Robin Rhode

You may have noticed something new in Parking Structure 2. 👀 The Hanging Gardens mural by Robin Rhode is now complete at North City, adding a little more color to the everyday. Take a look next time you’re here! @robinrhodeofficial

I 🖤 Mies van der Rohe in the beginning of spring. • @galerieveramunro • #daybed #miesvanderrohe

My work titled ‘Microphone’ from 2005, is included in the exhibition ‘Dessins sans limite - Masterpieces from the Centre Pompidou collection’, in Paris. • The Centre Pompidou Cabinet d’Art Graphique collection is one of the world’s greatest sets of works on paper from the 20th and 21st centuries. This amazingly rich and diverse collection has never before been presented in a large-scale, exclusive exhibition. “Limitless drawings” is an opportunity to reveal these priceless treasures for the first time and understand how this artistic medium was entirely reinvented in the 20th century. • Many artists have taken up this seminal, cathartic form of expression in order to subvert the limits of art, making drawing today a laboratory for all that is possible. In addition to sheets of paper and the faithful sketch pad, its sphere of expression has stretched across to other media such as walls and installation areas and has opened up to embrace other practices – photography, film and digital technology. • #centrepompidou #drawing #paris

Happy birthday, Robin Rhode!  Don’t miss the artist’s current solo show, ‘Body as Sculpture’ at the Nirox Foundation near Johannesburg, South Africa. The exhibition is the culmination of his recent residency at the Villa-Legodi Centre for Sculpture, where Rhode expanded his multidisciplinary practice by introducing stone-working into his work. #RobinRhode #NiroxFoundation #LehmannMaupin

Robin Rhode is included in 𝘈 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘢 𝘐𝘴 𝘕𝘰𝘵 𝘢 𝘍𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳, now on view @zeitzmocaa . Rhode shows alongside Lerato Shadi, responding to the works and legacy of Bessi Head, Don Mattera and Gerard Sekoto. Curated by Khanyi Mawhayi, the exhibition is a ‘multigenerational conversation between South African artists and writers whose lives and works contend with the complexity of the exilic experience. Contemporary visual artists @studio.leratoshadi and @robinrhodeofficial respond to the lives and works of painter Gerard Sekoto and writers Bessie Head and Don Mattera, three important figures of the Black Modernist Intellectual Movement in twentieth-century South Africa. 𝘈 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘢 𝘐𝘴 𝘕𝘰𝘵 𝘢 𝘍𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳 considers the parallels between the various forms of exile experienced by Sekoto and Head abroad, and the internal isolation that Mattera endured within South Africa. What does it mean to be excluded, stripped of your connection to others physically, emotionally, and artistically? What does it reveal about the quality of choices available to Rhode and Shadi in choosing to live and practice in Europe? What kinds of exilic compromises1 did these contemporary artists make to build lives for themselves in Berlin, Germany? Drawing on the written correspondences of Sekoto, Head, and Mattera, as well as their modernist artistic output, the exhibition explores the spectrum of personal and political expression, navigating themes of exile, identity, and memory. It maps constellations and communities of exchange, revealing the profound connections between these protagonists, even in the absence of any documented encounters.’ On view until 15 November 2026! - @zeitzmocaa @robinrhodeofficial @khanyimawhayi

Currently showing in the @villa_legodi_cfs is Robin Rhode’s ‘Body as Sculpture’ For more than two decades, South African-born artist Robin Rhode—based in Berlin since 2002—has explored the body as a sculptural instrument. Using walls, streets, and architectural surfaces as stages, Rhode has built a practice where movement, drawing, and photography merge into a language of embodied form. His work transforms the most ordinary surfaces into sites of performance, where the body inscribes itself into space. Rhode’s residency at the Villa-Legodi focused on learning particular stone-working skills through practical skills transfer, enabling the development of this new body of work. The new stone-related sculptures translate ephemeral bodily gestures into material permanence, compressing movement, resistance, and play into depth, surface, and weight. ​ The body-as-sculpture is central to Rhode’s idiom, yet it has historically manifested in ephemerality: chalk lines erased by movement, photographs capturing transient gestures, or videos recording playful confrontations with urban space. At the Villa-Legodi, Rhode presents a new body of work that extends this language into sculptural, painted wall reliefs. These works translate the immediacy of performance into material permanence: gestures once fleeting become etched into surface, thickened into depth, and stilled as form. The wall reliefs act as “frozen actions,” compressing the dynamism of the body into sculptural memory. The Villa-Legodi Centre for Sculpture, dedicated to the evolving tradition of South African sculpture, provides an ideal setting for this shift. Rhode’s reliefs enter into dialogue with the site’s architectural and sculptural legacies, rooting his international practice in local histories. They affirm the wall not as background but as active register of corporeal presence, where play, struggle, and imagination leave enduring traces. This work was presented within the NIROX Residency space, as one of the several exhibitions taking place that form part of the ongoing Soil & Water program, curated by Johan Thom & Basak Senova. Images by Anthea Pokroy

