Exhibitions

Current

Stories to Tell | Joel Mpah Dooh
Johannesburg Apr 29, 2021 Gallery MOMO is proud to present ‘Stories to Tell” a solo exhibition by Joel Mpah Dooh. The exhibition presents a new body of work created by the artist during his residency period at Gallery MOMO Johannesburg. What was meant to be a 90 day residency period extended to almost 5... Read more

Past

Stories To Tell | Joel Mpah Dooh
Cape Town 15 Nov 2020 - 26 Mar 2021 When I landed in Johannesburg on the 17th of March I was not aware of the seriousness of the situation. But everyone is already preparing for a very imminent lockdown which will take place a few days later. I write these on my Facebook page: 'In a few hours, starting... Read more

Transcendence and Transfiguring | Percy Konqobe
Johannesburg 14 Nov 2020 - 19 Apr 2021 Gallery MOMO is pleased to present our first opening since the start of the COVID-19 lockdown, “Transcendence and Transfiguring” a solo exhibition by Percy Ndithembile Konqobe. Percy Ndithembile Konqobe a sculptor (born in Nigel, South Africa, 1939) creates clay and bronze sculptures that usually embody abstracted human and animal figures.... Read more

Pink Circles | Salah Elmur
Cape Town 14 Feb - 14 Mar 2020 Pink Circles is named after a painting included in the exhibition. The large-scale work depicts two rows of men, the top row of men wear white diapers and pink circles with numbers appearing near their heads; in the lower row they wear green military uniforms and diapers with their legs... Read more

Habitat | Pedro Pires
Johannesburg 31 Jan - 7 Mar 2020 Habitat is a selection of works by Angolan born Portuguese artist Pedro Pires. Using mediums such as paper, fire and sculpture, the works in this exhibition interrogate the human form, mostly his own, to address issues of displacement and the concept of home and belonging. Habitatsees works that come from... Read more

Summer Show | Group Show
Cape Town 5 Dec 2019 - 31 Jan 2020 Gallery MOMO is pleased to invite you the opening of the Summer Show. Read more

War of the Roses | Raél Jero Salley
Johannesburg 26 Oct - 13 Dec 2019 Gallery MOMO is proud to present War of the Roses, a solo exhibition by Raél Jero Salley. The exhibition first opened in Cape Town in August and is now travelling to Johannesburg. Read more

Counting the Costs | Dillon Marsh
Cape Town 23 Oct - 23 Nov 2019 Gallery MOMO Cape Town is proud to present Counting the Costs, a solo exhibition by Dillon Marsh. Earth is in the grip of an unprecedented warming trend and there is little doubt that greenhouse gas emissions are the primary cause. We are making the planet hotter, and the effects of... Read more

Revising the Archive | Durant Sihlali
Cape Town 18 Sep - 19 Oct 2019 Durant Sihlali was one of the great South African painters of the twentieth century. At a time when the Western art world, as well as the African Modernists, were moving towards surrealism, abstraction, and the avant-garde, Sihlali remained committed to his mimetic approach, in watercolours as well as printmaking, pulp... Read more

#Recess | Group Show
Johannesburg 14 Sep - 12 Oct 2019 Gallery MOMO is proud to present #recess, a group exhibition featuring works by Andrew Tshabangu, Dillon Marsh, George Hallett, Joël Mpah Dooh, Patrick Bongoy and Robert Pruitt. Read more

Africa Without Borders | Tafadzwa Tega
Cape Town 15 Aug - 14 Sep 2019 Gallery MOMO is proud to present Africa Without Borders, a solo exhibition by Adolf Tega. The paintings in this series speak to utopias both real and imagined. Mwanawehvu (Son of the Soil) and After the Step Down commemorate Robert Mugabe’s resignation after three decades in power. This historical moment sparked... Read more

War of the Roses | Raél Jero Salley
Cape Town 15 Aug - 14 Sep 2019 Gallery MOMO is proud to present War of the Roses, a solo exhibition by Raél Jero Salley. The exhibition is first opening in Cape Town in August and will travel to Johannesburg in October. Read more

Matter | Patrick Bongoy
Johannesburg 20 Jul - 31 Aug 2019 Gallery MOMO is proud to present Matter, a solo exhibition by Patrick Bongoy. The exhibition consists of a series of new sculptures and tapestries constructed from red and black rubber and hessian cloth, materials which Bongoy uses to examine the past and the present of his home country, the Democratic... Read more

Unresolved Category | Group Show
Cape Town 17 Jul - 10 Aug 2019 UNRESOLVED CATEGORY is an acknowledgement of contemporary painting in its current state. This exhibition does not claim to innovate the medium in any way. In fact, painting has been declared dead so many times since the daguerreotype that its ‘re-invention’ feels like a redundant activity. Rather, UNRESOLVED CATEGORY puts a... Read more

