Latest news with #StandardBankArtLab
Daily Maverick
11 hours ago
- Business
- Daily Maverick
Tapestries weave aspects of SA life and a bank's history with wool into today's artistic landscape
The Standard Bank Art Lab is showing that when it comes to art, the bank is not a sheep but a shepherd. The merino sheep is possibly the most consequential animal to the South African banking sector. The Spanish breed was first donated by the Dutch in the late 1700s, and its value to the growing South African economy was felt by the 1860s. The Cape Colony used the sheep's high-quality wool to distinguish and expand its economy. The booming industry would facilitate the establishment of one of the leading financial institutions in South Africa – the Standard Bank Group. This is a peculiar fabric of the blue bank's history, but nevertheless a pivotal strand that it continues to weave into its identity. The latest iteration is the establishment of the Standard Bank Art Lab. Situated at Nelson Mandela Square in Sandton City, the Art Lab reimagines how audiences engage with art through encouraging interaction that is up close, in motion and in dialogue with the present. The premise of the inaugural exhibition, Following the Blue Thread: It's Woven Into Who We Are, stitches those days of trade to today's artistic landscape. 'At Standard Bank, we believe that contemporary art is not peripheral to progress,' says Margaret Nienaber, Standard Bank's Group COO. 'Instead, it is central to how we see, shape and share our future. [Art provides] a space where legacy fuels innovation and where creativity is treated not only as a luxury, but also as a vital form of engagement.' Standard Bank has never been sheepish in its affinity for the arts. From its decades-long collaboration with the National Arts Festival to the renowned Standard Bank Young Artist of the Year Awards, South African arts across many disciplines have become stitched to the brand of the bank. The inaugural exhibition includes the work of past award winners in fine arts William Kentridge (1987) and Sam Nhlengethwa (1994), as well as household names such as Penny Siopis, Judish Mason and Mirriam Ndebele. A meticulous process of selection was undertaken by curator Dr Same Mdluli. 'At the core of its curatorial premise the exhibition threads together the tapestries as centring collections as a source for artistic appreciation and inspiration, but more importantly, a rich resource for both academic and curatorial research,' said Mdluli. Stitching together an exhibition Allina Ndebele's tapestry titled Ancestors was the first acquisition for the bank's corporate art collection in 1976. A colourful and vibrant tapestry depicting what can be interpreted as episodic anecdotal visual representations of African spirituality, folklore or history, it's the woven equivalent of a captivating nganekwane (Zulu fantasy story). Office Love (2001), Kentridge's contribution in collaboration with the Stephens Tapestry Studio, has a more modern and industrial outlook. With muted tones and dark silhouette imagery, the hand-woven mohair tapestry is an image of an everyman with a typewriter for a head, who is striding towards a workstation superimposed over what seems to be a map of Johannesburg. 'There is a worldview each of the tapestries present that resonates with a South African context in particular ways,' Mdluli said. 'This can be seen in how the work also presents symbolism employed by the artist in condensing a convoluted cultural myth and telling this through simplistic visual language.' Siopis's Shame (2003) and Nhlengethwa's Late Night Jazz (1994) best exemplify Mdluli's assembly of artworks that speak to varying yet deeply interconnected sociopolitical themes with enduring South African contexts. Late Night Jazz has eccentric visual undertones in its depiction of culture, fashion and perspective, evoking a sense of nostalgia that harks to the black diasporic influence on the youth of South Africa at the height of Sophiatown. It is both a warming and haunting reminder of how black people found joy amid the cruelty of apartheid. Shame, on the other hand, is striking in its use of red to depict a feminine figure gushing what seems like blood. Siopis is interested in what she calls the poetics of vulnerability. Considering the never-ending aggression South African women endure, the piece is chilling. When it comes to art, Standard Bank is not a sheep but a shepherd. The exhibition seamlessly connects different aspects of South African life. Its Art Lab is perfectly designed to be a space that values curiosity over convention, and community over exclusivity – a space where legacy meets possibility. DM
Mail & Guardian
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Mail & Guardian
Standard Bank's Art Lab turns Sandton Mall into cultural playground