The Greek botanist Theophrastus gave the name dianthus, meaning „divine (dios) flower (anthos).“ The floral species are mostly herbaceous perennials. The relationship to the divine might also allude to the story of Artemis and her portrayal of a goddess’s irrational anger. This story places Artemis hunting in a forest when a shepherd playing an instrument frightens her quarry. Artemis viciously ripped out the shepherd’s eyes in a rage. However, her anger passed like a summer thunder rainshower; she immediately felt remorse for her brutal rage. Her guilt led to beautiful flowers blooming where the shepherd’s eyes had been. • The reference to divinity haunts the flower in other ways, especially from the 13th century onwards in classical and Renaissance paintings depicting the Holy Virgin. Known as the “divine flower,” dianthus has long been associated with the gods and love and has been used as a wedding flower for millennia. • In the diptych series, I incorporate an anonymous female character as the sole protagonist. We see the character as a black silhouette, a shadow form wearing a traditional hat referred to in Zulu as an Isicholo hat. In many cultures across the African continent, hardware, in the form of hats, began to symbolize an aesthetic extension of the traditional feminine hairstyle and came to signify broader social, cultural, and personal interpretations and definitions. • #africanart #dianthus #flora #wallpainting #muralart

The botanical Silene Capensis, is a small psychoactive perennial herb with thousands of years of prophetic and ritual significance amongst Southern African tribes through cultural and religious practice, and is considered sacred when consumed due to its intense dream-inducing effects. Silene Capensis, due to its physiological mechanisms, induces spectacularly vivid and unusual lucid dream states that can be interpreted as gifts or messages from the ancestors, who, in these lucid dreams, appear as drifting ‘white winds’ that share guidance and knowledge. Its scented white flowers open only at night when they emit a fragrant, almost hypnotizing aroma. Building on this notion of power being contained by an animal skin, David Lewis-Williams (1983, 1996) has suggested that spiritual power may have been acquired by putting on animal potency in the form of a skin kaross: wearing a kaross was, he argues, like ‚getting into‘ an animal and thus absorbing its power and potency. • In this photographic work, I incorporate the use of the Nguni cow skin, the cow, a sacred animal amongst many ethnic groups in Southern Africa, not only as a costume but also as a symbol of spirituality and divinity. Dreams are central to divination in Southern Africa. They have long been the medium through which diviners establish contact with their ancestors while experiencing lucid dreams filled with profound personal symbolism. I render the Silene Capensis flower in deep tones of blue, its background reminiscent of an anonymous landscape cooled by night. Both male and female protagonists descend beneath the enlarged petals as if engaged in an induced ritual. • #africancontemporaryart #flora #wallpainting #murals

Khat (Catha edulis) is a flowering plant indigenous to Eastern and Southern Africa, where its consumption has long been embedded within social, cultural, and spiritual practices. Among communities in regions where the plant is native, the chewing of khat functions not merely as a recreational activity but as a socially structured ritual that facilitates communal interaction, reflection, and shared temporal experience. Often referred to as the “flower of paradise,” khat has been used for centuries as a stimulant, particularly across the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, where its circulation reflects historical networks of trade, migration, and cultural exchange. • Historically, the use of khat extended beyond social custom into ceremonial and metaphysical domains. Accounts suggest that in ancient Egypt, the plant was consumed within ritual contexts to induce states of apotheosis—experiences aimed at transcending ordinary consciousness in order to access spiritual insight and divine proximity. In such contexts, khat was not employed for habitual or recreational consumption, but rather as a conduit for mystical perception and metaphysical exploration. This distinction underscores the plant’s role as a mediator between the material and immaterial realms. • In relation to my artistic practice, these themes resonate to the sustained engagement with ritual, performativity, and the body as a site where historical trauma and spiritual resilience intersect. • #flora #wallpainting #muralart #southafrica

