There are some exhibitions you visit because you’ve been invited, and then there are exhibitions that quietly stay with you long after you’ve left the gallery.
Walking into Gallery MOMO in Rosebank for Dakalo – The Ultimate Gift, I expected an evening celebrating one of South Africa’s rising contemporary artists. I left reflecting on something much bigger: the idea that joy and grief are not opposites but companions.
Presented by Gallery MOMO in partnership with Absa and the South African National Association for the Visual Arts (SANAVA), the exhibition marks visual artist Kutlwano Monyai’s debut solo exhibition following her recognition as the 2024 Absa L’Atelier Art Award winner.
As one of Africa’s longest-running visual arts development programmes, the Absa L’Atelier Art Award has spent four decades investing in emerging artists, providing mentorship, professional development and opportunities that extend far beyond winning a competition. Dakalo is the latest expression of that commitment.
When everyday materials become emotional landscapes
Using polyethylene, concrete, wood and crocheted textiles, Monyai transforms familiar materials into works that explore grief, memory and healing.
The title itself carries profound meaning.
“Dakalo” is a Tshivenda word meaning joy or happiness, yet the exhibition doesn’t present joy as something that exists without suffering. Instead, it asks whether joy is something we actively choose, even after experiencing loss.
Rather than separating grief from hope, Monyai allows them to exist together.
Through fractured structures, woven forms and reconstructed domestic materials, the exhibition reflects on how individuals and communities carry inherited trauma while continuing to rebuild themselves.
“What is at the heart of this work…”
Speaking during the exhibition opening, Monyai explained the intention behind the collection.
“It is great to see people relate to the work. What is at the heart of this work are the experiences of grief and healing and joy and what that looks like from a point of home in our communities.”
That emphasis on home becomes especially significant throughout the exhibition.
Home is not presented simply as a physical place, but as memory, community and identity — spaces where grief is often inherited, shared and ultimately transformed.
Healing isn’t linear
Senior Art and Museum Curator at Absa Group, Dr Paul Bayliss, described the exhibition as a reminder that healing rarely follows a straight line.
He noted that Monyai’s work challenges audiences to understand grief not merely as absence, but as a catalyst for empathy, renewal and connection.
That observation perhaps captures the exhibition’s greatest strength.
Rather than asking viewers to move beyond grief, Dakalo invites them to recognise that rebuilding often happens while grief still exists.
Joy, in this context, becomes an act of resilience rather than a destination.
An artist to watch
Born in 1996 and based in Johannesburg, Kutlwano Monyai has steadily established herself as one of South Africa’s most compelling emerging contemporary artists.
Her practice spans artistic production, scholarship and curatorial work, with previous exhibitions at institutions including the Pretoria Art Museum, Bag Factory Artists’ Studios, Turbine Art Fair and Modern Arts Projects South Africa.
Her appointment as a 2024 Absa L’Atelier Art Ambassador represents another milestone in a career characterised by thoughtful engagement with identity, memory and social history.
More than an exhibition
Perhaps the greatest achievement of Dakalo – The Ultimate Gift is that it resists providing easy answers.
Instead, it creates space for reflection.
In a world that often encourages us to move on quickly from difficult experiences, Monyai’s work gently suggests something different: that grief and joy are capable of existing simultaneously, and that healing can sometimes be found not by forgetting our experiences, but by carrying them differently.
It’s a timely reminder that some of the most meaningful conversations don’t happen through words alone.
Sometimes they happen through art.
Exhibition Details
Exhibition:Dakalo – The Ultimate Gift Artist: Kutlwano Monyai (2024 Absa L’Atelier Art Ambassador Award Winner) Venue: Gallery MOMO, Rosebank, Johannesburg Dates: 18 July – 29 August 2026 Entry: Free
