Summer Exhibitions at South London Gallery
South London Gallery has just opened their summer exhibitions. One is presenting large scale artworks featuring mythical creatures by Brazilian artist, Paulo Nimer Pjota in the Main Gallery. The other one is located at the Fire Station galleries and exploring our relationship to the environment through touch, spirituality and healing by British Nigerian artist, Ranti Bam.
Paulo Nimer Pjota: Encantados
Photo: Urban Adventurer
Brazilian ‘hip-hop’ painter, Paulo Nimer Pjota started his career with graffiti at the age of just 13. He moved to São Paulo at the age of 17 to attend art collage. This is where he had his first exhibition that combined large paintings of crystals, anatomical paintings and crabs combined with graffiti art.
Photo: Urban Adventurer
His exhibition at South London Gallery is titled Encantados which means ‘enchanted’ in English and is featuring 11 new paintings on canvas hanging against graffiti-like wall drawings.
Photo: Urban Adventurer
Pjota’s artworks are heavily inspired by mythical creatures, fantastical scenes, as well as ancient civilisations and Brazilian folklore and even children’s literature.
Pjota says in a recent interview with The Guardian: “Mythology has always been interesting to me. Stories I heard in my parents’ house, in the media, these things form a big part of our life from a very young age. Becoming a father myself, I started reading a lot of fables to my son and I was looking back on the drawings I used to make when I was a kid. Crazy animals, anthropomorphised nature.”
Photo: Urban Adventurer
The Sun, the Moon and the stars are recurring motifs in Pjota’s paintings, along with beasts, animals and flowers.
Pjota’s artworks function as a storybook when exhibited together. However, unlike a usual story book which has a clear narrative that unfolds, Pjota’s works leave the viewer to create their own narrative.
Ranti Bam: Sacred Groves
Photo: Urban Adventurer
British Nigerian artist, Ranti Bam, works with sculpture, film, performance and photography.
Sacred Groves explores our relationship to the environment through touch, spirituality and healing.
Ranti Bam’s exhibition brings together Ifas and Abstract vessels. The word ‘ifa’ in Yoruba means both ‘spiritual system’ and ‘holding something close’.
Photo: Urban Adventurer
The exhibition is featuring clay vessels that Bam created by embracing vet clay against her body to form the shape of the vessels. In this way, the clay collapses, cracks and folds as the raw material spiritually connects her with the earth.
To help visitors immerse more into Bam’s artistic world, tranquil soundscape of nature is playing while the smell of wet soil and clay fills each room.
Photo: Urban Adventurer
The vessels receive a metallic glaze that reflects the body.
Monumental, glazed sculptures are also on display at the exhibition. These sculptures are Bam’s largest artworks yet.
Make sure, you spend some time at the video room, empty your mind and enjoy the tranquil scenery of a river and its surrounding.
Photo: Urban Adventurer
Abstract vessels are created through slab building where pieces wrap around each other. Once together, Bam pierces the pieces by hand revealing the glaze inside the body of the vessel.
The act of rolling, puncturing, painting, glazing and firing the clay combines all the elements: earth, air, water and fire.
Ranti Bam will unveil her permanent public artwork this June for the European Capital of Culture and was invited to the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia by Koyo Kouoh.
Exhibition Related Events
Photo: Urban Adventurer
South London Gallery is hosting a number of exhibition related events throughout the summer. Teacher workshop, family space and curator tours are all available for free and without booking.
Click here to explore the events.
Practical Info
Photo: Urban Adventurer
Address
South London Gallery Main Gallery | 65 Peckham Rd, London SE5 8UH
(Paulo Nimer Pjota: Encantados exhibition)
South London Gallery Fire Station | 82 Peckham Rd, London SE15 5LQ
(Ranti Bam: Sacred Groves exhibition)
The two galleries are just a 2-minute walk from one another.
Opening Times
1st May – 23rd August 2026
Mon & Tue: CLOSED
Wed: 12pm – 9pm
Thu – Sun: 12pm – 6pm
Tickets
FREE | NO booking required
Ready for your next adventure? Another free large scale exhibition opened at the White Cube. Katharina Grosse: I Set Out, I Walked Fast is full of colours pouring out of their frames to cover the architecture: the walls, the columns and even the floor.