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White River Gallery

@whiterivergallery

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Contemporary art space in Mpumalanga

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Take a moment to enjoy Thunder and Lightning Polka by Odette Saayman, currently on view at White River Gallery, Casterbridge.

Saayman’s solo exhibition debuted at the 2026 Toyota Innibos where she was the official Festival Artist and - following the festival - the exhibition finds its home here at White River Gallery until 2 August.   Beautifully described by the artist: “the sky has caught fire from within - a moment where storm and sunlight meet…”   #WhiteRiverGallery #OdetteSaayman #ArtExhibition #Art #Artwork taken in The White River Gallery by @whiterivergallery

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4 days ago

Many of you know White River Gallery from our home in the Lowveld - fewer know that we’ve recently opened a second space in Parktown North, Johannesburg: White River Gallery at The Studio. This is our first official exhibition there, and it’s a special one.

Quiet Topographies is the inaugural exhibition of press.on, a close group of professional South African artists: Laurel Holmes, Noeleen Kleeve, Mandy Conidaris, Yolanda Warnich, Johann Booyens, Natasha Norman and Marelise van Wyk. Working across printmaking, painting and drawing, they turn a shared attention to landscape, memory and the quieter registers of place - and seeing their work in conversation is a treat.

I’ll be opening the exhibition myself, and I’d love to see you there.

Dana MacFarlane x

PS - More on White River Gallery at The Studio in an upcoming post - I can’t wait to share the story.

🗓 Saturday 25 July, 12 noon
📍 The Studio, 48b 5th Avenue, Parktown North, Johannesburg
📞 Contact Elli for details: 083 266 0327

#pressoncollective #QuietTopographies #WhiteRiverGallery #TheStudioJHB #SouthAfricanArt by @whiterivergallery

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8 days ago

Odette Saayman’s new exhibition takes its title and inspiration from the South African Anthem and builds a body of work around the Lowveld mountains and waterfalls of Mpumalanga, alongside paintings of what Saayman calls “familiar figures.” She describes the mountains as more than backdrop: “The mountains that appear throughout this body of work are not merely observed forms - they are felt presences.” The figures carry a similar weight: “The figures that inhabit my canvases exist in dialogue with their surroundings - sometimes grounded, sometimes searching, always intertwined with the terrain,” suggesting, in Saayman’s words, “both vulnerability and strength.” She also points to her local artist community as part of the process, writing that their “conversations, critiques and moments of shared reflection... become part of this responsive landscape.”

Opening Saturday, 11 July at 12 noon at White River Gallery.

#WhiteRiverGallery #OdetteSaayman #contemporaryart #SouthAfricanArt taken in The White River Gallery by @whiterivergallery

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16 days ago

White River Gallery is honoured to welcome Majak Bredell back - this time to our Hoedspruit space at The Art House, in the area of her studio she’s worked from since returning home to South Africa in 2004.

INTERCONNECTIONS continues a vein Majak has mined for over a decade: Earth reclaimed as sacred and wild, not backdrop. In her own words: “My work began as an unconscious resistance to patriarchal socialization; in time, it became a conscious transformation of patriarchal iconic space into one honouring our long marginalized sacred-mother-earth.”

It feels like a homecoming twice over: Not just geographically close to Majak’s home studio, but because Hoedspruit’s connection to the concept of sacred earth runs deeper than tourism or conservation. There’s a spiritual line here that’s palpable, and it’s exactly what this exhibition speaks to.

To mark this event, Majak’s daughter, Megan Lewis, now resident in America, offers thoughts on her mother’s work, as the opening speaker.

Join us at 11am on Sunday 12 July at the White River Gallery at The Art House, Zandspruit Boulevard, Hoedspruit, for a glass of wine to celebrate the occasion!

#WhiteRiverGallery #contemporaryart #SouthAfricanArt #LowveldArtists #TheArtHouse taken in The Art House at The NeighbourHoed by @whiterivergallery

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19 days ago

It is a privilege to welcome Linda Shongwe to White River Gallery for the first time with Enoch and the 200 Strong, a powerful diptych featured in our current exhibition, LIFE, INTERRUPTED.

Working in oil on canvas, Shongwe explores themes of time, mortality and the enduring nature of creativity. His work draws on the story of Enoch, but ultimately asks much broader questions about what remains after a life has been lived.

As he writes in his artist’s statement:

“Artists depart in this physical realm, but their work doesn’t disappear as their art is ethereal, a spiritual entity… Death is not the end of life but rather a level, a story, a fruit and a seed, a tree, a flower of life.”

This is the first time we have had the opportunity to exhibit Linda Shongwe’s work at White River Gallery, and we are honoured to share it with our visitors.

LIFE, INTERRUPTED runs until 5 July, and we warmly invite you to experience this remarkable exhibition.

