2024: THE YEAR IN REVIEW

2024: THE YEAR IN REVIEW

2024 has been a difficult year, to say the least. In our modest capacity, we are proud to have contributed positively to the enrichment of our immediate communities. From 5 – 9 February 2024, the inaugural ARAK Writing Workshop was held at The Project Room in Windhoek, Namibia. Facilitated by Barnabas Ticha Muvhuti, it included thirteen participants from Angola, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, focusing on 'research-based, creative and other possible approaches to art writing' and how to pitch one's work. Our thanks to the institutions involved – the Katutura Community Arts Centre, College of the Arts, the John Muafungejo Art Centre, the National Art Gallery of Namibia, and the Tadami Khu Arts Studio – for their warmth and hospitality.

We were also pleased to welcome two workshop participants – Pauline Buhlebenkosi Ndhlovu and Merilyn Mushakwe – along with Ivy Rihlampfu, into the 2024–25 Curatorial Fellowship programme. Over the course of the year, they worked tirelessly to develop their projects. In the case of Ndhlovu, we look forward to a rich and engaging podcast series that focuses on the work of Namibian artists in the collection. Titled Not Like Us, Rihlampfu, in turn, chose to focus on the work of ten artists who merge abstraction and portraiture, moving 'beyond the surface to explore the intangible: identity, memory, emotion, history,' while Mushakwe's project, Traces and Transitions, highlights the work of artists who 'agitate the surface of the archive' and who 'seek to retell stories, challenge dominant narratives, and give voice to the marginalised.'

Drawn to works in the collection by Durant Sihlali, Rudolf Seibeb, Isheanesu Dondo, and Nelo Teixera, amongst others, Tammy Langtry has continued to develop Dust Tracings, employing the metaphor of dust as a conceptual framework to signal that which 'has settled'; a 'reminder that while the events of the past may no longer be visible... their influence remains pervasive.' Similarly, Bulelwa Kunene's A Gathering asks how we 'sit with the violence of erasure', bringing together the work of thirteen artists who grapple with 'the complexities of their identities and histories in the postcolonial context; a landscape that is at once generative and silencing, where erasures persist in the shadows of the production of new forms of knowledge. 'In February 2024, Ontlotlile Seemela began her Art Writing Fellowship. Drawn to the merger of politics, history, and art, her forthcoming publication – described as a 'love letter' to the continent – focuses on works by artists from East, West, and Southern Africa, amongst them Joseph Ntensibe, Tibebe Terffa, Chilonga Haji, Ablade Glover, Gerald Sekoto, and Teresa Kutala Firmino, whilst dedicating an entire chapter to the work of Sudanese artists Yasmeen Abdullah, Reem Aljeally, and Hussein Salim.

In May, the second iteration of ARAK's Writing Workshop, facilitated by Ashraf Jamal, took place during Latitudes Art Fair in Johannesburg. Rather than being prescriptive, Jamal's reflection ("Critical Friend") describes the objective of this gathering as an opportunity to convert one's 'opinions into clear prose,' foregrounding intuition over academia. 'How can one think critically in an ethos that negates context, compassion, complexity, singularity, difference?' asks Jamal. 'How does one remain a "Critical Friend"? 'Hosted from 13–15 August at 32° East, Kampala, in conjunction with KLA ART '24, "Care Instructions", the third workshop was co-faciliated by Sven Christian and Dominic Muwanguzi. Titled "Keeping Company", it too saught a more sensory engagement with the work of artists, prompting participants to put aside their inhibitions and tap into their affective registers. Our thanks to all of those who participated, to the artists for being so generous of their time, and to the team at32° East – particulary Teesa Bahana and Darlyne Komukama – for making everyone feel at home.

