22/06/2026
Is it true, is it useful, is it good? I try in any opinion pieces on my blog post to answer these questions before writing. But in the case of Homecoming, the exhibition currently showing at the Standard Bank Gallery Standard Bank - Arts until the end of October, I had to break my rule about writing negative reviews. There is so much that is problematic about the curating of this exhibition.
* It is being shown in an extremely prestigious gallery under the auspices of Standard Bank, a company which has given extraordinarily generous support to the arts. High Five Standard Bank.
* In running a guesthouse, I act as concierge to international visitors, suggesting important Jozi sights and sites to visit. For over 2 decades now, both Johannesburg Art Gallery Friends of Johannesburg Art Gallery and MuseumAfrika have fallen off our flagship tourist attractions – outrageous given how much tourism can contribute to local economies. Homecoming would have been an ideal way for tourists to access a tiny percentage of JAG holdings. But the wall texts are so ill-informed and the curating so sloppy that it is an embarrassment to suggest to international visitors without many caveats.
* I also trained as an art historian and taught art history for over 20 years and the inaccuracies and lack of understanding of historical context shock me.
* And when I think of scholars being taken to the exhibition, I can only hope that their teachers encourage critical engagement with the gross inaccuracies and skewed histories in the texts and arrangement of works.
So I broke my rule: My blog post gives ample examples of what I refer to here. www.lizatlancaster.co.za/blog/wonderful-works-on-show-at-the-standard-bank-gallery-until-the-end-october/
As the title of my post indicates, despite all the above, the works on the exhibition are worth seeing and the Standard Bank Gallery offers a wonderful space.
