ECLIPSE
NENE MAHLANGU & LULAMA WOLF MLAMBO
GALERIE ARTISMAGNA + UNDISCOVERED CANVAS + DARI FINE ART
ECLIPSE
NENE MAHLANGU
LULAMA WOLF MLAMBO
Exposition du 17 au 27 novembre 2022
Vernissage jeudi 17 novembre 2022 / 19H00
56, boulevard de la Tour-Maubourg - PARIS VII
Commissariat d’exposition
Emmanuel de Boisset, Nomaza Nongqunga-Coupez et Rodrigue Naucelles
PREFACE
Galerie Artismagna in partnership with Undiscovered Canvas is proud to present – ECLIPSE – featuring Luluma ‘Wolf’ Mlambo and Nene Mahlangu. The duo show exhibition will be held at Galerie Artismagna in Paris from 17th to 27th november 2022, orbiting African art experiences on the french scene.
Curated by Nomaza Nongqunga-Coupez, Rodrigue Naucelles and Emmanuel de Boisset.
Where Wolf and Mahlangu appear to be from different artistic worlds, a deeper look reveals shared humanness. Mahlangu dissects the social soul to expose our human conditions. Her collection explores the Seven Deadly Sins, probing into who we are when no one is looking. Her subjects are realistic, modern figures expressed in bold acrylic and seductive detail. Through introspection, revelation, and acceptance, she shows how we can fully inhabit our skin. Hers is a planet of Lust perched on a leaf, Icarus trying to reach the Sun. Her work is necessary as it subverts the normative narrative of African poverty and suffering, by casting her subjects as whole persons worthy of investigation beyond socio-economic dogma.
Wolf’s works suggest an imagination of precolonial ancestral life in Africa. While exploring our historical possibilities, she brings an offering of ease, joy, and simplicity. Her hyper-visualised subjects inhabit a world of infinite lines, earthy tones, and guided intentions. She pulls from ancient African art techniques, transferring methods such as scraping and smearing onto her contemporary works. Her planet is re-imagining African rest.
Where Wolf dreams of our highest self, Mahlangu exposes our deepest fears. Together, the curation is a recurring eclipse of the human experience. Mahlangu and Wolf demonstrate African intellectual integrity, producing conceptual works mined from their lived realities. The duo is a capsule of investment potential and exciting growth.
Their works, to be shown from the 17th to the 27th of november will be accompanied by three rare lithographies from Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Lulama Wolf Mlambo
Nene Mahlangu
NENE MALHANGU
LULAMA WOLF MLAMBO
NENE MALHANGU
Nene Mahlangu is a multidisciplinary visual artist born in Ga-Rankuwa, based in Johannesburg, South Africa. She has an interest in womenness, race and self portraiture. After graduating at the University of Pretoria, she went on to attain a post graduate certificate in Design from UMUZI. She is currently a student at Harvard Business School.
Inspired by sensuality, fashion, politics and religion, Mahlangu’s ethereal representations have braced the walls of local and international art fairs and exhibitions. Her works have evolved from monochromatic realistic work to vibrant drawings and paintings of large scale.
In 2019, she made history by being the youngest woman to ever de- sign two coins for South Africa. She went further to be the first person to put a black girl’s face on our money to commemorate 25 years of democracy.
She made her international art fair debut by exhibiting work at the Ve- nice International Art Fair in 2020. She is also the Arts & Culture Trust, ImpACT Award Finalist for 2020 and was listed as one of Mail and Guardian’s Top 200 Young South Africans in the same year.
2022 became the year she was the lead visual artist for the Gram- my award winning DJ and producer Black Coffee’s HiIbiza residency, creating 22 artworks for the project.
