In the first US solo museum exhibition for South African contemporary artist Simphiwe Ndzube, Oracles of the Pink Universe presents eight new works exploring the interplay between magical realism and history.

The exhibition integrates themes related to power, conflict, and the search for freedom through a Pink Universe, an imaginative world that combines fantasy with the history of Ndzube’s post-apartheid South Africa. A genre first conceptualized in Latin America, magical realism infuses reality with elements of the fantastical.

Oracles of the Pink Universe is an expansion of Ndzube's visual search that explores a mythological place, drawing from his personal experiences, imagination, and art history. He will present exclusive works that depart from Hieronymus Bosch's painting The Garden of Earthly Delights (1490–1500), depicting a theatrical space where heaven, earth and hell intersect. As visitors step into this alternate universe, they will be confronted with artworks that explore themes of conflict, tension, resilience, strength and a fight for human rights.

Oracles of the Pink Universe will include an entirely new body of work comprised of vibrant paintings and sculptures, some of which ingeniously transform from two dimensional to three dimensional works of art. Ndzube’s mythical world explores boundaries, whether ontological, political, or geographical, and embraces the coexistence of seemingly irreconcilable realities, spaces and systems that confront the viewer’s perception of what is possible.

 

Read more on the Denver Art Museum's website
 

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