WIP after the first few weeks in residence with Aaron Philander and Smiso Cele.
Some wonderful material interventions have been taking place since the onset of their project. We’re so excited to see how they progress as they work towards their concurrent solo exhibitions.
@aaronphilander_@smiso02
Photography by Calhoun Matthews
Lemkus Gallery is excited to announce its first duo residency between Aaron Philander and Smiso Cele, an ambitious attempt to allow promising young artists to practice in community.
Aaron Philander (b. 2002) is a Cape Town based artist sculptor working primarily with timber and found objects. Since his graduation from the Michaelis School of Fine Art in 2024, Philander has earned a strong reputation for his ability to transform discarded yet powerfully charged household articles into poetic assemblages that reflect intimately on questions of self,family and collective memory. His works trouble the tension of racial inhabitation in the aftermath of apartheid and offers a unique generational perspective on the ways oppressive structures can be traced psychologically and materially.
Notable solo exhibitions include 𝑁𝑎𝑛𝑎’𝑠 𝐾𝑖𝑡𝑐ℎ𝑒𝑛 at AVA Gallery in 2025 and 𝐽𝑎𝑐𝑘 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐵𝑜𝑥 as a part of Everard Read’s Cubicle Series in 2026.
For his upcoming residency project, Aaron is interested in broadening his reference pool through research and dialogue, finding new discursive tools to frame his practice, and experimenting with new forms of material treatment and kinesis.
Smiso Cele (b. Port Shepstone, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa) is Johannesburg-based artist with a distinct and exciting visual language. Like Philander, Cele has a strong propensity for timber-based sculptural work and is similarly interested in the relationship between domestic spaces and the public domain. His work takes seriously the problem of space inherent in an injured South Africa, and uses the allegory of a common bedroom to convey the extent of unfinished structural progress.
He is the recipient of the 2025 Cassirer Welz Award and subsequent Bag Factory residency. Significant solo presentations include 𝑂𝑓 𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑈𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑟𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑛 (2024) and 𝑁𝑔𝑖𝑦𝑖𝑏𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑖?(2025).
Smiso hopes to extend his ongoing project, 𝐸𝑏ℎ𝑢𝑞𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑖, which uses shovels to explore the familial legacy of gardening inspired by his father’s vocation of two decades.
NCTG (New Cape Town Galleries) hosted its inaugural event in the form of a panel discussion at Black Brick Gardens.
As a collective of young and alternative gallery models, it was important to open a conversation around our unique positions; the structures we create and the different strategies we employ to make contributions to the fine arts ecosystem.
We are so grateful to @swangs_express for mediating the session, for posing compelling questions, and for her generous reading of the work we have done thus far.
We’re excited to share some footage from the night.
Special thanks to @blackbrickgardens for offering their beautiful space for this occasion.
Finally, we thank the local community for its earnest support of this endeavour. We appreciate your presence, questions, and convivial spirit.
Video credits: @the_sigh_guyy
Editor credits: @tumimanne
Lemkus Gallery is excited to announce its participation in Investec Cape Town Art Fair 2026! Following our inaugural fair presentation in 2025, we look forward to showcasing some of the incredible work produced through the gallery since then, as well as some never-before-seen works by our dearest artists.
Still in the Lookout section (L6), but now with an expansive and more ambitious booth, we are fortunate to be bringing our curatorial vision to the fore in full effect.
We are also proud to have works by Alka Dass and Thero Makepe included in Cabinet/Record, curated by Beata America.
The selection of works forms part of a presentation called 𝑅𝑒𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑐𝑢𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠, an exploration of unintended consequences, recoils, impacts, and echoes. The premise frames the selected works as both social and constitutively sonic forms of reverberation.
𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐬:
@alka_the_artist@dontblamebaha@matuiskamva@mongezincaphayi@mikhailiapetersen@oupa.sibeko@theromakepe@itsyolaaaaa
Come find us at booth L6
20 - 22 February
Cape Town International Convention Centre
#investeccapetownartfair
#ictaf2026
This year, ‘Cabinet/Record’ is curated by Beata America, assistant curator at Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA). ‘Cabinet/Record’ aims to shift perspectives on photography as an apt medium to display acts of preservation and expression. America proposes a means to look deeper, beyond the façade of the photograph and to induce active listening to the moments that linger outside of the frame.
We sat down with America ahead of the fair to chat about ‘Cabinet/Record’.
Read More on our website (link in bio).
New Cape Town Galleries (NCTG) is an association of contemporary art galleries which have opened in the city over the last five years, fostering collaboration and a shared vision in serving South Africa’s dynamic arts community. NCTG is comprised of the following member galleries:
16 on Lerotholi (f. 2019)
Under the Aegis (f. 2020)
Vela Projects (f. 2023)
RESERVOIR (f. 2023)
Lemkus Gallery (f. 2024)
On Monday, 16 February, a panel discussion marking this significant shift in Cape Town’s cultural ecology will take place between directors Anelisa Mangcu, Jonathan Goschen, Heinrich Groenewald, Jared Leite, moderated by innovator and strategist Pumla Maswanganyi.
