Press & News

Opening 24 September at Minnesota Street Project, Unfinished Lines brings together four painters — Papytsho Mafolo, Hussein Salim, Pascal Konan and Aza Mansongi — from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and Côte d'Ivoire. The exhibition takes its name from Mafolo's practice of leaving lines deliberately unresolved on his canvases, a gesture he describes as evoking an infinite world. Set side by side, the four practices could hardly look less alike; what binds them is not subject but method, each treating the painted ground as a place where memory is kept. A participating exhibition in Nexus: SF / Bay Area Black Art Week, 30 September – 4 October 2026.

Photo by Clint Strydom

Dr Esther Mahlangu has officially endorsed a Certificate of Authenticity issued with every one of her works — the recognized document confirming a painting is by her hand. Each certificate carries a tamper-evident hologram with a unique serial number, matched by an identical hologram on the reverse of the artwork itself, so a mismatch is visible at a glance. The work is then photographed and registered in Dr Mahlangu's digital archive against that number — a controlled record that will inform a future Catalogue Raisonné. Works presented by Art of Contemporary Africa are supplied with the official numbered certificate, issued in conjunction with The Melrose Gallery as the artist's global representative.

In the Sunday Times Lifestyle Parting Shot column, Andrea Nagel features Clint Strydom's acclaimed black-and-white series The Real Heroes — children playing soccer with pure devotion on beaches, township grounds, and improvised fields across South Africa, ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Curated by Gilles Yoro (Felin Light), Memory in Motion brought together a diverse group of contemporary African artists exploring the relationships between memory, identity and materiality. Materials become storytellers in their own right — discarded objects transformed, reclaimed surfaces reimagined, layered pigments and carved wood holding traces of time and lived experience. Moving between personal memory and collective history, the exhibition examined how the past continues to shape the present, with works by Gerald Chukwuma, Mederic Turay, Mwass Githinji, Ayanda Mabulu, Opa Bathily and Alexis Daniel Onguene Tassi. 2 May – 12 July 2026 at AOCA, San Francisco.

Something old, and something new by Chad Scott — the debut of a new gallery dedicated to contemporary art across Africa highlight a busy month of art and culture around the Bay Area.

Opening of first contemporary Pan-African gallery in San Francisco.

Clint Strydom, South African photographer, spotlighted at Expo Chicago 2025.

Video feature on Esther Mahlangu at VMFA.

Serpentine Galleries press release on Esther Mahlangu mural unveiling.

BMW celebrates artistic journey of Esther Mahlangu debuting in Cape Town.

BMW i5 Flow Nostokana showcases Esther Mahlangu art car.