Painter Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi Captures the Moments Just Before Legendary Black Gymnasts Perform Daring Routines—See Images Here

As galleries around the world begin to slowly reopen, we are
focusing on exhibitions at spaces that are now receiving
public visitors. Check out this show at a newly reopened gallery
below.

“Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi: Gymnasium”
Through June 27 at Stevenson Gallery, Johannesburg

What the gallery says: “The paintings
in Gymnasium range from fluidly composed
figurations of gymnasts and judges to unoccupied spaces verging on
architectural abstraction. Nkosi’s figures are decidedly not
painted in peak moments of athleticism. Rather, the artist depicts
the moments preceding and following the execution of a move, or the
aftermath of failure, in a foregrounding of the subtleties of
performance that often escape public notice. Clusters of spectators
make their first appearance in the series, and the tension of their
participation is rendered through suggestive mark-making instead of
detailed micro-portraits. Shifting focus away from the fact of
success or defeat, Gymnasium spotlights the
humanity engaged and set aside in the shift from human to
performer, youth to laborer, person to demigod, and the
reverse.”

Why it’s worth a look: When South
African-American artist Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi first started to
research the history of gymnastics, she discovered its fraught
past: in just one example, Danish gymnast Niels Bukh traveled to
South Africa in the 1930s to promote the sport as means
to improve the health of the Aryan race. For Nkosi, this
disturbing history was especially jarring at a time when black
gymnasts like Simone Biles and Gabby Douglas were dominating the
sport in America—while the artist herself was being thrust into the
spotlight in a competitive field of her own.

In her first solo exhibition at Stevenson in Johannesburg, Nkosi
stays focused on the subject that brought her acclaim in the art
world, but widens the aperture a bit. Rather than focus on peak
moments of accomplishment, the painter examines the moments before
the big win (or loss)—and brings the audience and the spaces they
inhabit into the frame as well.

A new video juxtaposes clips of young black and brown athletes
of different eras in the moments just before they begin their
routines; eyes trained ahead, arms and legs itching with
anticipation, silently preparing for their turn on stage. The work,
titled Suspension, set to a dramatic score, is
the source material for the paintings, which capture each girl
suspended in time.

The show as a whole examines the relationship between the group
and the individual, the self and the collective (whether that’s the
team or the audience). The artist herself writes, “While the
sport’s establishment, the media and most spectators fixate on the
individual star, isolated and exalted, the gymnasts themselves
understand the necessity of the team, which is the foundation on
which all ‘individual’ performances rest, and without which even
the most talented gymnast could not succeed. Whether in
practice sessions or on the peripheries of competition, these
athletes exist—even when alone—as part of an implied network of
reciprocal relationships.”

What it looks like:

The post Painter Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi Captures the Moments
Just Before Legendary Black Gymnasts Perform Daring Routines—See
Images Here appeared first on artnet News.