Showing Now: Saatchi Gallery and White Cube's Dark Landscapes
We take a look at Cinga Samson's Nzulu yemfihlakalo and Saatchi Gallery's latest group show...
August 9, 2023
Nzulu yemfihlakalo, an isiXhosa phrase meaning ‘the depth of mystery’, is an apt title for Cinga Samson’s first UK solo exhibition. The South African artist presents a haunting set of hyperreal tableaux, which take from his immediate environment in Cape Town, alongside wider social concerns.
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Samson deploys thin oils and colour to chilling effect; dark, near-black landscapes contrast with the blank white eyes, trainers, and boxer shorts of his Black protagonists. His figures frequently appear with objects or memento mori, like raw meat and animal skulls, bloody remains without origin or explanation in the painting. Devoid of pupils, they dismiss our gaze, continuing their behaviours with slow, even funerary, purpose. It’s unlike anything you’ve seen before.
We always find these figures caught in the act – but of what? In ‘Ukuphicothwa Kwento Xa Ingaziwa’ (2023), they seem to be tapping the liquid of a monumental sisal plant. In ‘Ingoma Yekugala’ (2023), searching and stealing something stored in the central, opaque white bucket. Fabric shrouds and plastic body bags crop up across the works, also without explanation; it’s unsettling, and wholly engulfing for the viewer, creating more questions than offering answers.
Landmarks and features native to Cape Town also locate Samson’s practice. Some are blatant; we see the imposing left-hand slope of Table Mountain and, in ‘uDondolo’ (2023), the specific topography of Lion’s Head and Devil’s Peak. Others feature figures with bouquets of proteas, South Africa’s national flower. More subtle are the symbols often overlooked in the landscape – the sign to Rhodes, and Life Tastes Great! White van – which hint at Samson’s critical gaze on his surroundings.
Equally subversive, and avoidant of direct confrontation, are the works in Beyond the Gaze, a group show of contemporary women artists who don’t consider themselves to be landscape painters. Here, they take ownership of space, challenging the historical tendencies of the male-dominated genre, by exploring activities that take place within a landscape, redefining perceptions from their own perspectives.
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Lisa Ivory’s name misleads; her dark landscapes are archaic, untamed wastelands, populated by feral figures. Whilst Samson’s characters and settings are somewhat ambiguous, their contemporary clothes and technologies are a giveaway - the same can’t be said of Ivory. In nine miniatures, we find the chalk outlines of dead horses, and skeletons in a Danse Macabre, in-between beings that bridge interactions between humans and beasts.
Joanna Whittle stays small, presenting intimate landscapes enclosed in small frames. Some painted on copper, others on Perspex, they share the same shiny, eerie quality as Samson’s grand paintings. Larger still are Kirsty Harris’ atom bomb works; testaments to the most iconic man-made event that might take place in a natural landscape. But it is the variety of Harris’ later works across media, the little linen ‘Project #58’ (2017), and large tapestry ‘George’ (2023), and her bomb painted onto a glass table, that, taken together, have the most forceful impact.
The artists and their media thus interspersed, we can trace how their horizons change over time. Stay with it for the second room, which is sublime, and whilst free, remember these are commercial landscapes; the list of works will always be a price list too.
Cinga Samson: Nzulu yemfihlakalo is on view at White Cube Mason’s Yard until 26 August 2023.
Beyond the Gaze: Reclaiming the Landscape is on view at the Saatchi Gallery until 28 August 2023.
Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app with each exhibition you visit!
Nzulu yemfihlakalo, an isiXhosa phrase meaning ‘the depth of mystery’, is an apt title for Cinga Samson’s first UK solo exhibition. The South African artist presents a haunting set of hyperreal tableaux, which take from his immediate environment in Cape Town, alongside wider social concerns.
Samson deploys thin oils and colour to chilling effect; dark, near-black landscapes contrast with the blank white eyes, trainers, and boxer shorts of his Black protagonists. His figures frequently appear with objects or memento mori, like raw meat and animal skulls, bloody remains without origin or explanation in the painting. Devoid of pupils, they dismiss our gaze, continuing their behaviours with slow, even funerary, purpose. It’s unlike anything you’ve seen before.
We always find these figures caught in the act – but of what? In ‘Ukuphicothwa Kwento Xa Ingaziwa’ (2023), they seem to be tapping the liquid of a monumental sisal plant. In ‘Ingoma Yekugala’ (2023), searching and stealing something stored in the central, opaque white bucket. Fabric shrouds and plastic body bags crop up across the works, also without explanation; it’s unsettling, and wholly engulfing for the viewer, creating more questions than offering answers.
