The Weight of Holding · 2026
Artists in
Dialogue
Chapter I is anchored by Thabiso Dakamela, with Yokanna presented in structured dialogue. Their practices are distinct - one establishes the spine of the exhibition, the other fractures it.
Anchor Artist - Chapter I
Thabiso Dakamela
b. Zimbabwe · Based in Johannesburg
Born in 1994 in Zimbabwe to a Venda father and Ndebele mother, Thabiso Dakamela is based in Johannesburg, where his dual heritage runs through every aspect of his practice. Inspired by day-to-day events and a sharp observance of social surroundings, he has built a body of work recognised across South Africa, Europe, the United States, Asia, and central Africa.
His recent work reconciles different aspects of self - from the persona projected outward to the interior known only to ourselves. His figures do not narrate events; they register psychological states. His technique draws comparisons to Van Gogh in the freedom of oil strokes, and to Rembrandt and Delacroix in the treatment of light and contrast - fused with a distinctly Afrocentric contemporary voice.
Dakamela predominantly uses shades of blue to explore notions of self-awareness, spirituality, strength, and vulnerability - expressing the duality of light and dark, joy and pain, introspective solitude and the amiable effect of companionship. He holds two solo exhibitions and has exhibited at major art fairs and galleries from Brussels to Miami, Dresden to Dubai.
Practice
In The Weight of Holding, Dakamela establishes the exhibition's spine. The presentation opens with The Women Who Hold Me - installed with full visual space, establishing the internal architecture of care as structure. The sequence progresses through controlled compositional expansion, culminating in Jazz Night, presented alone as the final statement. Movement becomes collective while control remains intact.
Personal Epistles I
Oil on canvas · 80 × 60 cm
Personal Epistles II
Oil on canvas · 80 × 60 cm
Dual Presence
Oil on canvas
From the Artist's Practice
Selected Works
Thabiso Dakamela
Works from Dakamela's broader practice, contextualizing the depth and range of the anchor artist's approach ahead of Chapter I.
In the Context of Chapter I
The Weight
of Being Seen
These two works enter directly into the exhibition's central inquiry. The hat functions as architecture - a structure the figure inhabits to manage the terms of their own visibility. In the first work, the figure is present but held partially back; the brim marks a threshold between being seen and choosing not to be. In the second, the eyes are gone entirely. What remains visible is precisely what the figure permits. The cost of visibility, negotiated and paid.
Thabiso Dakamela
Figure Under Hat I
Oil on canvas · The figure present, partially held back
Thabiso Dakamela
Figure Under Hat II
Mixed medium on canvas · The eyes gone, visibility refused
Thabiso Dakamela
Personal Epistles I
Oil on canvas · 80 × 60 cm · Courtesy Grande Provence Gallery
Thabiso Dakamela
Personal Epistles II
Oil on canvas · 80 × 60 cm · Courtesy Grande Provence Gallery
Thabiso Dakamela
Beliefs and Myths
Oil on canvas · 150 × 120 cm · Courtesy Grande Provence Gallery
Thabiso Dakamela
Figure with Roses
Oil on canvas · Private collection
Thabiso Dakamela
Dual Presence
Oil on canvas · Double portrait study
Thabiso Dakamela
Inner Light
Mixed medium on canvas · Impasto
Thabiso Dakamela
Blue Turban Study
Oil on canvas · After Vermeer
Career
Exhibition
History
Dakamela has exhibited across South Africa, Europe, the United States, the United Kingdom, the UAE, and Nigeria. His work is held in private collections internationally.
Award of Achievement
Consulate of Humanitarian & Culture
Presented August 4, 2025, in Chania, Greece, in recognition of his exceptional quality and technique. His work is recognised worldwide as an established artist, producing museum-quality collector's items.
2025
- - A Sense of Longing, Gallery at Grande Provence - Cape Town
- - How Art Thou, Gallery at Grande Provence - Cape Town
- - The Curator's Choice, duo exhibition with Arlindo Maude, Gallery at Steyn City
- - South Seen, group exhibition - Brussels, Belgium
- - The South African Collective Show, Art In Black Foundation - Miami, USA
- - Summer of Colours Tour, solo exhibition - Dresden, Germany
2024
- - Artopia Festival Art Fair, duo exhibition - Dubai
- - Common Ground, RB Contemporary Gallery - Cape Town
- - Capital Art Fair Tshwane - Pretoria & Motions & Motives, DALRO - Johannesburg
2021 - 2023
- - We Are As We Were, solo exhibition, Ellis House Art Building - Johannesburg (2023)
- - Five in Focus, exhibition of miniatures - Nigeria (2023)
- - The African Art Hub, group show - United Kingdom (2022)
- - The Travelling Art Gallery, group exhibition - Germany & Switzerland (2021)
Press
Publications &
Media Features
The Art Times Magazine
2021
SABC TV - Mzansi Insider
2021
Home Choice Magazine
2022
SA Home Owner
November 2023
Artist in Dialogue - Chapter I
Artist in Dialogue
Yokanna
b. 1993, Kampala, Uganda
Yokanna is a contemporary painter working in mixed media, known for materially driven figuration created through palette knife application and layered surfaces. His practice treats the surface as an archive, built and reworked until the figure becomes a record of pressure.
Yokanna's work resists quick photographic resolution, insisting on in-person viewing where texture and physical presence carry meaning. His work is held in private collections internationally.
Practice
Where Dakamela constructs density and composure, Yokanna interrupts through abrasion and layered disruption. His surfaces are built, scraped, and reworked until the image records pressure rather than illustration. Fragmentation becomes a method of inquiry. In The Weight of Holding, Yokanna's chapter introduces instability into the figurative field - extending the exhibition's inquiry into visibility, surface, and the emotional weight carried by the figure.
Yokanna's 5 works for The Weight of Holding will be presented for the first time on June 3, 2026.
Curatorial Note
Anchor &
Dialogue
Chapter I is anchored by Thabiso Dakamela. His body of work establishes the spine, the architecture, and the central inquiry of the exhibition. Yokanna's works enter in structured dialogue - not as a parallel strand, but as a formal response to what Dakamela has built.
One holds composure; the other fractures it. One constructs density; the other enacts disruption. The dialogue is intentional and asymmetric - and that asymmetry is the point.
"This exhibition is built on clarity and control. Thabiso establishes the spine of the exhibition. Yokanna fractures it. The dialogue is intentional."
Roslidah Okoth, Curator
Roster
Expanding Program
Africa Curated's artist roster will grow with each chapter. The platform is committed to long-term relationships with artists - not single-show placements, but sustained cultural presence and strategic institutional development.
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