Archive: Issue No. 44, April 2001

Teresa Lizamore launches a new gallery adjacent to her home on May 6. Designed as four separate spaces that flow into one another, she aims to host quarterly exhibitions, featuring four artists "under one roof". A tea garden is on hand for refreshments and light snacks.

The first exhibition features four small shows by Albert Redelinghuys (paintings), Hanneke Benade (drawings), Zonia Nel-Scheffer (paintings) and Cobus Haupt (sculptures). The space will be open throughout the week for the first week of the exhibition and thereafter by appointment.

The project has been in the pipeline for about a year, and hopefully answers a need for private, commercial spaces in Johannesburg. Lizamore's mission is to "maintain the fine balance between making art accessible to residential people in the area as well as to corporates, while promoting quality contemporary art by both young and more mature artists".

The show planned for August will feature more established, older artists, with the November exhibition co-produced by Lizamore and a performance artist. She is also hoping to have social, informal lectures and talks in the gallery space. Watch this space for details.

Opening: Sunday May 06, 4.30pm
Closing: May 31

Camouflage, in conjunction with Billiton SA Ltd strike gold with an exhibition by critically acclaimed London-based artist Yinka Shonibare. Best known for his intelligent critiques of history, society and the politics of cultural colonisation, his work 'A Victorian Philanthropist's Parlour' featured on the 2nd Johannesburg Biennale.

Born in London in 1962, he relocated to Nigeria at an early age, and completed his tertiary studies back in Europe. Focusing on the Victorian era in his production, he styles himself as Victorian dandy and inserts himself into quasi-historical tableaux which are photographed, or creates life-size Victorian mannequin figures whose garments are made from African textiles.

He will be in Johannesburg for 5 days, during which time he will conduct two seminars:

1. Wits University, Senate House, Basement 4, on Wednesday 4th May 2001 from 1pm until 2pm.
Contact: Janet Wilson / Bronwyn de Villiers
Tel: (011) 717 46 06.

2. MTN on Thursday 10th May from 11:30am until 12:30pm.
Contact: Eloise Knoetze
Tel: (011) 301 81 24

For bookings and more information, please contact Camouflage (Sandri Burt or Suzanne du Preez), Wits University Department of Art History (Anitra Nettleton) or The MTN Art institute (Eloise Knoetze)

The exhibition at Camouflage opens on May 11 and closes June 30.

A student at the Natal Technikon during the 1990's, followed by a Master's Degree at Stellenbosch University, Johan Meyer presents an exhibition called 'Social Sciences' at the under-utilised Alliance Francaise. Specialising in installation, which formed part of his postgraduate thesis, 'Social Sciences' includes paintings, multi-unit sculptures and technology. One of the focal points of the exhibition is the use of images that are available through the latest technology in the field of the living sciences.

Opening: May 7 at 6.45 pm
Closing: May 31

This established documentary photographer passed away unexpectedly early in April. However, this scheduled exhibition entitled 'Two Days in the Life of the Old District Six' is going ahead. Cohen, who began photographing at age thirteen, has produced nine books in his career, two of which, entitled Images of my World I & II, are in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

The writers associated with Botsotso Publishing, who are launching a collection of short stories entitled Unity in Flight, are staging a performance at James de Villiers' thrice-incarnated Gallery 111. Artists include Maropodi Hlabirwa Mapalakanye, Peter Rule, Zachariah Rapola, Michael Vines, Phaswane Mpe and Allan Kolski Horwitz. The stories, which track personal experiences as maps of the political and social through the last decade in South Africa, are described as following: "From dream to waking, from contradiction refining bitter coincidence and happy fate, the stories reflect the complexity of the last decade and its sense that nothing can be taken for granted."

The performance takes place between 7.00 p.m. and 9.00 p.m. on May 4. For more information, please contact (011) 487 2112

The first post-renovation exhibition is currently on, featuring work by young artists Martin Roemer and Leonore Roux. Both work in mixed media painting, Roemer indulging in abstract, geometric forms, and Roux embracing the symbolic as metaphors for experience.

Closing: April 29

Newcomer Lyndi Sales is unknown to Johannesburg audiences, and a new face at the Goodman, with its well established stable of artists, is always welcome. A Cape Town based artist, Sales works with light-box assemblages and the exhibition is entitled 'Ancestral Journeys'. Resembling designs for stage sets, figures from bygone ages enact tableaus of journeys, life, loss and everything else.

Alan Crump presents an exhibition of powerful watercolours, again focusing on organic masses and forms such as land, both excavated and intact. His work on the recent staff show at the Standard Bank gallery was awesome. Needless to say I'm looking forward to this one.

Opening: April 21, noon
Closing: May 12

Neither of these artists need any introduction. Alborough is the Standard Bank Young Artists award winner for 2000, and celebrated ceramicist Ntshalintshali is being honoured posthumously for her work. Interestingly, Ntshalintshali was the 1990 Standard Bank Young Artists award winner, with Fee Halsted Berning, her mentor and teacher at Admore Studios in KwaZulu Natal.

Johannesburg audiences have been waiting with baited breath for Alborough's exhibition, a touring show which mutates in each new space.

Both exhibitions open April 24 at 6.00 p.m.

There is something of a mini-Jürgen Schadeberg festival on at the moment, what with great exposure for his images on the recent Oprah Winfrey Nelson Mandela special, two upcoming shows in Johannesburg, a show at New York's Axis Gallery and one just closed in Chicago. A veritable career booster if ever I saw one and a good chance for those unfamiliar with the acclaimed lensman's work to acquaint themselves. Famous for his images of Sophiatown life in the 1950's and work produced for Drum Magazine, Schadeberg pulls some surprises from the darkroom, this year celebrating 51 years of being.

