Archive: Issue No. 96, August 2005

5.08.05 'In the Making' group exhibition at Michael Stevenson
5.08.05 Lithographic prints at UCT Irma Stern Museum
5.08.05 Nadja Daehnke at João Ferreira Gallery
5.08.05 'Multiples' at 34 Long
5.08.05 Francois van Reenen at Erdmann Contemporary
5.08.05 Interpreting Landscape at Artb, Bellville
5.08.05 Nigel Mullins and Norman O'Flynn at Bell-Roberts
5.08.05 Nhlanhla Hlongwane at Blank Projects
5.08.05 Vuyile Voyiya and Susan Kruger Grundlingh at the AVA
5.08.05 Diana Page and Jane Young at UCT Irma Stern Museum
5.08.05 Kevin de Klerk at VEO Art Warehouse
5.08.05 AVA Members' exhibition
5.08.05 'Paper Never Lies' at VEO Art Warehouse
5.08.05 Black and White Poster Project at DIRT contemporary
5.08.05 Zoulikha Bouabdellah to talk at SANG
5.08.05 Joachim Schönfeldt, Ivan Vladislavic and Andries Oliphant at UCT

1.07.05 Claudette Schreuders & John Murray at Michael Stevenson Contemporary
1.07.05 Dario Matter and 'Discomfort' at Erdmann Contemporary
1.07.05 Lara Feldman and Toni Dorfman at DIRT contemporary
1.07.05 Advance Notice: Dumile Feni: A Retrospective Exhibition at the SANG

3.06.05 Monica Dart at 3rd i Gallery

09.05.05 'Subject to Change' at the SANG

STELLENBOSCH

5.08.05 'Promised Land' at the US Art Gallery
 

The Michael Stevenson Contemporary presents an exhibition of artists who have strikingly individualistic practices yet share a deep concern with materials and materiality. Their work also draws attention to the process of their own making, which is often labour-intensive. The show is curated by Sophie Perryer.

The exhibition includes 11 South African artists at various stages in their careers: Alan Alborough, Dineo Bopape, Paul Edmunds, Retha Erasmus, Nicholas Hlobo, Nandipha Mntambo, Walter Oltmann, Stephanus Rademeyer, Doreen Southwood, Jeremy Wafer and Sandile Zulu.

A large-scale work by Ghanian guest artist El Anatsui, professor of sculpture at the University of Nigeria, is featured as a complement to the exhibition. El Anatsui's work recently featured on 'Africa Remix', a survey of contemporary art of the continent that is currently showing at the Pompidou Centre in Paris.

Curator Sophie Perryer will conduct a walkabout of the exhibition at 11am on Thursday August 18, costing R30 which will go to Friends of the South African National Gallery.

Opens: August 17
Closes: September 17

An exhibition of lithographic portfolios from the Michaelis School of Fine Art, the University of Hawaii at Manoa and Tulane University in Louisiana printmaking departments is on show at the UCT Irma Stern Museum this month.

The exhibition is curated by Jonathan Comerford, the director of Hardground Printmakers. It aims to illustrate the diverse range of techniques and artistic approaches that can be realised with lithography, from traditional to modern methods.

Students and lecturers will exhibit their work. UCT will exhibit the Impact Portfolio, created by Professor Stephen Inggs in collaboration with well known artists like William Kentridge, Jane Alexander and Pippa Skotnes. The US component is directed by Professor Charlie Cohan of the University of Hawaii and Teresa Cole from Tulane University.

Comerford will open the exhibition at 6pm on July 26. He will conduct a walkabout at 11am on Saturday July 30.

Opens: July 26
Closes: August 6

The João Ferreira Gallery re-opens after a winter break with 'Profit and Loss', an exhibition by Nadja Daehnke that questions notions of authority, aspiration and conformity.

Daehnke reflects on the anxiety of pressure to conform and perform in the 'hyper-commodified, fragmented and dislocating milieu of the late capitalist postcolonial world'. Her paintings are based on historical texts and images that she recontextualises and manipulates through changing scale and layering and through innovative use of materials.

Opens: August 3
Closes: August 27

Two top Japanese artists - Takashi Murakami and Yoshitomo Nara - will show work in a new exhibition of works in limited edition at 34 Long. The curators have selected works from South African artists and some well-known international artists for this exhibition of graphic works entitled 'Multiples'.

The curators highlight a serigraph by Murakami called LV Superflat Pink from a relatively small edition of 50 published in 2004. This work, which is representative of Murakami's unique style known as 'superflat', was first exhibited alongside a collection of Louis Vuitton handbags sporting the same designs in a Tokyo exhibition. Murakami is know for his merchandising, and his Vuitton handbags reportedly reached $300m of global sales within the first year.

Yoshitomo Nara was an employee at Murakami's KaiKai KiKi Factory. Nara's work will also be on display - apparently the first time ever in South Africa. Another good reason to visit this exhibition is work by highly regarded painter Marlene Dumas.