Landmarks and features native to Cape Town also locate Samson’s practice. Some are blatant; we see the imposing left-hand slope of Table Mountain and, in ‘uDondolo’ (2023), the specific topography of Lion’s Head and Devil’s Peak. Others feature figures with bouquets of proteas, South Africa’s national flower. More subtle are the symbols often overlooked in the landscape – the sign to Rhodes, and Life Tastes Great! White van – which hint at Samson’s critical gaze on his surroundings.
Equally subversive, and avoidant of direct confrontation, are the works in Beyond the Gaze, a group show of contemporary women artists who don’t consider themselves to be landscape painters. Here, they take ownership of space, challenging the historical tendencies of the male-dominated genre, by exploring activities that take place within a landscape, redefining perceptions from their own perspectives.
Lisa Ivory’s name misleads; her dark landscapes are archaic, untamed wastelands, populated by feral figures. Whilst Samson’s characters and settings are somewhat ambiguous, their contemporary clothes and technologies are a giveaway - the same can’t be said of Ivory. In nine miniatures, we find the chalk outlines of dead horses, and skeletons in a Danse Macabre, in-between beings that bridge interactions between humans and beasts.
Joanna Whittle stays small, presenting intimate landscapes enclosed in small frames. Some painted on copper, others on Perspex, they share the same shiny, eerie quality as Samson’s grand paintings. Larger still are Kirsty Harris’ atom bomb works; testaments to the most iconic man-made event that might take place in a natural landscape. But it is the variety of Harris’ later works across media, the little linen ‘Project #58’ (2017), and large tapestry ‘George’ (2023), and her bomb painted onto a glass table, that, taken together, have the most forceful impact.
The artists and their media thus interspersed, we can trace how their horizons change over time. Stay with it for the second room, which is sublime, and whilst free, remember these are commercial landscapes; the list of works will always be a price list too.
Cinga Samson: Nzulu yemfihlakalo is on view at White Cube Mason’s Yard until 26 August 2023.
Beyond the Gaze: Reclaiming the Landscape is on view at the Saatchi Gallery until 28 August 2023.
Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app with each exhibition you visit!
Nzulu yemfihlakalo, an isiXhosa phrase meaning ‘the depth of mystery’, is an apt title for Cinga Samson’s first UK solo exhibition. The South African artist presents a haunting set of hyperreal tableaux, which take from his immediate environment in Cape Town, alongside wider social concerns.
Samson deploys thin oils and colour to chilling effect; dark, near-black landscapes contrast with the blank white eyes, trainers, and boxer shorts of his Black protagonists. His figures frequently appear with objects or memento mori, like raw meat and animal skulls, bloody remains without origin or explanation in the painting. Devoid of pupils, they dismiss our gaze, continuing their behaviours with slow, even funerary, purpose. It’s unlike anything you’ve seen before.
We always find these figures caught in the act – but of what? In ‘Ukuphicothwa Kwento Xa Ingaziwa’ (2023), they seem to be tapping the liquid of a monumental sisal plant. In ‘Ingoma Yekugala’ (2023), searching and stealing something stored in the central, opaque white bucket. Fabric shrouds and plastic body bags crop up across the works, also without explanation; it’s unsettling, and wholly engulfing for the viewer, creating more questions than offering answers.
Landmarks and features native to Cape Town also locate Samson’s practice. Some are blatant; we see the imposing left-hand slope of Table Mountain and, in ‘uDondolo’ (2023), the specific topography of Lion’s Head and Devil’s Peak. Others feature figures with bouquets of proteas, South Africa’s national flower. More subtle are the symbols often overlooked in the landscape – the sign to Rhodes, and Life Tastes Great! White van – which hint at Samson’s critical gaze on his surroundings.
Equally subversive, and avoidant of direct confrontation, are the works in Beyond the Gaze, a group show of contemporary women artists who don’t consider themselves to be landscape painters. Here, they take ownership of space, challenging the historical tendencies of the male-dominated genre, by exploring activities that take place within a landscape, redefining perceptions from their own perspectives.
Lisa Ivory’s name misleads; her dark landscapes are archaic, untamed wastelands, populated by feral figures. Whilst Samson’s characters and settings are somewhat ambiguous, their contemporary clothes and technologies are a giveaway - the same can’t be said of Ivory. In nine miniatures, we find the chalk outlines of dead horses, and skeletons in a Danse Macabre, in-between beings that bridge interactions between humans and beasts.
