The Light we Carry, a group exhibition. Opens 5 November 2025 at The Melrose Gallery, 10 High Street, Melrose Arch, Johannesburg.
The Light We Carry brings together a dynamic constellation of artists whose practices reflect the enduring radiance of African creativity. Anchored by the works of the global icon, Dr Esther Mahlangu as we celebrate her 90th birthday, the exhibition honours the generational light that artists across the continent continue to carry, transform and pass forward. Through painting, sculpture and photography, each artist contributes to a shared dialogue about identity, spirit and the power of creation. Dr Esther Mahlangu’s bold geometry and colour symbolism serve as both inspiration and foundation; echoed in Ndabuko Ntuli’s sculptural works: textured heads and vessels that merge earth, ancestry and abstraction and in Aza Mansongi’s gestural explorations of womanhood and energy. Ayanda Mabulu’s compositions that interrogate power and truth; Vusi Beauchamp and Edozie Anedu extend the conversation with expressive form and cultural hybridity. Oscar Korbla Mawuli Awuku and Mederic Turay channel spiritual rhythm and identity through layered figuration; Dr Willie Bester’s assemblages lend a powerful voice to social conscience. Dr. Noria Mabasa’s bronze works, cast from her clay figures, preserve the tactile memory of tradition whilst Clint Strydom’s photographic series translate light and motion into meditations on human connection. Sculptors André Stead, Mark Swart and Mark Meyer reimagine the human form through balance, structure and poise. Nicola Roos presents her Obsidian Samurai, a monumental mixed-media figure crafted from recycled rubber and found materials that evoke the mytho-historical African samurai figure of Yasuke. Arlene Amaler‑Raviv offers her abstract story-telling canvases: layered, emotional meditations on displacement, transition and the voices beneath urban flux. Together, these artists illuminate the profound, collective inheritance of Pan African art; one that transcends borders, generations and disciplines.
