I attended the opening of Penny Siopis’s solo exhibition Love in a Turning World at STEVENSON, Cape Town, on 7 February 2026. The gallery describes it as Siopis’s first exhibition with STEVENSON since her acclaimed retrospective For Dear Life at the National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens (EMST) in 2024/25 (STEVENSON, 2026).
STEVENSON’s framing is sharp: love is advanced not as a sentimental pictorial subject but as a position — a disposition — a way of being in relation to others, to the non-human, and to a world experienced as unstable and in flux (STEVENSON, 2026). Although the exhibition carries recurring suggestions of embracing figures and birth, the emphasis is on love as an orientation rather than illustration. The title’s “turning” operates across multiple registers, signalling both the current global and psychological condition of upheaval and the internal logic of Siopis’s method — a practice of transformation in which form, meaning, and emotion remain open rather than fixed (STEVENSON, 2026).
Siopis is, quite simply, one of the most talented and challenging visual artists working in and beyond South Africa (Olivier, 2014). It was a genuine honour to encounter her at the opening and to experience her generosity at close range: she shares knowledge, technical detail, and philosophical reflection in her characteristic smiling, easy manner — never performative, always precise.
The exhibition is comprehensive, spanning paintings on canvas and paper, sculptures, and video works. The moment I stepped off the main road in Woodstock and into the gallery, I felt enclosed by another world — not an escape so much as a proposition: a vision of what could still be possible in a future world shaped by colour, trust, and joy. The vibrancy of the palette, the confidence of the forms, and the sheer scale of the works transported me into a different register of attention. I found myself reluctantly letting go of that state as I stepped back outside into ordinary reality.
STEVENSON is, of course, known for staging extraordinary exhibitions, but this one felt unusually direct in its impact — almost like a needed dose: this is what I need right now — joy. Thank you for offering the public this beautiful opportunity.
Below please find some animated/video impressions of the show and the opening event.
References
- Olivier, G. (ed.) (2014) Penny Siopis: Time and Again. Johannesburg: Wits University Press.
- STEVENSON (2026) ‘Penny Siopis: Love in a Turning World’. STEVENSON, Cape Town (exhibition page).
- National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens (EMST) (2024–2025) ‘Penny Siopis: For Dear Life. A Retrospective’ .
