With 2025 about to enter its full creative swing, allow me to take a moment to reflect on 2024, a year during which Windhoek’s visual art scene was as energetic as ever.
Alive with ambitious art collectives and collaborations, inspiring in its retrospectives, residencies and in the return of cultural belongings, the city’s visual artists, galleries and curators kept the fine art calendar buzzing with workshops, walkabouts and international features.
Making waves at The Project Room (TRP) in February was Toufic Beyhum’s ‘Amoji’, which presented a collection of photographs and emoji masks as an inquiry into the universal language of pictograms.
In Austria in March, celebrated documentary photographer Margaret Courtney-Clarke presented ‘Dust on the Wind’, a retrospective curated by Virginia MacKenny. The exhibition featured 100 works reflecting the complexities of 34 years of independence in Namibia.
Here in the city, March saw a tribute to renowned artist Francois de Necker. The artist and educator died early last year. An exhibition titled ‘Remembering Francois de Necker’ invited patrons to honour his life and vibrant artistic legacy, while dressed to the theme ‘In Living Colour’ at the Namibian Arts Association (NAA).
In an exhibition titled ‘Dancing Instruments: In Conversation with Looted Objects’, creative insights into the Ongoma drum’s history, craftsmanship and continued cultural significance were on display at the Goethe-Institut Namibia. Across town, an exhibition titled ‘All In’ honoured International Women’s Day at the Franco-Namibian Cultural Centre (FNCC).
At the same venue the following month, Creative Asylum presented a selection of artworks and artists from their recent residency. The fresh studio and collective is a welcome addition to the creative scene and was a site of art talks, community building, workshops, residencies and group exhibitions.
The FNCC also presented the second instalment of ‘The fish that sees its water is getting shallow cannot be stranded’ curated by Nashilongweshipwe Mushaandja, exploring the allure of water, water culture and fish in Namibian art.
Kay Cowley’s collaborative ‘Ehi/Land/Sand Rites/Rights’ performative installation was also of note as it explored “the connection between land, memory, and identity through the geological and cultural landscape of Namibia’s Waterberg”.
With regard to this year’s solo artists, TPR was at the fore of their presentations. Featuring solos from Beyhum, Jo Rogge, Barbara Böhlke, Ericke Tjiueza and Ina-Maria Shikongo, TRP additionally offered a residency and curation to Lynette Musukubili and Maria Mbereshu for their debut at Johannesburg’s RMB Latitudes. Rudolf Seibeb and Ina-Maria Shikongo also presented at FNB Art Joburg with TRP’s curatorial support. TRP began their robust calendar of exhibitions, residencies and artist walkabouts with an Art Writing Workshop in collaboration with the ARAK Collection in February.
Also buzzing with artistic activity were Bellhaus Atelier & Galerie, the National Art Gallery of Namibia (NAGN) and the Namibian Arts Association. The National Theatre of Namibia additionally hosted the inaugural Namibia Creative Summit, which celebrated, among others, the visual art of Hage Mukwendje.
This year, the Bellhaus continued in their juxtaposition of creative duos and art supper clubs, ending the year with the book launch of ‘The Stonemen – Flint and Friends in Kaokoland’ as told to Ron Swilling.
A highlight of the year at the National Art Gallery of Namibia was the Artistic Research and Communal Knowledge (ARCK) Exhibition under the theme ‘Reconnecting with Returned Cultural Belongings’.
The exhibition featured artworks responsive to the 23 cultural belongings returned to Namibia from the Ethnological Museum of Berlin.
Solo offerings by Nicky Marais, Duif Keyser and Elisia Nghidishange were also of note, as were the 11th National Ceramics Biennale and a memorial exhibition for distinguished artist Trudi Dicks, who died early last year.
The Unam Graduate Exhibition is currently on show at the NAGN until 1 February.
As for the NAA, last year’s focus was development. Presenting a series of artist workshop clinics on topics such as concept development and pricing your art, the NAA also hosted a handful of group exhibitions, beginning with the 2023 Bakers Bay Artist’s Retreat Exhibition presented by StArt Art Gallery and ending with the Local Crafts Exhibition curated by Actofel Ilovu in December.
Further highlights from last year’s visual arts offering include Ndasuunje ‘PAPA’ Shikongeni’s ‘Stillness….Gundjila’ at Swakopmund’s Woermannhaus Art Gallery in November. Shikongeni also joined Ndako Nghipandulwa and Jakobina Gideon as the Namibian artists showcased their work at the AfriKin Art Fair during Miami Art Week and Art Basel. Tuli Mekondjo, represented by Hales Gallery, was also featured at Art Basel following a recent showing at Biennale de Dakar in Senegal.
With just a few high points from a jam-packed year, it’s clear to see that Windhoek’s fine arts scene is up, at it and set to thrive in 2025.
– martha@namibian.com.na; Martha Mukaiwa on Twitter and Instagram; marthamukaiwa.com
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