In September 2015, ROOM Gallery & Project will open its new premises located on the ground floor of Ellis House building in New Doornfontein, Johannesburg.

ROOM is the latest addition to an area that is home to several exciting creative spaces and developments (both new and existing) including the King Kong Building which houses VANSA & Keleketla Library (Verwey Street), August House (End Street), Twillsharp Studios (Gordon Road, Bertrams) and of course the infamous Troyeville Hotel. We see this move as a great opportunity to further contribute to a broader art community in the inner city.

ROOM will continue to expand on its initial focus of collaboration, interdisciplinary dialogue and exchange, through monthly exhibition programming with artists, practitioners and organizations alike.

ROOM’s new gallery space will open on 5 September 2015 with the solo exhibitions of two Joburg-based artists, namely: Mack Magagane and Mbali Mdluli. Although distinctly different in their individual aesthetic approach, both artists make use of lens-based media to effectively explore and offer meditations on the contexts they occupy in relation to space and the temporal.

MACK MAGAGANE : EXISTENTIAL

Mack Magagane’s second showing with ROOM, is titled EXISTENTIAL.The presentation includes a selection from existing bodies of work  – among which are: Light Hours (2011), In this City (2012) and Somewhere Between Here (2014). These are interwoven with a series titled Chapter V – the artist’s newest project that marks a trajectory in his career.

MBALI MDLULI : UNRESOLVED

UNRESOLVED by Mbali Mdluli is the artist’s first solo showing at ROOM Gallery and will encompass mainly a series of video works, as well as photographs. Mdluli’s approach is distinctly experimental and contends with the materiality and temporality of the photograph. Images of domestic objects, manipulation of video footage, use of multiple digital and analogue tools such as scanners, toy cameras and expired photo film means that the artist is in constant search of a new language with which to wrestle with themes of both a personal, public and socio-political nature.

Opening Reception: Saturday, 5 September 2015 from 11h00

©Mbali Mdluli, Video Still, Cityscape 2015, courtesy of ROOM Gallery & Project

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Born in Soweto in 1990, Mack Magagane is an alum of the Market Photo Workshop, Johannesburg. He has since exhibited both in South Africa and abroad. His series, ‘…in this city’, which was produced during his 2011/12 Tierney Fellowship at the Market Photo Workshop, was first exhibited at the Photo Workshop Gallery in 2012 and has since travelled to Portugal, France and Germany. Magagane was the 2011 ACT ImpACT Award for Visual Art recipient and in 2013 he partook in a three month residency at Centre Photographique d’Île-de-France, Paris, France as part of the French – South Africa season in France. Magagane currently lives and works in Johannesburg.

Born in 1977, SA, Mbali Mdluli is a cross-disciplinary artist. She completed her photographic studies at the Market Photo Workshop in 2010. Previous exhibitions and projects include Unlearning, a group exhibition curated by Francis Burger at Goethe on Main, Johannesburg; The Indexicality of a Ritual, a group exhibition curated by Sinethemba Twalo, Parking Gallery, and A City Reimagined, Parking Gallery, Johannesburg, 2013. Currently, Mdluli has a selection of photographs included in REVAMP, a group exhibition presented by the Dead Bunny Society and Priest coffee bar in Rosebank Johannesburg.

In addition, selected works by both artists will be presented concurrently at ROOM’s booth (#8) during the 2015 edition of the FNB Joburg Art Fair (10 – 13 September 2015).

ROOM is also official participant in the ART WEEK JOBURG (7 September 2015).

ROOM Gallery/Projects
ELLIS HOUSE,
23 Voorhout Street,
New Doornfontein, Johannesburg

www.roomgallery.co.za