This season, Lizamore Gallery is inviting audiences into two distinct yet complementary conversations about memory, identity and human experience. Spread across its Rosebank locations, Glimpse and Where We Bloom bring together seven artists whose practices explore the emotional landscapes that shape how we remember, create and grow.
While each exhibition stands on its own, together they present a compelling snapshot of contemporary South African art, moving between deeply personal reflection and broader conversations around culture, resilience and belonging.
A glimpse into memory and imagination
Hosted at Lizamore on Keyes, Glimpse brings together the works of Ayola Goxo, Sera Holland, Zonia Nel-Scheffer and Sarel Petrus in an exhibition that explores the elusive territory between memory, longing and imagination.
Rather than treating memory as something fixed, Glimpse embraces its fluidity. The exhibition asks audiences to consider why certain moments, places or people continue to linger long after they have passed, and how imagination often fills the gaps left behind by time.
Each artist approaches this idea through a distinct visual language.
Ayola Goxo’s surreal paintings occupy the space between intuition and recollection, constructing dreamlike compositions that feel both familiar and mysterious. His work invites viewers to question how memory and imagination continually reshape one another.
Sera Holland explores colour, texture and materiality through richly layered paintings that balance order with spontaneity. Influenced by landscape, textiles and ceramics, her work creates emotionally charged environments that privilege sensation over certainty.
For Zonia Nel-Scheffer, memory becomes an imaginative landscape populated by symbolic objects, birds and marine life. Her paintings blur the line between nostalgia and invention, encouraging viewers to experience remembrance through feeling rather than fact.
Completing the exhibition is sculptor Sarel Petrus, whose bronze, wood and printmaking practices transform personal recollections and found objects into tactile reflections on nature, connection and remembrance.
Collectively, Glimpse offers less a collection of answers than an invitation to sit with ambiguity, embracing the fragmented ways memory continues to shape creative expression.
Exploring the environments where we grow
Across town at Lizamore @ the Firestation, Where We Bloom shifts the conversation towards identity, resilience and the communities that shape us.
Featuring Siphamandla Ex, Mondli Mbhele and Patrick Seruwu, the exhibition examines how people are influenced by the places they inhabit, the traditions they inherit and the relationships they cultivate throughout their lives.
Siphamandla Ex presents an early chapter of his latest body of work, Behind the Lens of Luxury, which reflects on youth identity through the visual language of fashion, aspiration and social media. His paintings interrogate the tension between appearance and reality while exploring what it means to navigate contemporary South Africa.
Mondli Mbhele turns discarded textiles and clothing waste into intricate works that examine protest, cultural heritage and adaptation. By repurposing everyday materials, he suggests that tradition remains alive not through preservation alone, but through constant renewal and reinvention.
Patrick Seruwu’s portraits focus on the emotional lives of women, exploring the delicate balance between vulnerability and strength. Through layered washes of colour and expressive mark-making, his work reflects healing, endurance and the emotional journeys that often remain unseen.
Together, the three artists invite viewers to look beyond surface appearances and consider the histories, emotions and experiences that shape individual and collective identity.
Continuing the conversation
As part of the exhibition programme, Lizamore will host Meet the Artist: Ayola Goxo on Thursday, 6 August, during Keyes Art Night. The public conversation offers visitors the opportunity to hear directly from Goxo about his creative practice and the ideas underpinning his work in Glimpse.
Glimpse is on view at Lizamore on Keyes until 25 August 2026, while Where We Bloom continues at Lizamore @ the Firestation until 8 September 2026. Together, the exhibitions offer audiences two distinct but interconnected reflections on memory, identity and the experiences that continue to shape who we are.