Joanna Whittle stays small, presenting intimate landscapes enclosed in small frames. Some painted on copper, others on Perspex, they share the same shiny, eerie quality as Samson’s grand paintings. Larger still are Kirsty Harris’ atom bomb works; testaments to the most iconic man-made event that might take place in a natural landscape. But it is the variety of Harris’ later works across media, the little linen ‘Project #58’ (2017), and large tapestry ‘George’ (2023), and her bomb painted onto a glass table, that, taken together, have the most forceful impact.
The artists and their media thus interspersed, we can trace how their horizons change over time. Stay with it for the second room, which is sublime, and whilst free, remember these are commercial landscapes; the list of works will always be a price list too.
Cinga Samson: Nzulu yemfihlakalo is on view at White Cube Mason’s Yard until 26 August 2023.
Beyond the Gaze: Reclaiming the Landscape is on view at the Saatchi Gallery until 28 August 2023.
Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app with each exhibition you visit!
Nzulu yemfihlakalo, an isiXhosa phrase meaning ‘the depth of mystery’, is an apt title for Cinga Samson’s first UK solo exhibition. The South African artist presents a haunting set of hyperreal tableaux, which take from his immediate environment in Cape Town, alongside wider social concerns.
Samson deploys thin oils and colour to chilling effect; dark, near-black landscapes contrast with the blank white eyes, trainers, and boxer shorts of his Black protagonists. His figures frequently appear with objects or memento mori, like raw meat and animal skulls, bloody remains without origin or explanation in the painting. Devoid of pupils, they dismiss our gaze, continuing their behaviours with slow, even funerary, purpose. It’s unlike anything you’ve seen before.
We always find these figures caught in the act – but of what? In ‘Ukuphicothwa Kwento Xa Ingaziwa’ (2023), they seem to be tapping the liquid of a monumental sisal plant. In ‘Ingoma Yekugala’ (2023), searching and stealing something stored in the central, opaque white bucket. Fabric shrouds and plastic body bags crop up across the works, also without explanation; it’s unsettling, and wholly engulfing for the viewer, creating more questions than offering answers.
Landmarks and features native to Cape Town also locate Samson’s practice. Some are blatant; we see the imposing left-hand slope of Table Mountain and, in ‘uDondolo’ (2023), the specific topography of Lion’s Head and Devil’s Peak. Others feature figures with bouquets of proteas, South Africa’s national flower. More subtle are the symbols often overlooked in the landscape – the sign to Rhodes, and Life Tastes Great! White van – which hint at Samson’s critical gaze on his surroundings.
Equally subversive, and avoidant of direct confrontation, are the works in Beyond the Gaze, a group show of contemporary women artists who don’t consider themselves to be landscape painters. Here, they take ownership of space, challenging the historical tendencies of the male-dominated genre, by exploring activities that take place within a landscape, redefining perceptions from their own perspectives.
Lisa Ivory’s name misleads; her dark landscapes are archaic, untamed wastelands, populated by feral figures. Whilst Samson’s characters and settings are somewhat ambiguous, their contemporary clothes and technologies are a giveaway - the same can’t be said of Ivory. In nine miniatures, we find the chalk outlines of dead horses, and skeletons in a Danse Macabre, in-between beings that bridge interactions between humans and beasts.
Joanna Whittle stays small, presenting intimate landscapes enclosed in small frames. Some painted on copper, others on Perspex, they share the same shiny, eerie quality as Samson’s grand paintings. Larger still are Kirsty Harris’ atom bomb works; testaments to the most iconic man-made event that might take place in a natural landscape. But it is the variety of Harris’ later works across media, the little linen ‘Project #58’ (2017), and large tapestry ‘George’ (2023), and her bomb painted onto a glass table, that, taken together, have the most forceful impact.
The artists and their media thus interspersed, we can trace how their horizons change over time. Stay with it for the second room, which is sublime, and whilst free, remember these are commercial landscapes; the list of works will always be a price list too.
Cinga Samson: Nzulu yemfihlakalo is on view at White Cube Mason’s Yard until 26 August 2023.
Beyond the Gaze: Reclaiming the Landscape is on view at the Saatchi Gallery until 28 August 2023.
Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app with each exhibition you visit!
Nzulu yemfihlakalo, an isiXhosa phrase meaning ‘the depth of mystery’, is an apt title for Cinga Samson’s first UK solo exhibition. The South African artist presents a haunting set of hyperreal tableaux, which take from his immediate environment in Cape Town, alongside wider social concerns.
