“confrontation” by Fanyana Mokoena

Phoka Nyokong “confrontation”

“confrontation”

Phoka Nyokong Gallery MOMO

02 November - 31 January

Cover: Confrontation 380cm x 247cm oils on canvas

PHOKA NYOKONG’S work in

“confrontation” is a personal interpretation of Western painting traditions and African sculptural heritage. He addresses the often fraught history between the two cultures, focusing on the impact of ethnology and the anthropological gaze that has historically framed Africa through Western lenses. Central to this body of work is a critique of the ongoing capture of African cultural artefacts by Western museums and the persistent resistance to their repatriation.

“These new paintings are a continuation of my personal interpretation of traditions associated with forms of Western painting and antique African sculpture as canonized throughout history. In this current body of work too, the preoccupation persists on my implication of the role of both ethnology and the wider anthropological gaze on Africa, and their bestowed fraught contemporary relations between cultures of the West and Africa, signified by and large through the capture of African cultural art objects by Western museums, and the ensuing resistance against repatriation of said objects.”

Through the collective title “confrontation”, Nyokong gestures towards a growing restlessness and a potential sense of hostilities between the cultural gatekeepers of the West and the indigenous societies whose heritage remains captive. These works draw inspiration from historical movements where art and culture served not just as propaganda, but as objects in ideological wars, infusing his paintings with an irony-laden and satirical tone.

Nyokong’s treatment of the subject is enriched by references to literary, cinematic, and theatrical traditions, imagining African tribal sculptures and ritual objects as actors in a pseudofarcical, cinematic setting. His oil paintings become a device to trace historical episodes of conquest and resistance, creating allegorical and magic-realist scenes where traditional tribal motifs interact with imagined worlds.

Hymn for butterflies, according to the gospel of Saint John oil sticks and pastels on canvas, 92 x 91 cm

(left) Talisman, deities and lilies oil sticks and pastels on canvas 91 x 92 cm

(above) Allegory for the rearrangement of Time, the spoils of War and Other stories oils on canvas 250 x 173 cm

Study in sepia (mother and child at communion) oils and glitter on canvas 91 x 92 cm

(above) Confrontation oils on canvas 91 x 92 cm

(left) The temptation of Queen Nana in the Wilderness by the young shipwrecked Colonel oils on canvas 380 x 247 cm

PHOKA NYOKONG

Group Exhibitions (selected)

2022 Fragile (Solo performance installation), Live Art Festival, Institute for Creative Arts, Cape Town

2020 In Your Shadow - Masking Realities, Smac Gallery, Cape Town

2020 Black Luminosity, Smac Gallery, Stellenebosch

2020 Ernest Mancoba Dialogue, A4 Arts Foundation, Cape Town

2019 Genesis, Bkhz, Johannesburg

2019 Absa L’Atelier Exhibition, Absa Gallery, Johannesburg

2019 Urban Archaeology, Daor Contemporary, Cape Town

2019 A Feast of Wombs (video), Joburg Fringe VideoArt! Cape Town

2018 A Feast of Wombs (video), Joburg Fringe VideoArt! 2018, The Art Link Gallery, Parkhurst, Johannesburg

Solo Exhibitions (selected)

2023 Museum of New Hymns for the Confused, ABSA Gallery (travelling exhibition)

2020 Dinoolwane, Matlotlo le Baloi, NWU Art Gallery, Potchefstroom

2018 Gathering footprints, Collecting memories (performance installation), TUT Arts Festival, Pretoria

2016 (Lost) Innocence, Longstreet ArtLovers, Pretoria

2024 “confrontation”, Gallery MOMO, Johannesburg

Art Fairs

2024 FNB Art Joburg, Gallery MOMO

2024 RMB Latitudes Art Fair, Gallery MOMO

2024 Cape Town Art Fair, Gallery MOMO

2019 For Sale Project Exhibition (Pretoria Art Museum), Turbine Art Fair, Johannesburg

2018 Moving Contemporary Art World, Turbine Art Fair, Johannesburg

Awards

2019 Absa L’Atelier Gerard Sekoto Award

2019 UCT Council Honours Merit award

2019 The Andrew Mellon Foundation – Honours: Curatorship, CCA

2018 Lizamore Curatorship Mentorship Award - shortlisted

2015 North West Provincial Arts and Culture Council Fine Art Bursary Award

Workshops/Residencies/Commissions

2018 Voices,Now!! Menlo Park, Pretoria

2016 Convergence: Abstraction Through Figuration, Longstreet ArtLovers, Pretoria