Uptown South: Goodman Gallery in collaboration with Adler Beatty

Goodman Gallery and Adler Beatty are pleased to announce the opening of Uptown South, an exhibition of selected works from Goodman Gallery, South Africa, in collaboration with Adler Beatty. This collaboration between longtime friends and colleagues marks an exciting opportunity to view key artists represented by Goodman Gallery - a pre-eminent gallery on the African continent since 1966 - bringing new and historic works by contemporary African and Diasporic artists as well as artists hailing from the Global South. At this time of a global pandemic, with many national borders closed and social divisions further entrenched, this group presentation, titled Uptown South, has been curated with the unique kinship of Johannesburg and New York in mind.

Uptown South features works that speak to the longstanding cultural affinity and global exchange between the two cities, which have a shared status as economic and cultural centres of their respective regions. This connection has historically seen a two-way exchange of ideas and artists over the decades. Featured artists have either spent time in these regions or make artwork that taps into themes around this relationship.

Among a generation of South African artists who sought exile in New York as a safer space in which to make their voices heard was Ernest Cole - South Africa’s first Black front line photographer - who exposed the brutal realities of apartheid to the world. Goodman Gallery is proud to present a historically significant selection of rare vintage prints by Cole, taken while on assignments in the US in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Through these photographic assignments, Cole was “confronted by the very different, new expressions and fights for freedom taking place on the streets of New York and simultaneously, the depressing evidence of familiar racial segregation and inequality still visible in the early post-Civil Rights era rural south” (Ty-mon Smith, critic).