Samson deploys thin oils and colour to chilling effect; dark, near-black landscapes contrast with the blank white eyes, trainers, and boxer shorts of his Black protagonists. His figures frequently appear with objects or memento mori, like raw meat and animal skulls, bloody remains without origin or explanation in the painting. Devoid of pupils, they dismiss our gaze, continuing their behaviours with slow, even funerary, purpose. It’s unlike anything you’ve seen before.
We always find these figures caught in the act – but of what? In ‘Ukuphicothwa Kwento Xa Ingaziwa’ (2023), they seem to be tapping the liquid of a monumental sisal plant. In ‘Ingoma Yekugala’ (2023), searching and stealing something stored in the central, opaque white bucket. Fabric shrouds and plastic body bags crop up across the works, also without explanation; it’s unsettling, and wholly engulfing for the viewer, creating more questions than offering answers.
Landmarks and features native to Cape Town also locate Samson’s practice. Some are blatant; we see the imposing left-hand slope of Table Mountain and, in ‘uDondolo’ (2023), the specific topography of Lion’s Head and Devil’s Peak. Others feature figures with bouquets of proteas, South Africa’s national flower. More subtle are the symbols often overlooked in the landscape – the sign to Rhodes, and Life Tastes Great! White van – which hint at Samson’s critical gaze on his surroundings.
Equally subversive, and avoidant of direct confrontation, are the works in Beyond the Gaze, a group show of contemporary women artists who don’t consider themselves to be landscape painters. Here, they take ownership of space, challenging the historical tendencies of the male-dominated genre, by exploring activities that take place within a landscape, redefining perceptions from their own perspectives.
Lisa Ivory’s name misleads; her dark landscapes are archaic, untamed wastelands, populated by feral figures. Whilst Samson’s characters and settings are somewhat ambiguous, their contemporary clothes and technologies are a giveaway - the same can’t be said of Ivory. In nine miniatures, we find the chalk outlines of dead horses, and skeletons in a Danse Macabre, in-between beings that bridge interactions between humans and beasts.
Joanna Whittle stays small, presenting intimate landscapes enclosed in small frames. Some painted on copper, others on Perspex, they share the same shiny, eerie quality as Samson’s grand paintings. Larger still are Kirsty Harris’ atom bomb works; testaments to the most iconic man-made event that might take place in a natural landscape. But it is the variety of Harris’ later works across media, the little linen ‘Project #58’ (2017), and large tapestry ‘George’ (2023), and her bomb painted onto a glass table, that, taken together, have the most forceful impact.
The artists and their media thus interspersed, we can trace how their horizons change over time. Stay with it for the second room, which is sublime, and whilst free, remember these are commercial landscapes; the list of works will always be a price list too.
Cinga Samson: Nzulu yemfihlakalo is on view at White Cube Mason’s Yard until 26 August 2023.
Beyond the Gaze: Reclaiming the Landscape is on view at the Saatchi Gallery until 28 August 2023.
Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app with each exhibition you visit!
Nzulu yemfihlakalo, an isiXhosa phrase meaning ‘the depth of mystery’, is an apt title for Cinga Samson’s first UK solo exhibition. The South African artist presents a haunting set of hyperreal tableaux, which take from his immediate environment in Cape Town, alongside wider social concerns.
Samson deploys thin oils and colour to chilling effect; dark, near-black landscapes contrast with the blank white eyes, trainers, and boxer shorts of his Black protagonists. His figures frequently appear with objects or memento mori, like raw meat and animal skulls, bloody remains without origin or explanation in the painting. Devoid of pupils, they dismiss our gaze, continuing their behaviours with slow, even funerary, purpose. It’s unlike anything you’ve seen before.
We always find these figures caught in the act – but of what? In ‘Ukuphicothwa Kwento Xa Ingaziwa’ (2023), they seem to be tapping the liquid of a monumental sisal plant. In ‘Ingoma Yekugala’ (2023), searching and stealing something stored in the central, opaque white bucket. Fabric shrouds and plastic body bags crop up across the works, also without explanation; it’s unsettling, and wholly engulfing for the viewer, creating more questions than offering answers.
Landmarks and features native to Cape Town also locate Samson’s practice. Some are blatant; we see the imposing left-hand slope of Table Mountain and, in ‘uDondolo’ (2023), the specific topography of Lion’s Head and Devil’s Peak. Others feature figures with bouquets of proteas, South Africa’s national flower. More subtle are the symbols often overlooked in the landscape – the sign to Rhodes, and Life Tastes Great! White van – which hint at Samson’s critical gaze on his surroundings.
