EXISTENTIAL

A solo exhibition of new and recent photographic works by Mack Magagane

ROOM Gallery Hall 3

05.09 - 31.10.2015

Mack Magagane, Untitled XII

(from the Somewhere Between Here Series), 2013

Mack Magagane, Untitled I

(from the ...In this City Series), 2011

Mack Magagane’s second showing with ROOM, is titled EXISTENTIAL.

The presentation includes a selection from existing bodies of work  - among which are: Light Hours (2011), In this City (2012) and Somewhere Between Here (2014). These are interwoven with a series titled Chapter V - the artist’s newest project that marks a trajectory in the artist’s young career.

While Chapter V contemplates the poetics of the everyday and the ordinary, objectifying it to the point of abstractions; Light Hours offers an interrogation of the built urban landscape - it is a series that displayed the artist’s interest in the formal narratives formed by architecture and composition.

The 2012 series …in this city, is an intimate, ground level encounter with the everyday in Johannesburg; spaces that testify to fragmented, brief moments while honing in on the artist’s keen awareness of the power of light as metaphor.

In Somewhere Between Here, Magagane entertains a sense of nostalgia while in a foreign place. The cinematic quality of these compositions depict solitary Parisian youth, who - not unlike the artist - seem to be in a state of longing, seeking to make meaning of 'place.'

The elusive city is a long-running motif in the artist’s work, and by alluding to darkness and light as interchangeable metaphors in his compositions, Magagane expresses a subjective understanding of how photographs point to unique, lived realities beyond what can be seen within the frame.

The exhibition was made possible with the generous funding of the National Art Council, South Africa. Support was also given by Silvertone Fine Art Printing, ORMS Print Room & Framing & Florida Picture Framers.