Johannesburg

STEVENSON is pleased to present Tomorrow is Another Day, a solo exhibition of new paintings by Neo Matloga.

For his first exhibition in Johannesburg since 2020, Matloga presents a tableau of figures in quiet moments witnessed in moments of daily life between Johannesburg and Mamaila, the village where he grew up. The artist describes his paintings as 'psychological landscapes' where the range of emotions comprising the everyday are captured on a spectrum, ranging from love to exasperation and reverence. Where Matloga's first exhibition, Back of the Moon, referenced scenes from local soap operas, plays and family albums, Tomorrow is Another Day relinquishes theatricality, emphasising stillness and familiarity alongside the equal measures of presence and dignity these evince.

Working across painting, collage and monotype printmaking, Matloga is drawn to the varied gestural markings these materials produce. He sees the ink, charcoal and fast-drying paints as implements which demand presence and urgency, adding a temporal stake to his practice. The artist explains:

That urgency mirrors the rhythm of photography: the single frame, the fleeting breath. But where photography captures a moment, painting chases it. I try to hold that breath a little longer, painting as if the camera were embedded in the pulse of my hand.

Through scale, Matloga's figures impose upon the viewer. Their pointed gaze, which extends outside the frame, dispels any assumed passivity of the individual depicted, who is looked at but rarely looks back. The splintering of our perspective is further affected by his collaged approach, where the mediums elucidate different gestures and tones. His depiction of hands, collaged onto the canvas using monotype prints, draw our attention to the specificity of the body language in each scene. Across these figures, who emerge from all works of life, Matloga reflects on the politicisation of the hands as an allegory for labour, comfort and access.

Matloga recounts the storytelling he grew up with in Mamaila, which interwove gesture, myth and ritual, as key to his overall practice. His paintings seek a balance between this mode of sharing and moments experienced in both intimate and public settings. The slippages in materiality and play with proportions in these works reflect this interweaving of the real and abstract, leading to a new depiction of the mundane, guided by feeling.

Tomorrow is Another Day is about resilience – not the kind we shout about, but the quiet kind. The kind found in small rituals, in the decision to show up again. To compose yourself one more time, even when no one is watching. These are portraits of everyday courage. Stories that live beneath the surface. And the quiet but powerful belief that tomorrow still holds something for us.

The exhibition opens Saturday 30 August, 10am to 1pm.