Simphiwe Ndzube

In the first U.S. solo museum exhibition for South African contemporary artist Simphiwe Ndzube, Oracles of the Pink Universe presents seven new immersive works exploring the interplay between magical realism and history. Opening June 2021, the exhibition integrates themes related to power, conflict and the search for freedom through a Pink Universe, an imaginative world constructed by the artist, which combines fantasy with the history of Ndzube’s post-apartheid South Africa.

A genre first conceptualized in Latin America, magical realism infuses reality with elements of the fantastical. Oracles of the Pink Universe is organized by the DAM and curated by Laura F. Almeida, curatorial fellow of modern and contemporary art at the museum. The exhibition will be on view June 13, 2021, to Sept. 12, 2021, on level 2 of the museum’s Hamilton Building in the Martin and McCormick Gallery.

Oracles of the Pink Universe is an expansion of Ndzube's visual search that explores a mythological place, drawing from his personal experiences, imagination, and art history. He will present exclusive works that depart from Hieronymus Bosch's painting The Garden of Earthly Delights (1490–1500), depicting a theatrical space where heaven, earth and hell intersect. As visitors step into this alternate universe, they will be confronted with artworks that explore themes of conflict, tension, resilience, strength and a fight for human rights.

Oracles of the Pink Universe will include an entirely new body of work comprised of vibrant paintings and sculptures, some of which ingeniously transform from two dimensional to three dimensional works of art. Ndzube’s installation will incorporate resin, spray paint, collage, and found objects, such as second-hand clothing. They also will feature figures, sometimes depicted as headless, amorphous and non-binary, that appear to emerge from the traditional confines of paintings hung on walls.

"Through an imaginative visual language that draws upon the post-apartheid Black South African experience, Ndzube conjures a fantastical, at times jarring, world that addresses timeless themes of survival, power and conflict, prompting viewers to question historical narratives,” comments curatorial fellow Almeida. "Transcending traditional boundaries of medium, style and space, Ndzube’s work invites audiences into an exhibition experience that hovers on the edge of the supernatural and the real, somewhere in the space where history and imagination merge."

Ndzube’s mythical world will also explore boundaries, whether ontological, political, or geographical, and will embrace the coexistence of seemingly irreconcilable realities, spaces and systems that confront the viewer’s perception of what is possible.

A 96-page color catalog will accompany the exhibition, with an extended introduction by Rebecca Hart, the Vicki and Kent Logan Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the DAM, an essay by curatorial fellow Almeida and an artist-to-artist interview between Phumelele Tshabalala and Ndzube. The fully illustrated catalog will feature artworks in the exhibition and photographs showing Ndzube’s process and sketches.