#WhiteRiverGallery #LindaShongwe #contemporaryart #SouthAfricanArt taken in The White River Gallery by @whiterivergallery

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23 days ago

We are proud to share that one of our represented artists, Odette Saayman, was the unanimous choice as the 2026 Festival Artist for the our annual Lowveld cultural festival, Toyota Innibos (@innibos). 
A mid-career, White River-based painter whose practice leans naturally into a theme that makes us proud to be South Africans - she presents her third solo ‘Waar die Kranse Antwoord Gee’ as part of the Toyota Innibos Visual Arts Programme.  
Well versed across various mediums and subject matters, her strength and discipline is evident in the current body of evocative oil paintings presented for her exhibition, the venue being the restaurant at the Hoerskool Bergvlam Restuarant, Mbombela.   The solo opens tonight at 6pm, with an opening address by Ms Leah Mabuza, MEC for Culture, Sports and Recreation. Tonight only, entrance to the Festival Grounds is free.  
The show will be up from 10 till 5 daily, tomorrow through to Saturday, with a guided tour by the curator at 12 daily.  #WhiteRiverGallery #OdetteSaayman #SouthAfricanArt #LowveldArtists #Innibos taken in Innibos Laeveld Nasionale Kunstefees by @whiterivergallery

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25 days ago

Some works stop you in the middle of the room. Swipe to find out more about this one → 
#WhiteRiverGallery #JackFillery #ceramicart #contemporaryart #SouthAfricanArt by @whiterivergallery

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a month ago

Two exhibitions curated by our director, Dana MacFarlane, go up at this year’s Toyota Innibos Laeveld Nasionale Kunstefees (@innibos) - both inspired by our national anthem.

Volkslied / Anthem, a group exhibition, and Waar die Kranse Antwoord Gee, a solo show by Festival Artist Odette Saayman mark Dana’s second year as Visual Arts Curator for Innibos - a three-year tenure, and her first appointment as an independent curator.

For this second year, Dana drew her theme from our national anthem - a song unlike any other in the world. It moves through five languages, and it’s the only anthem that begins in one key and never returns home, because it fuses two songs that once stood on opposite sides of our history: the liberation hymn Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika and the old Die Stem. Rather than choosing one and erasing the other, the anthem carries both forward. That refusal to resolve neatly - to hold difference together and still move ahead - offers the kind of depth that inspires so much of how we make and appreciate art in South Africa. Each artist was simply offered the anthem, free to find their own way into it.

🗓 Opening Wednesday, 1 July at 18:00
📍 Hoërskool Bergvlam Restaurant
Officiated by Leah Mabuza, MEC for the Mpumalanga Department of Culture, Sport and Recreation
Entrance to the opening is free.

Exhibition hours daily 10:00–17:00, with a curator’s walkabout at 12:00 every day. We’d love to see you there.

#Innibos #ToyotaInnibos #WhiteRiverGallery #LowveldArt #SouthAfricanArt taken in Innibos Laeveld Nasionale Kunstefees by @whiterivergallery

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a month ago

The role of ‘curator’ in art terms seems to vary in scope and format. In Maria Marais’ case, her role as guest curator materialized in late 2025 at the exhibition’s conceptual stage with her development of the curatorial narrative, through to the selection of artists and their work in 2026, then fleshing out the exhibition to installation stage. Over many discussions and meetings of minds ‘ Life Interrupted’ has resulted - the poignant and cathartic exhibition which currently graces our walls.

Please join us on Sat 20 June, 11am, as Maria shares her motivation, process and experience in bringing this exhibition to life. A cuppacino and croissant to tame the expected colder weather, will be on offer. by @whiterivergallery

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a month ago

As the long weekend draws to a close, pop in to the gallery today for a chat with Maria Marais, curator of our current exhibition. Maria also presents her own soul-filled artwork, as one of twenty exhibiting artists, in interpretation of her curatorial narrative. The gallery is open till 2pm. In addition, we invite you to join us at the formal Curators Walkabout this Saturday at 11am (20 June) as Maria shares her thoughts on the current theme of Life, Interrupted. by @whiterivergallery

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a month ago

Saturday’s exhibition opening of Life, Interrupted was a show of support from all corners of the Lowveld, and beyond. Special thanks to our longstanding viewers and new visitors, as diverse as the art itself, who filled the gallery with lively conversation, energy, and a tear or two in the mix.

For those who were there, we believe it deserves a second view. We are open over the public holiday period 10am - 2pm, Saturday 13th to Tuesday 16th, after which our usual hours resume. by @whiterivergallery

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2 months ago

The delicate dance of installing an exhibition!

It’s rare that we present a group show unique in so many ways - Maria Marais as guest curator, emerging to well established artists from four different provinces (and one resident in Germany), a number of different mediums, a ceramic installation piece, and remarkable diversity in individual interpretations of the theme.

We think of our diaspora as we welcome back Grace and Gabriela Marais, and exhibiting for the first time, Daniella Mooney. We also welcome Lizel and Philipa Otto to the gallery, and a number of our returning artists.

Please join us at noon on Saturday, 6 June for a glass of wine and context by opening speaker, Gabriela Marais. taken in The White River Gallery by @whiterivergallery

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2 months ago