Photos: NWU Gallery held its first exhibition opening for the year

On Friday 10 February, the NWU Gallery hosted its first opening event for the year at the NWU Botanical Gardens and the NWU Gallery.

As part of the Gallery’s legacy program, Len Khumalo’s “The damage still remains” exhibition was curated by Nthabeleng Masudubele and co-curated by Nkululeko Khumalo, followed by Coral Fourie’s “Echoes of Time” exhibit curated by Babette Ludick.

Baba Khithika Leonard Khumalo, affectionately known as Bra Len, was celebrated in the first part of the exhibition “The Damage Still Remains “. Len Khumalo was a photographer and photojournalist who primarily practiced between the early 1970’s and 2000’s. His body of work reflects on, integrates, and challenges some of the scenes he photographed. Bra Len was able to redefine photography spaces as a black man in society and establish his role as an important forerunner in the industry. He has provided us with a rich archive depicting and preserving scenes from South African history. 

The Former photojournalist belongs to a prestigious group of photojournalists including his older brother, the late Alf Khumalo, Peter Magubane, Mike Mzileni and Sam Nzima.

His daughter, Nkululeko Khumalo says when they started on the body of work in 2016, they realized that they had a lot of achieved images that are historical and thought provoking.

Photos: Wouter Pienaar 

For the second part of the exhibition, Coral Fourie exhibited an exciting body of work titled “Echoes of Time” . Coral’s body of work is echoing and intertwining through three different timelines; the present, past and future. In the present time we are standing in echoes of the past, echoing into the future.

The artworks showcased in this exhibition bring to life echoes of time, time as in the form of reminiscence/ representations of our African landscapes, the bush veld, mountain ranges, sands of the Kalahari and the peoples “footprints” echoing from ancient times on African soil. This body of work is rich with symbolism, colour, texture and space, all accumulated through different timelines. It is a representation of the mystery of time and the space it is placed in. 

The exhibitions have a series of associated public events, ranging from artist Q&A walkabout, a demo workshop, educational activities for High School learners and students  along with a panel discussion that will be hosted during the first week of the exhibition. Both exhibitions will be available for viewing from the 10th of February to 17th of March 2023.