks the beginning of a move to nurture and profile artists who have developed their own voices within the context of the communal project.

The exhibition features works by Nomonde Mthandana which are visionary appliquéd and stitched ecologies that express her inner world through the colours and shapes of nature. It features a striking work by Nombulelo (Kwandi) Paliso of a wild Eastern Cape aloe, replete with relief features and subtle shadows. The aloe is a metaphor Paliso has used to describe herself. Cebo Mvubu, also the production manager at KAP, takes a new direction with waterlilies and the animals in their gambit, expertly observed. Some smaller works, experimental in nature, give Lindiswa Gedze, Olwethu Nkani and Zukiswa Zita a chance to share a personal portrait showing how they feel or felt at a particular time. There is an attempt to see themselves in a position or shape that communicates the idea of inner and outer worlds – that there is a difference between what the world sees and how we might feel. Mthandana, Mvubu and Paliso, in their own ways, infuse their larger botanical works metaphorically with this theme. Embroiderers featured in the exhibition include Nolusindiso Jakavula and Nosiphiwo Mangwane alongside Cebo Mvubu, and Sinoxolo Zita and Nombulelo Jack alongside Nombulelo Paliso.  

This exhibition was made possible thanks to the support by the National Arts Council.