Imagine Visionary Animals
Light moving across stone and canvas
October 16, 2025–February 15, 2026
Johannesburg Gauteng 2000
South Africa
Imagine Visionary Animals: Light Moving Across Stone and Canvas / Erla S. Haraldsdóttir / October 16, 2025–February 21, 2026 / Origins Centre Museum, Wits University, Johannesburg / Curated by Jonatan Habib Engqvist.
Imagine Visionary Animals is a site‑responsive, temporary exhibition at the Origins Centre. It brings together paintings, murals, and small, gilded sculptures by the Berlin‑ and Johannesburg‑based Icelandic artist Erla S. Haraldsdóttir. The project unfolds from a dual exploration: the qualities of light and colour in the new wing of the Origins Centre, and the caves and rock formations of the Cederberg Mountains, where the artist visited sites with newly discovered rock art. By drawing attention to these two kinds of structures—caves bearing rock engravings and a museum space that showcases rock art—the artist invites you to imagine visionary animals.
“The paintings explore the interplay between space and light—specifically how natural light interacts with the surfaces of rocks. This shifting light mirrors our constant movement through space as the Earth orbits the sun, continuously altering the colours and illumination we perceive in a painting,” Haraldsdóttir says.
Erla S. Haraldsdóttir is a multidisciplinary visual artist whose work investigates the boundaries between personal memory, ancestral narrative, and collective myth. Using painting, drawing, printmaking, and collage, she draws on diverse visual languages—combining elements of figurative painting with experimental processes shaped by site, context, and archival material. Her practice frequently explores the transformative potential of colour and light, and the interplay between materiality and storytelling. She has exhibited widely, including at Moderna Museet (Stockholm), Kalmar Konstmuseum, Berlinische Galerie, Reykjavík Art Museum, Nanning Museum (Guangxi, China), and Turbine Art Fair (Johannesburg). Her work is held in public and private collections, and she has participated in international residencies such as Künstlerhaus Bethanien (Berlin), Cité des Arts (Paris), and the Bag Factory (Johannesburg). She lives and works in Berlin and Johannesburg.
Imagine Visionary Animals is supported by The Icelandic Visual Arts Council.
