Dates: 7 July – 30 August 2026
Opening event: 18:00 on Tuesday, 7 July 2026
Walkabout event: 12:00 on Wednesday, 8 July 2026
Venue: Annex Gallery, Oliewenhuis Art Museum, 16 Harry Smith Street, Bloemfontein
Witnesses: A solo exhibition by Franli Meintjes
In Witnesses, Franli Meintjes examines both physical and psychological vulnerability within the context of a magic realist landscape. This imagined realm, infused with storytelling and mythology, embodies the paradox of being both a sanctuary and a source of dread. Through this setting, Meintjes explores the complexities, contradictions, and uncertainties of living in the world today.
Drawing on her personal experience of landscape in South Africa, particularly in and around the gold mining town of Odendaalsrus, where she lived in 2024, Meintjes explores the interconnectedness of memory, landscape, and architecture through fibre-based installations. The materiality and processes embedded within the work engage with the ways in which architecture can be understood as a potentially unstable space, existing not only as part of an outer reality that we can touch and feel, but also as part of an internal imaginary world.
Through gestures such as cutting, tearing, and unravelling, Meintjes reflects on the shifting boundaries between permanence and impermanence, and between protection and vulnerability, embedded within her materials themselves. The translucent hanging fabrics render structures that are ghost-like and unsettled. The images belong to both the past and to an unknown future.
Alongside these works, she creates figurative and abstract textured pieces with punch needle, tufting, and knot techniques. In contrast to the depictions of architectural decay these hanging fibre structures evoke qualities of evolving organic life. Unlike photography, which often seems to freeze a moment in time, Meintjes’s fibre work expands time through its materiality and its labour-intensive processes.
Ultimately, the work lingers in the space between what is eroding and what is emerging, where fragile forms carry the residue of history while quietly pointing toward possible futures.
Artist Biography
Franli Meintjes (b. 1982) was born in Bloemfontein and now lives and works in Pretoria. She is a multidisciplinary artist practising in fibre, performance, photography, and installation. Meintjes earned her BA in Fine Arts from the University of the Free State in 2004. Her work has been exhibited widely throughout South Africa, including at the KKNK, National Arts Festival, Everard Read, CIRCA Cape Town, the Oude Leeskamer Gallery in Stellenbosch, the Gallery at Glen Carlou, and most recently at the KZNSA Gallery in Durban. She gained notable recognition by ranking among the top 10 artists in the Absa L’Atelier Art Competition for two consecutive years, in 2013 and 2014, and was a sculpture finalist in the PPC Imaginarium Competition in 2018. Her work can also be found in the National Art Bank collection.
The public is invited to join Oliewenhuis Art Museum for the opening of Witnesses. The opening will take place at 18:00 on Tuesday, 7 July 2026 at Oliewenhuis Art Museum.
Everyone is welcome and entrance is free of charge. Refreshments will be served.
A walkabout of the exhibition will be conducted by the artist at 12:00 on Wednesday, 8 July 2026.
The exhibition can be viewed in the Annex Gallery of Oliewenhuis Art Museum until Sunday, 30 August 2026. Oliewenhuis Art Museum is located at 16 Harry Smith Street, Bloemfontein and is open to the public from Monday to Friday between 08:00 and 17:00, and on Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays between 09:00 and 16:00. Please note that the main gate closes to new arrivals at 16:30 on weekdays and 15:30 on weekends; however, visitors already inside are welcome to enjoy the museum until closing time. A ramp at the main entrance provides wheelchair access for wheel chairs, while a lift provides access to the Permanent Collection display areas on the 1st floor. R10 parking fee will be charged but entrance to the museum is free.
For more information on Oliewenhuis Art Museum please contact the Museum at 078 968 4300 or oliewen@nasmus.co.za. Stay up to date by following Oliewenhuis Art Museum on Facebook, Instagram and X for all upcoming exhibitions and events.