Aspect : Ratio I Group Show
Cape Town 20 Jun - 6 Jul 2019 Aspect ratio typically refers to the proportional relationship between an image and a two-dimensional plane. But, as computer screens superseded TVs, and computer screens are themselves being abandoned for increasingly immersive mediums, ‘aspect ratio’ runs the risk of becoming archaic, irrelevant to its medium. The artists in this video exhibition... Read more

R3:FORM4RE | Vivien Kohler
Johannesburg 6 Jun - 13 Jul 2019 Gallery MOMO Johannesburg is proud to present its first solo show with Vivien Kohler. “I am fascinated both by the ability of the human spirit to transcend ‘the conceptual decay’, and the unique liminality of the post-apartheid South African city. My works illuminate the contrasts of lived experiences by showing... Read more

George Hallett | George Hallett
Johannesburg 18 May - 1 Jun 2019 Gallery MOMO Johannesburg is proud to present a collection of photographs by George Hallett. The exhibition is composed of two bodies of work – “District Six” and “Exiles” – that archive figures, communities and events that would otherwise be lost or obscured from the public psyche. Read more

Coucou Crumble | Maurice Mbikayi
Cape Town 2 May - 6 Jun 2019 Gallery MOMO is proud to present Coucou Crumble, its second solo exhibition with Maurice Mbikayi. When we think apocalypse, we tend to think of the future. Superstates control world politics. Technology imperialises everyday life. Citizens become complicit in their own surveillance. Catastrophe becomes quotidian. For Maurice Mbikayi, the stuff of... Read more

Six of One and Half a Dozen of the Other | Pedro Pires
Johannesburg 14 Mar - 25 Apr 2019 Gallery MOMO is pleased to present Six of one and half a dozen of the other, its second solo exhibition with Angolan/Portuguese artist Pedro Pires. This show is a continuation of Pires’s ongoing research into migration, nationality, and identity construction. Pires’s position as an Angolan-born, Portuguese-raised subject situates his national... Read more

Domestic Lives, Nomadic Belongings | Stephané E. Conradie
Cape Town 13 Mar - 16 Apr 2019 Gallery MOMO is proud to present Domestic Lives, Nomadic Belongings, a solo exhibition by Stephané E. Conradie. On an upturned bed frame in Conradie’s studio, a repurposed piece of furniture is laden with brass, wooden, ceramic, and porcelain objects. A bricolage of materials – somehow both clashing and harmonious –... Read more

Six of One and Half a Dozen of the Other | Pedro Pires
Cape Town 6 Feb - 8 Mar 2019 Gallery MOMO is pleased to present Six of one and half a dozen of the other, its second solo exhibition with Angolan/Portuguese artist Pedro Pires. This show is a continuation of Pires’s ongoing research into migration, nationality, and identity construction. Pires’s position as an Angolan-born, Portuguese-raised subject situates his national... Read more

Brush Strokes & Fine Lines | Group Show
Johannesburg 31 Jan - 9 Mar 2019 An exhibition of paintings and drawings by Ransome Stanley, Rael Jero Salley, Jonathan Freemantle and Kimathi Donkor. Read more

Dillon Marsh | Dillon Marsh
Cape Town 4 Oct - 30 Nov 2018 Gallery MOMO Cape Town is pleased to present a selection of works by Cape Town-based photographer Dillon Marsh. Dillon Marsh has long been intrigued by themes that touch on our relationship with the world around us. His work has often isolated and emphasised specific features of a particular landscape, from... Read more

Spring Group Show | Group Show
Johannesburg 27 Sep - 14 Dec 2018 Read more

Joël Mpah Dooh I Joël Mpah Dooh
Cape Town 6 - 29 Sep 2018 Joël Mpah Dooh (b. 1956) is a flâneur of sorts. He is an observer, a witness, a wanderer, strolling through the strange scenes that make up contemporary urban life. Rather than directly transcribing images of the city, Dooh is preoccupied with the psychological landscape of those who navigate it. His... Read more

George Hallett | George Hallett
Cape Town 2 - 31 Aug 2018 Gallery MOMO Cape Town is proud to present a collection of works by photographer George Hallett at our new temporary space at Speakers Corner. The history of South Africa is the history of space: who owns it, who’s lost it, who has access to it. George Hallett (b. 1942, Cape... Read more

Race Against the Machine | Group Show
Johannesburg 19 Jul - 22 Sep 2018 On 5 March 2018 Durant Sihlali (would have) turned 83. In the true belief that artists are referred to in present tense after their deaths, Sihlali is 83 this year. This is because his body of work continues to survive him with each exhibition, each sale, appearance at auctions. It... Read more

Transmissions | Group Show
Cape Town 7 Jun - 14 Jul 2018 Gallery MOMO Cape Town is pleased to present Transmissions, the fourth installment of our annual video show. In this group exhibition, five young local artists challenge the conventions of traditional video art. Read more