In addition to the establishment of the ARAK Advisory Committee in March 2024 – comprised of Tandazani Dhlakama, Heba El Kayal, Thembinkosi Goniwe, and Ashraf Jamal – we were also pleased to welcome David Mann, Dr. Sara Bint Moneer Khan, and Sven Christian to the ARAK team, as Editor, Curator, and Chief Curator, respectively. Mann is an award-winning writer, editor, and art critic from Johannesburg, South Africa, whose debut collection of short fiction, Once Removed (2024), was awarded the 2024 Thomas Pringle Award. His reviews and essays on art, as well as his short fiction, have appeared in journals and publications including Springerin (EU), Portside Review (AU), New Contrast (SA) and Contemporary Lynx (UK). In addition to his role at ARAK, he works as the writer for The Centre for the Less Good Idea.Dr. Khan joined in September. Her work spans diverse artistic practices with a strong focus on global collaborations. She holds a Doctorate in the Management of Technology and Innovation (Da Vinci Institute), a Bachelor’s (Hons) in Curating (Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London), and a Master’s in the History of Art and Archaeology of the Islamic Near and Middle East (SOAS, University of London). Her doctoral research centered on visual literacy, engagement, and advocacy for Muslim artists and communities in Cape Town. She is the founder of MASHŪRAH ARTS, a curatorial and research development incubator and art collective aimed at fostering collaboration, development, and dissemination of art practices, with a particular emphasis on Islam in Africa. Her professional experience spans South Africa, the Middle East, and the UK, where she has held roles at Bonhams, Edge of Arabia, The British Arab Centre, The Ismaili Institute, Art Africa Magazine, Gallery MOMO, Jaffer Modern Gallery, VOID Art Centre and Michaelis School of Fine Arts.  Christian joined us at the beginning of December, having served as Curator of NIROX Sculpture Park and the Villa-Legodi Centre for Sculpture (South Africa, 2022–24) and as an Assistant Curator at Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA, 2017–18). He is the editor of FORM Journal (Villa-Legodi Centre for Sculpture / University of Johannesburg Press), as well as Ashraf Jamal’s Strange Cargo: Essays on Art (2022) and co-editor of Bruce Murray Arnott: Into the Megatext (2023); Coral Bijoux’s Dreams as R-evolution (2020); and William Kentridge’s Why Should I Hesitate: Putting Drawings to Work (2019), having published his own written work with Routledge, Phaidon,OnCurating, The Garage Journal, Ellipses: Journal of Creative Research, and The Thinker, amongst others.

This year, ARAK also welcomed Julie van der Vlugt onto the team as copy-editor, having worked as a project manager at the Centre for Applied Language and Literacy Studies at the University of Cape Town. During this time she co-authored Understanding Concepts in Mathematics and Science, Volume I and II. Julie was the science and maths development editor of Oxford South African School Dictionary, 3rd and 4th edition and a development editor and co-author of Oxford Physical Science Dictionary (2013) and Oxford Mathematics Dictionary (2013). She copy-edited Paul du Toit (2016), Ashraf Jamal’s In the World: Essays on Contemporary South African Art (2017), Premesh Lalu’s Undoing Apartheid (2022) and the University of Western Cape’s history journal, Kronos 48, 49 and 50.With the introduction of new members, we are also sad to say goodbye to Nneoma Angela Okorie, who served as Curator from 2023 to 2024. Throughout her career, Okorie has gravitated towards projects that activate public spaces in meaningful ways, like The Tiwan Tiwa and the Mobile Museum project, which sought to create structures for our context, discarding pre-imposed ways of using space, while Tiwan Tiwa succeeded in reactivating historical sites, effectively utilising public spaces as a tool to achieve set goals and objectives. As Curator of ARAK (2023–24), Okorie was instrumental in getting things off the ground and we are greatful for her time and effort, most notably in overseeing the Curatorial Fellowship programme during her tenure and in selecting artists and artworks for the forthcoming publication, African Art: The ARAK Collection.

Published by SKIRA and set to launch in Cape Town in February 2025, African Art: The ARAK Collection features artworks from more than 100 artists, serving as an essential framing text for ARAK, and a comprehensive overview of contemporary art from the continent. Arranged according to the selectively identified themes of Abstraction, Portraiture, and Place – each with an accompanying essay by Ashraf Jamal – the publication also features short, informative texts on each artist written by Jamal, Okorie, and Muvhuti. Our thanks to the contributors for their time and dedication, particularly to Jamal, for creating the book's three-part framework and drafting five substantial essays that will serve as an important platform for further research on the many artworks featured. Thanks are also due to the team at SKIRA for their expertise, and to the rest of the ARAK Team — Mussavir Sheikh, Thasni Pattathil, Maaz Mansoor, MD Arshad Khan — who have worked tirelessly behind the scenes, not only on the book but on all facets of ARAK's operations.

