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In his attempt to explain the potential all individuals have in their pursuits of a valuable life in society, American humanist psychologist Abraham Maslow (born at the turn of last century) said: “self-actualising people are those who have come to a high level of maturation, health, and self-fulfilment. The values that self-actualisers appreciate include truth, creativity, beauty, goodness, wholeness, aliveness, uniqueness, justice, simplicity, and self-sufficiency".
This is the sentiment underpinning an exhibition, titled The Hierarchy of Being, which is influenced by Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, showing at the Living Artists Emporium (LAE). The exhibition presents artworks by Stoffel Mogano, Danisile Njoli, Nisty Chatha, and Mmutla Mashishi. They offer visual presentations of the journey we undertake in the different stages of life to achieve self-actualisation. There are also preparations underway for all the art enthusiasts, collectors and the curious for the Open Studios Joburg programme. To coincide with the RMB Latitudes Art Fair, the event sees shuttles ferrying people to various art studio spaces, including LAE (on May 28), giving them a taste of the art created and presented by the many uniquely talented artists in the city. This allows the public to meet with the lives beyond the canvas, beyond the white cubes that we are typically accustomed to when we wake ourselves up for a day of art.
Located at the Ellis Park Tennis Club, in New Doornfontein, Johannesburg East – a rather surprising location considering many art spaces are conspicuously situated in suburbia or the city – LAE is rich with artistic interpretations and visualisations of life.
I was greeted by Africanness radiating from most of the artworks hanged and placed at the different artists’ booths in the studio. Because the artists are People of Colour, the subjects of their pieces are usually brown-skinned women, men, and children. In the case of Sabelo Mkhaliphi, he created a series of portraits incorporating African tribal mask designs. Each of these masks, or mask figures, can be seen wearing distinct sunglasses that act as screens showing scenes of crowds of people walking about at different times of the day and night, and in what seems to be the busy streets of town. Each of these masks is painted on a black background with the ranks and suits of playing cards, which may speak to how African lives have been dancing in the poker hands of the Western ideologies and systems since the age of colonisation.
Gabisile Mbatha, the curator and gallery manager, describes LAE as a creative hub of innovation that has offered emerging artists the materials and space to “create whatever they want, to their heart’s content”. There is also an art gallery for the different artists to showcase their latest works and for their regular viewers and collectors of art to enjoy. Mbatha claims the gallery-cum-studio attracts a range of collectors from “a lot of local Black people who are really into African art” to “tycoons” those who “buy in bulk”. “So that’s what keeps [the space] alive,” Mbatha continued. The LAE also has an online store with the capacity to attract and cater to international art collectors.
Because of these elements that make up LAE, the space is a platform to “provide [the artists] with access to the markets and opportunities that they might not necessarily have on their own,” according to Mbatha. Splash Motong's colourful and beautiful Seshweshwe (fabric for Bapedi, Basotho, and Batswana traditional attire) collage series and his other paintings have found a home at the Art House SF in San Fransisco, California, since 2022.
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