Southern Guild Returns to Aspen Art Fair for its Second Edition with Multidisciplinary Showcase

Southern Guild returns to the Aspen Art Fair, now in its second edition, from 29 July to 2 August, 2025 at the historic Hotel Jerome in Aspen, Colorado. The gallery’s multidisciplinary presentation will feature painting, photography, sculpture and collectible design by artists including Kamyar Bineshtarigh, Ange Dakouo, Cheick Diallo, Jozua Gerrard, Chuma Maweni, Mmangaliso Nzuza, Zanele Muholi and Zizipho Poswa. The focal point of Aspen Art Week, the fair’s immersive format, encompasses a programme of visits to local collectors’ homes, panel discussions, artist residencies, performances and outdoor activities.

An exploration of agency, kinship and cultural lineage

Situated in the ballroom of the Hotel Jerome, Southern Guild’s booth will include new large-scale figurative paintings by Nzuza and Gerrard, a commanding ceramic and bronze sculpture by Poswa, sculptural hand-crafted seats by Diallo, an abstract mixed-media work by Bineshtarigh, a large paper-and-thread wall hanging by Dakouo, and a lightbox and several photographs by Muholi, an artist-in-residence at the inaugural Aspen Art Fair last year.

The gallery’s presentation explores themes of agency, kinship and cultural lineage in rich and multifarious ways. The body – the literal and metaphorical site of engagement with the politics of place – is a recurring thread, from Muholi’s powerful invocations of Queer Black visibility and Poswa’s anthropomorphic totems, to Gerrard’s elegantly languorous subjects and the weighted presence of Nzuza’s figures.

A unique perspective

As the only African gallery to exhibit at the Aspen Art Fair, Southern Guild brings a unique perspective to the event, ensuring that art from the continent is represented within the intimate context of this high-altitude hub for contemporary art. The exhibiting artists’ work has continued to grow in international stature, particularly since the gallery’s participation in the fair’s debut edition.

Over the past year, renowned South African visual activist Muholi has held solo survey shows at Tate Modern (London), Serralves Museum (Porto), Instituto Moreira Salles (São Paulo) and SCAD Museum of Art (Savannah), and recently opened a new solo exhibition Faces and Phases 19 at Southern Guild Los Angeles, marking the global expansion of this prolific portrait project. Poswa, one of the continent’s leading ceramic artists, featured in a number of important institutional exhibitions, including Imagining Black Diasporas: 21st-Century Art and Poetics at The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Michelangelo Foundation’s Homo Faber biennial in Venice, and Between Distance and Desires at The Soloviev Foundation in Manhattan. Malian design pioneer Diallo held a major retrospective at Southern Guild Los Angeles, Taama, his first solo exhibition in the US, and has had work acquired by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Denver Art Museum and Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Iran-born, South Africa-based artist Bineshtarigh will hold his second solo exhibition with Southern Guild in Cape Town this fall, made using a unique process of extracting layers and found marks from the walls of artists’ studios. His work was recently acquired by the Jorge M. Pérez Collection in Miami and featured in Vitamin Txt: Words in Contemporary Art, published by Phaidon. Ivorian artist Dakouo, known for his textile-like woven sculptures inspired by traditional Malian amulets, received the SEED Award from the Prince Clause Fund and was a finalist of the LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize, both in 2024. This year he has been selected for a fellowship at Civitella Ranieri in Umbria, central Italy.

Early-career painters Nzuza and Gerrard both exhibited major bodies of work in solo shows at Southern Guild Cape Town in 2024. Gerrard’s enamel-on-glass paintings have been acquired by the Jorge M. Pérez Collection at Untitled Art and were included in a two-person presentation alongside artist Jody Paulsen at Southern Guild Los Angeles earlier this year.