Date: Monday, 16 February 2026
Venue: BlackBrick Gardens Rooftop
Address: 2 Roodehek Street, Gardens
Time: 18h00 - 20h00
Food and drink will be available for purchase.
Hair Matters is a tightly focused, thematic auction that initiates a critical dialogue on the profound significance of hair in contemporary artistic practice. Featuring a cohort of accomplished contemporary artists, primarily those working from the African continent or within the global African diaspora, This selection of works is guided by a singular conceptual mandate: every work turns to hair as a powerful nexus, serving as medium, metaphor, or focal point of exploration.
Hair Matters illuminates the diverse interpretations and artistic vocabularies through which hair shapes identity, memory, and meaning across cultures, nations, and histories. Featuring artists such as Leonce Raphael Agbodjélou (Benin), Ifeoma U. Anyaeji (Nigeria), Sethembile Msezane (South Africa), and Hank Willis Thomas (United States), the auction examines the aesthetics, politics, and sociology of hair, with particular emphasis on African perspectives and the connective threads that link the continent and its global diasporas.
Hair Matters: A Selection of Works from The Georgina Jaffee Collection will go under the hammer at Strauss & Co on Saturday, 21 February 2026. Auction preview opens at Strauss & Co Cape Town from 26 January 2026
Visit hair-matters.org to learn more.
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Hair Matters: A Selection of Works from The Georgina Jaffee Collection
📍Lemkus Gallery, 5th Floor, 28 St Georges Mall, Cape Town City Centre, Cape Town
1 December 2025 – 16 January 2026
#StraussAndCo #LemkusGallery #GeorginaJaffee #ExhibitionCapeTown #Exhibition
These are the final days to experience the Hair Matters: A Selection of Works from the Georgina Jaffee Collection exhibition at Lemkus Gallery, before it concludes Friday 16 January.
Hair Matters is a tightly focused, thematic auction that initiates a critical dialogue on the profound significance of hair in contemporary artistic practice. Featuring a cohort of accomplished contemporary artists, primarily those working from the African continent or within the global African diaspora, This selection of works is guided by a singular conceptual mandate: every work turns to hair as a powerful nexus, serving as medium, metaphor, or focal point of exploration.
Hair Matters illuminates the diverse interpretations and artistic vocabularies through which hair shapes identity, memory, and meaning across cultures, nations, and histories. Featuring artists such as Leonce Raphael Agbodjélou (Benin), Ifeoma U. Anyaeji (Nigeria), SethembileMsezane (South Africa), and Hank Willis Thomas (United States), the auction examines the aesthetics, politics, and sociology of hair, with particular emphasis on African perspectives and the connective threads that link the continent and its global diasporas.
📍 Lemkus Gallery, 4th Floor, 28 St Georges Mall, Cape Town City Centre, Cape Town
Hair Matters: A Selection of Works from The Georgina Jaffee Collection will go under the hammer at Strauss & Co on Saturday, 21 February 2026. Auction preview opens at Strauss & Co Cape Town from 26 January 2026.
Visit hair-matters.org to learn more.
#StraussAndCo #HairMatters #LemkusGallery #Exhibition #GeorginaJaffee
We are excited to share these installation images of 𝑁𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑛 𝑃𝑎𝑝𝑒𝑟, courtesy of Brook-Lynn Norkie.
It’s becoming somewhat of a tradition at Lemkus to close the year with an ambitious group presentation, not just a showcase of quality work, but a labour of love and curatorial rigour— an ode to the artists whose practices continue to shape our thinking.
Despite the straightforwardness of the exhibition title, 𝑁𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑛 𝑃𝑎𝑝𝑒𝑟 is a deeply sentimental project about our relationship to paper, not only as material, but also as a technology: a conduit for thought, experimentation, and inquiry.
Notably, in the case of the artist, paper keeps record of processes that ordinarily go unseen and memorialises the very essence of these encounters— the advent of an idea.
In our research towards this show we happened upon the French expression 𝑒̂𝑡𝑟𝑒 𝑑𝑎𝑛𝑠 𝑙𝑒𝑠 𝑝𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑡𝑠 𝑝𝑎𝑝𝑖𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑑𝑒 𝑞𝑢𝑒𝑙𝑞𝑢’𝑢𝑛, which literally means “to be in someone’s little papers”. Yet figuratively, “little papers” stands in for good graces: the enjoyment of another’s trust and consideration. To that end, we owe special thanks to the artists we hold in our “little papers”, who, through their work, entrust us with theirs in return.