Nene Mahlangu
2022
I Am and Nothing Else, Affinity Art Gallery, Lagos, Nigeria
2021
ART The Hague Art Fair, Den Haag, Netherlands
Barcelona Contemporary Art Fair, Barcelona, Spain
Identify With Me, Latitudes Art Fair, Johannesburg, South Africa UnderTow group exhibition, Schiedam, Netherlands
2020
Venice International Art Fair, Venice, Italy
Ambiguous Group Exhibition, MMArtHouse, Johannesburg, South Africa
2019
South African Mint #SA25, Latitudes Art Fair, Johannesburg, South Africa Voices and Choices, Constitution Hill, Johannesburg, South Africa
FirstRand group exhibition, MMArtHouse, Johannesburg, South Africa
Top 10 Young Gauteng’s Exhibition 100% Desig, Johannesburg, South Africa, MID group exhibition, AGOG Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa Bibliotheca, Bag Factory Artist Studios, Johannesburg, South Africa
2018
Continuing Conversations, University of Johannesburg Art Gallery,
Johannesburg, South Africa
Winter Group Exhibition, Julie Miller Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
Creative Portraits group exhibition, 100% Design South Africa
Bogaleng Exhibition, Braamfontein, Johannesbur, South Africa
Group Exhibition, Design Indaba Emerging Creatives, Cape Town, South Africa
Talking to Deaf Ears group Exhibition, ABSA Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa Group Exhibition, Absolut One Source Festival of Creativity, Johannesburg, South Africa
2017
Untitled Group Exhibition, St. Laurient Art Gallery, Brooklyn, Pretoria, South Africa Ringa! Afropunk x Umuzi Group Exhibition, Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa Art Alive Exhibition, Waterkloof High School, Pretoria, South Africa
LULAMA WOLF
My work carries my spirit before it carries a message. My intuition plays a vital role in the direction I go and then I compartmentalise with what I prioritise. I represent different parts of myself including; abstraction, curiosity, mythology, spirituality and introspection. Blackness is innate in my work because it is created by a black woman despite the medium or language it speaks. It is vital because proof of existence is rare in the black community and information is shared but isn’t sus- tained in ways that are known to us right now. I express my yearning for answers and clarity in ways that make my blackness clear even when the work is abstract. My practice embodies subtlety in a form of texture and expression, a curious mix of ambiguity and curiosity. I experiment with different textures and moulds that are formed from the earth.
Lulama Wolf’s practice is formulated by lines that rise and fall smoothly to create lithe bodies in space – bending, contorting, carrying, standing, and moving. Wolf’s depicted bodies indicate a world beyond themselves and signal towards broader themes and processes. Traversing both the personal and the political, the Johannesburg-based artist engages themes of African spirituality within a contemporary context and merges that with colour theory influenced by traditional South African, vernacular architecture and indigenous rock art. In addition to her studio practice, Wolf is known for her profound interest in design and fields that weave themselves into her sensibility of creating meticulously bold yet minimal paintings.
Lulama Wolf Mlambo
2022
Frieze London, The Breeder Gallery, Regent’s Park, London, UK.
The Right to Ease, Solo Show, The Breeder Gallery, Athens, Greece
Africa Now: Contemporary Painters, THK Cologne, Germany
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, THK Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
I was born wrapped in a white blanket, Solo show, Shoshiro X Undiscovered Canvas, Marylebone, London, UK.
2021
A Vernacular Homage to Architecture & Design,
Affinity Art Gallery x Undiscovered Canvas, Lagos, Nigeria
Obsidian Gallery, Duo Show, Bruxelles, Belgium
Ndoimazdi - Botho Project Space, group show, Johannesburg, South Africa Art She Says «Nature of a Women», New York, U.S.A
1-54, Online group show, Christie’s Paris, Paris, France
2020
Apartment vol.2 exhibition, Cape Town, South Africa
Between10n5, Cape Town, South Africa
Reflect. Reimagine. Reset, group show, THK Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2019
Undiscovered Canvas, group show, Boulevard d’Aguilon, Antibes, France Rendevous 2, group show, Smith Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2018
Kim sacks gallery, group show, - language of ceramics, Johannesburg, South Africa
Apartment vol.2 exhibition, Cape Town, South Africa
Between10n5, Cape Town, South Africa
Reflect. Reimagine. Reset, group show, THK Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2019
Undiscovered Canvas, group show, Boulevard d’Aguilon, Antibes, France Rendevous 2, group show, Smith Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2018
Kim sacks gallery, group show, - language of ceramics, Johannesburg, South Africa
Residence
2021
Makwande Art Residency, Antibes, France
Galerie Artismagna is a french based gallery, established in Paris since 2017 (25, rue de Beaune & 56, boulevard de La Tour-Maubourg) and Lyon (76, quai Pierre-Scize) since 2021, showing a twin interest for modern and post-war art masters and contemporary emerging artists.
Undiscovered Canvas is an art agency based in the South of France, established in 2017 by South African Nomaza Nongunga Coupez. The agency headhunts the best African talent, building European platforms to exponentiate their growth. Their partnership with Galerie Artismagna ushers in their much anticipated first Paris exhibition. The collaboration is the realisation of a shared vision for African female artist growth and participation in previously inaccessible international markets.
