SMAC Gallery is proud to present Disclosure, a group exhibition featuring a selection of artists, currently practicing within the Southern African region.

To disclose is to peel back the veils of uncertainty and to arrive at a centre of veracity. The title of the exhibition alludes to the availability of both candid communication and decoded information. With almost infinite interpretations, each accurate within its context, Disclosure functions as a conversation that offers insight into the thematic premise of current artistic practice within a larger regional discourse. Artists included on the show are:

Andile Buka
Mbali Dhlamini
Mosa Anita Kaiser
Admire Kamudzengerere
Olivié Keck
Dada Khanyisa
Tatenda Magaisa
Wallen Mapondera
Pebofatso Mokoena
Mostaff Muchawaya
Kresiah Mukwazhi
Aaron Mulenga
Chemu Ng’ok
Thenjiwe Nkosi
Fiona Pole
Tiago Rodrigues
Katlego Tlabela

This exhibition brings together artworks that investigate alternative means of combining medium, subject and theme, with each piece individually created to engage with the framework of its specific geopolitical context. Disclosure not only attempts to divulge to audiences a slice of artistic practice on the African continent, but also serves to impart an atmosphere of innovation – displaying commonalities in theme, aesthetic or subject matter with other artists practicing in parallel.
Inevitably, common threads and similarities surface through seemingly differing styles and themes, grounded by a sensibility that is particular to this moment and place. It is these threads of understanding and interest that allow the stitching together of a stronger overview of current artistic practice. The aim of Disclosure is to make visible this hypothetical fabric that will dictate discourse and, in turn, influence artmaking to come.

Of the many themes and sub-themes present throughout the artwork included in Disclosure, there are some that bring to the fore their specific conceptual premises. In works such as Katlego Tlabela’s statement text works or Wallen Mapondera’s clear commentary on the Zimbabwean political climate, for example, there is a keen acknowledgement of the socio-political at work. More subtle comments on racial and cultural clichés present themselves in the work of Dada Khanyisa and in the videos and installations of Tatenda Magaisa. There is also a strong undercurrent that explores the layered complexities of postcolonial spirituality, belief systems and structures of mythology, as is evident in the work by Aaron Mulenga, Tiago Rodrigues, Mbali Dhlamini and Fiona Pole; while Olivié Keck, Andile Buka, Kresiah Mukwazhi and Mosa Anita Kaiser explore various interpretations of personal identity within the wider context of the ‘other’.

Through the use of unconventional materials – expressed through the mixing of various media as well as the juxtaposition of conventional subject matter with unconventional mediums and vice versa – Disclosure acknowledges information already imparted and re-contextualises it to offer further understandings.

Disclosure runs until Saturday, 20 May 2017. For more information or to request a portfolio of works, please contact the gallery in Cape Town.