A Homage to my Beloveds


What’s Left Unsaid
5 – 26 September
The Goodman Gallery, JHB.

{I}t is awesome to finally see the work that comprises What’s Left Unsaid in a gallery space. When I heard about the curatorial composition of the show it made me wonder what shape the exhibition would assume with a modest number of works? Nine in total to be precise. However, finding myself finally in the gallery I picked up some sense in the curatorial approach. Thanks to the location of the exhibition, overall, it appeared that the work was meant to be an intimate presentation.

So Used To Inconsistency (2017). Acrylic ink on paper. 107 x 78 cm

The section wherein Khoza’s exhibition has been installed greets you with a vinyl text that captures a poem dedicated to us by the artist. At least that is what I assume. Because it is not acknowledged who the poet is. However, the poem carries the spirit of Khoza in tone, economy and content as the lyrical I declare his devotion to us despite the fact that the stanzas of the poem are awash with advise for us to accept our imperfections, not to neglect ourselves and self-care. a sort of an equilibrium is attained for it is nuanced that the lyrical I, Khoza, has accepted us with our imperfections.

{T}he poem is quite befitting in setting the tone for the work on show. The work whose physical manifestations hovers quite well towards a looser technique in terms of askewing naturalism while in the embrace of freedom of artistic expression. It was joyful once more to see the work, So Used to Inconsistency (2017). The last time I saw this work it was laid on the floor in the artist’s studio at the end of this year’s winter. The weak reawakening light that makes its presence felt as winter died quitely streamed through the windows into the artist’s Queenswood art studio apartment, illuminating the translucent contours of the sitter. The work was unframed then and as such the blots that expresses the mouth and the eyes, and the fine movement of the artists curved continuous brush strokes as they formed the oval shape gently and lustrously shimmered into a face starring back. Though now framed, understandably, for posterity, the aura that I experienced during that studio visit still lingeres. [Insert, Banele Khoza, courtesy of the artist and the Goodman Gallery,JHB.]

The construction of the oval shape seem to have been executed with one brushstroke. Encountering the work once more for a second viewing pits that remark with some doubtful reflections because here in front of me is a painting realised through paint blotting and a few long broad curving brush strokes, with no evidence where one brushstroke start and where the other ceases. This is a work that I will always consider to be the blueprint of Khoza’s portraiture in his ouevre1. Unlike the other portraits that the artist has painted thus far, this painting’s subject matter lies in its incompleteness.

It is an incredible experience to witness the dry edges of the blots of paints throughout the nine works. They have the intensity of giving the effect that the artist went through the edges with a fine liner. But on closer inspection one notices that it is the paint itself as it runs short and dry during the painting process as the artist build form. In terms of the work So Used To Inconsistency (2017) this is quite noticeable on the rendering of the left eye and mouth of this gender defying sitter.

Adam (2022)
Abloh (2022)

Looking for a Hero (2022)
Whats left Unsaid (2022)

On the adjacent wall are the four portraits David (2022), Abloh (2022), Looking for a Hero (2022) and the work that carries the title of the exhibition What’s Left Unsaid (2022). These works, clustered in a vertical rectangle provides a comparative viewing of the use of ink on paper with regards to Looking for a Hero and Abloh and the use of watercolour on the works David and What’s Left Unsaid. Content wise, in Looking for a Hero and David, eye contact is cast away from the viewer to the outside of the picture plane. In the other two works it is maintained and directed at the viewer.  Interestingly, both David and What’s Left Unsaid connect to the work I Don’t Want To Kiss You, I want to feel you (2021) through the decaying green hue watercolour noticeable on David’s shirt sleeve and on the rendering of form in What’s Left Unsaid. But stepping back to the clustered group of portraits, their grouping also offers the opportunity for the viewer to witness the amalgam technique of a multiplicity and concerto of brushstrokes, dabs, flows and, quite often, blots in dark and light hues of colour rendering forms in this group of portraits.

