The Poets Are Working explores Surrealism in Southern African art at Southern Guild

Southern Guild presents The Poets Are Working, a group exhibition that examines the enduring impact of Surrealist ideas through the lens of Southern African artistic practice. On view from April 16 – July 9, 2026, at the gallery’s Cape Town location and curated by Anna-Michelle Roux, the art exhibition is staged in partnership with Strauss & Co and the Kilbourn Collection. “Bringing together historical works by Frederick Hutchison Page (1908 – 1984), Alexis Preller (1911 – 1975), Louise Bourgeois (1911 – 2010), Helmut Starcke (1935 – 2017), Keith Alexander (1946 – 1998) and Penny Siopis (b. 1953), alongside contemporary artists from Southern Africa, the exhibition places past and present in dynamic dialogue through key works on loan from the Kilbourn Collection,” Southern Guild explains in the official release.

The show takes its title from a phrase associated with French Surrealist writer André Breton, who recounted how poet Saint-Pol-Roux would place a sign on his door each evening announcing, ‘THE POET IS WORKING.’ The exhibition traces connections between Surrealism’s early 20th-century origins and its ongoing resonance in contemporary art. The artists presenting include Kamyar Binestharigh, Zander Blom, Dominique Cheminais, Stuart Dods, Andile Dyalvane, Manyaku Mashilo, Zanele Muholi, Thebe Phetogo, Mankebe Seakgoe, Usha Seejarim, Marlene Steyn and Paul Wallington.

The exhibition also debuts newly commissioned works by Jozua Gerrard, Justine Mahoney, Nandipha Mntambo and Thando Phenyane, “each extending Surrealism’s material and psychological concerns through distinct practices,” the art gallery notes.

Among the highlights are Binestharigh’s gravity-driven paintings, which embrace chance in their creation, and Mntambo’s sculptural works in treated cowhide that blur the distinction between human and animal forms. “Gerrard’s enamel-on-glass works evoke a sense of disquiet through staged scenes of masked figures, long shadows and intimate detachment, and Mahoney’s new painting and collage work draws on a lineage of women Surrealists to explore the fragmented, entangled body,” the gallery explains. Another notable inclusion is Seejarim’s Ceci n’est vraiment pas une pipe (This is Definitely Not a Pipe) (2019), which playfully references René Magritte’s iconic The Treachery of Images.

“Across painting, sculpture and photography, the exhibition considers how the subconscious continues to shape artistic production, whether through dream imagery, embodied transformation, spiritual transmission or material experimentation,” Southern Guild concludes.