Cape Town

STEVENSON is pleased to present Bele bele tšieng, a solo exhibition of drawings by Moshekwa Langa.

The title of this selection of drawings is drawn from a Setswana idiom translating as ‘our maize is being swarmed by locusts’, a phrase used to explain the oscillations of bounty and ruin and, more simply, how the good can occasion its opposite.

Langa’s mixed-media drawings, combing watercolour, ballpoint pen, graphite and pastel, were begun in 2019 and revisited in 2021 during moments of pause afforded by the pandemic lockdowns. Having originally been exhibited in the artist's home - as part of a digital presentation - when travel was nigh impossible, the works are now shared with the public for the first time.

Across these works on paper, the artist employs radiant hues, solar motifs and fragments of text which appear to name his ambiguous figures, marking a return to narrative after years of focusing on abstract forms. In Bele bele tšieng, Langa offers a visual notebook of people and places longed for, foregrounding a warmth of feeling only generated by the gifts of absence.

The exhibition opens Saturday 23 August, 10am to 1pm, concurrent with shows by Ian Grose and Steven Cohen.