artlatest news & developments
A deeper voice: Bubu’s album, Folklore Chapter One, was the seed of the Folklore Festival that has become an ecosystem stretching across disciplines and inviting conversation.

Pilane Bubu and the work of remembering through folklore

Through its KinFolk theme, the Folklore Festival returns to the work of connection, bridging generations, regions and disciplines to reimagine how South Africa remembers, archives and sustains its cultural voice

  • Library
7 min read
Mahindra Fusion Fest 2026 returns to Pretoria this March, transforming the SunBet Arena into an immersive collision of music, fashion and art that celebrates the bold future of South African creativity

Mahindra Fusion Fest Returns: Bigger, bolder and unapologetically South African

Mahindra Fusion Fest 2026 returns to Pretoria this March, transforming the SunBet Arena into an immersive collision of music, fashion and art that celebrates the bold future of South African creativity

  • Eyaaz
3 min read
Sepedi poet and cultural worker Moses Seletisa

Speaking in tongues: The literary revolution rooted in Sepedi and Setswana

The quiet power of Moses Seletisa’s Sepedi poetry and Sabata Mokae’s Setswana novels

  • Eyaaz
8 min read
Artist Kim Berman stands in front of her image entitled “Atonement”.

Kim Berman’s fire sermon

The artist’s latest exhibition, spanning 40 years, celebrates ‘the victory of memory over forgetting’

6 min read
As we ride the wave of technological advancement, we must ensure that innovation does not come at the cost of exploitation.

The silent thief: AI exploits creators under the guise of innovation

Africa must not become a data colony feeding algorithms that serve the Global North, while remaining voiceless in shaping the rules

  • Eyaaz
4 min read
Nyakallo Maleke makes joy an art form

Nyakallo Maleke and the gentle radicalism of drawing as care

A tender meditation on care, memory and materiality, this artist’s work invites us to slow down and feel the soul

  • Eyaaz
7 min read
Igshaan Adams, Gebedswolke (2025). © Igshaan Adams.

Structures of the forgotten: An installation of song, soil and spirit

A haunting meditation on land, memory and rain, Dinokana invites us to rebuild from what was lost

  • Des Erasmus
8 min read
Biggie: SoftVxnxs by Goldendean who will be an exhibitor on the One and the Many show in Pretoria in July. Photo: Anthea Pokroy

Diary: One and the Many exhibition at Javette Art Centre,  Simthandile Mtolo Quartet live, Kaleidoscope Festival in the Karoo

Your essential dose of art and culture

  • Eyaaz
2 min read
Louie Vega will headline a night of house music at The Forum in Bryanston, Johannesburg.

Diary: Soulaced with Louie Vega, Hamba Ungemi on tour, Mantsopa at Market Theatre

Your essential dose of art and culture

  • Des Erasmus
2 min read
South African scientists have released the findings of the first HIV cure trial in Africa with promising results showing viral suppression in 20% of women who stopped taking antiretroviral therapy (ART) after 18 months

SA scientists release promising HIV cure trial results

The study found 20% of women who took a drug intervention that included antibodies remained virally suppressed without antiretroviral therapy after 18 months.

  • Eyaaz
5 min read
A stitch in time: The Bokgabo ba Mašela: Art of Textiles exhibition, which is on at the University of Pretoria Museums until 15 October, includes works using embroidery, quilting and other forms of needlework.

Textiles as testimony: Stitching together stories of struggle, survival and gendered history

Textiles hold memory, meaning and power – challenging erasure, celebrating resilience

  • Des Erasmus
5 min read
Free entry: The Constitution Hill Human Rights Festival is an important reminder that for many in South Africa the battle for rights has not been won.

Arts and acts of freedom

Human rights festival honours the fight for justice with music, films and dialogue, offering free access to all and inspiring change

  • Eyaaz
5 min read
Sue Williamson’s work Better Lives Nelson Manuel, 2003.

Sue Williamson’s retrospective: Art as witness to history

Her work confronts South Africa’s past, blending art, activism and memory

  • Eyaaz
6 min read
Paint the town red: About 30 000 people are expected to view the work of more than 120 exhibitors at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair.

Diary: Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Protest theatre classic returns, Ayanda Jiya in Durban

Your essential dose of art and culture

  • Umamah Bakharia
2 min read
Anelisa Mangcu. (Photo by Zander Opperman)

Anelisa Mangcu is weaving art into legacy

Her gallery, Under the Aegis, is intended to nurture artists and build the community

  • Des Erasmus
7 min read
Opening: Siviwe James’s exhibition Ubuhle Ngaphaya Kwameva.

Diary: Siviwe James goes solo, Una Rams and Muneyi release ndi a mufuna, Lorin Sookool at Artscape

Your essential dose of art and culture

  • Busi Lethole
2 min read
On the face of it: South African photographer Pieter Hugo’s pictures Tiananmen Square, Beijing, 2015 (Pieter Hugo)

Pieter Hugo’s tragic beauty pushes the button of mortality

The photographer’s ambitious new exhibition What the Light Falls On is a free-ranging meditation on life

  • Des Erasmus
14 min read
Jozua Gerrard’s Different Day.

Exhibition shows the convergence of art, craft and design

A new wave of African creatives is working with galleries to blur the distinction between the three disciplines

  • Eyaaz
6 min read
In South Africa, the struggle against apartheid found its most potent voice in a confluence of literature and activism. Steve Biko, a revolutionary thinker and anti-apartheid activist, authored I Write What I Like.

Scribes of freedom: Southern African literature works for a just society

From critiques of apartheid to reflections on post-colonial identity, Southern African literature has chronicled the region’s history and shaped its trajectory to a just society

6 min read
Weighing in: Max Hollein, director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, visited South Africa recently. Photo: Lelanie Foster

Challenge Met, says New York art museum director

Max Hollein of the Metropolitan Museum of Art talks about art on the African continent

  • Eyaaz
9 min read