EP #54 | Sunday, October 6th featuring Errin Haines in conversation with Nandos Art Collection Artists.
ADAMA Arts Salon is a series of conversations featuring contemporary artists, curators, scholars, and more from across the African Diaspora.
Join us for ADAMA's upcoming in-person Arts Salon. Errin Haines to moderate a conversation with artist Sam Nhlengethwa, Diane Victor and Mbongeni Buthelezi. Each panelist is a visiting artist from South Africa whose artworks are included in ADAMA's exhibition, If You Look Hard Enough, You Can See Our Future.
In addition to the Arts Salon episode you will also be able to enjoy South African music, brunch catered by Nandos and a curator led tour.
About Moderator: Errin Haines is editor at large and a founding mother of The 19th, a nonprofit, independent newsroom focused on the intersection of gender, politics and policy. She is also host of The 19th’s weekly politics podcast, The Amendment, and an MSNBC Contributor. Errin was previously national writer on race and ethnicity for The Associated Press. She has also worked at The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and Orlando Sentinel. Errin’s expertise on issues of race, gender and politics make her a thought leader in her industry. She has also taught at the Georgetown University Institute of Politics and Princeton University. She is based in Atlanta.
Sam Nhlengethwa: Sam's work is largely figurative and explores themes close to his heart like jazz, human interactions, and contemporary Africa. His fine sense of colour and form lend an abstract quality to his work, which has been included in many contemporary South African art publications and can be found in leading South African and International collections. He is one of South Africa’s foremost artists and was awarded the Standard Bank Young Artist of the Year in 1994 – the year South Africa held its first democratic elections. He has exhibited all over the world – from South Africa to Senegal, New York to Cologne. Despite Sam’s pioneering role in South African art, his work has received rare visibility in Europe. A major survey exhibition, titled Life, Jazz and Lots of Other Things, was hosted by SCAD Museum of Art in Savannah, Georgia in 2014, which was then co-hosted in Atlanta by SCAD and the Carter Center. His work has also featured on a number of international biennales.
Diane Victor: Is renowned for her expert printmaking and draughtsmanship. Victor positions herself within the South African context through bold confrontations with difficult and, at times, taboo subject matter. Her large scale drawings and etchings demonstrate a command of mark-making, which she uses to render her subjects in affecting detail. Her work poses challenges to social and political life in contemporary South Africa, considering issues of corruption, violence and an unequal power distribution. She has gone on to win various prestigious awards including the Sasol New Signatures Award in 1987. In 1988, Victor became the youngest recipient of the Volkskas Atelier Award. Victor has exhibited at numerous venues around South Africa and internationally and her work is part of a number of important collections.
Mbongeni Buthelezi: Known for his plastic painting and environmental themes, Mbongeni repurposes plastic for use in his artwork in an effort to minimise pollution, and to raise awareness of the dangers of single use plastic that ends up in oceans and landfills. He uses different techniques to melt the plastic and then applies it to a recycled canvas to create vivid, striking abstract artworks or depictions of animals. The use of these materials shows Buthelezi's awareness of environmental problems and the physical decay of the townships as well as the references to general social and political impoverishment and flaw of opportunities and alternatives that he observes in South Africa. His works have been exhibited internationally at solo and group exhibitions, including the Museum of African Art in New York, the Goch Museum in Germany as well as the Prague Biennale. He was also an artist in residence in Germany, South Africa and New York.