BLOEMFONTEIN – Oliewenhuis Art Museum is pleased to announce the opening of “Beyond Walls: Emerging Contemporary Voices,” curated from the ArtbankSA Collection, on Thursday, 4 December.
Unlike traditional museum collections confined to institutional walls, ArtbankSA operates as a dynamic platform that circulates emerging artists’ work through leasing and sales to collectors and the general public. This exhibition captures the essence of this fluid model, presenting works that exist in active dialogue with diverse spaces and communities.
“Beyond Walls” reveals urgent themes coursing through contemporary South African art: intergenerational knowledge transmission, cultural custodianship, memory’s contested territories, and identity’s continuous formation.
Layered artistic narratives
Artworks in this exhibition unfold through layers of remembrance and revelation. Bheki Sibiya’s indigenous symbols encode ancestral knowledge of creation and time, whilst Hlavutelo Ngobeni’s clay vessels carry centuries of ritual significance.
Thalente Khomo’s haunting photograph “Introspection: Usofa” depicts a barefoot figure in white, identity obscured by a headdress, seated in an eerie space where childhood objects become portals to absence and memory. Asiphile Luthuli’s large-scale charcoal drawings render stress and depression visible through masterful mark-making.
Tshogofatso Nkhumeleng maps survival’s labyrinthine patterns where human determination mirrors rats navigating mazes—neither background nor circumstance determining destination.
Contemporary relevance
Throughout the exhibition, artists grapple with what to preserve from the past and what to release, what to protect and what to reimagine. These questions demonstrate that contemporary art is alive, moving, and always in conversation rather than fixed in place.
“Beyond Walls” invites viewers to recognise their own negotiations with inheritance, memory, and becoming within these works. Whether navigating the weight of familial expectations, questioning received identities, or seeking peace amid contemporary pressures, these artists articulate experiences that resonate beyond individual circumstance.
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Cultural impact
The exhibition offers a rare opportunity to witness how emerging voices are reshaping South African visual culture—not through grand declarations, but through intimate reckonings with what we carry, what we must release, and how we continually reimagine ourselves within shifting landscapes.
This is contemporary art that refuses to remain static, demanding instead that we consider our own place within ongoing dialogues of survival, resilience, and transformation.
The exhibition not only offers a viewing experience but also provides opportunities to acquire contemporary artworks. For more information about ArtbankSA and artwork acquisition, visit www.artbanksa.org or contact Innocent Moche at apm@artbanksa.org or 051 447 9606.
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Opening event details
The public is invited to join Oliewenhuis Art Museum and ArtbankSA for the opening of “Beyond Walls: Emerging Contemporary Voices” at 18:00 on Thursday, 4 December 2024, in the Main Building at Oliewenhuis Art Museum.
Everyone is welcome and entrance is free of charge. Refreshments will be served.
The exhibition runs until Monday, 6 April 2026. Oliewenhuis Art Museum is located at 16 Harry Smith Street, Bloemfontein, and is open:
- Monday to Friday: 08:00 to 17:00
- Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays: 09:00 to 16:00
A ramp at the entrance provides wheelchair access, whilst a lift provides access to the first floor. A R10 parking fee applies (cash only), but museum entrance is free.
For more information, contact the Museum at 078 968 4300 or oliewen@nasmus.co.za. Follow Oliewenhuis Art Museum on Facebook, Instagram, and X for updates on upcoming exhibitions and events.
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