Art Brussels 2026
Brussels, Belgium
23 - 26 April 2026
Luís MS Santos Richard Mudariki Dual Booth
Luís MS Santos Richard Mudariki Dual Booth
RESERVOIR returns to Art Brussels with a dual presentation by Richard Mudariki (b.1985, Harare, Zimbabwe) and Luís MS Santos (b.1993, Maputo, Mozambique).
Art Brussels
DISCOVERY Section
Booth 5A-07
23 — 26 April 2026
Brussels Expo, Belgium
Through painting and ceramic sculpture, the presentation reflects on migration, resilience, and the endurance of the human spirit amid ongoing political and social transformations in Southern Africa.
Known for his bold, satirical paintings that use pastiche to draw on historical allegory and political critique, Mudariki presents new works from his ongoing series The Great Bantu Migration (2021-). Referencing Jacob Lawrence’s seminal Migration Series (1940–41), Mudariki reimagines the visual language of displacement within a Southern African context. The series traces the realities of Zimbabwean migration from the 2020 Beitbridge border crisis to broader patterns of exodus, revealing the psychological and social reverberations of displacement and marginalization.
In dialogue with these paintings, Luis M.S. Santos presents a ceramic installation composed of glazed left-foot sculptures, crafted from river clay sourced in Maputo Province. The work references Article 51 of the Mozambican Constitution, which guarantees the right to freedom of assembly and demonstration. By rendering only left feet, used as symbols of popular, leftist movements and silent resistance, Santos evokes both the right to protest and the suppression of political voice. Each foot, poised in quiet, distorted motion, suggests those who must march unseen or speak through silence. Beneath its fragile material beauty, the installation becomes an elegy to collective struggle, endurance, and the muted yet persistent act of dissent.
Born and educated in Zimbabwe (1985), Richard Mudariki studied under the mentorship of renowned painter Helen Lieros and Greg Shaw at Gallery Delta in Harare. He subsequently moved to South Africa and is now based in Cape Town. Mudariki holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts Degree in Archaeology, Cultural Heritage, and Museum Studies.
Known for his original modernist paintings full of social commentary on various issues in Africa, Mudariki has presented solo exhibitions in Harare, Cape Town, Paris and New York and his work has been included in curated survey exhibitions at prestigious venues including IZIKO South African National Gallery, Cape Town and ZEITZ Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA), Cape Town.
In 2025 RESERVOIR presented a solo project by Richard Mudariki, titled The Great Bantu Migration, at the Armory Show, New York.
Other solo exhibitions include Gore Ra at Barnard Gallery in Cape Town (2020); Mubvakure at Gallery Polaris in Paris, France (2019); Politics of Painting at 1- 54 Contemporary Art Fair in New York, USA (2019); Mawonero Angu at Barnard Gallery, Cape Town (2018) and an early career retrospective titled Mutara Wenguva (Time Line) at the Sanlam Art Gallery in Johannesburg and Cape Town.
Selected group shows include: When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting co-curated by the late Koyo Kouoh, and Tandazani Dhlakama at Bozar in Brussels, Belgium (2025), a traveling exhibition first staged at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA) in Cape Town in 2022 and later the Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland (2024), ; Fallow Ground, curated by RESERVOIR at Spaced Out in Uckermark, Germany (2024); Africa Supernova at the Kunsthal Kade Amersfoort, Netherlands (2023- 2024); ECHO, a group exhibition and Tributaries: Contemporary Zimbabwean Narratives, both at Barnard gallery in Cape Town (2023); Observer and Commentator, a dual exhibition with Kufa Makwavarara at ARTCO Gallery in Berlin, Germany (2022); Artist United at Galerie Polaris, Paris (2020); African Characters at OSART Gallery, Milan, Italy (2020); Five Bhob, Painting at the End of an Era at Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA) in Cape Town, (2019); a travelling exhibition titled Centennial: 100 Years of Collecting from the Sanlam Art Collection (2019) and Filling in the Gaps at the IZIKO South African National Gallery in Cape Town (2019).
Mudariki has participated in artist residencies at the ZEITZ MOCAA, Cape Town, as well as the Fountainhead residency in Miami, USA. His work is represented in the collections of IZIKO South African National Gallery, Cape Town; SANLAM, Cape Town & Johannesburg; Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town; The Leridon Collection, Paris; The West Collection, Philadelphia, USA and the Thomas J. Watson Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Born in Maputo in 1993, Luís MS Santos graduated in sculpture in 2016 from the Faculdade de Belas Artes da Universidade do Porto, Portugal. Based in Mozambique, the artist teaches at the Faculty of Arts of the Instituto Superior de Artes e Cultura. He is a recipient of the third edition of the Paulo Cunha e Silva Award, the 2023 Prince Claus Seed Award and the 2023 Mozal Arts and Culture Award. Santos has presented three solo exhibitions: menino, não fala política, at RESERVOIR, Cape Town, South Africa, Desmontagem, curated by João Roxo at Galeria Kulungwana in Maputo, Mozambique in 2023, and Aquilo que o corpo já esqueceu at Centro Cultural Franco Moçambicano, in Maputo in 2019.
Recent group exhibitions include: iSenzo Sak’dala: indlela ibuzwa kwaba phambili curated by Lebo Kekana at RESERVOIR, Cape Town (2024); Obra Dádiva, organised by group Identidades, as well as Ser Humano, celebrating 20 years of MUVART (Contemporary Art Movement of Mozambique), both at Centro Cultural Português in Maputo; Prémio Paulo Cunha e Silva in Galeria Municipal do Porto in Porto, Portugal and Passos pela vida, in support of fellow artist Lizete Chirrime at Centro Cultural Português in Maputo, all in 2023. Further selected group exhibitions include Upcycles 2 following the Upcylces Residência Audio-Visual at the Maputo Fortress, in Maputo; Distras II courtesy of Arted’gema gallery at ARCO 2021 (online); and the International Drawing Biennial Habitantes do Desenho, at the Centro Cultural Portugês de Maputo in Maputo, all in 2021; as well as Pares, for the 3rd International Biennial of Gaia at Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal, in 2019.
RESERVOIR has presented Luis MS Santos’s work at RMB Latitudes, Johannesburg, South Africa (2025) and the Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Main Section, South Africa (2026).