Equally subversive, and avoidant of direct confrontation, are the works in Beyond the Gaze, a group show of contemporary women artists who don’t consider themselves to be landscape painters. Here, they take ownership of space, challenging the historical tendencies of the male-dominated genre, by exploring activities that take place within a landscape, redefining perceptions from their own perspectives.
Lisa Ivory’s name misleads; her dark landscapes are archaic, untamed wastelands, populated by feral figures. Whilst Samson’s characters and settings are somewhat ambiguous, their contemporary clothes and technologies are a giveaway - the same can’t be said of Ivory. In nine miniatures, we find the chalk outlines of dead horses, and skeletons in a Danse Macabre, in-between beings that bridge interactions between humans and beasts.
Joanna Whittle stays small, presenting intimate landscapes enclosed in small frames. Some painted on copper, others on Perspex, they share the same shiny, eerie quality as Samson’s grand paintings. Larger still are Kirsty Harris’ atom bomb works; testaments to the most iconic man-made event that might take place in a natural landscape. But it is the variety of Harris’ later works across media, the little linen ‘Project #58’ (2017), and large tapestry ‘George’ (2023), and her bomb painted onto a glass table, that, taken together, have the most forceful impact.
The artists and their media thus interspersed, we can trace how their horizons change over time. Stay with it for the second room, which is sublime, and whilst free, remember these are commercial landscapes; the list of works will always be a price list too.
Cinga Samson: Nzulu yemfihlakalo is on view at White Cube Mason’s Yard until 26 August 2023.
Beyond the Gaze: Reclaiming the Landscape is on view at the Saatchi Gallery until 28 August 2023.
Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app with each exhibition you visit!
Nzulu yemfihlakalo, an isiXhosa phrase meaning ‘the depth of mystery’, is an apt title for Cinga Samson’s first UK solo exhibition. The South African artist presents a haunting set of hyperreal tableaux, which take from his immediate environment in Cape Town, alongside wider social concerns.
Samson deploys thin oils and colour to chilling effect; dark, near-black landscapes contrast with the blank white eyes, trainers, and boxer shorts of his Black protagonists. His figures frequently appear with objects or memento mori, like raw meat and animal skulls, bloody remains without origin or explanation in the painting. Devoid of pupils, they dismiss our gaze, continuing their behaviours with slow, even funerary, purpose. It’s unlike anything you’ve seen before.
We always find these figures caught in the act – but of what? In ‘Ukuphicothwa Kwento Xa Ingaziwa’ (2023), they seem to be tapping the liquid of a monumental sisal plant. In ‘Ingoma Yekugala’ (2023), searching and stealing something stored in the central, opaque white bucket. Fabric shrouds and plastic body bags crop up across the works, also without explanation; it’s unsettling, and wholly engulfing for the viewer, creating more questions than offering answers.
Landmarks and features native to Cape Town also locate Samson’s practice. Some are blatant; we see the imposing left-hand slope of Table Mountain and, in ‘uDondolo’ (2023), the specific topography of Lion’s Head and Devil’s Peak. Others feature figures with bouquets of proteas, South Africa’s national flower. More subtle are the symbols often overlooked in the landscape – the sign to Rhodes, and Life Tastes Great! White van – which hint at Samson’s critical gaze on his surroundings.
Equally subversive, and avoidant of direct confrontation, are the works in Beyond the Gaze, a group show of contemporary women artists who don’t consider themselves to be landscape painters. Here, they take ownership of space, challenging the historical tendencies of the male-dominated genre, by exploring activities that take place within a landscape, redefining perceptions from their own perspectives.
Lisa Ivory’s name misleads; her dark landscapes are archaic, untamed wastelands, populated by feral figures. Whilst Samson’s characters and settings are somewhat ambiguous, their contemporary clothes and technologies are a giveaway - the same can’t be said of Ivory. In nine miniatures, we find the chalk outlines of dead horses, and skeletons in a Danse Macabre, in-between beings that bridge interactions between humans and beasts.
Joanna Whittle stays small, presenting intimate landscapes enclosed in small frames. Some painted on copper, others on Perspex, they share the same shiny, eerie quality as Samson’s grand paintings. Larger still are Kirsty Harris’ atom bomb works; testaments to the most iconic man-made event that might take place in a natural landscape. But it is the variety of Harris’ later works across media, the little linen ‘Project #58’ (2017), and large tapestry ‘George’ (2023), and her bomb painted onto a glass table, that, taken together, have the most forceful impact.
