FADA Gallery, in partnership with ARAK Collection, presents: After Material & There Are Other Worlds (They Have Not Told You Of) Exhibition.

The Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture (FADA) Gallery at the University of Johannesburg, in partnership with ARAK Collection, is pleased to present two new exhibitions developed as part of ARAK Collection’s Curatorial Fellowship, 2025 – 2026.

The exhibitions will be presented concurrently at the FADA Gallery from 12 February to 10 April 2026, with an opening on Thursday, 12 February 2026.

After Material

Curated by Max Diallo Jakobsen

Drawing from the tradition of the after-poem works composed in response to another work of art After Material considers how artists attend to materials already inscribed with social, political, environmental, and economic histories. Working after newsprint, denim and barkcloth, plywood, flip-flops, and car tyres, the exhibition frames material both through its afterlives and through the French d’après: working according to what matter itself makes possible.

Artists:
Ocom Adonias, Ange Dakouo, Matt Kayem, Paul Njihia, Nabukenya Allen (Njola Impressions).

There Are Other Worlds (They Have Not Told You Of)

Curated by Soukaina Aboulaoula

There Are Other Worlds (They Have Not Told You Of) brings together contemporary abstract works that approach abstraction as a material and relational practice. Across paper, textile, installation, and sculpture, the exhibition considers abstraction as a language that carries histories, memories, psychic states, and cosmologies beyond formal interpretation. Borrowing its title from Sun Ra, the exhibition gestures toward parallel oneiric, sonic, spiritual, and intellectual dimensions, inviting viewers to engage through attunement, proximity, and embodied encounters.

Artists:
Sidney Mang’ong’o, Samson Mnisi, Mongezi Ncaphayi, Zenáeca Singh, Gor Soudan, Agnes Waruguru Njoroge, Di Smith, Salma E. Murad.

🔗 RSVP to the Opening: https://forms.office.com/r/T7LiatVMVW

Public Programme

Exhibition Opening: Thursday, 12 February 2026, 18:00 for 18:30

Talk 1: Saturday, 14 February 2026, 11:00
Max Diallo Jakobsen in conversation with Dr Sara Bint Moneer Khan, Curator of the ARAK Collection

Talk 2: Saturday, 14 February 2026, 12:30
A walkabout and talkabout with Soukaina Aboulaoula and Ashraf Jamal

About FADA Gallery 

FADA Gallery is an in-house, experimental, vibrant, and transformative creative lab space devoted to stimulating innovative thinking through a host of art- and design-based experiences. Constructing knowledge through cutting-edge art and design practices in a diverse range of curated exhibitions, events, talks, and new media complements the FADA teaching and learning experience, including the research and development programme. Bringing advancements in local art, design and architecture developments to the students, staff, alumni and the local art community.

Surprise Nkomo
surprisen@uj.ac.za
011 559 1310
https://arts.uj.ac.za/whats-on/fada-gallery-in-partnership-with-arak-collection-presents-after-material-there-are-other-worlds-they-have-not-told-you-of-exhibition/