The Melrose Gallery is pleased to present Hlukanisa, uHlanganise, a group exhibition curated by Mpumi Mayisa, opening on 13 April 2025. The exhibition brings together works by Dr. Esther Mahlangu, Charity Vilakazi, Tinyiko Makwakwa, Nikiwe Dlova, Puleng Mongale, and Nwabisa Ntlokwana. Artists whose practices unravel, reconstruct, and extend matrilineal transmissions through material and conceptual interventions.The show includes paintings, sculpture, textiles, photography, and digital media.
Hlukanisa uHlanganise
In Hlukanisa, uHlanganise which translates to take apart (deconstruct) in order to reconstruct/create anew we step into a field of knowledge transmission where language, lineage, and materiality intersect. This exhibition convenes an intergenerational dialogue between the iconic Dr. Esther Mahlangu and contemporary artists Charity Vilakazi, Tinyiko Makwakwa, Nikiwe Dlova, Puleng Mongale, and Nwabisa Ntlokwana. The show includes paintings, sculpture, textiles, photography, and digital media. Their works navigate the terrains of African epistemologies, where science, memory, and the body exist as sites of inscription, transference, and renewal.
-
Tinyiko MakwakwaTalisman I: Gris Gris , 2024Glass beads , safety pins and wire520 x 220 mmC009909Copyright The Artist -
Tinyiko MakwakwaWhen I last wrote to you about Africa , 2024Cotton, Ocher and glass beads173 x 74 cm unframed
138 x 98 x 7 cm framedC009908Copyright The Artist -
Nwabisa NtlokwanaFolded in resilience , 2025Jacaranda wood, leather and mash wire64 x 40 cmC008324Copyright The Artist
-
Nwabisa NtlokwanaSeeding, 2024Leather, glue, acrylic paint on canvas152 x 121 cmC008323Copyright The Artist
-
Nwabisa NtlokwanaSection X , 2025Leather on wood40 x 60 cmC008322Copyright The Artist
-
Nwabisa NtlokwanaNavigating Motherhood with one hand, 2023Papier Mache on canvas and acrylic paint76 x 76 cmC008321Copyright The Artist
-
Nikiwe DlovaRhythmic Tapestry , 2025Synthetic hair, acrylic and beads95 x 105 cm
C009907Copyright The Artist -
Nikiwe DlovaSculpted Braid Patterns , 2025Acrylic, impasto on canvas85 x 95 cmC009906Copyright The Artist
-
Puleng MongaleHoly gang , 2021Digital Print on Galerie Textured Silk 270g30 x 42 cmC009905Copyright The Artist
-
Puleng MongaleHo amohela dineo , 2021Digital Print on Galerie Textured Silk 270g30 x 42 cmC009904Copyright The Artist
-
Charity VilakaziKwabadala , 2024Ibomvu and acrylic paint on fabriano140 x 140 cmC009903Copyright The Artist
-
Charity VilakaziIngxenye yefu, 2025Ibomvu acrylic and wool yarn on loose fabric100 x 150 cmC009902Copyright The Artist
-
Charity VilakaziNgisemizeni yami , 2024Ibomvu and mixed media, cotton on fabric160 x 170 cmC009901Copyright The Artist
-
Esther MahlanguVessel , 2025Acrylic on GRP20 x 40 cmC008054
-
Esther MahlanguVessel , 2025Acrylic on GRP20 x 40 cmC008051
-
Esther MahlanguVessel , 2024Acrylic on GRP30 x 40 cmC007997
-
Esther MahlanguNdbele Abstract, 2016Acrylic on Canvas316 x 152 cmCC008464
-
Esther MahlanguNdbele Abstract, 2017Acrylic on Canvas150 x 98 cmCC008452
By interrogating materiality as a site of knowledge-making, Hlukanisa, uHlanganise asks: what if learning did not need to be didactic to be legitimate? If African histories have always been written - onto walls, woven into braids, shaped into clay, inscribed in ochre - how do we recover and honor these ways of knowing? The exhibition does not seek to simply preserve these traditions but rather to extend them, to take apart in order to reconstruct anew. Through acts of remembering, reshaping, and reimagining, these artists participate in a broader lineage of Black feminist thought, where the matrilineal archive is neither fixed nor lost, it is always in flux, being remade in the present.