The artists and their media thus interspersed, we can trace how their horizons change over time. Stay with it for the second room, which is sublime, and whilst free, remember these are commercial landscapes; the list of works will always be a price list too.
Cinga Samson: Nzulu yemfihlakalo is on view at White Cube Mason’s Yard until 26 August 2023.
Beyond the Gaze: Reclaiming the Landscape is on view at the Saatchi Gallery until 28 August 2023.
Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app with each exhibition you visit!
Nzulu yemfihlakalo, an isiXhosa phrase meaning ‘the depth of mystery’, is an apt title for Cinga Samson’s first UK solo exhibition. The South African artist presents a haunting set of hyperreal tableaux, which take from his immediate environment in Cape Town, alongside wider social concerns.
Samson deploys thin oils and colour to chilling effect; dark, near-black landscapes contrast with the blank white eyes, trainers, and boxer shorts of his Black protagonists. His figures frequently appear with objects or memento mori, like raw meat and animal skulls, bloody remains without origin or explanation in the painting. Devoid of pupils, they dismiss our gaze, continuing their behaviours with slow, even funerary, purpose. It’s unlike anything you’ve seen before.
We always find these figures caught in the act – but of what? In ‘Ukuphicothwa Kwento Xa Ingaziwa’ (2023), they seem to be tapping the liquid of a monumental sisal plant. In ‘Ingoma Yekugala’ (2023), searching and stealing something stored in the central, opaque white bucket. Fabric shrouds and plastic body bags crop up across the works, also without explanation; it’s unsettling, and wholly engulfing for the viewer, creating more questions than offering answers.
Landmarks and features native to Cape Town also locate Samson’s practice. Some are blatant; we see the imposing left-hand slope of Table Mountain and, in ‘uDondolo’ (2023), the specific topography of Lion’s Head and Devil’s Peak. Others feature figures with bouquets of proteas, South Africa’s national flower. More subtle are the symbols often overlooked in the landscape – the sign to Rhodes, and Life Tastes Great! White van – which hint at Samson’s critical gaze on his surroundings.
Equally subversive, and avoidant of direct confrontation, are the works in Beyond the Gaze, a group show of contemporary women artists who don’t consider themselves to be landscape painters. Here, they take ownership of space, challenging the historical tendencies of the male-dominated genre, by exploring activities that take place within a landscape, redefining perceptions from their own perspectives.
Lisa Ivory’s name misleads; her dark landscapes are archaic, untamed wastelands, populated by feral figures. Whilst Samson’s characters and settings are somewhat ambiguous, their contemporary clothes and technologies are a giveaway - the same can’t be said of Ivory. In nine miniatures, we find the chalk outlines of dead horses, and skeletons in a Danse Macabre, in-between beings that bridge interactions between humans and beasts.
Joanna Whittle stays small, presenting intimate landscapes enclosed in small frames. Some painted on copper, others on Perspex, they share the same shiny, eerie quality as Samson’s grand paintings. Larger still are Kirsty Harris’ atom bomb works; testaments to the most iconic man-made event that might take place in a natural landscape. But it is the variety of Harris’ later works across media, the little linen ‘Project #58’ (2017), and large tapestry ‘George’ (2023), and her bomb painted onto a glass table, that, taken together, have the most forceful impact.
The artists and their media thus interspersed, we can trace how their horizons change over time. Stay with it for the second room, which is sublime, and whilst free, remember these are commercial landscapes; the list of works will always be a price list too.
Cinga Samson: Nzulu yemfihlakalo is on view at White Cube Mason’s Yard until 26 August 2023.
Beyond the Gaze: Reclaiming the Landscape is on view at the Saatchi Gallery until 28 August 2023.
Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app with each exhibition you visit!
Nzulu yemfihlakalo, an isiXhosa phrase meaning ‘the depth of mystery’, is an apt title for Cinga Samson’s first UK solo exhibition. The South African artist presents a haunting set of hyperreal tableaux, which take from his immediate environment in Cape Town, alongside wider social concerns.
Samson deploys thin oils and colour to chilling effect; dark, near-black landscapes contrast with the blank white eyes, trainers, and boxer shorts of his Black protagonists. His figures frequently appear with objects or memento mori, like raw meat and animal skulls, bloody remains without origin or explanation in the painting. Devoid of pupils, they dismiss our gaze, continuing their behaviours with slow, even funerary, purpose. It’s unlike anything you’ve seen before.
