If Walls Could Talk
William Humphreys Art Gallery, Permanent Collection
Curated by: Chepape Makgato, Chief Curator, William Humphreys Art Gallery
Opening: Thursday, 27 November 2025
On view: 27 November 2025 – 28 February 2026
Venue: William Humphreys Art Gallery, Kimberley
Opening Address: Prof. Debra Meyer, Acting Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Sol Plaatje University
To run with the wolves whilst playing with the Eagles is to inhabit a duality of courage and gentleness, to navigate danger while nurturing tenderness, to resist the storm yet cradle peace within it. This poetic contradiction forms the conceptual backbone of Running with the Wolves Whilst Playing with the Pigeons, a major museum retrospective exhibition honouring the life and work of Johannesburg-born artist Sophie Peters (b. 1968).
Curated by Chepape Makgato, Chief Curator of the William Humphreys Art Gallery (WHAG), this landmark exhibition celebrates more than three decades of Peters’ visual storytelling tracing her journey from the streets of Johannesburg’s inner city to her recognition as one of South Africa’s most resilient and spiritually grounded visual artists.
Born in Kliptown, Johannesburg and largely self-taught, Peters began her creative journey in apartheid South Africa, carving tomato trays into makeshift linocut plates and transforming scarcity into innovation. Her art, spanning painting, printmaking, ceramics, mural and sculpture, embodies both vulnerability and defiance, echoing the exhibition’s title through the poetic dance between survival and tenderness.
Sophie Peters belongs to a generation whose art straddled two worlds: the repressive past of apartheid and the fragile promise of democracy. Through her images of women in conversation, children at play, and township life rendered in bold lines and vibrant colours, she captures both the everyday and the eternal.
In her own words, as recalled in conversation with art historian Mario Pissarra, Peters once said:
“When things go wrong and nobody wants to talk about it… I make some art and I let it go through the press and there I tell my story.” This declaration defines her as both witness and storyteller as well as an artist who turns silence into statement and survival into poetry.
The William Humphreys Art Gallery has, in recent years, deepened its commitment to curatorial justice by reasserting the value of artists who shaped South African art history from the periphery. Each year, WHAG dedicates its third quarter to celebrating an established yet under-recognised artist. In 2025, this honour fittingly belongs to Sophie Peters.
Running with the Wolves Whilst Playing with the Eagles marks Peters’ first museum retrospective and her first solo exhibition in more than two decades. It reactivates her body of work for a new generation, situating her within the broader lineage of South African printmaking and community-based art education through organisations such as the Community Arts Project (CAP) and ceramics training with Barbara Jackson in Cape Town.
Through a blend of archival materials, key artworks, and personal reflections, this exhibition maps the emotional and political terrain of an artist who transformed exclusion into expression, and adversity into artistry.
Public Programme
About the Artist
Sophie Peters (b. 1968, Johannesburg) is a self-taught multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans printmaking, mural public art, painting, sculpture, ceramics, and illustration. Her work engages themes of memory, spirituality, community, and womanhood. Having emerged from the township-based art movement of the 1980s, Peters’ art chronicles the lived experiences of Black South Africans with warmth, humour, and resilience. Her pieces have featured in major group exhibitions across South Africa and remain significant within the country’s printmaking legacy.
About the William Humphreys Art Gallery (WHAG)
The William Humphreys Art Gallery, located in Kimberley, Northern Cape, is one of South Africa’s three national art museums. Established in 1952, WHAG houses an extensive collection that spans European old masters, South African modernists, and contemporary African artists, reflecting the dynamic intersection of local and global art histories. Under its renewed curatorial direction, WHAG is dedicated to access, inclusion, and curatorial justice, foregrounding artists and narratives historically marginalised within the museum space. Through exhibitions, residencies, research, and education programmes, WHAG continues to serve as a vital platform for artistic exchange, dialogue, and innovation in the Northern Cape and beyond.
