Holding Space: The Project Room at RMB Latitudes Art Fair 2026
Set against the lush, layered landscape of Shepstone Gardens in Johannesburg, RMB Latitudes Art Fair 2026 continues to redefine how audiences engage with contemporary African art. With its emphasis on context, conversation, and curatorial clarity, the fair offers a space that feels less like a marketplace and more like a living archive of artistic exchange.
For The Project Room, returning to Latitudes in 2026 is both a continuation and a deepening of our commitment to placing Namibian artists within a broader continental narrative. This year, the gallery’s presentation brings together the works of Anne Lacheiner-Kuhn and Trudi Dicks—two artists whose practices, though distinct, resonate in their shared sensitivity to material, memory, and meaning.
At first glance, the pairing is understated. Both artists engage a restrained palette, leaning into monochromatic and tonal compositions that prioritise texture, gesture, and nuance over spectacle. Yet within this restraint lies a profound emotional and conceptual range.
Anne Lacheiner-Kuhn’s work emerges from a process of assembling and reassembling fragments—images, references, histories—into new configurations. Her practice reflects an ongoing negotiation of identity and belonging, shaped by her experience moving between Namibia and London. The works presented at Latitudes extend this inquiry, inviting viewers to consider how meaning is constructed, disrupted, and reimagined through acts of layering and erasure.
In contrast, Trudi Dicks’ works from Conversations hold a different kind of presence. Rooted in repetition, subtle variation, and quiet control, her monochromatic compositions evoke a sense of stillness that borders on the meditative. There is a discipline in her approach that resists immediacy; instead, the works unfold slowly, asking the viewer to remain, to look again, to notice what shifts over time.
Together, these practices create a dialogue that is less about contrast and more about continuity. While one artist navigates the fluid and often fragmented nature of contemporary identity, the other offers a language of form that is grounded, enduring, and reflective. In this way, the booth becomes a space of holding—holding tension, holding memory, holding the quiet intersections between past and present.
This year’s Latitudes theme, Oasis, speaks to the idea of creative refuge and renewal—spaces where ideas can gather, expand, and take root. For Namibia, a country often perceived through the lens of its vast landscapes and geographic distance, the notion of an oasis resonates both literally and metaphorically. Our artistic community, though small, continues to cultivate practices that are deeply engaged, globally relevant, and rooted in lived experience.
By presenting these two artists together, The Project Room seeks to highlight not only the diversity within Namibian art, but also its capacity for depth and dialogue. It is a reminder that contemporary African art is not defined by a single narrative, but by a constellation of voices—each contributing to a larger, evolving story.
The gallery’s participation in this forth edition is once again supported by RMB Namibia. Their investment in platforms such as this plays a vital role in strengthening the visibility and sustainability of the Namibian arts industry, and in fostering meaningful cultural exchange across the continent.
