Guns & Rain Art

Guns & Rain Art Contemporary Fine Art from Africa - Online Guns & Rain opened a new permanent exhibition space in Parkhurst, Johannesburg in March 2018.

Guns & Rain is an emerging gallery established in mid-2014, and was one of the first African galleries to harness the web to promote emerging artists. With a focus on social and political issues and the ongoing examination of African histories - both collective and personal - we support emerging contemporary African artists from 7 African countries (South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana, Moza

mbique, Swaziland/Eswatini, Nigeria). Guns & Rain has held regular events and exhibitions in Johannesburg since 2015, and is now a seasoned exhibitor at local and international fairs. We are a member of the African Art Galleries Association (AAGA), Association of Women Art Dealers (AWAD) and collaborate regularly with other partner galleries and dealers in Africa, Europe and the US. We also collaborate with local universities and have hosted artists and interns from the University of Johannesburg. Guns & Rain has helped launch artists into international careers. An independent female-led start-up, Guns & Rain has featured widely in the international media, including in the New York Times, Le Monde Afrique, Cool Hunting and Business Day South Africa amongst others. Founder Dr. Julie Taylor’s background is in anthropology and communications. She was born and raised in Zimbabwe and holds degrees from Oxford and Cambridge. Before Guns & Rain, Julie ran Google’s communications for Africa. She is currently completing a Masters in History of Art at Wits University, researching contemporary art about Namibia’s Independence War. She has written about technology and curation for publications such as Art Africa. The name ‘Guns & Rain’ is used with acknowledgement and thanks. It comes from the acclaimed work of South African-born British anthropologist and playwright David Lan, who wrote about guerrillas and spirit mediums in Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle — for its reference to nature, culture, identity, land, struggle, change, and many other important African themes. Guns & Rain is committed to fair, mindful and ethical trade.

Meanwhile, back in the studio... Princia Matungulu .matungulu.art is working on a significant new commission, and we're ...
09/05/2026

Meanwhile, back in the studio... Princia Matungulu .matungulu.art is working on a significant new commission, and we're looking forward to revealing this new artwork later this year. 

Hailing from Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Princia Matungulu is a textile artist whose work interlaces craft, memory, and storytelling. Her practice draws on Congolese folklore and stories to explore how cultural knowledge and moral wisdom is transmitted through narrative, and, mediated by artistic practice, through material form.

Working with weaving, Matungulu transforms traditional storytelling into a tactile, visual language. Through reimagined tales which trace the contours of universal themes such love, jealousy, greed, and justice, Matungulu explores what it means to be human. Her figurative compositions act as woven archives of oral tradition; spaces where myth and lived experience converge.

In 2026, Princia is preparing for her first museum group show at Iziko, the South African National Gallery, Cape Town, as well as working on her first major international commission. She lives and works in Johannesburg.

Her work is held in the ARAK Collection (Qatar), the University of Cape Town Art Collection (South Africa), and the Kruizenga Art Museum (Michigan, USA), as well as in private collections in South Africa, the United Kingdom, Norway and the United States.

Photos thanks to

Tuli Mekondjo "A Kind of Paradise: Colonial-Era Photography in Contemporary Art"Museum Rietberg, ZurichUntil 6 September...
26/04/2026

Tuli Mekondjo 
"A Kind of Paradise: Colonial-Era Photography in Contemporary Art"
Museum Rietberg, Zurich
Until 6 September 2026

We're delighted that both new and loaned works by Namibian artist Tuli Mekondjo  are included in this new exhibition in Zurich.

A beautiful and rigorous publication accompanies the show, including essays by Patricia Hayes , Paul Basu , Saidya Hartman, Sandrine Colard .colard and Julia Rensing  among others.

Curator and Editor Nanina Guyer writes: "An increasing number of artists outside Europe, or from the diaspora, are engaging with photos from the past. A Kind of Paradise is the first comprehensive publication to shed light on this phenomenon. Using photos from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, artists from the “Majority World” interrogate their own history and origins, linking them to collective experiences of colonization, exploitation, and exclusion. Their works seek to restore broken timelines, memories, and identities..."

