Art gallery
Southern Guild Cape Town
Founded in 2008 by Trevyn and Julian McGowan, Southern Guild shows contemporary art from South Africa and beyond in the V&A Waterfront's Silo District, a few metres from Zeitz MOCAA.
The story
Southern Guild sets out to support practices that expand contemporary art's formal and conceptual possibilities. The Cape Town gallery moved to the Silo District in 2017, into The Guild Group's GUILD development, and the gallery has since added a space in New York. Exhibitions have included Zizipho Poswa's towering ceramic sculptures celebrating the hairstyles of Black women across Africa and the diaspora, and Jozua Gerrard's enamel-on-glass paintings of masked figures. Shows range widely. The Poets Are Working, a group exhibition curated by Anna-Michelle Roux with the Kilbourn Collection, set historical Surrealist-leaning works by Fred Page and Alexis Preller beside contemporary Southern African artists. Other exhibitions have featured Rich Mnisi, Zanele Muholi and Nandipha Mntambo. The gallery also runs the GUILD Residency, open to artists from around the world who want to engage with an African context.
Good to know
TAGGG AI- ✦Park at the Silo District and combine a visit with the art walk around the precinct, including nearby Zeitz MOCAA.
- ✦First Thursdays are a good time to drop in.
- ✦The gallery is compact, so a visit to the current exhibition fits easily into a wider afternoon.
