By Jacob Mawela.
The Standard Bank Art Lab in Sandton hosted a VIP preview of an exhibition sourced from its own corporate art collection as well as from a selection of collectors, on Thursday evening of November the 12th.
Titled, Held in Trust: Collective Gatherings of Treasures, Stories and Archives of South African Collectors – the exhibition amalgamates a survey of contemporary art by artists held in private collections and the Standard Bank Corporate Art Collection.
Attending the preview on the evening were the who’s-who of the Johannesburg art circle who included art consultants Makgati Molebatsi and Dr Fred Scott, academics Professor Karel Nel and Professor Thembinkosi Goniwe, philanthropist and art patron Jack Ginsberg and artist Nandipha Mntambo, et al.
Present to welcome the distinguished guests were the bank’s Art Curator and Gallery Manager, Dr Same Mdluli, Group Head of Brand Experience, Yolisa Kosa and Head of Sponsorship & Visual Art, Bonga Sebesho.
According to Dr Mdluli, the exhibition offers an opportunity to look at collecting as one part of a wider ecosystem while broadening how the purpose of art is understood. “Art can be a record of memory and through collecting, something that is carried forward for future generations,” opined Mdluli in a media release issued to accompany the launch.
The centerpiece of the expansive and expensive installation happens to be from the Standard Bank Corporate Art Collection and features displays such as JH Pierneef’s 1948 oil on board A Wet Day Elim; George Pemba’s 1979 oil on board The Funeral and Johannes Phokela’s 2006 oil on canvas Bean Feast – among impressive others.
Initiated back in 1938, the Standard Bank Corporate Art Collection is a repository of cultural memory which reflects the changing artistic practices and social and cultural histories of South Africa – in addition to offering a perspective on collecting as a practice of care, preservation and legacy.
On other walls and floors around the lab are adorned panels of works by other past and present South Africans such as Alexis Preller, Maggie Laubser, Gregoire Boonzaier, Dumile Feni, Louis Maqhubela, the Bloemfontein Group’s Marianne Podlashuc, Deborah Bell, Esther Mahlangu, Zanele Muholi, Gregory Olympio, et al.
Foreign contributions comprise of pieces by the ilk of Edward Steichen, Pablo Picasso, Constance Stuart Larrabee, Hank Willis Thomas, Kudzanai Churai, Pamela Sunstrum, Dibandi Papy Malumbu.
Some of the collectors who contributed to the exhibition attended its launch and they include familiar individuals within the local art scape, namely art advisor Dr Fred Scott who contributed Marianne Podlashuc’s untitled oil on canvas painting Washday and Samson Mnisi’s 2006 acrylic on canvas Untitled No 23 – as well as art consultant Karabo Morule, who contributed Pamela Sunstrum’s 2013 mixed media sketch Tempest and Kudzanai Churai’s 2017 photograph We Live in Silence III.
Others present were Karel Nel, the Associate Professor in the Division of Visual Arts at the Wits School of Arts, and art specialist Makgati Molebatsi.
The fourth exhibition at the art lab for 2026, each collector was invited to select a work which resonated with them. According to the media release, the exhibition considers the networks – viz., artists, galleries, dealers, art fairs and institutions – which make collecting possible.
It further posits that the exhibition positions the collector as a steward and custodian of cultural material – while acknowledging that the life of an artwork extends beyond its creation or acquisition.
For instance, Dr Scott intimated that he had been handed down Podlashuc’s Washday by his father Professor Scott who in turn had acquired it from the artist through his acquaintanceship with the Bloemfontein Group – which the artist belonged to.
The exhibition’s diversity ranges from sketches and paintings to sculptures. In the accompanying media release the preamble states that the future of art history is shaped not only by the artists who make the work, but also by the people and institutions that choose to preserve it.
Collecting is presented not only as an activity associated with established patrons, but as a spectrum of engagement which begins with a first acquisition and develops into a sustained commitment to artists and their practices. “Supporting contemporary African cultural expression means investing in the people, practices and relationships that allow culture to grow and endure,” urged Dr Mdluli.
More than an exhibition of privately held works, Held in Trust: Collective Gatherings of Treasures, Stories and Archives of South African Collectors invites audiences to consider the cultural responsibilities which accompany collecting.
The Standard Bank Art Lab is at shop 33-44, Nelson Mandela Square, Sandton. Entry to the exhibition is free and is open to the public during weekdays (9am to 4pm), Sundays and public holidays (9am to 1pm). It will run from November 13, 2026 to March 31, 2027.