(Right: Storm Janse van
Rensburg. Pic supplied)
The KZNSA hosted a Panel Discussion with Storm Janse van Rensburg on August 24, 2025.
Storm Janse van Rensburg initiated the Young Artists Project in 2002 during his tenure as Curator at the KZNSA.
The project was conceived as an annual initiative aimed at nurturing a next generation of artists by introducing an experimental component to the gallery’s exhibition programme.
Each year, selected young artists work closely with a curator to produce their first solo exhibition. As part of the RMA Young Artists Project, Janse van Rensburg hosted a panel discussion in August.
Janse van Rensburg (b.1972, South Africa) is a curator, writer and editor of contemporary art who has worked in South African and international contexts for the past 25 years. He is currently serving as Interim Curatorial Director at Javett Art Centre at the University of Pretoria (Javett-UP). He previously held the position of Senior Curator and Head of Curatorial Affairs at Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town, South Africa (2019-2024).
He started his career at the Market Theatre Galleries, Johannesburg (1995-1999) and served as curator of the KwaZulu-Natal Society of the Arts in Durban (2000-2006). He was a founding member of the Visual Arts Network of South Africa (VANSA) and senior curator at Goodman Gallery Cape Town (2007-2012).
He lived and worked in Berlin, Germany (2012-2015) as an independent curator and researcher. He was a fellow of the Academy for Advanced African Studies, University of Bayreuth, Germany (2013-2015). He served as head curator of exhibitions at the Savannah College of Art and Design Museum of Art, Savannah, U.S.A. (2015-2019), where he oversaw a robust exhibitions programme of international exhibitions and programming.
He has edited and written for a number of exhibition catalogues and contributed to African Arts Journal, Art South Africa, Metropolis M, Canvas and Contemporary And magazines amongst others, and was editor of the monographs Jacob Lawrence: Lines of Influence (2020) and Johannes Phokela: Only Sun in The Sky Knows How I Feel - (A Lucid Dream)' (2023). He co-edited Home is Where the Art is (2022) and Radical Solidarity: A Reader (2023), both published by Zeitz MOCAA where he oversaw the institution's publishing programme.
He led a re-installation of the Zeitz MOCAA permanent collection, co-curated with the 2023 cohort of the Zeitz MOCAA & UWC Museum Fellowship, titled Sala (2023) which critically reimagines the possibilities of institutional exhibition making and public engagement. His current research centres on modern and contemporary African Art exhibition histories from the 1960s to the present. He recently curated One and the Many at Javett-UP, Pretoria and is co-curating the next iteration of Stockholm Cosmologies with Joanna Sandell Wright at Liljevalchs, Stockholm, Sweden, in November 2025.
The KZNSA Gallery is situated at 166 Bulwer Road, Glenwood, in Durban. More information on 031 277 1705 or cell 082 220 0368 or visit www.kznsagallery.co.za
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