The Seeds of the Fig exhibition features the work of three up-and-coming South African talents alongside 21 other African sculptors

Emgerging talents Asemahle Ntlonti, Unathi Mkonto and Ben Orkin caught the attention of the Krone x WHATIFTHEWORLD gallery curators Heinrich Groenewald and Shona van der Merwe of the most recent exhibition, Seeds of the Fig. The exhibition features the work of these three up-and-coming talents alongside 21 other African sculptors.

“On until the end of March at the gallery on the Twee Jonge Gezellen estate in the Western Cape winelands town of Tulbagh, Seeds of the Fig features the work of these three up-and-coming talents alongside 21 other African sculptors. The exhibition is curated by RESERVOIR’s Heinrich Groenewald and Shona van der Merwe”.

Cape Town-based Asemahle Ntlonti and Unathi Mkonto both recently undertook residencies at the Krone x WHATIFTHEWORLD gallery. In the spirit of championing contemporary African art, and particularly that of young South African artists, the gallery has played host to several artists in its Artist Residency Programme, an incubator for creativity and productivity offering emerging talents a space of total freedom to explore their ideas.

Asemahle Ntlonti

Ntlonti graduated from the University of Cape Town’s Michaelis School of Fine Art with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2017, majoring in sculpture. Often investigating her familial culture and history through her work, she says, “I use art as a way of knowing who I am and where I come from.” Her featured piece in Seeds of the Fig, ‘Ncekelela’ (2021), uses beading as a way to trace and connect with her isiXhosa lineage.

Ntlonti, whose work has been exhibited both locally and abroad, was awarded the 2018 Young Female Residency by The Project Space in Johannesburg and Saint Emilion in France, and in 2019 attended a residency at the South African Foundation for Contemporary Art in Knysna and Saint Emilion.

Unathi Mkonto

Mkonto, a multidisciplinary artist who was born in Peddie in the Eastern Cape, uses art to explore the built environment, drawing on his training in both architecture and fashion to investigate spatial conditions. He produced his featured sculpture, ‘Flat Sheet Study 1’ (2022), during his recent residency at Krone. A composition of paper, cardboard, velcro and masonite board, it is informed by the temporary architecture of informal traders operating in the East City areas of Cape Town.

Mkonto studied architecture at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, subsequently working as an architect under recognised South African architect Kate Otten, before studying fashion at Stadio’s school of fashion. Seeds of the Fig is the most recent of his numerous exhibition features across South Africa.

Ben Orkin

Sculptor Ben Orkin graduated in 2021 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Michaelis School of Fine Art. The Cape Town-based artist held his first solo exhibition, You told me…, at the WHATIFTHEWORLD gallery in Cape Town in 2019 while he was completing his studies. Orkin’s eye-catching piece for Seeds of the Fig is ‘The more you share, the less you need’ (2021), a ceramic vessel that stands starkly on the floor of the gallery, surrounded by ceramic ‘seeds’ that have fallen from the glazed piece covered in holes and protrusions. The sculpture, described by the curators as ‘oscillating between moments of nourishment and dependency, validation and resistance, love and separation’, represents queer intimacy.

Orkin has exhibited in Johannesburg, Stellenbosch and Rotterdam in the Netherlands, and was awarded the Simon Gerson Prize in 2021 for his graduate collection at the Michaelis School of Fine Art.

The Seeds of the Fig exhibition celebrates about “every artist’s individual journey and practice — and consequently the individual journey of each visitor as they move across the historical farm to each sculpture”. The exhibition is taking place until the 31st of March at the gallery on the Twee Jonge Gezellen estate in the Western Cape wine lands town of Tulbagh.