'Soweto 2001' at Art on Paper

When we think Jürgen Schadeberg, we think black and white images shot in Sophiatown jazz clubs and dance halls in the South African 1950's - images that despite their exuberance always revealed a more sinister subtext. He has also produced some of the most well known images of Nelson Mandela, published by media across the globe. 'Soweto 2001' is the result of a recent foray on colour work, all the images shot on site in Soweto earlier this year. Often romantically dubbed 'the father of South African photography', I wonder whether Schadeberg is experiencing his own personal African Renaissance?

The exhibition opens April 7 at 3.30 p.m. and closes April 28. For further information and images, go to www.jurgenschadeberg.com

Art on Paper, 8 Main Road, Melville (next to Outer Limits book shop)
Tel: (011) 726 2234)
Email: mwartonp@mweb.co.za
Gallery Hours: Tuesday to Saturday 10.00 am to 5.00 pm

'The White Fifties in S.A.' at the Bensusan Museum of Photography with Crake Gallery preview

Previously unpublished images of white (often white youth) culture, in the 1950's make their debut at a special preview at Norwood's rather silent Crake Gallery before moving to the Bensusan Museum at MuseuMAfricA later on in April. Depicting scenes of vaguely rockabilly, bored Teddy-Boy type characters at social dances or an aerial view of a crowd of pop fans going typically hysterical, this collection of photographs guarantees a different take on a period of history we're more familiar with through our parents' photograph albums.

The Crake Gallery preview opens Sunday April 8 at 5.00 p.m. and closes April 14.

Crake Gallery, 35a Grant Avenue, Norwood
Tel: (011) 728 3643
Gallery hours: Weekdays: 9 am to 5 pm; Saturdays: 9 am to 1 pm

The Bensusan exhibition opens Sunday April 22 at 4.00 p.m. and closes June 24.

The full title of this show is 'Material Matters: Appliques by the Weya Women of Zimbabwe and Needlework of South African Collectives'. A bit of a mouthful, but completely self-explanatory. Accompanied by a recently published book dealing with similar material culture, if you're into richly narrativized, colourful and textured embroidered panels produced with a work ethic second to none, this exhibition will be a highlight of the year.

The exhibition will be opened by Professor Leila Patel, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-Principal, University of the Witwatersrand, at 5.30 p.m. on April 9.

Opening: April 09, 5.30pm
Closing: May 22

The MTN Art Institute and Camouflage join forces to present this exhibition reflecting changing attitudes towards land and people in South Africa, using works from the MTN Art Collection spanning the twentieth century.

Anyone familiar with Clive van den Berg's landscape exhibition, 'Panoramas of Passage' of a few years back may find this an interesting counterpoint. The exhibition is divided into five broad groups: empty landscapes; inhabited landscapes; ethnographic portraits; exotic other and humanist portraits. By juxtaposing these conceptual constructs, the show hopes to open up assumptions about perception and representation, featuring a range of expression from 'objective' nature painting to romanticism, and socio-political realism.

Although one cannot plot changes in a strict chronological fashion, the selection of work visualises the changing discourses of race and place in South Africa, aiming to assert historical agency and humanity. 'Shifts...in consciousness' is curated by Ronel Kellner and Nessa Leibhammer. Walkabouts of the exhibition can be arranged

The exhibition will be opened by Dr Yvonne Muthien (MTN Group Executive:
Corporate Affairs) on Saturday March 17 at 6.00 p.m. The show closes on April 21.

Opening: Saturday March 17, 6pm
Closing: April 21

     See Reviews

In an artist-organised and curated exhibition, Hanneke Benade, Ruan Hoffman, Michele Nigrini and Henk Serfontein present mixed media work. Each artist produced four new works each, hence the 'Four by Four' of the title.

Opening: May 06, 6pm Closing: May 17

The Unisa Art Collection is currently showcasing new acquisitions at the campus gallery, as well as selected graphic works by omen artists, from the permanent collection. As a counterpoint, curator Frieda Hattingh has selected objects from the university's archaeology and anthropology collections, featuring artefacts that employ skin, fur, wood and natural fibres.

Closing: May 30

Adriette Myburgh and Daniel Mosako present painterly reflections on different social contexts. Both artists studied at the University of Pretoria, Myburgh initially studying architecture. Mosako deconstructs juxtapositions between informal settlements and urban cityscapes by constructing his images as 'jigsaw puzzles' of sorts.

Closing: April 28.

The Embassy of the Czech Republic is responsible for bringing this exhibition of graphic works by Vladimir Suchanek to South Africa. Suchanek is the President of the Association of Czech Graphic Artists and a member of the European Academy of Science and Arts. A master of colour lithography, he specialises in bibliophile prints and book illustrations.

Lene Tempelhoff presents a collection of ceramics and bronzes entitled 'Seeing'. The work intends to provoke questions around transition, religion and contemplation.

Opening: April 20, 6pm
Closing: May 03

'Plastic by Nature (a found title)' is the title of Gordon Froud's latest solo offering, having returned from time spent abroad. An installation constructed from a variety of plastic crockery and cutlery, I caught some of this work at the Cite in Paris last year and it struck me as being badly derivative of work by Alan Alborough. Hopefully this show will prove me wrong.

The exhibition will be opened by Neels Coetzee on April 21 at 2.00 p.m. and Gordelroos Productions will stage a performance. The show closes May 26.