Experimental: A timeline of Standard Bank's involvement in the arts over the years in the Art Lab in Sandton City in Joburg Walk into Johannesburg's Sandton City mall, and your senses are gently pulled into a different rhythm, one that pulses not with consumerist frenzy but with creative contemplation. Nestled amid high-end storefronts and bustling cafés is Standard Bank's latest gift to the arts — a concept that's not just a space but a gesture. The Standard Bank Art Lab speaks less like a gallery and more like an ongoing experiment in what art can mean, where it can live and who it is for. Standard Bank has long worn its 'Champion of the Arts' title like a well-earned badge. But that becomes more than corporate branding when you step inside this new cultural node. The Art Lab isn't just a white cube with expensive paintings, it's an invitation to reimagine what happens when a bank becomes a cultural custodian, not from the margins, but from the front lines. The story of the bank's relationship with the arts begins with a humble portrait of Robert Steward, its first general manager, painted in 1983. That acquisition, almost inconspicuous in intent, marked the beginning of a thoughtful, 40-year journey which has seen the bank build one of the most significant art collections in the country. A timeline displayed in the Art Lab details this journey. It reads like a ledger of care, each year representing not only what was acquired but why it matters. Through these acquisitions and partnerships, Standard Bank has consistently anchored itself in the evolving story of South African art. But what sets this new space apart is its resistance to stasis. Rather than a static gallery where the past is preserved, the Art Lab is kinetic, alive with potential. It's tempting to ask, 'Why not just call it a gallery?' Shop around: Allina Ndebele and William Kentridge are among the prominent South African artists whose work is on display at the Standard Bank Art Lab in Sandton City shopping mall in Johannesburg. Dr Same Mdluli, the curator and gallery manager at Standard Bank, offers a gentle yet intentional correction to this assumption: 'The space will not necessarily be strictly for fine arts or visual arts. We are also looking at exploring different expressive modes — whether it be fashion and costume as well,' she explains. This is not semantics. It's strategy. By naming the space a 'lab', the curatorial team opens it up to experimentation, iteration and inclusion. A lab suggests process over perfection, dialogue over didacticism. In the context of a mall, a place engineered for routine and consumption, the Art Lab becomes a delightful rupture, a space where art is not removed from daily life but nested in it. It's almost poetic, really. Just as science laboratories are spaces of discovery and disruption, the Art Lab imagines a world where art performs the same function in public life. When you first enter, it feels disarmingly minimal. The white walls are quietly hung with works by giants like William Kentridge, Sam Nhlengethwa and Allina Ndebele. It's not cluttered or over-curated. Instead, the display encourages a kind of breathing room, each work holding its own silence, its own provocation. The tapestries, in particular, speak deeply. There's something about seeing textile art — a medium historically sidelined in favour of oil on canvas, given prominence here that feels like a reclamation. The textures suggest labour, lineage and life itself. But more exciting than what is on display is the promise of flux. The idea that what you see today may not be there next week is, paradoxically, the most consistent thing about the space. This is, after all, a lab, meant to evolve, surprise, question. Perhaps the boldest stroke in this initiative is where the lab is situated. Not within the typical cloisters of institutional art buildings or university campuses, but inside a mall. Yes, a mall — Sandton City, no less. This is not accidental: 'We were deliberate in choosing a space such as the mall,' says Mdluli. 'Not only to catch people after, or even before, a shopping spree, but to enrich people's experience in general, especially when interacting with the space.' This is a radical kind of accessibility. In a country where the arts are often trapped behind elite gatekeeping and geographic distance, this gesture shifts the frame. Art is no longer something you plan a day around. It becomes something you stumble upon between errands — unexpected, unguarded and unforgettable. Standard Bank's gallery curator and manager Dr Same Mdluli. 'We wanted to create the sense of bringing the arts to the people,' she adds. 'There's lots of talk about bringing the arts to the people and this space is doing exactly that.' What Standard Bank has offered here is more than a new venue, it's a new vision. The Art Lab repositions the role of corporate support in the arts, not as a passive patronage but as a dynamic partnership with the public. And in doing so, it asks us all to reimagine what art is for. Is it to preserve? Yes. To provoke? Certainly. But also to participate. To play. To question. And perhaps, most importantly, to belong. In a country still healing, still negotiating the terrains of access and equity, a space like this, evolving, unpretentious — feels less like a luxury and more like a necessity. Because art, after all, should not be a privilege. It should be part of the everyday. And Standard Bank's Art Lab proves that, sometimes, the most radical thing you can do for culture is simply to place it where the people are already.
