Artyli Gallery is excited to announce the opening of our upcoming exhibition, ‘HERstory’. This is an exhibition curated lovingly in honour of National Women’s Month in South Africa. Contextually, National Women’s Month pays tribute to National Women’s Day, a South African public holiday celebrated annually on the 9th of August. The day commemorates the 1956 march of approximately 20,000 South African women of all races to the Union Buildings in Pretoria.
From this history, the intuitive and creative undertaking of ‘HERstory’ is to foster compassion, belonging and the freedom to express through authentic narratives of embodied experience told through the uniting essence of the visual arts. It is the amplification of individual interpretation of the feminine voice, of those who identify as women, by means of artistic studio practice.
The concept of the exhibition was inspired by a need to bridge those dichotomies of identity that generate polarisation rather than a coalescence of embraced diversity. From this conceptual foundation, the exhibition grasps beyond the borders of identity, to instead foreground those characteristically universal experiences of womanhood that intersect.
‘HERstory’ is a group exhibition of women artists, curated by women, in honour of women’s histories and experiences. ‘HERstory’ will feature artworks by Toni-Ann Ballenden, Fathema Bemath, Margo Schopf, Fatima Tayob Moosa, Tanja Truscott, Ingrid Uys, Mbali Tshabalala, Samantha Maseko, Carey Carter, Shelley-Anne Graham, Mariapaola Mcgurk, Karen Cullinan, Karin Basel, Reneilwe Mathibe, Colleen Winter, Lynette van Tonder and Patricia Jackson. These 17 women artists are each uniquely utilising art to present a nuanced exploration of those experiences that constitute being a woman.
The ‘HERstory’ exhibition will trace the topographies of triumph and shared struggle that women endure through time and the cumulative empowerment that emerges from their artistic liberation. It is the reckoning of personhood and womanhood simultaneously that all weave together to form profoundly distinct yet interconnecting individual stories that ultimately resonate with the collective. This is the month of women’s stories. This is the month not of history, but of herstory.
The intention is the transcendence of experiential anthesis, cultivated through a celebratory spirit of artistic voice expressed through visual aesthetics of unity. It is the guided commemoration of the multiplicities of converging experiences that comprise the resounding definition of what it means to be women, what it means to be her, in contexts that are past, present, and personal.
The ‘HERstory’ exhibition will commence at 14:00 on the 19th of August 2023 at Artyli Gallery located in Nelson Mandela Square, Sandton. The exhibition will feature an opening speech by Mariapaola Mcgurk and a live music performance by singer and songwriter Frankie Beagle.
