Goodman Gallery and Banele Khoza present ‘What’s Left Unsaid’, an exhibition exploring the weight of unspoken words. Seen together for the first time in Johannesburg is a selection of watercolour paintings from an ever-evolving series initiated in 2013. The presentation continues themes explored in work shown in the 2022 exhibition ‘From South Africa’ at Kunsthaus Göttingen where Khoza showed alongside William Kentridge and Santu Mofokeng. ‘What’s Left Unsaid’ opened on the 5th of September and will run until the 26th of September 2024 at Goodman Gallery Johannesburg. It opened ahead of Khoza’s inclusion in the group show Pause at Frac Lorraine in France which opened on the 6th of September and will be running until the 9th of February 2025.
‘What’s Left Unsaid’ centres the tension between two people who cannot articulate their thoughts and feelings due to distance, time and vulnerability. This feeds into the artist’s larger thematic exploration: the search for connection. This is represented by his iterative and ongoing development of delicate portraiture in his practice. The presentation includes a selection of self-portraits, a subject matter the artist finds simultaneously challenging and therapeutic.
Khoza is sometimes afraid to look at himself as the subject in his work and relies on the emphasis artists place on other people to escape oneself. In this exhibition, however, the artist showcases self-portraits, which are a reflection of an environment to which only he is a witness. Khoza’s primary medium are watercolours which complements this exploration of connection through external relationships and himself. ‘What’s Left Unsaid’ explores the fluidity of the pigment when in contact with the water. Its almost immediate integration on paper mimics the flow of emotion that exists between figures in the show.
Khoza is a native of Eswatini but his work and contributions to the South African creative economy earned him a spot as part of the Mail & Guardian 200 Young South Africans in 2019. During the same year, his solo exhibition ‘Seeking Love’ toured South African institutions across Johannesburg, Durban, Bloemfontein, Port Elizabeth, Stellenbosch and Potchefstroom. His solo presentation ‘LGBTQI+: Banele Khoza’ formed part of the Curatorial Lab at Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town in 2018. In 2017 he won the prestigious Gerard Sekoto Award. This resulted in a three-month residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, France.
