I have an appointment with the 29-year-old contemporary curator for her to show me around her new exhibition, A Fragile Archive.

This exhibition, says the press release, investigates the role of history, memory and archive in the public positioning of two mid 20th century pioneering artists, Gladys Mgudlandlu and Valerie Desmore.

Underlying her interest in researching the works of these two women is Ntombela's questioning of the recording of our history.

"I was interested in rewriting Mgudlandlu's biography and rewriting it as an exhibition," says Ntombela.

"Central to this exhibition is my argument that history has often been incorrectly recorded in South Africa."

In a 1962 edition of The Cape Times, Mgudlandlu was quoted saying: "I think I can claim to be the first South African woman in the country to hold an exhibition. As far as I know I am the only African woman who has taken up painting seriously."

Ntombela challenges the validity of bold statements such as this one.

"Why did no one at the time question this claim, and why was it confirmed?" she asks.

The first part of our tour takes us into a room with works by Valerie Desmore, a local artist who died in London four years ago.

Nineteen years before Mgudlandlu's exhibition, Desmore was - most probably - the first black woman to exhibit. She was 16 at the time. Why was Desmore forgotten? Was it because she left the country to further her studies when she was 20, or was it because of her race?

The next part of the exhibition is a restaging of Mgudlandlu's first solo exhibition in 1961. It is a reminder of who was visible and who was the protagonist in the narrative of black women artists.

The exhibition is not meant to be a replica of the first, says Ntombela: "I've tried to trace the works that were on exhibit, and used those I could find."

There are noticeable absences above the titles of the works originally exhibited, there are book illustrations and copies of originals, questioning perhaps the lack of value placed in collecting a black woman's work. There are also beautiful, fragile original works painted by Mgudlandlu, who described herself as a "dreamer-imaginist".

Ntombela's exhibition not only rearranges our understanding of art history, it also puts on show some of the most interesting works from our recent art history.

JAG is on King George Street, Joubert Park. Call 011-725-3184, or visit www. joburg.org.za. 'A Fragile Archive' runs until April 8