Nokukhanya Langa: A Downward Spiral Is A Loaded Spring

Nokukhanya Langa is the winner of the C.o.C.A Award 2021, and is currently based in Ghent, Belgium. In this exhibition, curated by Ellis Kat, the artist presents an installation that is about our overwhelmed inner worlds, depicting thoughts racing like a mosh pit. Through the different mediums of painting, sculpture and text, she seeks to visualize hallucinatory realities, through use of playful jargon and aesthetics.

Langa’s practice is characterized by her distinct and subversive visual language that is at once abstract, narrative and figurative. She is interested in exploring this versatility to create a sense of confusion and ambiguity. In her work, there are hidden meanings and political expressions proclaimed with a playful wink. Subtle and incendiary subtexts are hidden behind cheeky gestures, such as a cartoon magic wand capable of conjuring away our intrusive thoughts and grim phrases painted in the most cheerful colors imaginable.

The exhibition is developed with C.o.C.A. Foundation (Collectors of Contemporary Art). C.o.C.A. is composed of a group of collectors whose aim is to support the work of young and promising artists in the Netherlands via working grants. This is the second time a solo exhibition for the winner of the award is presented at Kunstinstituut Melly, in conjunction with Art Rotterdam. The exhibition was developed with Kunstinstinstituut Melly’s curatorial assistant Julija Mockutė.