"Throughout the project, the power of dialogue among artists, curators, and scholars became evident when engaging with colonial-era photographic archives. Our shared affection for the people depicted and their stories binds us together. As the custodian of a vast archive of colonial-era photographs, my own work revolves around two core questions: how to bring hidden narratives to light and how to navigate the ethical complexities of potentially harmful images.... "

"It is no coincidence that the title, "A Kind of Paradise", is a quote from Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. She reminds us that we regain a piece of paradise when history is told in many voices: “When we reject the single story, when we realize that there is never a single story about any place, we regain a kind of paradise.”

Buy your copy at

We're excited that Raymond Fuyana has a new group show just around the corner with our friends at  in Cape Town. Watch ...
24/04/2026

We're excited that Raymond Fuyana has a new group show just around the corner with our friends at  in Cape Town. Watch this space for more details.

As Bruno Claessens of Duende Art Projects has written, Raymond Fuyana's personal experience as a deaf artist has "created a life shaped by a heightened perception and a profound sensitivity to the visible world." 

Trained as a printmaker at the Artist Proof Studio in Johannesburg, Fuyana is a self-taught painter whose approach to imagery, composition and subject matter is influenced by Surrealism.

He relocated from Zimbabwe to South Africa in 2009 to attend the St Vincent’s School for the Deaf, where he learned Sign Language. 

Claessens continues, "Fuyana positions himself as both creator and witness, painting himself inside his imagined environments. The artist appears as a recurring figure seen from behind, contemplating the world he brings to life on canvas. He creates a magical realm where architectural fragments dissolve into lush African landscapes, gravity-defying forms drift through open windows, and vibrant colors infuse every detail with wonder and emotion. Fuyana’s pictorial universe is one of porous boundaries: between inside and outside, city and countryside, day and night, past and present. He paints settings where gravity gives way to the freedom to imagine, culminating in a place beyond time and space."

Fuyana has exhibited in multiple group exhibitions, and has had three solo shows in South Africa and Belgium. His work has been shown at the 1-54 Art Fair London (2023) and at the Toledo Art Museum (2024) among others, and his paintings sit in multiple private collections around the world.

Get in touch for more information.

Zenaéca Singh & Tuli Mekondjo"A Kind of Paradise: Colonial-Era Photography in Contemporary Art"Museum Rietberg, Zurich16...
02/04/2026

Zenaéca Singh & Tuli Mekondjo
"A Kind of Paradise: Colonial-Era Photography in Contemporary Art"
Museum Rietberg, Zurich
16 April - 6 September 2026

Opening Night: 15 April 18:00. Registration essential

Walkabout with the artists: 16 April 18:00 - 19:00

Working with photographic archives has been central to the artistic practice of both Zenaéca Singh & Tuli Mekondjo . We are proud that they have been selected by Curator of Photography Nanina Guyer for this important exhibition in Zurich , where both artists will exhibit for the first time.

The exhibition has been over 18 months in the making, and Zenaéca and Tuli join internationally acclaimed artists from around the world. What stories are concealed in historical photographs? The artists explore how photographic images define identity, history and a sense of belonging, in the wake of colonialism.

We are also grateful to several of our collectors who have been willing to loan existing works for this exhibition.  New unseen works by both artists will also be presented. 

Villa Wesendonck © Museum Rietberg, Mark Niedermann.
Catalogue screenshot courtesy Museum Rietberg.


photography archives ancestors

14/03/2026

Over the past two years, Princia Matungulu has developed a powerful body of work that depicts Congolese stories and parables known as “harishi” in Swahili. Her interest in harishi stems from a concern about the disappearance of these and other African stories, in part due to the dominance of Western media and literature. Matungulu believes that the stories - and thus the artworks that convey them - hold cross-cultural or even universal relevance for women. Princia is currently working on an exciting new commission which will be unveiled later in the year.

In this video, Princia relays the story behind the artworks depicted here:

"Two women tug and fight over a baby. This weaving retells the Congolese folktale of Kengi who lost her child.
The struggle is more than physical. It is about truth deception and the weight of maternal love

In my weaving, the surface is restless threads pull against one another. Knots rise like clenched fit, layers fold into one Another as if caught in conflict. The bright patterns suggests the warmth of care, while the darker folds press in with heaviness, the violence of separation.

The work asks us to look closely at what is hidden in the fabric, the small tensions, the concealed bonds, just as the story asks: who is the true mother, who holds love and not possession?

Through thread, colour and texture I hold this tale as both memory and question, about justice, about sacrifice, and about how love is sometimes proven in letting go."

