Dada Khanyisa's Wooden Works Capture the Beauty of Cape Town
On view at Sadie Coles HQ until April 12.
Dada Khanyisa‘s signature ‘sculptural paintings’ are taking center stage in a new solo exhibition London’s Sadie Coles HQ. Titled this is for you, the Joburg-raised Cape Town-based, artist reflects their immediate community in the South African capital to constructs a lively visual poetry. Blending pop and youth culture with a deeper political history, Khanyisa captures contemporary and reflects it back onto the viewer with vibrancy, movement and humor.
this is for you looks to nostalgia and collective history as means to explore the present. The works on view, created from hand-carved wood and found objects, bear a scrapbook-like quality. Khanyisa’s background in traditional and digital animation sings through modernist forms, enchanting a choreographic figurative approach where posed subjects collide with painted panels and three-dimensional elements.
“I try to include local items in my work. I think it’s important as far as grounding the work in a location,” Khanyisa told Juxtapoz. “I wouldn’t say the people are particular or specific, but these are the people I’m around, and I’m interested in presenting a wider image of the people I have around.”
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The exhibition is now on view at the gallery’s Davies Street location.
Sadie Coles HQ
1 Davies St,
London W1K 3DB,
United Kingdom
