Art in The City

Returning to the Shepstone Gardens from 23 – 25 May 2025, the RMB Latitudes Art Fair is set to assemble Africa’s most compelling artistic voices across art, design, and architecture.

WORDS Gina Dionisio PHOTOS Supplied; Courtesy of Boogertman + Partners (The Pulse)

From 23 – 25 May 2025, RMB Latitudes Art Fair returns to Shepstone Gardens, for it’s third edition. Taking place from from 23 – 25 May 2025, the event will bring together 50 galleries and over 300 artists from across the continent for a curated celebration of art.

“This year’s theme of CO-PRODUCTION is a nod to the Fair’s central ethos of working collaboratively with and connecting all players in the art industry,” says Lucy MacGarry, co-founder and director. “The theme sees galleries, artists and institutions come together to create an exciting programme of exhibitions and special projects, exemplifying the truly African sentiment of what is possible through collaboration.”

From major local galleries such as Southern Guild, Stevenson and Everard Read to nomadic gallery FEDE Arthouse, Strauss & Co auction house and new Nigerian space AMG Projects, every aspect of the art ecosystem is represented. Here are just some of the many highlights to look forward to: 

INDEX

INDEX aims to connect independent creators directly with audiences, collectors, and gallerists, offering them greater visibility and long-term growth potential. Curated by artist Bonolo Kavula, this year’s edition is titled Invisible Thread. This showcase will weave together the work of eight independent artists in a collective exploration of identity, connection, and materiality. This year’s participating artists include:

• Yonela Doda – a mixed media artist whose collage and thread works are informed by catharsis theory, using material to process and communicate emotion.
• Thato Makatu – a printmaker and cultural producer in training whose practice reflects a growing curatorial voice, informed by academic research and personal expression.
• Tshepo Phokojoe – he works across visual art and fashion. His hessian and thread sculptures challenge gravity and explore the possibilities of fabric as structure.
• Khanyi Mawhayi – an artist and curator developing a rich visual language around decoloniality and world-building, using oil sticks and thread on canvas.
• Dineo Ponde – an artist committed to creating deeply personal narratives using ink and thread on polyester fabric. Her process begins with writing and evolves into visual storytelling.
• Unathi Mkonto – bridges art and architecture, using timber and geometry to reimagine still life and space through the lens of African modernism.
• Tinyiko Makwakwa – draws from indigenous African science and storytelling in her layered textile works. She uses natural dyes, embroidery, and beadwork to honour ancestral knowledge.
• Bonolo Kavula – known for pushing the boundaries of printmaking with Shweshwe fabric and thread. Her abstract works reflect a meticulous process rooted in repetition and material exploration.

Disturbed Currents: Art for a Warming World 

Situated in the garden, the outdoor exhibition explores how it is that we inform the climate, and how it, in turn, informs our own lived experience.

ESSAY

ESSAY will feature stoneware sculptures by doyenne of South African ceramic sculptors, Amalie von Maltitz, shown alongside charcoal drawings by Sydney Kumalo.

Design Showcase

The Design Showcase – a collaboration between Design Week South Africa and Latitudes – will feature five dedicated design spaces, collectively exhibiting 25 exceptional African brands. The final participant list is in, and it’s filled with innovation, craftsmanship, and creative excellence. For the first time, fairgoers will be able to explore and purchase not only art, but design – marking an exciting expansion of the event’s creative offering.

Four of the spaces will host exclusive brand pop-ups, giving visitors the chance to meet designers and shop directly from some of the country’s most exciting creative names. These include:

• Duck Duck Goose
• Merchants on Long
• Pichulik
• Something Good Studio
• The Herd
• Viviers

The fifth space will present a beautifully curated store, highlighting a selection of design-forward products from a diverse group of African brands, including: *Art School Africa, Apartment, Ballo, Callie, Chommies, Crystal Birch, Design Afrika, Dyad, Guillotine by Lisa Jaffe, HAN Studio, House of Harhaz, In Company, kkerelé, Leila Atelier, Lulasclan, Mantua, Maqhama Stories and Nammu.

The Pulse Lounge

Titled The Pulse, the Boogertman + Partners team has created a temporary pavilion offering visitors and exhibitors moments of stillness, refreshment and conversation amid the vibrant energy of the fair. The architectural firm has conceptualised the lounge as a destination within a destination.  

The interior is arranged around three softly defined pods, developed in collaboration with X-Furniture, who also supplied purpose-designed seating that can be reconfigured to accommodate different group sizes and types of interaction. The carpeted floors – created in collaboration with Belgotex – and sheer fabric panels (produced with Fabric Bank) gently define the space without enclosing it, offering inviting glimpses of the interior.

With its organic curves, flowing lines, overlapping forms and colourful tones, The Pulse will be visible from multiple vantage points across the centre court.

For more information or to purchase tickets, visit latitudesartfair.com

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