Congress

Sean O'Toole

Congress: The Social Body in Three Figurative Painters is a thematic exhibition that places the work of three multigenerational South African painters - Trevor Makhoba (1956-2003), George Pemba (1912-2001) and Sthembiso Sibisi (1976-2006) - in conversation. Inheritors of an earlier naturalist tradition of painting, Makhoba, Pemba and Sibisi developed a graphic urban style that tested and strained the bounds of realism in their depiction of familial bonding, spiritual practice, shared pleasure, social upheaval and political action. Despite significant overlap in style, subject and theme, Makhoba, Pemba and Sibisi have not been grouped together before in a dedicated exhibition. Congress is purposefully an exhibition about artistic lineages, in particular the tradition of urban realism in South African painting, and the centrality of the human figure in this tradition. But, principally,...