We always find these figures caught in the act – but of what? In ‘Ukuphicothwa Kwento Xa Ingaziwa’ (2023), they seem to be tapping the liquid of a monumental sisal plant. In ‘Ingoma Yekugala’ (2023), searching and stealing something stored in the central, opaque white bucket. Fabric shrouds and plastic body bags crop up across the works, also without explanation; it’s unsettling, and wholly engulfing for the viewer, creating more questions than offering answers.
Landmarks and features native to Cape Town also locate Samson’s practice. Some are blatant; we see the imposing left-hand slope of Table Mountain and, in ‘uDondolo’ (2023), the specific topography of Lion’s Head and Devil’s Peak. Others feature figures with bouquets of proteas, South Africa’s national flower. More subtle are the symbols often overlooked in the landscape – the sign to Rhodes, and Life Tastes Great! White van – which hint at Samson’s critical gaze on his surroundings.
Equally subversive, and avoidant of direct confrontation, are the works in Beyond the Gaze, a group show of contemporary women artists who don’t consider themselves to be landscape painters. Here, they take ownership of space, challenging the historical tendencies of the male-dominated genre, by exploring activities that take place within a landscape, redefining perceptions from their own perspectives.
Lisa Ivory’s name misleads; her dark landscapes are archaic, untamed wastelands, populated by feral figures. Whilst Samson’s characters and settings are somewhat ambiguous, their contemporary clothes and technologies are a giveaway - the same can’t be said of Ivory. In nine miniatures, we find the chalk outlines of dead horses, and skeletons in a Danse Macabre, in-between beings that bridge interactions between humans and beasts.
Joanna Whittle stays small, presenting intimate landscapes enclosed in small frames. Some painted on copper, others on Perspex, they share the same shiny, eerie quality as Samson’s grand paintings. Larger still are Kirsty Harris’ atom bomb works; testaments to the most iconic man-made event that might take place in a natural landscape. But it is the variety of Harris’ later works across media, the little linen ‘Project #58’ (2017), and large tapestry ‘George’ (2023), and her bomb painted onto a glass table, that, taken together, have the most forceful impact.
The artists and their media thus interspersed, we can trace how their horizons change over time. Stay with it for the second room, which is sublime, and whilst free, remember these are commercial landscapes; the list of works will always be a price list too.
Cinga Samson: Nzulu yemfihlakalo is on view at White Cube Mason’s Yard until 26 August 2023.
Beyond the Gaze: Reclaiming the Landscape is on view at the Saatchi Gallery until 28 August 2023.
Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app with each exhibition you visit!
Nzulu yemfihlakalo, an isiXhosa phrase meaning ‘the depth of mystery’, is an apt title for Cinga Samson’s first UK solo exhibition. The South African artist presents a haunting set of hyperreal tableaux, which take from his immediate environment in Cape Town, alongside wider social concerns.
Samson deploys thin oils and colour to chilling effect; dark, near-black landscapes contrast with the blank white eyes, trainers, and boxer shorts of his Black protagonists. His figures frequently appear with objects or memento mori, like raw meat and animal skulls, bloody remains without origin or explanation in the painting. Devoid of pupils, they dismiss our gaze, continuing their behaviours with slow, even funerary, purpose. It’s unlike anything you’ve seen before.
We always find these figures caught in the act – but of what? In ‘Ukuphicothwa Kwento Xa Ingaziwa’ (2023), they seem to be tapping the liquid of a monumental sisal plant. In ‘Ingoma Yekugala’ (2023), searching and stealing something stored in the central, opaque white bucket. Fabric shrouds and plastic body bags crop up across the works, also without explanation; it’s unsettling, and wholly engulfing for the viewer, creating more questions than offering answers.
Landmarks and features native to Cape Town also locate Samson’s practice. Some are blatant; we see the imposing left-hand slope of Table Mountain and, in ‘uDondolo’ (2023), the specific topography of Lion’s Head and Devil’s Peak. Others feature figures with bouquets of proteas, South Africa’s national flower. More subtle are the symbols often overlooked in the landscape – the sign to Rhodes, and Life Tastes Great! White van – which hint at Samson’s critical gaze on his surroundings.
Equally subversive, and avoidant of direct confrontation, are the works in Beyond the Gaze, a group show of contemporary women artists who don’t consider themselves to be landscape painters. Here, they take ownership of space, challenging the historical tendencies of the male-dominated genre, by exploring activities that take place within a landscape, redefining perceptions from their own perspectives.
