–Moshekwa Langa, 2016

Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel is proud to present an exhibition of new works by Moshekwa Langa at Carpintaria, Rio de Janeiro.This is the artist’s first solo show in Brazil, comprising two large collages and a group of medium and small format paintingson paper. Born in Bakenberg in 1975, Langa is one of the most prominent artists to emerge in post-apartheid South Africa andhas described his multidisciplinary practice as a process involving memories of the territories of his childhood.

Langa’s paintings on paper are built over time, combining seemingly heterogeneous materials such as lacquer, coffee,pigments, found papers, and more. Swaths of rich colour result from the pooling of paint on the work’s surface, as Langaallows the material to accrue until the paper is left dense and rugged. Chance and improvisation are welcomed in the artist’screative process, as deliberate choices are layered over accidental marks. The final compositions are densely textured andsuggest imagined topographies and fleeting memories.

Collage is also constitutive of Langa’s practice and allows for free-form association of different elements, culled from theartist’s own research and travels, establishing tensions between personal histories and collective experience. In Proximities(2017) and Tonsils / Manwe uwe Buela Bitseng [Verbal cure] (2017), two large-format collages, the artist juxtaposeselements such as boxer Mike Tyson’s face, domestic utensils and his own abstract interventions. The relations betweenthese fragments and the accumulation of colorful traces are left open-ended, as the imperfect links between the parts of thecollage suggest a mapping of information and knowledge, as well as patterns of migration and segregation.

The artist’s dealing with residual materials can be likened to the uncertainties and ambiguities of his own history. Born in arural apartheid-era ‘Homeland’¹ not included on the maps he encountered in his youth, Langa actively traces his ownautobiography in his work, reconstituting his lived experience. Through this process, incomplete gestures built fromremnants and debris are synthesised into reconstructed moments that contend with the often mercurial qualities ofmeaning.

Moshekwa Langa’s work rose to international prominence from the late 1990s onwards. The artist participated in several ofthe world’s largest art biennials, including Johannesburg (1997), Istanbul (1997), Havana (1997), São Paulo (1998 and 2010),Gwangju (2000), Venice (2003 and 2009) and Lyon (2011). Among his recent individual exhibitions are Moshekwa Langa,KM21, Den Haag, Holland (2022); The Sweets of Sin, Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York (2021) and Fugitive, Stevenson,Johannesburg, South Africa (2017). He also participated in the group show A Clearing in the Forest (2022), at Tate Modern inLondon.

Special thanks to STEVENSON and Andrew Kreps Gallery, who represent Moshekwa Langa in South Africa and New York,respectively.