All you need is love. And a little artistic licence

Love isn’t generally the first word that springs to mind when contemplating contemporary masculinity. Power, ambition, aggression and, sometimes an inappropriate display of testosterone — just ask Russell Brand — are the things that tend to dominate the conversation. Tenderness? Not so much.

My Loves Summer, opening at Johannesburg’s Gallery MOMO on November 16 is, for that reason, a refreshing proposition.

Three artists — Fhatuwani Mukheli, Justice Mukheli and Sthu Manaka — who share a studio, a friendship and a Soweto upbringing, have come together for their first joint gallery exhibition. Their artistic languages are distinct, but their common currency is love. Not the Valentine’s Day variety, but something more complicated: love as dignity, faith, memory and the courage to be vulnerable.

Fhatuwani takes on the Renaissance, the grand European tradition in which black people were conspicuously absent from the starring roles. His monumental, monochromatic paintings place black figures where kings, saints and gods once presided. Except his subjects don’t conquer kingdoms or perform miracles. They simply enjoy themselves. “Black people deserve peace, relaxation, opulence, royalty and joy,” he says, adding that even revolutionaries deserve a day off.

Justice wades into murkier waters — literally. His photographic series I Heard There Are Rivers in the Sky explores the uneasy coexistence of Christianity and African ancestral spirituality, using water as a metaphor for belief, cleansing and belonging. He offers questions rather than answers. A refreshing departure in an age when everyone appears to know everything — or at least have an opinion on it.

Manaka’s Lost Boys explores faith and the invisible hands that hold us up when life threatens to knock us down. His paintings suggest that vulnerability isn’t weakness, and that even the most self-sufficient among us occasionally needs rescuing.

Together, these three artists offer a subversive proposition: maybe strength isn’t always about standing alone. Sometimes it’s about having someone to lean on.

• My Loves Summer runs at Gallery MOMO from November 16 to February 14 2027.