In August, Muvhuti's Chronicles of the Road: Five Nations, Five Artists – the debut publication to emerge from the ARAK Art Writing Fellowship 2023 – was published with Hamad Bin Khalifa University Press. It includes an introduction by writer and academic Andrew Mulenga, focusing on a quintet of artists from five countries: Thebe Phetogo (Botswana), Lutanda Zemba Luzamba (DRC), Rudolf Seibeb (Namibia), Nelly Guambe (Mozambique) and Victor Kalinosi Mutale (Zambia). Speaking about his approach, Muvhuti says: 'This project is quite experimental in that it brings together three artists who do figurative work and two who are into abstraction. It is an attempt to find common ground in their diverse practices through an exploration of their respective local contexts'.

We give thanks to our colleauges at VCUarts Qatar – Dr. Neelima Jeychandran (Assistant Professor of African Visual Culture in the Department of Art History) and Dr. Holiday Powers (Assistant Professor, Art History) – for welcoming Thembinkosi Goniwe and Sven Christian to take part in a reading group at the university during their recent visit to the Collection in November. Particular thanks to Dr. Jeychandran and Khalid Albaih, for facilitating presentations at Liwan Design Studios, where Dr. Jeychandran unpacked the performance work of Bernard Akoi–Jackson, Goniwe explored the relationship between art and design in the work of Esther Mahlangu and MAXHOSA, and Christian discussed the exhibition of a scroll by Dumile Feni and the intermediary role of design in curatorial practice, drawing on Beatriz Colomina's understanding of design as a 'form of projection'. In the same vein, ARAK were pleased to support the colloquium "Materiality of Migration in the Indian Ocean & Global Asia: Artifacts, Self-fashioning, Belonging" (16 December 2024), led by Dr. Jeychandran and Monica Merlin at Shrem Museum, University of California, Davis.In addition, we would like to thank Guns & Rain, for partnering on a walkabout with David Mann and artist Raymond Fuyana , aimed at contextualising and lending critical insight to Fuyana's latest solo exhibition Beyond the Board. During the walkabout, Mann’s point of entry to Fuyana’s exhibition was that of storytelling, structuring the walkabout according to the points of style, themes, characters, setting, plot and craft, which you can read more about here.

It goes without saying that we look forward to continuing to grow these relationships and others in 2025, as the Collection looks to partner with like-minded institutions in the realisation of our exhibitions, talks programmes, conferences, and publications.In mid-January, we will announce an open call for the Curatorial Fellowship 2025–26. In February, we will partner with Lusaka Contemporary Art Centre (LUCAC) to host the fourth ARAK Art Writing Workshop, and in late-March, we are pleased to launch "Perspectives from the ARAK Collection”. Held at Artron in Shenzen, China, it will bring together three distinct curatorial projects — developed in 2023 as part of ARAK’s Curatorial Fellowship programme — that examine African identities, movements, and imagined futures.In The Geography of Fixed Things, for example, curator E.N. Mirembe presents a complex view of East African art. Inspired by the legacy of Makerere University in Uganda, this exhibition highlights the work of sixteen artists who explore identity and place amidst shifting cultural landscapes. Anchored in Lucille Clifton’s poem, “for the lame”, it underscores centuries-old exchanges along the Swahili coast that fuse African, Arab, Persian, and Indian cultures while inviting viewers to see East African art as an interconnected tapestry that continuously reshapes itself.Curated by Jamil Osmar Parasol, Split Infinity brings together 35 artists from 13 countries across Africa. Rooted in a diversity of experiences, and expressed through an equally diverse range of mediums and techniques, the exhibition explores social, psychological, and environmental themes. It deconstructs Afro-futurism and diverges from Western narratives, offering a journey through multiple realities and future possibilities.In Beyond the Chrysalis, curator Nneoma Angela Okorie explores the transformative journeys of artists Khalid Abdel Rahman, Maliza Kiasuwa, and Gor Soudan, presenting an artistic evolutionthat reflects Okorie’s vision of non-linear creativity, where each artist crafts a unique visual language rooted in personal history, cultural heritage, and collective experience. Inspired by the perspectives of Okwui Enwezor and Chika Okeke-Agulu, Okorie emphasises how these artists construct counter-narratives, questioning and expanding African representation, inviting audiences to honour fluidity and transformation.