From Friday, 4 July 2025, the Javett Art Centre at the University of Pretoria (Javett-UP) will host a bold, multi-faceted exhibition across its galleries. Titled One and the Many, the exhibition will feature various constellations and groupings of artworks that explore the way in which artists narrate the relationship between the individual and the collective, or the self in relation to others.

The thematic arrangements will investigate new relationships and meanings between artists, artworks, genres and periods in art history. Through spatial changes and curatorial gestures, One and the Many aims to open up different possibilities for reading images and artwork.

Six contemporary artists – Stéphane E Conradie, Goldendean, Ledelle Moe, Abdus Salaam, Inga Somdyala and Katlego Tlabela – were invited to have their large-scale artworks be in dialogue with three of the collections in the care of Javett-UP: the South32 Collection, the Javett Family Collection and the Bongi Dhlomo Collection.

The exhibition consists of three chapters that will open concurrently. The first, ‘Living School’ – which is located within the framework of the ongoing educational initiative at the art centre – will be on view until 2027 in the ground floor galleries. It consists of works by South African artists like Ezrom Legae, William Kentridge, Bonnie Ntshalintshali, Dumile Feni, Louis Maqhubela, Harold Rubin, Ernest Mancoba and Durant Sihlali. The artworks will be arranged in groupings that explore abstract impulses in South African art, musings on spirituality and religion, and the complex relationships and intimacies between humans and the natural world.

The second chapter will be on view in the first-floor galleries until 2026. Works from the collections will be dialogue with art by Tshwane-based artist Katlego Tlabela. Significant pieces from his history as a painter will focus on luxurious and opulent interiors. His connection to black South African art histories will be explored through the inclusion of artists and artworks that are significant to his journey, such as Gerard Sekoto’s Song of the Pick (1946). The voluptuous, sensual work Soft Vxns (2021) by Goldendean will be placed in dialogue with works by Mme Mmakgabo Helen Sebidi, Tracey Rose and Adriene Piper, among others. It explores the possibilities of “soft radicalness” – the power of embrace and care. Fragility, the safety of home and making new objects from fragments is central to the sculptures and wall-based works of Stephané E Conradie, which will be placed in dialogue with serial works by Jane Alexander, Willie Bester and Sam Nhlengethwa, among others.

A third chapter, on view until December 2025, will be located in a beautiful, evocative space that has a panoramic view of its surroundings. This chapter, titled ‘Colossal Time’, will explore the passage of time and monumentality in material and metaphorical ways. It includes two large-scale concrete sculptures by Ledelle Moe, whose interest in the female form comes to the fore. A video work by Abdus Salaam titled Rivulets (2024) explores the relation of water to the metaphysical, while Jeremy Wafer’s photographic series Antholes (1998) from the South32 Collection creates a connection to the ground, and explores notions of monumentality and collective actions.

Visitors will be greeted by a new, site-specific commission by Inga Somdyala, which soars from the ground floor through the atrium spaces, visually connecting the spaces within the art centre and creating both a symbolic link between the ground and sky.

One and the Many will be accompanied by a series of programming and events, which will be announced at a later date.

In preparation for the new re-imagining of the Javett-UP, the centre will be closed for re-installation and refurbishment from 14 June until 3 July 2025.

The current exhibition, ‘We, the Purple’, guest-curated by Khumo Sebambo, has been extended until 13 June 2025. 

For inquiries, please contact: Thakgatso Monisi (Audience Engagement and Communications Coordinator) E-mail: [email protected] Phone: 0788233596