It is not often that you visit a fast-food restaurant and pay attention to the art on the walls, but if you have ever stumbled upon a Nando’s, make sure to look at what hangs above the tables. 
The Newcomb Art Museum recently opened an exhibit titled “If You Look Hard Enough, You Can See Our Future.” The exhibit displays paintings, sculptures and prints from almost 50 contemporary South African artists from a large collection by Nando’s, a South African peri-peri chicken fast-food chain. Dick Enthoven, the late owner of Nando’s, started collecting art from contemporary South African artists to hang in the chain locations in 2001, and it remains the largest collection of contemporary South African art globally. Enthoven believed that “ideas that liberate our collective imagination can be found in the arts,” a quote that poignantly sets the scene on the first wall of the gallery. The title of the exhibit is taken from a piece by artist Stephen Hobbs and invites viewers to consider not just South African-specific aesthetic values, but the future in which we all will take part.
The collection of South African art is immediately captivating, with a huge, wallpaper-like print and a beaded tapestry greeting visitors in the first room. It would take hours to walk through the three-room museum to give each piece its due consideration. Different colors and textures reach into every corner of the walls and each piece encourages you to linger on the details to understand what the artist is trying to say.
The exhibit is split into three sections: landscape, portraiture and abstraction. Each brings together vastly different pieces through broad themes to bring clarity to the everchanging South African world that artists create and recreate in their works. Even within the sections, different mediums explore diverse themes. Landscape explores the good and the bad of South African geographical identity, with artworks like “A Place Ten Journeys From Here” by Sanell Aggenbach and “Joburg Man” by Arlene Amaler-Raviv discussing placemaking and belonging. Portraiture explores race, sexuality and gender with pieces like Diane Victor’s Zinc etching, Claudette Schreuders unsettling sculpture and Tamlin Blake’s massive newspaper weaving. Art in abstraction, such as Patrick Bongoy’s “Sapped II,” a disquietingly humanoid assemblage that reaches almost beyond the pedestal, invites viewers to experience a perspective free from traditional representations of the world.
South Africa is often seen as synonymous with apartheid, a period of political and social turmoil that legally ended in the early 1990s, but whose consequences still ring true in the present day. However, the curator, Laurie Ann Farrell, who works in Dallas, chose not to include political or identity-related issues, like apartheid or race relations in South Africa, so there is virtually no mention of the period in the wall text. This choice presents a hopeful yet inaccurate depiction of South Africa as a colorful, unified state separated mostly by artistic style but not social, governmental and economic inequality. Despite this, themes of a divided nation are certainly in the artworks if you look closely. The large portrait of Nelson Mandela by Arlene Amaler-Raviv is a clear connection to apartheid, while “The Last Supper, Manley Villa” by Sue Williamson and Deborah Poynton’s “Still Life 3” subtly critiques governmental policies. 
The large number of artists included in the exhibit, the large size of many pieces and the small gallery space of the museum lead to a cramped organization and little separation between each piece. Walking through the museum can be overwhelming, as there is simply so much to see. While the number and diversity of artists is breathtaking, each piece deserves more space for its own value to be fully explored. However, this exhibit was originally put together for another museum, The African American Museum of Dallas, by an outside curator likely unfamiliar with the Newcomb Museum’s gallery space, which may be a contributing factor to the imbalance between the space available and the size and number of artworks.
When most people think of African art, they envision a ceremonial mask or small figurine with no artist name and very little background given. South African art, and African art generally, is often excluded from the category of contemporary art, perpetuating a view of the country as a monolith stuck in the past. “If You Look Hard Enough, You Can See Our Future” not only asserts South African artists’ undisputable modernity, but also the essential part they play in the future of the country, continent and world.
