The UJ Art Gallery will host an exhibition entitled SHIFTING CONVERSATIONS, in collaboration with the MTN SA Foundation, from 18 October to 22 November 2017.
This exhibition, with artworks from the MTN and UJ Art Collections, and curated by Johan Myburg and Melissa Goba, thematically explores conversations in response to binaries such as ‘colonised’ and ‘coloniser’ prevalent within the collections of the two institutions. The aim is to present an open-ended discourse that might invite new or different ways of experiencing art.
Johan Myburg
Johan Myburg started his career as an arts writer at an Afrikaans, Johannesburg-based newspaper, where he held the position of Arts Editor until 2014, writing about art on a freelance basis. He is one of a few arts writers publishing in both Afrikaans and English. His doctoral thesis, “Deconstructing Identity in a Landscape of Ideology, Belief, Culture and Power”, was obtained from Unisa in 2000 and he is currently a Research Fellow at the Unit for the Visual Arts at North-West University. Myburg has curated a number of exhibitions, and served as curator of visual arts at the Klein Karoo National Arts Festival from 2009 to 2011. His interest in literature paved the way to becoming a regular contributor on the weekly RSG programme entitled, Skrywers en boeke (a programme on writers and books). His fourth volume of poetry, Uittogboek, was published earlier this year.
Melissa Goba
Melissa Goba is an artist, writer, curator and producer who has worked in various capacities in the visual arts. Her interest is primarily in popular culture and its global relationship to Africa. She has written for various publications, consulting for publications such as Sam Nhlengethwa’s monograph; the Percy Konqobe Exhibition catalogue; the 2010 FIFA Exhibition catalogue (titled Space: Currencies in Contemporary African Art), and recently contributed to Linda Anne Givon’s retrospective catalogue. She has curated various projects and consulted for Murray & Roberts on the start of its art collection, while also consulting for such artist awards and collections as the Standard Bank Young Artist, ABSA L’atelier, SASOL Wax Award, the Johannesburg Art Gallery Collection, the Telkom Art Collection, The Venice Biennale and the Joburg Fringe. Goba has also sat on various competition panels and served as the Chairperson of the Arts and Culture Trust (ACT) until March 2017.