Renowned Johannesburg art gallery, The Melrose Art Gallery, has lined up two compelling exhibitions featuring works by prominent African artists for its Africa Month celebration which spans from April through June.

For the first exhibition, which runs from April 27 to May 30, South African contemporary visual artist, Sfiso Ka-Mkame’s 'Homage to Africa’ collection will be on display.

Sfiso's work has a decorative, stylized feel, which he creates by applying dense layers of color with oil pastels and then scratching into the pastel to reveal images, symbols, and designs that are reminiscent of African textile.

The curated works are a window into Sfiso's eclectic interests in his home continent and the culture and people that abound. Some of these points of interest explored in the mostly oil pastels artworks of Sfiso include his passion for African jazz, dance, his heritage, African spirituality, African textile design, family, the community, African royalty, the Dahomey Amazon Women who fought to protect their communities in several countries in Africa and the power of resistance against injustice.

Other abstract themes explored by the objects in the collection on display encompass some of the many challenges facing the African continent such as xenophobia, HIV, and the struggle for social, political, and economic freedom for South Africa and the Continent at large, but above all, it also celebrates the many beautiful things about the continent and her people and expresses a desire for peace for the Continent so that we can focus our energy on the joy of life.

The second exhibition to commemorate Africa Month at Melrose Gallery from May 6 to June 6 is the "Garden of Carnal Delights", a collection of artworks by Sudanese painter Hussein Salim, whose rich, impasto paintings are a product of his rich Sudanese heritage, formal art education, exile and diasporic experience that encourages dialogue around issues of pertinence to Mankind and our daily existence whilst mindful of his dual African and Islamic identity.

The title of the exhibition, ‘The Garden of Carnal Delights’, represents the marriage of the world, and the manifestation of thought all bound to the circle of life. His painting by the same name depicts the love child of the world and thought, the twins named consciousness and existence representing the void which is the absence of idea, its birth, and its death.

Speaking about the themes and symbolism of his artwork, Salim disclosed that his “past and present are marred with memories of loss, isolation, migration, exile and forgotten heritage”, thus, “the journey that I took (and I still am on) has shown me what I truly want. Not more of life, but more from life.”