Theresa-Anne Mackintosh displays a collection of original works at the Wits Art Museum in an exhibition show titled NOW IS NOT FOREVER. Bringing together sculpture, painting, and selected archival and studio materials, this exhibition spanning works created over three decades is showing from 9 April to 4 July 2026.
NOW IS NOT FOREVER by Theresa-Anne Mackintosh
The exhibition traces various materials Mackintosh has used throughout her expansive career and foregrounds her long-standing engagement with the human figure and how she translates psychological, emotional, and relational states through form.
While she has made use of various mediums in her artistic practice, Mackintosh remains committed to painting as the core of her practice, and this exhibition situates Mackintosh’s painterly practice alongside her sculptural works.
South African writer, Sean O’Toole, says “Through painting and sculpture, Mackintosh constructs a vivid universe of imagined figures that reflect psychological complexity, vulnerability, and transformation.”
Artworks being exhibited
Central to NOW IS NOT FOREVER are key sculptural series, including the iconic Tina figures – human scale fibreglass effigies – and the ceramic baby sculptures first developed in 2005. These imagined figures extend Mackintosh’s painterly language into three dimensions.
Alongside these works, a focused selection of paintings highlights her intuitive, process-driven engagement with gesture, colour, and surface. Mackintosh also debuts a new series of freestanding sculptures in bronze and steel, alongside new large-scale oil paintings.
Rather than following a chronological structure, the exhibition is organised thematically. Selected archival and studio materials, including sketches and preparatory works, are presented in a supporting role, offering insight into Mackintosh’s working processes without diminishing the exhibition’s primary focus on resolved sculptural and painted works.
How to visit the exhibition
The exhibition will be accompanied by a programme of walkabouts and public engagements, creating opportunities for deeper conversations with the work and its themes.
Cost: Free entry
When: Opens on Thursday, 9 April at 6pm for 6.30pm. Thereafter, the exhibition runs during the Art Museum’s opening hours, which are: Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 4pm | Guided walkabout on Saturday, 9 May 2026 at 12pm
Where: Wits Art Museum, University of the Witwatersrand, Cnr Jorissen and Bertha St, Johannesburg
Website: wits.ac.za/wam
Email: [email protected]
Facebook: @WitsArtMuseum
Instagram: @witsartmuseum_wam
