Reframing Freedom: 50 Years On is a collaborative exhibition marking 50 years since the 1976 student uprisings, a defining moment in South Africa’s history when young people imagined freedom as dignity, voice, possibility, and radical transformation. The exhibition asks what remains of that dream today, and how contemporary artists continue to carry, challenge, and reimagine its meaning.

Bringing together a new generation of artists represented by kumalo | turpin, Gallery MOMO, and Stevenson, in dialogue with works from the MTN Foundation Collection, the Constitutional Court Art Collection, and the Johannesburg Art Gallery Collection, the exhibition creates an intergenerational conversation between memory and becoming, archive and imagination. Across painting, photography, textile, mixed media, sculpture, and moving image, the works reflect on freedom not as a completed achievement, but as a living and unfinished project—shaped by contradiction, resilience, intimacy, and hope.

Situated within the historic spaces of the Johannesburg Art Gallery, Reframing Freedom: 50 Years On invites audiences to consider the emotional, political, and spiritual textures of liberation in contemporary South Africa. While honouring the courage and vision of 1976, the exhibition centres artists who continue to ask urgent questions about justice, belonging, agency, and the futures still being imagined and built.

Co-curated by Gaisang Sathekge and kumalo | turpin.

Presented as part of Jozi aMuse Festival of Museums during International Museum Week 2026, the exhibition takes place at JAG and runs from Saturday 23 May until 30 June 2026.

Featured artists: 

Albert Adams, Walter Battis, Andries Botha, Boemo Diale, Christine Dixie, Dumile Feni, Abrie Fourie, Thulile Gamedze, Gabrielle Goliath, David Goldblatt, Kagiso Gundane, Robert Hodgins, Duke Ketye, William Kentridge, Vivien Kohler, Louise Linder, Bongani Malapane, Ernest Mancoba, Greg Marinovich, Kagiso Patrick Mautloa, Yolanda Mazwana, Gladys Mgudlandlu, John Koenakeefe Mohl, Santu Mofokeng, Julian Motau, Credo Vusamazulu Mutwa, Charles Nkosi, Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi, Phoko Nyokong, Karel Nel, Sam Nhlengethwa, Blessing Ngobeni, George Pemba, Jo Ractliffe, Tracy Rose, Gerard Sekoto, Mmakgabo Helen Sebidi, Nathaniel Sheppard III, Cyprian Shilakoe, Yinka Shonibare, Durant Sihlali, Penny Siopis, Irma Stern, Mikhael Subotzky, Katlego Tlabela, Andrew Tshabangu, Thato Toeba, Serge Nitegeka, Kemang Wa Lehulere, Hentie van der Merwe, Sue Williamson.