Barnard Gallery present True Colours – a solo exhibition of recent paintings by Ndikhumbule Ngqinambi.
One of history’s most semantically loaded emblems, the flag denotes identity, belonging, unity and power. But it is also a signal to a vehicle or driver to take heed, slow down or stop. Using the flag as his thematic fulcrum against the backdrop of volatile narratives of oppression and liberation, Ngqinambi explores, interrogates and illustrates the motives of governments in hoisting the flag for cynical purposes.
Influenced by the traditions of social realism and protest art, Ngqinambi presents epic scenes of passion, struggle and heroism. He evokes the painterly traditions of 19th European Romanticism, early 20th century Soviet socialist realism, South African township art and protest art of the 1980s – the latter characterised by the strident imagery and saturated hues of posters carried aloft by anti-apartheid activists and liberation cadres during the height of the anti-apartheid struggle.
True Colours takes place 20 years into democracy, against a backdrop of escalating political corruption, the lingering memory of the 2012 Marikana massacre and South Africa’s volatile national elections. As such, Ngqinambi’s paintings issue a warning about flagging morale, sagging morality, suppressed or untold narratives and the lessons history reveals, yet which, at our peril, we choose to ignore.
WHERE: BARNARD GALLERY, 55 Main Street, Newlands 7700, Cape Town
WHEN: 22 May – July 10, 2014 Mon – Fri 09h00 – 17h00, Sat by appointment
Opening reception: 22 May 18h00; Guest speaker: Athi Mongezeleli Joja
INFO: T 021 671 1553 Website
