JOHANNESBURG – David Krut Arts is pleased to present Bench Play, a new body of unique works on paper by performance and visual artist Oupa Sibeko, created during his residency at the David Krut Workshop (DKW) at Arts on Main, Johannesburg alongside related works. 

Sibeko’s practice is deeply rooted in the notion of play – as process, as method, and as a way of seeing the world. Returning to DKW after his first visit in 2021, Sibeko collaborated with Jesse Shepstone to produce new works on paper, embracing the workshop space, its surrounding environment, and the people moving through it as both subject and collaborator.

The project draws inspiration from the concrete bench and metal emblem outside the workshop, iconic markers of the space that – for Sibeko – became symbols of presence and absence, permanence and play. 

“The shadows from the stairs keep dancing on the chair, but the emblem stays the same,” Sibeko reflects, suggesting the emblem and bench as anchors of permanence amid shifting presences. For him, the workshop is more than a printmaking studio—it is a stage of continual play, where artists, printers, and visitors leave behind their creative traces.

 His process began with crumpled paper, tracing the spontaneous forms it created before layering in lines, faces, and vibrant colours. Shades of blue and magenta signal play as both privilege and royalty, inviting us to value process over product, collaboration over isolation. The works embody the rhythms of the space itself: the emblem, the shadows, the voices, the air, and the simple act of sitting outside with coffee all merge into an exploration of presence, absence, and community.

 Bench Play is Sibeko’s vivid homage to the David Krut Workshop as a living site of collaboration, experimentation, and play.