Finalists for Iziko public art commission announced
Cape Town's Iziko Museums have announced a shortlist of six candidates for their Public Art Commission. Earlier this year Iziko secured funding from the National Lottery Board for a public art commission, the primary objective of which is to enhance the area in front of the Iziko: South African National Gallery.
The six candidates are: Lovell Friedman, Claire Gavronsky and Rose Shakinovsky (working together), Matthew Hindley, Mark O'Donovan, James Reed and Roger van Wyk. All have been requested to develop their initial proposals further in digital and/or maquette form.
In a statement released to the press, Marilyn Martin, Director of Art Collections for Iziko Museums, commented: "[The six finalists] offer an exciting range of solutions to the
difficult challenges of creating appropriate work for the specific site in front of Iziko: South African National Gallery."
Ms Martin also commented that the submissions received from the selected finalists all broke boundaries with regard to what public art can be and mean in South Africa. "South Africa lacks examples of significant and groundbreaking public art," Ms Martin had remarked earlier in the year when the commission was originally announced.
The public will be given an opportunity to assess the relative quality of these submissions. The SANG will display the shortlisted proposals from September 9 to 14, after which the panel will meet again to judge the second stage entries.
The adjudication for this first round of the selection process comprised staff of the SANG's art division, as well as Andrew Lamprecht, Iain Low, Mokena Makeka and Michelle Robertson-Swift.
