Alexandra de Cadaval and Esther Mahlangu at Tristan Hoare Gallery

Eight compositions by South African artist Esther Mahlangu are given new form in artisanal Dhurrie tapestries in this exhibition at Tristan Hoare Gallery, the result of years of collaboration between the artist and Alexandra de Cadaval. For over seven decades, Mahlangu has transformed Ndebele mural painting — traditionally executed by women on the exterior walls of houses, freehand and without preparatory drawings — into an internationally recognized contemporary language, without abandoning its geometric and chromatic roots. By translating eight of her compositions into the Indian tradition of Dhurrie weaving, the exhibition brings together two artisanal practices recognized by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage, hand-woven by master artisans using techniques passed down through generations. More than reproductions, the pieces are careful translations of Mahlangu's visual language — which gained international recognition from "Magiciens de la Terre," a historic exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in 1989, and continues in a traveling retrospective between the Iziko South African National Gallery and the Wits Art Museum — to a new material support, uniting South Africa and India through a shared language of geometry and ornament.