Àṣẹ́ opens April 16

Àṣẹ: Grounded in Being, Rising in Thought opens at 6 p.m. on Thursday, April 16, at Oliewenhuis Art Museum in Bloemfontein and runs through June 16. (art.co.za) The show is installed in the museum’s Reservoir space, with a walkabout scheduled for Friday, April 17, at 11 a.m. Art.co.za lists “various artists” and says the exhibition is curated by the Art Museum Guides of Oliewenhuis Art Museum. (art.co.za) A March 3 museum press release describes Àṣẹ as a Yoruba philosophical and spiritual principle tied to “the vital life force” and says the exhibition is organized through five interconnected themes. The release says the works include paintings, prints, photographs and sculptures. (nationalmuseumpublications.co.za) The same release says the exhibition examines how contemporary art stays rooted in human experience while responding to new tools, technologies and social realities. That places the show inside a current museum push to frame contemporary practice around both lived experience and changing media. (nationalmuseumpublications.co.za; nationalmuseum.co.za) At Oliewenhuis, the Reservoir is not just another gallery room. The museum says the underground venue is used for emerging professional artists, new and experimental work, curated group exhibitions and exhibitions reflecting the cultural diversity of the present. (nationalmuseum.co.za) That mission gives the opening extra context because Oliewenhuis has recently used the space for shows such as Venture, an ArtbankSA exhibition that ran from December 5, 2024, to May 11, 2025. The museum’s temporary exhibitions page also shows a steady run of contemporary and guide-curated projects in recent years. (nationalmuseum.co.za; nationalmuseum.co.za) The museum itself carries its own layered history. South African Tourism says the neo-Dutch building was completed in 1941 as a residence for the governor-general, converted into an art museum in 1985 and officially opened as a museum in 1989. (southafrica.net) The Reservoir adds another layer: a National Museum journal summary says the underground reservoir was completed in 1905, fell out of use, was discovered by chance in 1994 and later converted into an exhibition space. The museum says that conversion lets Oliewenhuis extend and augment its activities. (nationalmuseumpublications.co.za; nationalmuseum.co.za) For visitors, the practical details are straightforward. Oliewenhuis says admission to the main building, exhibitions and gardens is free, with visiting hours from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends and public holidays. (nationalmuseum.co.za) So the April 16 opening is also an invitation into one of South Africa’s more unusual art spaces: a contemporary exhibition about thought, form and transformation, staged in a repurposed underground reservoir. (art.co.za; nationalmuseumpublications.co.za)