Published 28 January 2026 in #an_uncomplicated curator
Wrap-up of 2025
2025 was an exciting year for me as I was unexpectedly nudged into a new role as an independent curator. Last year, due to great support from gallerist and artworld guru Gordon Froud, I put on 6 one-weekend pop-up exhibitions at gordart Stokvel Gallery in Melville, Johannesburg.
As a curator, my practical aim is twofold: to use artists’ existing works, even though they may have shifted with their ideas and techniques; and being aware of the current slump in art sales generally, to keep exhibiting costs as low as possible for the artists – hence the weekend pop-ups.
Regarding the selected artworks, many emerging and mid-career artists – my focus group – have not yet been picked up by the formal galleries, so have had little opportunity to exhibit a significant body of themed work. Although most have participated in group exhibitions, the one or two shown works may not give much idea about their overall oeuvre.
I prefer to exhibit artists’ existing works for two main reasons. First, there is low stress and cost to the artist as they are not required to make new work. And secondly, my sense is that just because a work is ‘older’ doesn’t mean that it has no relevance either today or moving into the future.
Having always been fascinated by the ‘why’ behind an artwork rather than the ‘what’ or ‘who’, my passion has become to take an artist’s work, listen to their story, and then create a fresh story around the work. Even more, I prefer to take two artists’ bodies of work who have something similar happening in their artwork or art practice and interlace these common threads to tell a new story – with the wish that the viewer will do the same, bringing in their own story.
My plan with this blog is to introduce these exhibitions and artists. For me, curating has become an absorbing pathway to follow, and I hope that you will enjoy witnessing my journey.
I’ll finish by quoting my hero Brian Eno, who has several excellent talks on YouTube:
Curation is an act of claiming a relationship between existing things, of weaving patterns, and telling new stories.