Taraxacum (Dandelion) derives its name from the French term ‘dent de lion’, meaning ‘tooth of the lion’. Dandelions are perennial, herbaceous plants that grow best in moist, sunny areas found in all parts of the northern temperate zone and Southern Africa. The dandelion has countless health benefits and palatable applications. Traditional herbal medicine (THM) dates back to the Stone Age, highlighting its deep historical roots. Across Africa, traditional healing and medicinal practices, including magic, are older than many other medical systems and are more commonly performed as treatments than conventional medicine. African traditional medicine operates as a holistic healthcare system, encompassing three key specialisations: divination, spiritualism, and herbalism, though these areas may intersect in certain instances. My artwork aims to create a geometrically structured wall painting of the dandelion flower, incorporating its inherent yellow tonalities and natural petals against a purple background. Bringing each petal towards an essentialized shape by emphasizing nature’s fractal geometry and its inherent complex patterning system, I imagine Taraxacum as a larger entity with a physical dimension that has a more significant influence on both the mind and body of humans. We see an anonymous male figure physically interact with the flower as if to extract its profound healing influence. As he does so, a shadow of petals appears to fall as a sign of nature’s beauty and fragility. • #flora #botanicals #dandelion #wallpaintings #mural

Sceletium tortuosum (L.) N.E.Br. (Mesembryanthemaceae), commonly known as kanna (Canna) or kougoed, is an effective indigenous medicinal plant in South Africa. Historically, the plant was used by native San hunter-gatherers and Khoi people to quench their thirst, fight fatigue and for healing, social, and spiritual purposes. Various studies have shown that extracts of the plant possess numerous biological properties, and isolated alkaloids used as dietary supplements for medicinal and food purposes. Furthermore, current research has focused on the commercialization of the plant because of its treatment of clinical anxiety and depression, psychological and psychiatric disorders, improving mood, promoting relaxation and happiness. I envision my artwork Canna as existing within an altered state of visual consciousness, between the concretized world of it’s location, the wall and street corner of Johannesburg, and the contemplative, cognitive space of the mind. The petals’ geometric shapes, reminiscent of entoptic phenomena, are an inherent aesthetic theme in various Southern African cave and rock art sites. Geometric patterning has also adorned fabric design in Africa for centuries. The vibrant colour palette aims to remove the flower from its origins and reposition it within the realms of a geographically fantastical world that places the artwork within a dream-like state for our female protagonist. We see her carrying two wooden staffs, referred to as knobkerries in South Africa. A knobkerrie is a wooden club used mainly in Southern and Eastern Africa. Typically, they have a large knob at one end and can be used for throwing at animals in hunting or for clubbing an enemy’s head. For the various people who use them, they often have marked cultural significance. It is also used as a ceremonial object, especially in initiation ceremonies, and serves as a visual indicator of one’s transition to adulthood. • #flora #botanicals

Buchu (Agathosma betulina and A crenulate) is endemic to the Cape Floral Region of the Western Cape. The fynbos plant was introduced to Cape settlers in the 16th century, before rising to prominence in the US and Europe as a key ingredient in perfumes and high-end teas. Khoisan relationships with buchu relate to smell as an agent of physical and mental transformation. The Khoisan have conceived the smell of buchu as a potent force in healing, perfume use, and certain rituals. The Khoisan also associate the notion of a spiritual and physical sedative and stimulant with the buchu plant. The essential understanding of buchu lies in its ability to pacify, awaken, attract, and heal. The key to this understanding lies in smell’s ability to induce physical transformations. Smell, breath, wind, and people’s power all overlap in Khoisan thought as they do in the epistemologies of other indigenous peoples. My idea was to create an interpretation of the Buchu flower as a large, abstract entity composed of various-coloured ellipses. I see the petal structure of the wall painting as a fractal composition that could morph into an infinite graphic continuum, referencing nature’s timeless value and its healing effects. By engaging with historical aspects of society and reinterpreting flora with a fundamental link to ancient rock art practice. The anonymous male figure in the work appears as a shadow, silhouette, carrying a dried, broken tree branch—both the figure and the branch become double shadows. Here, the branch becomes a metaphor for emotional constructs and our mind’s ability to mend, recover, and renew itself. • #tranformation #regeneration #healing #botanicals #flora