Exhibition Details

United State, an exhibition of more than 25 African and American artists, opens at Southern Guild Los Angeles on Saturday, 13 September (on view until 1 November, 2025). Conceived as a living forum rather than a static presentation, the exhibition is an invitation for inclusion, empathy, kinship and exchange as a counterforce to the accelerating socio-political polarisation of our time. Bringing sculpture, painting, textile work, photography and collectible design into dynamic relation, United State asserts the radical need for plurality in a moment when perceptions of freedom and diversity are narrowing. The exhibition functions as a manifesto: a call to action to work together towards a shared humanity.
The exhibition deepens the trans-Atlantic reciprocities Southern Guild has sought to generate since opening its Los Angeles gallery in early 2024. Over the past two years, the gallery has engaged with a host of US-based artists, mostly in LA, who have formed vital connection points to the city. Work by five such artists – Tonia Calderon, Tofer Chin, Simphiwe Ndzube, Ferrari Sheppard and Chiffon Thomas (now New York-based) – is presented alongside seminal voices from the gallery’s programme: Kamyar Bineshtarigh, Belinda Blignaut, Patrick Bongoy, Cheick Diallo, Andile Dyalvane, Jesse Ede, Madoda Fani, Jozua Gerrard, Katherine Glenday, Porky Hefer, Alexandra Karakashian, Bonolo Kavula, Terence Maluleke, Manyaku Mashilo, Chuma Maweni, Rich Mnisi, Nandipha Mntambo, Zanele Muholi, Brett Murray, Mmangaliso Nzuza, Oluseye, Zizipho Poswa, Usha Seejarim and Stanislaw Trzebinski.