I don’t want to kiss you, I want to feel you (2021). Watercolours on paper. 29.7 x 42 cm.
Rest I (2022). Watercolours on paper. 59.4 x 42 cm

{T}he work I Don’t Want to Kiss You, I want to Feel You is paired with the self portrait Rest I (2022). In hindsight, curatorially speaking that is, it was sensible on two accounts to pair these two works together, first, these two works violate the rhythmic portrait feature of the exhibition and secondly they both exudes intimacy. In a dissimilar, vein Clouded Emotions (2018) and Red, Purple and Joy (2018) were well placed as well due to the fact that they are abstract works2. The pairing of these abstracts works recalls the curatorial approach deployed in the neat tight rectangular grouping witnessed in the four portraits I had discussed just now. It also offers the viewer the opportunity to compare the concerto of broad brushstrokes, spills, blots in each of these paintings … side by side. whilst in Clouded Emotions it is the cloudy white smoky colour that seem to take centre stage thematically, in Red, Purple and Joy it is the unmistakable purple colour that is given prominence by the overall colour scheme of the painting.

Clouded Emotions (2018). Acrylic ink on paper. 76 x 56 cm
Red, Purple and Joy (2018). Acrylic ink on paper. 76 x 56 cm

But the magic of the viewing experience is most profound when the quality of Khoza’s painting is given a closer inspection and looked at just a breath away from the surface of the paper. It is there, just like in all of his work that the power of colour and its handling is revealed in all its splendour, see (Detail – Clouded emotions (2018). Acrylic ink on paper).

Detail 1. Clouded Emotions (2018). Acrylic ink on paper.
Detail 2. Red, Purple and Joy (2018). Acrylic ink on paper.


Spring

26 September

Mmutle Arthur Kgokong, 2024   

*All images have been used with the permission of the artist and the Goodman Gallery.

Notes

  1. At the end of the my viewing of the exhibition at the Goodman Gallery on 26 September I complimented one of the gallery staffer on the exhibition. And I indicated, with a slight touch of behind the scene intel that, the work ‘So Used to Inconsistency, 2017’ for me represented the blue print to the artist’s portraiture exploits, the official indicated to me that the work was actually part of a duo and that the other piece had bene bought by the Zeits MOCCA in Cape Town. So perhaps the puzzle of the foundation of Khoza’s portraiture at this juncture is beyond reach of those in the Reef to experience. Given the opportunity, It will be quite interesting to perform an intertextual relation analysis on the two works ↩︎
  2. In 2018, Khoza launched his Art Studio, BKhz, in Braamfontein, 68 Juta Street, Johannesburg. He proceeded to host Touch Me, his solo exhibition to inaugurate the space. A series of exhibition ensued. To the Unknown, LKB/G (Hamburg, Germany), LGBTQI+ (Zeitz MOCCA, Cape Town). He then returned to SMITH Gallery through a group exhibition titled LOVE? He had shown work there in 2016 and 2017. It was during 2018 that the two abstract paintings Clouded Emotions and Red, Purple and Joy, both done in acrylics, were produced. They form part of a considerable legacy of non-figurative works that Khoza has produced to date. ↩︎

List of Artworks

  1. Khoza, Banele. So used to inconsistency (2017). Acrylic ink on paper. 107 x 78 cm
  2. Khoza, Banele. David (2022). Watercolours on paper. 42 x 29.7 cm
  3. Khoza, Banele. Abloh (2022). Ink on Paper. 42 x 29.7 cm
  4. khoza, Banele. Looking For a Hero (2022). Ink on paper. 42 x 29.7 cm
  5. Khoza, Banele. What’s Left Unsaid (2022). Watercolours on paper. 42 x 29.7 cm
  6. Khoza, Banele. I don’t want to kiss you, I just want to feel you (2021). Watercolours on paper. 29.7 x 42 cm.
  7. Khoza, Banele. Rest I (2022). Watercolours on paper. 59.4 x 42 cm
  8. Khoza, Banele. Clouded Emotions (2018). Acrylic ink on paper. 76 x 56 cm
  9. Khoza, Banele. Red, Purple and Joy (2018). Acrylic ink on paper. 76 x 56 cm
  10. Khoza, Banele. Detail: Clouded Emotions (2018). Acrylic ink on paper. Original size: 76 x 56 cm
  11. Khoza, Banele. Detail: Red, Purple and Joy (2018). Acrylic ink on paper. 76 x 56 cm

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