EXHIBITION BY RAJA OSHI

 

(“Unaccounted For” acrylic on canvas by Raja Oshi)

 

An exhibition by Raja Oshi titled What the Soul Yearns for and What the Eye Dares Witness opens in the Main Gallery of the Tatham Art Gallery in Pietermaritzburg.

The exhibition opens on March 22, 2026, at 11h00. The Opening Speaker will be Dr Katherine Patrick

Oshi maintains a strong academic foundation and an extensive exhibition history. She began her formal education in 1994, graduating from the College of Fine and Applied Art at Sudan University of Science and Technology in Khartoum. Her passion for art and continuous pursuit of knowledge led her to further studies, earning a postgraduate diploma from the Centre for Visual Arts (CVA) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in 2007. Most recently, in 2021, she attained an honours degree, solidifying her academic credentials in the visual arts. She has exhibited widely across South Africa.

Oshi has also showcased internationally with the Forster Art Gallery in Zanzibar in 2021, Bi-z gallery in Norway in 2004 and Taliesin Art Centre in South Wales in 2000. Recent exhibitions include Whispers in Matter, a group show with Artyli gallery and Disconnected Introspection, a solo exhibition at the Alliance Française de Pretoria. These exhibitions have provided platforms for Oshi to engage with diverse audiences, fostering a deeper understanding of the cultural and social issues she explores in her art.

Raja’s paintings, both figurative and abstract, are inspired by her life context – what is happening in the world as well as moments of everyday life. Using unconventional, repurposed, recycled materials, her work explores and experiments through the interplay of textures, colours and layers.

Colour plays an important role, reflecting change, like the seasons, and the constant shifts of memory and emotions. The colours of the ocean, blues and turquoise, reflect depth and memory in many of her paintings. Surfaces for painting are created in a physical process of stitching and weaving fabric scraps, pieces of canvas left over from stretching canvases. In working with such unpredictable material, Raja’s work reflects her processing and expression of what is happening in the world.

In her work, Raja seeks to give voice to and present women’s stories with authenticity and depth – such as experiences of love, resilience, motherhood, ageing, and loneliness. Her art is also a powerful response to realities of war, hunger, displacement, violence, the trauma of migration, and the tragedies of war, both in Sudan and around the world. Through form and colour, her paintings reflect collective grief, bearing witness to the exhaustion, displacement and suffering of Sudan, and people that have had war forced upon them, particularly women. Raja’s work responds to urgent realities that demand to be expressed.

As a migrant herself, Raja’s work also explores the lived experiences of migrants and the complexities of their struggles. They touch on universal human experiences of vulnerability, resilience and memory, experiences of being human that transcend borders, all of which are represented in her diverse work.

A walkabout of this exhibition will be conducted by the artist, but the date is to be confirmed.

The exhibition runs until May 10, 2026, at 17h00.

Enquiries/Bookings: pinky.nkabinde@msunduzi.gov.za or 033 392 2811