STILL

Ukuthula. Be still.

Drawing on works from the Tortilis Collection, the exhibition brings together artists who have looked closely at the landscapes of the Namib, Sossusvlei, the Karoo and the Kalahari, extending to the Sahara. Across generations, they have found richness in places that can appear empty, revealing the subtle variations of geology, vegetation, heat, light and distance that give each landscape its character.

But STILL also asks a second question: what is still here?

The question becomes particularly resonant beyond the gallery. Across the road, the construction of Keyes Art Mile 2.0 is transforming the ground once again. Its future landscape will include the restoration of Egoli Granite Grassland, part of the indigenous Highveld ecology progressively displaced as Johannesburg has grown.

Seen from the gallery, the construction site becomes part of the exhibition’s conversation. The landscapes inside ask us to notice what is there. The ground outside asks us to consider what has been lost. And the planned grassland offers the possibility of what might return.

In this way, STILL moves between looking and remembering, loss and renewal. It asks not only what remains within a landscape, but what we choose to see, what we allow to disappear, and what we might value enough to bring back.

What do we choose to notice?

What do we value enough to bring back?