Noria Mabasa

Noria Mabasa: Shaping Dreams (2022) is held in collaboration with !KAURU Contemporary Art from Africa and the Vhutsila Arts and Craft Centre, and is generously supported by the Department of Arts and Culture. Noria Mabasa’s residency and exhibition at the Villa-Legodi Centre for Sculpture is the culmination of a larger project which began in May 2022, when Noria Mabasa began making new work in residence at NIROX.

At the time, her residency was accompanied by a series of workshops with learners of different ages, and an exhibition in the Residency Studio of 38 pre-existing works in both clay and wood, produced between 2004 and 2022. The exhibition at the Villa-Legodi Centre for Sculpture is primarily comprised of new works produced during her residency and since, with a selection of pre-existing works that speak to its overarching concerns. Where the initial exhibition asked what assumptions we bring to the work of Noria Mabasa, questioning the extent to which our knowledge is informed by things that have little to do with the artist, this exhibition provides fresh insight into the artist’s practice, as told through her particular lens.