In conversation with Monna Mokoena
Michael Coulson chats with Monna Mokoena of the famous Momo Art Gallery, Johannesburg

People are drawn to become gallerists in many strange ways. For Monna Mokoena, proprietor of Momo gallery in Johannesburg’s Parktown North, the early inspiration was the glamorous locations of the fashion shoots and the articles on art in the fashion magazines bought by his father, an itinerant seller of clothing on the mines.
However, it wasn’t a straight line from there – it seldom is. After matriculating, he wanted to become a lawyer specialising in musicians’ rights. There was no such specialist course available, so after doing a BJuris at Fort Hare, rather than join a general legal partnership he went into a successful partnership selling air time for cell phones.
That collapsed while he was away on a prolonged overseas trip. On his return he sat down to make the hard decision on what he really wanted to be, and that proved to be the crucial moment.
He’d often visited the Everard Read Gallery, which he considered a great institution in a great space. He persuaded Mark Read to take him on, in effect as an unpaid intern, and spent two years there.
“It was the best education in the world. I hold the people there, but especially Mark, in the highest regard. No just for the quality of the business, but also for the gallery’s business ethic. I tried to model myself on how I saw Mark engaging with clients. They also educated me in the history of art.”
After those two years it was time to move on, and Mokoena set up as a private and corporate art consultant. But he found that the first question a consultant is asked is, “Do you have a gallery?” So this led to the idea of establishing a space, and in 2003 Momo opened its doors.
Every gallery has to establish its niche, and Mokoena’s USP was to concentrate on contemporary art. He felt that no other gallery was doing this; even the Goodman was then only handling established artists (black and white), though it has become more adventurous.
Mokoena is often seen as the purveyor of art to the black diamonds, but he stresses that his gallery does not specifically handle black artists. Indeed, he wouldn’t want to be labeled like that. But it’s inevitable that the demographics of contemporary art should correspond ever more closely to those of the population at large.
And Mokoena concedes that, whatever hangs on his gallery’s walls, much of his business still consists of dealing in the SA “masters”. He’s still active as a consultant. At various times he’s advised the likes of the JSE, Nedcor, Vodacom, the IDC, Allan Gray and the Gauteng legislature; however much such bodies want to be seen to encourage new artists, they can’t ignore the established names.
And Mokoena the consultant has to wear a different hat from Mokoena the gallerist. A corporate collection has to have a policy and identity that may not be the same as the gallery’s. You must resist the urge to favour your own artists and be true to the cause of building the collection, regardless of where you source works.
Though he’s reluctant to give away trade secrets, Mokoena is confident that he’s built up a successful business with its own individual way of working that doesn’t just replicate what his competitors are doing.
That it’s a risky business, especially when he started, he doesn’t deny. All the more so, perhaps, in that he has no institutional backing or wealthy individual behind him. He may take all he profits, but he also bears any losses in full.
He’s had approaches from potential investors, but so far that’s the way he wants it. “Of course, there may come a time when I want to cash in my chips.”
And he reckons the formula works. On the one side, young artists approach him for shows. On the other, his approach is becoming more global: he brings foreign artists, often one with African links, to SA. “That’s the next wave: art must be a two-way street,” he says, and hints that his ultimate dream is to have a string of galleries – or associates – elsewhere in the continent.
But that may be some way away. He has no doubt that the art market, though holding up reasonably well, is suffering from the world economic crisis, and fears that the next six months will see casualties among some of the newer, less solidly established, local galleries.
But Momo, he says, is fortunate in that it has already built an international image. It’s acting as curator for Culture France and its IFAS associate at the upcoming Johannesburg Art Fair, and also at Photo Beijing 2009, in China.

“For us,” he says firmly, “there’ll be no change in focus. The only change will be expansion.”