Established in 2008 by Trevyn McGowan and Julian McGowan, Southern Guild represents contemporary artists from Africa and its diaspora. With a focus on Africa’s rich tradition of utilitarian and ritualistic art, the gallery’s programme furthers the continent’s contribution to global art movements. From its home base in Cape Town, the gallery is not only a beacon for African culture and heritage, but also the continent’s sole representative on the global stage of collectible design.

Since its inception, the gallery has worked with several South African artists, Artists such as Adam Birch, Patrick Bongoy, Andile Dyalvane, Dokter And Misses, Martine Jackson, Chuma Maweni, and Zizipho Poswa. In the true spirit of a guild, the gallery was founded on the principles of community and collaboration, and grew out of a desire to provoke new work, facilitate alliances between differing disciplines, and articulate what it means to be human. Having pioneered the collectible design category on the continent, the gallery showcases excellence across both functional and contemporary art. 

Southern Guild partners meaningfully with artists through artwork production and exhibition-making to foster their careers and propel their capacity for creative evolution. Southern Guild is invested in the growth of the African creative ecosystem, cultivating an ethos of cultural exchange and interconnectedness through its robust international fair and biennale programme, and by partnering with curators, institutions, and museums to realise distinctive interdisciplinary projects. 

Jesse Ede Of Space And Time

Southern Guild is pleased to present Of Space and Time, a solo exhibition of functional artwork by Jesse Ede from 24 August to 19 October, 2023. The Cape Town-based artist’s new series of large-scale sculptural work is a poetic contemplation of our place in the universe and a deep engagement with the materiality of stone and metal. Ede’s first solo exhibition marks the culmination of years of innovative refinement of his complex technical processes. 

Of Space and Time, in its conceptual essence, is the manifestation of Ede’s own creative evolution. The exhibition develops his long-held interest in interplanetary phenomena, and the existential reckoning of confronting the vastness of man’s known universe. Sitting in relational and proximate conversation with one another, the works cultivate a distinct proprioceptive experience for the body. Ede is intent on creating a transportive and interactive engagement for those coming into visceral contact with these objects. 

Kamyar Bineshtarigh 9 Hopkins

Southern Guild is pleased to present 9 Hopkins, a solo exhibition of abstract artworks by Kamyar Bineshtarigh, from 24 August to 19 October, 2023. This new series of expansive, mixed-media paintings is at once an exploration of gestural mark-making and an engagement with the urban fabric of Salt River, an historic industrial area located close to central Cape Town. Working intuitively in conversation with his observed environment, Bineshtarigh lifted each of the new artworks from the painted walls of his studio complex. This is his first solo exhibition with Southern Guild since joining the gallery at the beginning of 2023.

The exhibition’s works find their conceptual origins in the unintentional marks observed on the walls of a panel-beating workshop on the ground level of 9 Hopkins Street. The works in 9 Hopkins are expansive murmurations, alive with movement and layered intent. Bineshtarigh’s enquiry relates to the role of this intention and the perceivable transfer of energy in mark-making. The crux of this experientially driven exercise negotiates the curious space between art-making and the act of uninhibited being. 9 Hopkins stands as a memorialisation of unconscious mark-making as an indicator of human presence and a mapping of memory and being.

Images courtesy of Southern Guild