Art Formes is pleased to present ‘the soil of text1 the text of soil2’ a new exhibition curated by Jean Dreyer that explores the intimate dialogue between earth and language.
Rather than simply presenting works, the exhibition creates a conversation — between artists, the gallery space, and the shared territory where soil and text meet.
At its core are ceramic artists such as Katherine Glenday and Ben Orkin, whose vessels reveal how language can live in clay — inscribed, embedded, and embodied. Their work reflects the communal nature of ceramics: knowledge passed hand to hand, stories encoded in form, and memory preserved in material.
Other artists, including Nicholas Sithole, Madoda Fani, Ledelle Moe, and Amy Rusch, treat soil as archive. Their work excavates South Africa’s layered histories and landscapes, demonstrating that earth is not neutral but a living repository of stories — of displacement and belonging, of indigenous knowledge, of what has been buried and what persists.
This spirit of exchange runs throughout the exhibition. Maja Marx’s site-specific painting responds directly to the gallery’s architecture, while Katherine Glenday’s vessels enter into dialogue with Gerhard Marx’s Elsewhere. Across the space, works listen, answer, and co-create meaning.
Jean Dreyer’s curatorial vision guides visitors through these interconnections with subtlety and nuance, showing how soil becomes a shared language and how text — written, whispered, or shaped in clay — binds us to one another and to the earth.
Featuring Ceramic Artists:Â Annegret Affolderbach, Alistair Blair, Jenna Burchell, Hanien Conradie, Madoda Fani, Douglas Gimberg, Katherine Glenday, Maia Lehr-Sacks, Gerhard Marx, Maja Marx, Michele Mathison, Hennie Meyer, Ledelle Moe, Eva Obodo, J.M. Otto, Ben Orkin, Amy Rusch, Nicholas Sithole, Sonja Swan, Diana Vives, and Barbara Wildenboer.
22 excellent reasons to visit Art Formes at The Old Biscuit Mill!
WHAT: 1 the soil of text1Â 2 the text of soil2
WHERE: Art Formes, The Old Biscuit Mill, 375 Albert Road, Woodstock, Cape Town
WHEN: 16 April – 11 June 2026
INFO: E info@artformes.com  | VISITÂ
The WHAT, WHY & WHERE of the
arts scene in around Cape Town
see the 2026 art craft + museums map
and listen in to theÂ
Arts Round Up on Fridays @12:45
on Fine Music Radio FMR 101.3fm
The FMR App makes it even easier to tune into the Arts Round Up on Fridays! i-Phone HERE | Android HERE
Another reason Cape Town is placed 3rd in Time Out’s World’s Best Cities for Culture!