Selections | Joël Mpah Dooh
Johannesburg 25 May - 25 Jun 2018 Gallery MOMO Johannesburg is pleased to present a selection of works by Cameroonian artist, Joel Mpah Dooh. This exhibition recaps on Joel’s last two solo exhibitions titled Let’s Take A Walk and Since We Last Met. In his last exhibition, Since We Last Met, Dooh’s work explored concepts of captivity... Read more

The Making of an African Master I Group Show
Cape Town 12 Apr - 18 May 2018 Gallery MOMO Cape Town is proud to present a group exhibition featuring George Pemba, Dumile Feni, George Hallett, and Leonard Matsoso. Each of these artists has been labelled a “master” in his own regard. But what makes a master’s work? Is it the craftsman’s skill? Is it the political moment... Read more

Group Show I Cape to Tehran
Johannesburg 7 Apr - 5 May 2018 Gallery MOMO is proud to present C ape to Tehran: Re-imaging and re-imagining personal history in post-Apartheid South Africa and post-revolutionary Iran. Curated by Sepideh Mehraban, this group exhibition features a diverse selection of artists, primarily from South Africa and Iran, who grapple with the complex histories and traumatic legacies... Read more

Cape to Tehran | Group Show
Cape Town 13 Feb - 29 Mar 2018 Gallery MOMO is proud to present C ape to Tehran: Re-imaging and re-imagining personal history in post-Apartheid South Africa and post-revolutionary Iran. Curated by Sepideh Mehraban, this group exhibition features a diverse selection of artists, primarily from South Africa and Iran, who grapple with the complex histories and traumatic legacies... Read more

The Oldest Mountain I Jonathan Freemantle
Johannesburg 8 Feb - 17 Mar 2018 The culmination of a personal journey, and the beginning of a new ascent, The Oldest Mountain showcases new paintings and sculptural works that lay evidence to Jonathan Freemantle’s own physical and psychological connection to the landscapes here in Gauteng and across the globe. Opening Gallery MOMO’s 2018 exhibition calendar, Freemantle... Read more

SS17 | Group Show
Cape Town 7 Dec 2017 - 13 Jan 2018 Gallery MOMO Cape Town is proud to present SS17, a group exhibition showcasing the work of several emerging young artists from South Africa and the broader continent, who are challenging conventional art practices through new and exciting techniques. Spanning diverse media ranging from sculpture, painting, printmaking, to embroidery and... Read more

Summer Showcase | Group Show
Johannesburg 7 Dec 2017 - 3 Feb 2018 Highlighting the rich breadth of painting that has been produced at the MOMO Artist Residency over the past three years, Gallery MOMO Johannesburg’s Summer Showcase 2017 is an opportunity to see works on canvas, paper and metal that bring context to the diversity of a medium that is constantly finding... Read more

52A 7th Avenue | Group Show
Cape Town 2 Nov - 2 Dec 2017 Gallery MOMO Cape Town is proud to present 52A 7th Avenue, a group exhibition featuring work by five artists who attended the MOMO Artist Residency this year: Todd Gray, Coby Kennedy, Pedro Pires, Curtis Talwst Santiago, and Khaya Witbooi. Read more

Anima I Kenrick McFarlane
Johannesburg 12 Oct - 18 Nov 2017 Gallery MOMO is pleased to present Kenrick McFarlane’s first solo exhibition in South Africa, ANIMA. McFarlane uses painting as a language to express his political and personal thoughts, desires, emotions, and fears. ANIMA is a concept developed by analytical psychologist Carl Jung that refers to an archetype that influences the... Read more

A Continent Beyond | Group Show
Cape Town 13 Sep - 14 Oct 2017 The exhibition offers an opportunity to reflect on the multiple journeys undertaken by both the artists and also the gallery itself. Over the past fourteen years, Gallery MOMO has challenged the seams that bind the South African art scene, bursting into the international art world with conviction, and capturing a... Read more

Pluralities of Being I Todd Gray
Johannesburg 31 Aug - 7 Oct 2017 This exhibition disrupts and questions the role photography plays in the transmission of history and cultural identity. Gray was Michael Jackson’s personal photographer in the 1980’s and remixes his images of iconographic pop culture with photographs made during his time of residency at NIROX in Johannesburg. Read more

Intimate Justice in the Stolen Moment I Ayana V. Jackson
Johannesburg 27 Jul - 17 Aug 2017 Intimate Justice in the Stolen Moment seeks to view Black womanhood as delicate – as temporal and intimate – as weightless. Fragility, tenderness and softness are conjured in Ayana V Jackson’s latest solo exhibition at Gallery MOMO in Johannesburg. Jackson’s new work acknowledges a self-realization of the weight of gravity,... Read more

