Sonia Martins Mateus, SWEAT, 2024 (detail)

FROZEN TALES

Wonder, Liza Grobler, Swain Hoogervorst, Sonia Martins Mateus, Norman O'Flynn

Curated by Sonia Martins Mateus

Mezzanine Gallery: 25.04.25 - 05.06.25

FROZEN TALES is a dialogue between four South African artists and a French-Portuguese artist. This exchange began in 2022 when Sonia Martins Mateus met Swain Hoogervorst during a residency at the Cité des Arts in Paris. This encounter led to WEAVE, a group show, which in turn resulted in The Invisible Thread, a project led and curated by Hoogervorst at the AVA Gallery in 2023.

Liza Grobler invited curator Sonia Martins Mateus for a three-month research and production residency between Cape Town and Oudtshoorn, which included participation in the 2025 KKNK Festival, where the exhibition's thread was consolidated and transformed.

This exhibition will emphasize the individuality of each exhibiting artist, while demonstrating their notional and visual interconnectedness. It will acknowledge their overlapping areas of interest as well as their individual qualities, creating moments of transcendence, crossover, dialogue, and overcoming, while questioning notions of landscapes and inner spaces.

In a balance that is both strong and fragile, this exhibition will reflect on the dimension of landscape in its interstices and boundaries: from paintings, sculptures, drawings, to mixed media. Together, these works will open up a space that refers to organic and intimate landscapes. A space that writes the story of a frozen tale contained in the red soil.

Liza Grobler, Voices from a Divided Fountain, 2020 (Video still)