Everard Read: CIRCA Gallery presents Whispers of the Past, Wisdom of the Future, a solo exhibition by celebrated South African artist Mmakgabo Mapula Helen Sebidi, bringing together recent paintings alongside the first sculptures she has ever cast in bronze.

Born in Marapyane in 1943, Sebidi is one of South Africa’s most influential artists, recognised for a practice that spans more than five decades. Working across pastel, acrylic and oil, she has developed a distinctive visual language characterised by vibrant colour, expressive figures and layered compositions that draw together memory, spirituality and lived experience.

Raised by her grandmother while her mother worked in Johannesburg, Sebidi credits those early years with shaping both her worldview and artistic philosophy. Creativity, she has often said, is a way of channelling the spiritual into everyday life, whether through painting, weaving, pottery or other forms of making. This belief continues to underpin her practice, where the act of creating becomes a process of healing, reflection and connection.

The exhibition traces this enduring vision through paintings populated by human and animal forms, shifting perspectives and dreamlike imagery. Alongside these works, visitors will encounter Sebidi’s first bronze sculptures, marking a significant new chapter in her career while extending ideas that have long been present in her drawings and paintings.

Sebidi’s artistic journey began while working as a domestic worker in Johannesburg, where an employer introduced her to oil painting. She later studied under artist John Koenakeefe Mohl before establishing a career that would earn national and international recognition, including the Standard Bank Young Artist Award and a Fulbright Scholarship, which took her to the United States and broadened her understanding of shared histories and cultural experience.

Today, Sebidi continues to live and work in Johannesburg, where she remains an important mentor to younger generations of artists. Whispers of the Past, Wisdom of the Future offers an opportunity to engage with the work of an artist whose practice continues to bridge personal memory, ancestral knowledge and contemporary South African art.