City in Transition | Andrew Tshabangu
Cape Town 20 Jul - 19 Aug 2017 Gallery MOMO Cape Town is pleased to present a selection of work from Andrew Tshabangu’s City in Transition series. Over the course of twenty years, Tshabangu’s black and white photography practice has played a significant role in redefining the visual landscape of South Africa. The artist draws our attention to... Read more

Be Kind. Please Rewind. | Group Show
Cape Town 22 Jun - 15 Jul 2017 Gallery MOMO Cape Town is pleased to present Be Kind. Please Rewind; a group exhibition of local and international artists who engage with history and memory through the medium of film and video. By grappling with personal histories and collective memories, nostalgia, and storytelling, the videos in this exhibition... Read more

What Do They Call Me I Group Show
Johannesburg 15 Jun - 22 Jul 2017 Gallery MOMO is proud to present What Do They Call Me, a group exhibition of works by Ayana V. Jackson, Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum, Florine Demosthene, Patricia Driscoll, Sethembile Msezane and Mary Sibande. What Do They Call Me examines the allegory of naming and language in relation to Her body, and... Read more

Ordentlikheid: A Creolised Object | Stephané E. Conradie
Cape Town 1 - 17 Jun 2017 Gallery MOMO Cape Town is proud to present Ordentlikheid: a creolised object, a pop-up exhibition of new work by Stephané E. Conradie. This body of work focuses on objects found in lower middle and working class homes in South Africa. Though seemingly only used for aesthetic purposes or seen as... Read more

Dress Code | Group Show
Cape Town 11 May - 17 Jun 2017 Gallery MOMO is proud to present Dress Code, a group exhibition exploring the use of costume in contemporary art. Dress Code features the work of well-established and new emerging artists, working in a variety of disciplines through the medium of costume. Read more

Exceeding Return I Curtis 'Talwst' Santiago
Johannesburg 20 Apr - 10 Jun 2017 Gallery MOMO is proud to present Exceeding Return, the first solo exhibition in South Africa by multifaceted artist Curtis Talwst Santiago. Curtis Talwst Santiago’s practice explores issues of transculturalism, memory and ancestry in the contemporary Diasporic experience. Santiago’s infinity series of miniature dioramas in reclaimed ring boxes consider the absence... Read more

Skin Of the Thug | Coby Kennedy
Cape Town 6 Apr - 27 May 2017 In SKIN OF THE THUG, Kennedy builds on the ambiguous chronology of the imagined post-apocalyptic society which has permeated his work by introducing a historical event which he refers to as The Great Negro Wars. The exhibition presents faux relics from this fictional epoch in the form of ‘Thuggernauts’ and... Read more

History Begins with a Garden I Khaya Witbooi
Johannesburg 16 Mar - 16 Apr 2017 History Begins with a Garden is an exhibition by Khaya Witbooi, curated by Mariella Franzoni, that explores the colonial genealogy (or counter-history) of gardens and gardening in South Africa, bringing to light its relation with slavery, land dispossession and nationalist propaganda. Questions like, “how the beauty of South Africa’s nature... Read more

Doppelgänger | Pedro Pires
Cape Town 15 Feb - 18 Mar 2017 Gallery MOMO Cape Town is pleased to present Pedro Pires’s Doppelgänger, after its South African debut at Gallery MOMO Johannesburg last year. Milica Zivkovic explains that the doppelgänger “is not ‘outside’ time but produced within and determined by its social context” (2000:120). For Pires this statement resonates with his current... Read more

Selling the Shadow | Group Show
Cape Town 23 Nov 2016 - 7 Jan 2017 The exhibition is thematically based on nineteenth century Black American abolitionist Sojourner Truth’s (c.1797 – 1870) carte-de-visite, a 2 1/2 x 4 inch photograph mounted on thick card stock commonly traded or sold from its height of popularity in 1859 through to the early 1900s. Along with a portrait of... Read more

Revival | Group Show
Cape Town 18 Oct - 18 Nov 2016 Read more

Defining The Narrative | Group Show
Cape Town 3 Dec 2015 - 18 Jan 2016 Gallery MOMO Cape Town will be presenting a fresh range of paintings this summer in an attempt to redefine this fascinating medium in the 21st Century. Defining the Narrative intends to examine the scope and extent of paint through the gaze of emerging South African painters and mixed-media artists. Read more

Online

Mwana Wevhu (Son of the Soil) | Tafadzwa Tega
ONLINE 4 - 16 Jun 2020 Gallery MOMO is proud to present Mwana wevhu (Son of the Soil), an online solo exhibition by Adolf Tega. Characterized by Tega’s faculty to appraise life spiritually and philosophically, ‘Mwana wevhu is a Shona expression that translates to ‘Son of the Soil’. The exhibition probes a range of themes about... Read more