Lisa Ivory’s name misleads; her dark landscapes are archaic, untamed wastelands, populated by feral figures. Whilst Samson’s characters and settings are somewhat ambiguous, their contemporary clothes and technologies are a giveaway - the same can’t be said of Ivory. In nine miniatures, we find the chalk outlines of dead horses, and skeletons in a Danse Macabre, in-between beings that bridge interactions between humans and beasts.
Joanna Whittle stays small, presenting intimate landscapes enclosed in small frames. Some painted on copper, others on Perspex, they share the same shiny, eerie quality as Samson’s grand paintings. Larger still are Kirsty Harris’ atom bomb works; testaments to the most iconic man-made event that might take place in a natural landscape. But it is the variety of Harris’ later works across media, the little linen ‘Project #58’ (2017), and large tapestry ‘George’ (2023), and her bomb painted onto a glass table, that, taken together, have the most forceful impact.
The artists and their media thus interspersed, we can trace how their horizons change over time. Stay with it for the second room, which is sublime, and whilst free, remember these are commercial landscapes; the list of works will always be a price list too.
Cinga Samson: Nzulu yemfihlakalo is on view at White Cube Mason’s Yard until 26 August 2023.
Beyond the Gaze: Reclaiming the Landscape is on view at the Saatchi Gallery until 28 August 2023.
Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app with each exhibition you visit!
Nzulu yemfihlakalo, an isiXhosa phrase meaning ‘the depth of mystery’, is an apt title for Cinga Samson’s first UK solo exhibition. The South African artist presents a haunting set of hyperreal tableaux, which take from his immediate environment in Cape Town, alongside wider social concerns.
Samson deploys thin oils and colour to chilling effect; dark, near-black landscapes contrast with the blank white eyes, trainers, and boxer shorts of his Black protagonists. His figures frequently appear with objects or memento mori, like raw meat and animal skulls, bloody remains without origin or explanation in the painting. Devoid of pupils, they dismiss our gaze, continuing their behaviours with slow, even funerary, purpose. It’s unlike anything you’ve seen before.
We always find these figures caught in the act – but of what? In ‘Ukuphicothwa Kwento Xa Ingaziwa’ (2023), they seem to be tapping the liquid of a monumental sisal plant. In ‘Ingoma Yekugala’ (2023), searching and stealing something stored in the central, opaque white bucket. Fabric shrouds and plastic body bags crop up across the works, also without explanation; it’s unsettling, and wholly engulfing for the viewer, creating more questions than offering answers.
Landmarks and features native to Cape Town also locate Samson’s practice. Some are blatant; we see the imposing left-hand slope of Table Mountain and, in ‘uDondolo’ (2023), the specific topography of Lion’s Head and Devil’s Peak. Others feature figures with bouquets of proteas, South Africa’s national flower. More subtle are the symbols often overlooked in the landscape – the sign to Rhodes, and Life Tastes Great! White van – which hint at Samson’s critical gaze on his surroundings.
Equally subversive, and avoidant of direct confrontation, are the works in Beyond the Gaze, a group show of contemporary women artists who don’t consider themselves to be landscape painters. Here, they take ownership of space, challenging the historical tendencies of the male-dominated genre, by exploring activities that take place within a landscape, redefining perceptions from their own perspectives.
Lisa Ivory’s name misleads; her dark landscapes are archaic, untamed wastelands, populated by feral figures. Whilst Samson’s characters and settings are somewhat ambiguous, their contemporary clothes and technologies are a giveaway - the same can’t be said of Ivory. In nine miniatures, we find the chalk outlines of dead horses, and skeletons in a Danse Macabre, in-between beings that bridge interactions between humans and beasts.
Joanna Whittle stays small, presenting intimate landscapes enclosed in small frames. Some painted on copper, others on Perspex, they share the same shiny, eerie quality as Samson’s grand paintings. Larger still are Kirsty Harris’ atom bomb works; testaments to the most iconic man-made event that might take place in a natural landscape. But it is the variety of Harris’ later works across media, the little linen ‘Project #58’ (2017), and large tapestry ‘George’ (2023), and her bomb painted onto a glass table, that, taken together, have the most forceful impact.
The artists and their media thus interspersed, we can trace how their horizons change over time. Stay with it for the second room, which is sublime, and whilst free, remember these are commercial landscapes; the list of works will always be a price list too.
Cinga Samson: Nzulu yemfihlakalo is on view at White Cube Mason’s Yard until 26 August 2023.
Beyond the Gaze: Reclaiming the Landscape is on view at the Saatchi Gallery until 28 August 2023.
Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app with each exhibition you visit!
