The Armory Show 2024

Bringing together those working in figurative and abstract modes, Southern Guild’s booth will feature paintings by Manyaku Mashilo (South Africa), Kamyar Bineshtarigh (Iran/South Africa) and Mmangaliso Nzuza (South Africa); a pair of elliptical ceramic totems by Zizipho Poswa (South Africa); and a large bronze sculpture by Dominique Zinkpè (Benin).

Marked by distinct visual vocabularies, each artist’s practice can be read as an exercise in explorative form to address themes of language, lineage, resistance and release. A prevalent interest for many of them is the re-envisioning of agency with regard to self-representation, with the work offering a limitless, liminal space to reimagine the past, present and future, and to explore expansive definitions of self.

Highlights of Southern Guild’s booth at The Armory Show:

A monumental arch-shaped triptych by Manyaku Mashilo, titled Back to The Source again, features a procession of robed pilgrims appearing to converge at a distant point in an abstracted landscape. A trio of fluid figures bloom forth from this liminal space, their intertwined forms expanding and disintegrating. Mashilo’s practice acts as a vehicle for sense-making – a dream-like plane to synthesise elements of her religious upbringing, ancestral heritage, personal mythology and socio-political engagement. The recurring use of red ochre in her work connotes the traditional ointment of “imbola”, a thick paste of burnt earth pigment applied to the faces of Xhosa women and newly initiated youth. Born in Limpopo in 1991, the artist will make her US solo debut at Southern Guild Los Angeles in February 2025.

Two new ceramic sculptures from Zizipho Poswa’s ongoing Umthwalo series utilise elliptical, totem-like forms to elevate the daily labours that women perform in her rural Eastern Cape village and across the African continent. The works honour the traditional practice of ‘umthwalo’ – the isiXhosa word for ‘load’ – whereby women transport heavy items on foot by carrying them on their heads, often in support of the livelihood of their communities. A monumental ceramic and bronze sculpture from Poswa’s Indyebo yakwaNtu (Black Bounty), which inaugurated Southern Guild’s Los Angeles gallery earlier this year, will be shown at Frieze Sculpture in Regent’s Park, London from 18 September to 27 October, 2024. Additionally, the artist will present new work as part of Homo Faber 2024: The Journey of Life, curated by The Michelangelo Foundation in Venice from 1 to 30 September, 2024.

A series of ink-on-canvas abstract paintings by Iranian-born artist Kamyar Bineshtarigh speak to his interest in the pliability of language and role in crystallising power dynamics. Intifada II, an immense monochromatic work, explores abstract mark-making as a vehicle for political resistance. The word ‘intifada’ comes from the Arabic root ‘nafada’, which means ‘to shake off’ or ‘to rise up’. The work signifies rebellion, alluding to the act of communal shedding. Speaking to global fractious systems of oppression, political violence and extremism, ascribing the abstraction with this title underlines the power of language to manipulate our reading not only of aesthetics, but of history itself. Bineshtarigh’s work was featured in Phaidon’s recently published Vitamin Txt: Words in Contemporary Art (2024), a global survey of today’s most innovative artists working with text.

A pair of oil paintings by Mmangaliso Nzuza, rich in allegorical referencing, depict figures who have shed the confinement of interior scenes to find ease, pleasure, hope and ritual in pastoral settings. With his angular approach to form, Nzuza explores the human figure as a springboard for experiments in composition. Alluding to notions of community, his subjects are weighted, exuding solidity and a sculptural presence that seem to declare “We are here”. Having recently joined Southern Guild’s roster of artists, Nzuza will hold his first solo exhibition, An Open Letter, at the gallery’s Cape Town location from 29 August to 31 October, 2024.

Dominique Zinkpè’s large-scale sculpture is an organic assemblage of hundreds of hand-carved wooden statuettes recalling the Yoruba tradition of Ibéji dolls. When a twin dies in infancy, it is believed by family members that these figurines embody the deceased’s spiritual energy. Rooted in Beninese culture and proximity to Voudou, Zinkpè’s creations represent a magical realm, encompassing both the individual and collective. Given the permanence of bronze, Visage du Roi is a profound reminder of the uniqueness of every individual, coming together en masse like a super organism. Zinkpè was a finalist in the 2023 LOEWE Foundation Craft Prize, for which his artwork The Watchers received a special mention.