Absa L'Atelier Gerard Sekoto Award winner Lusanda Ndita opens debut solo exhibition at Gallery Momo

Opening at Gallery Momo in Johannesburg on Saturday, 13 June 2026, the exhibition marks a significant milestone in Ndita's artistic journey and forms part of the enduring legacy of the Absa L'Atelier programme, which has nurtured and elevated emerging African artists for nearly four decades.

As the first exhibition in Absa's 2026 Pan African exhibition programme, Indlela ibomvu reflects Absa's ongoing commitment to creating platforms that connect African artists with local and global audiences while supporting the development of the continent's creative economy. The exhibition marks the beginning of a series of exhibitions and artistic engagements that will showcase the work of exceptional African artists across the continent throughout the year.

Indlela ibomvu follows Ndita's recent three-month residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, an opportunity awarded through the Absa L'Atelier Gerard Sekoto Award. The residency, undertaken in partnership with SANAVA and IFAS, provided the artist with dedicated time and space to deepen his research, expand his creative practice and further develop the body of work presented in this exhibition.

Through Indlela ibomvu, Ndita reflects on memory, migration and inheritance, drawing from domestic archives, oral histories and personal narratives to examine the ways in which identity is shaped across generations. The exhibition traces the journeys of absent paternal figures while reimagining the archive as a living, shifting space that holds both presence and absence.

Working across photography, printmaking and collage, Ndita engages with fragmentation and reconstruction, creating layered visual narratives that unfold as accumulating stories. Through this process, he invites audiences to consider how memory is shaped, carried and transformed over time, and how personal histories continue to influence contemporary understandings of family, belonging and selfhood.

"Through this body of work, I wanted to explore how memory is carried across generations and how family histories continue to shape who we become," says Ndita. "By working with personal archives and oral histories, I am interested in the ways stories are preserved, reinterpreted and passed on, even in the presence of absence."

Based in South Africa, Ndita's practice centres on domestic archives, photography, oral histories and identity. A graduate of the Market Photo Workshop's Advanced Programme in Photography, he has exhibited widely across the country and has received numerous accolades, including the Tierney Fellowship and the 2024 Absa L'Atelier Gerard Sekoto Award.

The Gerard Sekoto Award, one of the most prestigious prizes within the Absa L'Atelier programme, recognises exceptional emerging artistic talent and provides a platform for artists to develop their careers through mentorship, professional exposure, international residency opportunities and exhibitions that showcase their work to broader audiences.

"Indlela ibomvu is a thoughtful and deeply personal exploration of memory, lineage and identity," says Dr Paul Bayliss, PhD, senior specialist: art and museum curator at Absa Group. "Through photography, printmaking and collage, Lusanda Ndita transforms intimate family narratives into powerful reflections on collective experience. Following his residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, this exhibition represents an important milestone in his artistic journey. As the first exhibition in Absa's Pan African exhibition series for 2026, it demonstrates the transformative impact of the Absa L'Atelier programme in creating opportunities for emerging artists to develop their practice, gain international exposure, share compelling stories and contribute meaningfully to contemporary African discourse."

As Absa continues to celebrate the transformative impact of the Absa L'Atelier programme across Africa's cultural landscape, Indlela ibomvu demonstrates the power of art to preserve memory, foster dialogue and deepen our understanding of the stories that connect generations.

The exhibition offers audiences an opportunity to engage with a deeply personal yet universally resonant exploration of identity, lineage and becoming, affirming the role of contemporary African art in shaping cultural conversations and preserving lived histories.

Exhibition details

• Exhibition: Indlela ibomvu
  
• Artist: Lusanda Ndita (2024 Absa L'Atelier Gerard Sekoto Award Winner
  
• Gallery: Gallery MOMO, Johannesburg
  
• Public Opening: Saturday, 13 June 2026
  
• Exhibition Dates: 13 June – 11 July 2026
  
• Free entry