We are proud to announce Zenaéca Singh’s selection for the Sharjah Foundation Residency Programme 2025 - 2026 . With a ...
10/02/2026

We are proud to announce Zenaéca Singh’s selection for the Sharjah Foundation Residency Programme 2025 - 2026 . With a focus on the history of sugar in the Arabian gulf, Zenaéca’s new project will build on her work about the bittersweet history of the sugar in South Africa and its entanglement with labour, migration, colonialism, and gender.

She is one of 8 artists selected from some 2400 applicants.

Congratulations Zenaéca!

bittersweet gunsandrain sharjahartfoundation sharjah

27/01/2026

We are delighted to open the year with Bev Butkow's first exhibition at London's prestigious October Gallery , where she will show alongside El Anatsui, Golnaz Fathi and others.

LINEAGES
October Gallery, London
Private View: Weds 28 January, 18:00
24 Old Gloucester St London WC1N 3AL

Lineages brings together the work of Susanne Kessler, Elisabeth Lalouschek, Theresa Weber, Golnaz Fathi, Tian Wei, El Anatsui, Gerald Wilde and includes for the first time, striking works by Eleanor Lakelin, Junko Mori, and Bev Butkow. The exhibition explores the employment of line within these artists’ practice, in which the notion of line is not confined to the drawn mark, but emerges as a connective thread in concept and form. Each selected work examines where lines become pathways across histories, environment, languages and materials.

The exhibition will run until the end of February.

Get in touch for more details...

26/11/2025

Raymond Fuyana's fabulous new show is underway with Duende Art Projects! Link in bio for more info.

Wow, it's been a busy time! But a little late is still better than never. Thank you to everyone who joined us at Somers...
10/11/2025

Wow, it's been a busy time! But a little late is still better than never. Thank you to everyone who joined us at Somerset House last month for , and thanks to the hardworking 154 team. It was a great pleasure to reconnect with friends, old and new, from around the world. So many rich conversations, as we looked out across the Thames from this iconic setting.

1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair remains one of the highlights of our annual art programme, and we had a terrific response to our artists .matungulu.art. Lots of visitors also really enjoyed browsing .3's small innovative new works on tetrapak ;) Last but not least, it was great to have 's new book in the fair's bookshop alongside some other fab publications.

06/11/2025

"I wanted to bring my ancestors to St James's Picccadilly's altar. To take up space, to occupy space" - Tuli Mekondjo

**Extended until 19 November**

We are very pleased to announce the extension of Tuli Mekondjo's exhibition, "Omuaa oku li Popepi: The Lord is Nearer: Herra on Lähellä" at St James’s Piccadilly, London.

Over the past several weeks, it has been moving to see how the St James's leadership, church community, and members of the London and international public have engaged with Mekondjo's new body of work. As Revd Dr Ayla Lepine has noted, people appreciate and are curious about the (sometimes difficult) questions that the artwork invites and raises across place and time.

"Omuaa oku li Popepi: The Lord is Nearer: Herra on Lähellä" explores the rise of Christianity in northern Namibia, driven by Finnish missionaries, and draws on the extensive photographic archives of the Finnish Heritage Agency . The Finnish Missionary Society (FMS) began its mission in 1870 in German South West Africa, today's Namibia.

The exhibition is presented by St James’s, Piccadilly in partnership with Guns & Rain , Johannesburg, and Hales, London and New York . Thank you to everyone who has been involved in and supported this project!

We look forward to welcoming more visitors over the next 2 weeks.

The exhibition will end on 19 November.

About St James's:
St James’s Church, Piccadilly was designed by Sir Christopher Wren and consecrated in 1684. After the bombing of 1940, the church was rebuilt, and has developed a reputation for being creative and inclusive, rooted in its Christian faith as part of the Anglican Communion but welcoming to people of all faiths and none. Curated by Revd Dr Ayla Lepine, Art in the Side Chapel expresses the power of creativity and faith, emphasising diverse perspectives by both emerging and established artists.

More info - link in bio.

Images of Nakambale: courtesy Finnish Heritage Agency.

Video footage: courtesy Tuli Mekondjo

Address

5 3rd Avenue, Parkhurst
Johannesburg
2193

Opening Hours

Tuesday 10:00 - 16:00
Wednesday 10:00 - 16:00
Thursday 10:00 - 16:00
Friday 10:00 - 16:00

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Guns & Rain Art posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share