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This October, just two months after winning Outstanding Art Gallery Award at this year’s National Arts and Culture Awards (NACA), Gallery MOMO is taking the works of two of Mzansi’s most exceptional artists to the Atlanta Art Fair 2026 in the USA.
Fhatuwani Mukheli and Blessing Blaai said while they have never collaborated with each other in the traditional sense, the exhibition taking place from 1 to 4 October will not be the first time that their works have been presented together.
In August, their works were presented simultaneously at the FNB Art Fair in Sandton, and four months earlier in April, Gallery MOMO facilitated the presentation of their joint works at the EXPO CHICAGO.
“Another aspect of our work being in the same booth is that it’s almost like a collaboration. because the work kind of feeds off each other,” Fatuwani explained.
Fatuwani is a versatile artist with tentacles in painting, photography and film. Like many other South African artists whose backgrounds inform how their creativity presents itself, Fatuwani’s Venda heritage is women into his award winning works.
Blessing is a professionally trained painting, drawing and printmaking artist whose creativity is spread across oil, acrylic, watercolour, ink and mixed media.
His solo exhibition at Gallery MOMO in August titled Surrogate Emotions examined how memory, environment and representation produce feeling on the picture plane. Fatuwani expressed feeling a combination of gratitude and excitement as he has always aspired to establish a strong global footprint.
“We are privileged to be part of this exhibition but also it is a new responsibility to make good quality work,” Blessing added.
Just like their fellow artists in music, literature and film; South African visual artists have been enjoying international recognition for decades.
Gerard Sekoto’s works occupied galleries all over France in the 1950s. Ephraim Ngatane, Durant Sihlali and many others took on the baton in the 1960s and Sydney Kumalo and Edoardo Villa took over the world in the 1970s.
Blessing and Fatuwani embrace this responsibility, acknowledging that every generation before them had its own voices that cemented South Africa’s global presence in visual artistry.
“We are adding to the pool of people who ensure that South African art earns the respect of the global community. It’s a responsibility that we are honoured to uphold,” the artists said.
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