Paris welcomes a distinctive South African artistic vision as Buqaqawuli Nobakada unveils Our Dreams Began to Chase Us Back, her first solo presentation in France. Set against the sophisticated backdrop of Galerie Pierre Cornette de Saint Cyr, the exhibition offers an intimate encounter with an artist whose work challenges the boundaries between imagination, identity and the worlds we dare to envision for ourselves.

Curated by Destinee Ross-Sutton in her first project in France and presented in partnership with Pierre Cornette de Saint Cyr, the exhibition brings together six new paintings created on Nobakada’s signature hand prepared lace. Her work introduces a visual language that is both personal and expansive, where the delicate material becomes a canvas for ideas of self-possession, aspiration and possibility.

For Nobakada, painting is more than an act of representation, it is a means of manifestation. Her work gives shape to worlds that have yet to be fully realised, inviting viewers to consider what it means to imagine a life beyond the limitations of the present. Through intimate interiors and evocative scenes of abundance and leisure, she constructs spaces where desire is not distant or abstract but tangible, lived and unapologetically claimed.

There is a quiet confidence in this approach. Nobakada’s paintings encourage a reconsideration of who gets to imagine abundance, occupy spaces of comfort and define their own sense of fulfilment. Her carefully considered compositions transform everyday interiors into places of possibility, creating an aesthetic that is at once intimate and aspirational.

The exhibition arrives at a significant moment in the artist’s career. Following her first solo museum exhibition in the United States at the Albany Museum of Art, Nobakada continues to gain institutional recognition with her work recently acquired by the South African National Gallery, where it is currently on view. Her Paris presentation marks another important milestone, extending the reach of her practice onto an international stage while placing a South African artistic perspective within one of the world’s most influential cultural capitals.

Opening during Art Basel Paris, Our Dreams Began to Chase Us Back forms part of MaSH, the Nocturne Matignon Saint-Honoré Art District programme which sets the tone for Paris Art Week. The timing places Nobakada’s work within a wider international conversation about contemporary art, creative expression and the perspectives shaping its future.

Yet beyond the occasion and the international attention, the exhibition’s title offers its own compelling proposition. What happens when the dreams we pursue begin to pursue us in return? In Nobakada’s world, aspiration becomes something more than a private longing. It becomes a space to inhabit, a future to claim and a reality that can begin with the simple act of imagining it.

As the exhibition opens in Paris, Nobakada brings with her a body of work that speaks to the power of self definition and the importance of envisioning possibilities beyond what already exists. Our Dreams Began to Chase Us Back is an invitation to look closely, dream expansively and consider the worlds we might create when we give our desires form.

Exhibition: Our Dreams Began to Chase Us Back
Artist: Buqaqawuli Nobakada
Opening: Monday, 19 October 2026, 17:00–21:00
Exhibition dates: 19 October–19 December 2026
Venue: Galerie Pierre Cornette de Saint Cyr
Address: 29 Avenue Franklin D. Roosevelt, 75008 Paris, France, behind the Grand Palais.