Nokukhanya Langa Exhibition Catalogue

This catalogue is for the Nokukhanya Langa exhibition at Saatchi Yates from September to November 2022. Nokukhanya Langa’s debut exhibition delves into the world of modern media and internet culture while breaking the rules of traditional painting. The catalogue begins with images of Langa's studio and images of the artist at work, followed by an essay written by Clementine Edwards. Twenty-four of Nokukhanya Langa's large-scale three-dimensional paintings are illustrated in colour throughout. Unlearning the rigidity of her training in traditional oil painting, she plays with abstract motifs; colour, swirls, and other fluid shapes work in unison with more recognisable motifs like text and signs. Shifting back and forth between figuration and abstraction, the result is an agile use of approachable jargon and aesthetics that convey the more subtle, and incendiary subtext of the works in a kind of hallucinatory reality. This body of works builds on the selection presented at the Melly Museum in Rotterdam earlier in 2022.