Sabelo Mlangeni's photograph "Friends" captures three individuals sitting closely on a beach, with the ocean in the background, in a monochromatic palette. The composition emphasizes their camaraderie and the serene environment, with soft contrasts highlighting their expressions and the texture of the sand and sky. This image reflects an intimate and candid moment, characteristic of his style that seeks beauty in ordinary settings. Mlangeni's work often explores themes of community, capturing everyday human experiences with an emphasis on connection and hidden beauty amidst hardship. ...
Working largely in black and white format, Sabelo Mlangeni has built his practice around intimate photographs that draw out the inherent beauty in the ordinary. Mlangeni is driven by his interest in the notions of community and communing where a central part of his process requires him to spend significant time —weeks, months, sometimes years—with those he chooses to photograph; sharing intimately in their thoughts, feelings, stories and everyday lives. His practice is a continuous survey of the most challenging, beautiful and confounding aspects of the human experience.
“I have been moving around Johannesburg and its closest suburbs as someone interested in story-telling about everyday life. In my early walks, I found myself in many spaces where the situation and the living conditions were impossible to look at and to photograph. Then I started wondering, what to frame? Soon another side of the hardships emerged, and I attempted to capture that hidden beauty, that ordinary peace.” - Mlangeni ...
Based in a 360 sqm gallery in Woodstock, Cape Town, blank was founded by Jonathan Garnham as a project space in 2005 and transitioned into a commercial gallery during 2012. The gallery represents emerging and increasingly established artists from the region in a critically engaged programme that emphasises contemporaneity, with a focus on concept and abstraction in the African context. With an exhibition programme that has a reputation for shaping the discourse around contemporary art in South(ern) Africa, and participation in prominent local and international art fairs, we seek to place our artists' work in a wide range of private and institutional collections. In addition, blank continues to promote the visual arts in our community through ongoing projects that support the sector. ...
