Opening Reception & Conversation | Nolan Oswald Dennis: 'Demonstrations (i)' Presented with INSITE | Athenaeum Music & Arts Library in La Jolla
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Opening Reception | Nolan Oswald Dennis: "Demonstrations (i)": Presented with INSITE
Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
1008 Wall Street La Jolla, CA 92037
October 25, 2025–January 17, 2026
Opening Reception: Friday, October 24, 5:30–8 p.m.
Conversation with Nolan Oswald Dennis and critic KJ Abudu: 5:30–6:15 p.m.
Joseph Clayes III & Carolyn Yorston-Wellcome Rotunda Galleries
Nolan Oswald Dennis: "Demonstrations (i)"
Presented with INSITE
INSITE is pleased to announce Nolan Oswald Dennis: "Demonstrations (i)," opening at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library in La Jolla, California, this October. Nolan Oswald Dennis (b. 1988, Lusaka, Zambia) is an artist based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Informed by the study of geological and planetary systems—and situated within African and diasporic relations to the land, cosmos, and anti-colonial political structures—Dennis’s work approaches the world as it is while mapping possibilities for transforming it. "Demonstrations (i)" marks the West Coast premiere of Isivivane, an ongoing project by Dennis that replicates rock specimens from geology museums and university departments in South Africa and parts of the world where the work has been shown. Originally commissioned for INSITE Commonplaces in Johannesburg in 2021, this project has since traveled to the Kunstinstituut Melly in Rotterdam, Netherlands; the Swiss Institute in New York; and Gasworks in London.
Isivivane is a Zulu word which translates to a "pile of stones,” similar to a cairn, which marks a spiritually or historically significant site. Isivivane also means to make an individual contribution to a collective future. Manufactured daily by a 3D-printer on site, the new rocks become part of what the artist calls a Black Earth Library. This is an effort that has arisen from discussions with geologists and geology museum curators concerning restitution and repatriation of culturally significant objects. In asking the host institution to create digital and physical copies of more or less significant rocks, stones, and other small geological objects, Dennis suggests a geo-social system not built by a single person, but by many over time. Isivivane will be accompanied by related sculptures and drawings, and displays of rocks and minerals selected by the artist from local collections.
"Demonstrations (i)" opens to the public at the Athenaeum with a reception on Friday, October 24, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. The closing of the exhibition on January 17 will be celebrated with the presentation of INSITE Journal__08: Reverse Forward and All at Once. The publication comprises documentation and essays related to the INSITE "Commonplaces" project curated by Gabi Ngcobo in Johannesburg, with commissioned work by participating artists Nyakallo Maleke and Nolan Oswald Dennis. Further public program announcements to follow.
About Nolan Oswald Dennis
Nolan Oswald Dennis is an artist based in Johannesburg, South Africa. They hold a bachelor's degree in architecture from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and a master’s degree in art, culture, and technology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Their work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Kunstinstituut Melly in Rotterdam, Netherlands; Swiss Institute in New York; Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town; and Gasworks in London. They have been featured in group exhibitions at FRONT Triennial (Cleveland), Lagos Biennial, Liverpool Biennial, MACBA (Barcelona), Palais de Tokyo (Paris), Seoul Mediacity Biennale, Shanghai Biennale, and Young Congo Biennale, among others. They are a member of the artist groups NTU and Index Literacy Program, research associate with the VIAD Research Centre at the University of Johannesburg, and a member of the Edouard Glissant Art Fund Scientific Committee.
About INSITE
Since 1992, INSITE has produced more than 250 artists’ projects conceived for specific sites and political-social contexts across San Diego and Tijuana, as well as in Mexico City. INSITE Commonplaces is a curatorial platform established in 2021 for producing work with artists and communities commissioned locally in different regions of the world. In addition to Johannesburg (Reverse Forward and All at Once), these long-term projects have taken place in Lima, Peru (Common Thread), and presently, the transnational region encompassing San Diego County and Baja California, Mexico (The Sedimentary Effect).
The exhibition can be viewed in the Joseph Clayes III and Carolyn Yorston-Wellcome Rotunda Galleries at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library (1008 Wall Street, La Jolla, CA 92037) during open hours, Tuesday through Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
