CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

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Modzi Gallery | FNB Art Joburg
Ba Zambia Ndi Bantu Exhibition
29 August – 29 October 2020

​Experience contemporary Zambian artists tell local narratives through meticulous art works that are articulate of various local elements. We are happy to host this prestigious group exhibition that showed at the FNB Art Joburg Fair last year.

Featuring Artists
Aaron Samuel Mulenga | Agnes Buya Yombwe | David ‘Daut’ Makala | Nomes Dee |Stary Mwaba

Ba Zambia Ndi Bantu
Ba Zambia Ndi Bantu group exhibition is a combination of several elements of Zambian narratives that are unique in approach of techniques and contemporaries from Agness Yombwe’s prehistoric paintings style which makes reference in style of work that to Mwela Rock painting of late Stone Age from Northern Zambia, discussions around Taboo and beliefs integrity in daily livelihood of the Bemba Mbusa culture that focuses on the Snakes as a reference for love and humility. The paintings are of outstanding beauty and intricate detail depicting individual and social needs, as well as conceptual and communicative motivations with stages of development. It creates a thread of meaning and understanding in the ancient story of African people. Which brings strong authentic to Nomes Dee’s digital print Cooking Woman where she explores pop culture with a hit of sexuality, bring ideas of how the traditional play a role in modern narratives around love potion. Then I take a look back with Daut David Makala’s welded wire and his focus on masks and the role the Nyau Masquerade of Easter Zambia play as a spiritual society for men in the teaching of knowledge through the coming of age. Aaron Samual Mulenga’s bronze goddess, has vision of God to take on a female being and connected to his belief in Christian to strongly discuss the elements around The father, The sun and The Holy Spirit. Also very much connecting his choice of material in bronze to begin a discuss on the presence of 70% Copper which connects with Stary Mwaba’s Black Mountain series, his personal narratives where he tells small stories on people he has meet in research within his home region of Copperbelt. He points out his cousin as his ‘Superhero’ one who lives a dangerous life as a illegal miner but these men take pride in spending long hours beneath the rocks of Zambia digging out perhaps the only narrative they know. His choice of newsprint as the material is both delicate and intricate through the painful slow process of perforating/burning out words he either places on a pillar or doesn’t bear any reference to.
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Ba Zambia Ndi Bantu Exhibition is supported by an ANT Fund funding grant from Pro Helvetia Johannesburg financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Corporation (SDC).
#modzigallery
#BaZambiaNdiBantu
Pro Helvetia Johannesburg - Swiss Arts Council

PAST EXHIBITIONS

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Modzi Residency Exhibition
​Matt Kayem | Notes about the times
16TH MAY – 25th JULY 2020

Solos exhibition by Matt Kayem who is an artist and art writer born in Kampala, Uganda. His work explores identity issues, race, history, sexuality and culture through installations, collage-paintings and photography. Kayem has exhibited extensively in Kampala notably at the Kampala Biennale(2016 & 2018), has had three solo shows, one in Nairobi. As a writer, he is interested in the commercialization of art and the comparison between the western and African art market. He has written for Africanah.org, ContemporaryAnd, Nairobi Contemporary, psp-culture.com, START journal and The Independent Magazine.

More on Matt Kayem 
Buy the Catalogue
Buy the art work 

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​Afro Luso Residency Show Case
7 September - 17 November 2019

Afro Luso Residency of Experimental Visual art Lusaka is an initiative of Modzi Arts in partnership with Pro Helvetia, to expand the Zambian and African artists exchange network. The five-week residency is open to four mid-career artists within the SADC visual arts sphere. The 2019 cycle of Afro Luso will address experimentation within the context of Zambian contemporary art. 

​​​Featured Artists:
Mwamba Chikwemba (ZAM), Nyakallo Maleke (SA),Taka (MAD), Nathi Khumelo (SA)

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​Modzi Arts at FNB Art Joburg
13- 15 September 2019

With the support of Prohelvetia and the Swiss Arts Council, Modzi Arts had the privilege of participating in the FNB Art Joburg Art Fair 2019. It was the first time a Zambian gallery was present at this event. We showcased a variety of contemporary art from exceptional Zambian artists. The group exhibition was a combination of several elements that are unique, but not limited to a Zambian environment and reflect the internal construction of ideas around Zambian myths, taboos and personal narratives. 

​Featured Zambian Artists:
Stary Mwaba ,Agness Buya Yombwe, Aaron Samuel Mulenga, David ‘Daut’ Makala and Nomes Dee

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Memories of Mother
Nick Chendela Sangale
Aug 10 - Aug 17 2019
Sangale's work was conceptualized around the recent loss of his mother through the exploration of her experience with illness and hospitalization. It is an Installation piece exploring the connection of symbols (Nguvu symbols which he created over an extensive period of time) burned onto wood covered in chitenge; thus focusing on the different wooden textures and the brown colour, emulating his dreams through the memories of his mother and how chitenge resonates with motherhood in the Zambian context.  

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YOME Residency Exhibition
Ho Jin
March 1- March 8 2019
The exhibition is the culmination of a 6 month residency at Modzi Arts. Ho Jin presented his large scale works of reimagined traditional Zambian Makishi Masks, important figures in African and Korean history as well as smaller pieces drawn on different objects like pizza boxes, plywood and animal figures. The exhibition was presented in the performance theather at Circus Zambia in Lusaka.

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