Projects is a retrospective show featuring works by William Kentridge, Vusi Beauchamp, Anna van der Ploeg and Raquel van Haver. The exhibition reflects the work of four artists who have recently worked at David Krut Workshop (DKW) in Johannesburg to create art that they wouldn’t be able to produce in their own studios. The works presented are a mix of paintings on canvas, monotypes and editions on paper. 

In the case of William Kentridge, the collaboration with David Krut extends over 30 years. A selection from three large projects are on display - Nose, The Universal Archive and Studio Life. David Krut Workshop is a founding member of the Arts of Main complex in Johannesburg, where Kentridge has his sculpture studio and THE CENTRE FOR THE LESS GOOD IDEA. 

Vusi Beauchamp’s provocative iconography employs popular culture, satire and stereotypes in service of a visual political commentary. He seeks to interrogate current societal ills and musings against a backdrop of South Africa’s post- “Rainbow Nation” era – a time that promised racial equality, upward mobility, and “a better life for all” after the country’s transition from Apartheid. 

The table has long been the subject of Anna van der Ploeg’s work. It is an unassuming object of functionality and a site of art historical scenes of bounty and beauty. With the works on view in Projects, Van der Ploeg churns a more disquieting arena of dinner table talk and capricious human interactions. 

Raquel van Haver interweaves subjects such as identity, history, folktales and urban stories, femininity, masculinity, the politics of gentrification and religion, and the vision of the greater Caribbean in her work, offering authentic snapshots of daily life in and out of global urban societies and giving a voice to those who live between the borders.