After experiencing Makhathini's powerful set at NYC Winter Jazzfest in January, Stereogum jazz critic Phil Freeman wrote, “He’s got an album coming out on Blue Note and I can’t wait for people to hear it, because it’s tremendous music. As a player and a composer, he sits right beside McCoy Tyner and Pharoah Sanders, playing a forceful but lyrical style of modal jazz that incorporates African rhythmic concepts

Several taxi drivers in our local taxi industry seemingly understood the financial struggles of being a Black South African. And in our instance, the man ceased being a taxi driver and became our brother.

In these quasi-apocalyptic quarantine days of The Rona, The Cororo, The Coronavirus, fede fede known as COVID-19, we are reminded of the most popular sneeze in our country, not the one from that other bhayskop penguin, but the one that has become a landmark of South African lyricism; this is the timeless sneeze of the knees.

The Portrait Show is not an exhibition solely concerned with the technical abilities of an artist to depict (or, in fact, obscure) a sitter. It is a quest to explore and borrow from the artists’ deliberations about the state of the world today. Over a series of studio visits, conversations and the revisiting of artists statements, Nxumalo has compiled a collection of diverse sentiments about the Anthropocene, explored and expressed by a vibrant group of artists based in South Africa and beyond.