Stevenson Cape Town Gallery in Cape Town
Woodstock · Contemporary programme
Editorial Profile
Founded in 2003 by Michael Stevenson, the gallery operates from spaces in Woodstock — a former industrial quarter that has become one of the principal coordinates for contemporary art in Cape Town — and in Amsterdam. Its programme is structured around an international exhibition calendar with a particular focus on the African continent and its diasporas, an orientation that has placed it among the more visible platforms within the wider network of galleries in Cape Town. The roster brings together established figures such as Penny Siopis, Pieter Hugo, Guy Tillim, Jo Ractliffe, Wim Botha and Jane Alexander alongside artists with strong international trajectories, including Viviane Sassen, Robin Rhode, Meschac Gaba, Moshekwa Langa, Portia Zvavahera, Barthélémy Toguo and Odili Donald Odita.
Across the programme, mediums range widely — photography, painting, sculpture, installation, performance and moving image — with a consistent interest in historical revision, post-apartheid memory, embodiment, and the contested terrain of representation in African and diasporic image-making. Younger artists such as Simphiwe Ndzube, Mawande Ka Zenzile, Neo Matloga, Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi, Frida Orupabo and Mame-Diarra Niang have been introduced alongside longer-standing artists on the roster, signalling an editorial line that reads continuity and rupture together. Within the city, the Woodstock space operates as a counterpart to institutions in Cape Town such as Zeitz MOCAA and the Norval Foundation, contributing to a dense ecology of commercial and non-commercial actors. The Amsterdam outpost extends this dialogue into the European circuit, where the bi-locational structure has helped consolidate the international reception of contemporary practice from the continent.
Selected Artists
Penny Siopis
South African
Pieter Hugo
South African
Jane Alexander
South African
Viviane Sassen
Dutch
Portia Zvavahera
Zimbabwean
Meschac Gaba
Beninese
Robin Rhode
South African
Frida Orupabo
Norwegian-Nigerian
Selected Exhibitions
The Garden
Jo Ractliffe
Fever Dream
Deborah Poynton
What the Light Falls On
Pieter Hugo
An Astonishment of Heart
Wim Botha
Pane rima rakakomba
Portia Zvavahera
Never the Same Water Twice: Nine Films (1997-2021)
Penny Siopis
I've been here for days
Frida Orupabo
Citoyen du Monde
Meschac Gaba
Explore Cape Town
A local guide to Cape Town, with links to its galleries, institutions, and wider South Africa art context.