Opens: July 26
Closes: August 27

The toy-like quality of Francois van Reenen's sculptures recalls the nostalgia of a childhood spent playing without any perception of the passage of time. In the same way, the title of this exhibition, 'Sunday Afternoon', refers to the kind of limbo before the rush of Monday begins.

The exhibition is described as a showcase of sculptural and computer-generated graphic works - all autobiographical - with a visual language shaped by comics and pop culture. Animation is narrative in linear sequence, with the sculpture treated as a 3d manifestation of an animation freeze frame.

Opens: August 15
Closes: September 24

This group show at Art b includes work by Lien Botha, Julia Teale, Lyn Smuts, Judy Woodbourne and Alice Goldin.

Teale, who two years ago showed at the Irma Stern Museum, continues her concern with landscape and human consciousness and how relationship to land is informed by psycho/ spiritual needs. She says: 'I like to bear in mind that we are the only living beings who bury our dead but at the same time often believe we escape the bonds of earth and move to heavenly realms. Embedded in human relationships to land are all the issues that humans strive to come to terms with: power, ownership, belonging, nurturing, husbanding, violence and violation, death.'

Smuts interprets landscape as resonant surface and employs traditional printmaking media to find a way of manifesting the energy of sound as visual image. She says: 'The patterns found in nature and on the surface of the earth have long been a source of nurture for artists and I am exploring this inter-connectedness from its root in energy.'
Opens: July 27
Closes: August 24

Two separate solo shows run concurrently this month at Bell-Roberts Contemporary: Nigel Mullins shows 'Ends and Escapes' while Norman O'Flynn exhibits 'The Bull and Other Stories'.

Vast and indifferent landscapes inhabited by solitary and odd beings are the subject of Mullins' work. The characters - variously vital, anarchic, and melancholic - play out against the landscape which seems infinite and unchanging but is in fact acted upon by forces which mutate and destroy it.

One of the underlying themes is time and its corrosive effect - both on the individual and the environment, and by extension, the fear of loss. Although the subtext is dark and contemplative, the images are often playful and quirky. Characters and events playing out in sublime and sombre environments resonate with bleak humour and painterly lightness.
O'Flynn, meanwhile, exhibits a selection of oil paintings and small figurative sculptures in 'The Bull and Other Stories'. His work is a collection of incidents from daily life, re-told through his own experience. In some of the stories the bull is the main character while in others, he is the onlooker.

These stories are described as loosely based on truths and on the absurdities that surround them. The titles read like those of short stories, leaving the viewer with the framework to create his or her own narrative. O'Flynn does not pretend to present the 'correct' version of the event, but just a re-telling of a story.

Opens: 6pm, August 3
Closes: August 27

Blank Projects, a new contemporary space that opened last month, shows smaller bodies of work focused on the exploration of creative ability. This month's artist is Nhlanhla Hlongwane, who presents new works in an exhibition entitled 'Stepping Razors' - an excerpt from a Rastafarian song. The title refers to stepping stones, a way of moving forward, but which can also cut through obstacles.

Hlongwane's work is inspired by various African cultures. He transforms and adapts traditional motifs into contemporary vessels with unique designs. As with traditional Zulu pots, they are hand-built and smoke-fired with iron oxide. Traditional relief decorations are combined with carving and incising.

Hlongwane is a lecturer in Art and Design at the College of Cape Town. He has participated in various group shows in the Free State and has recently had a solo exhibition at Artb in Bellville.

Opens: 6pm, August 3
The gallery is only open from 4 - 7pm on August 10, 17 and 24 or by appointment

All three gallery spaces at the AVA are taken up by the annual Members' exhibition. All paid-up members of the association who are also artists will take part in an unselected and un-curated group exhibition. It will showcase as usual a variety of media from more traditional paintings to digital and a range of techniques and subjects.

Opens: August 8
Closes: August 20

Diana Page's new work presents a journey of exploration of two cities: New York and Cape Town, her home town. She seeks to present an intimate and personal geography. Her subject matter is described as only the starting point: 'It is the process of painting and drawing that shapes the content of the work'. Past meets present in the evolution of layers of mark-making, erasures and gradual construction in Page's cities. A cityscape becomes a tussle between the moment and the memory, a journey and investigation into painting itself.

Jane Young has developed a personal iconography in her ceramics that balances the functional and non-functional with a love of materials and the process of shaping clay. Her work is described as playful in attitude, free and painterly, accepting chance as part of the process but with an excellence in craftsmanship.

Opens: 6pm, August 16
Closes: September 10

Kevin de Klerk is described by the VEO Gallery curator as a visual author in the truest sense: 'Kevin builds narratives on concepts we are all familiar with but visually executes these to allow us to see these familiar elements in an unusual, unique and sometimes challenging way. We are simultaneously drawn to, and gripped by, these images for their ambiguity.' His exhibition is titled 'Circus'.

Opens: July 26
Closes: August 5

The main and upstairs galleries at the AVA later this month are dedicated to Vuyile Cameron Voyiya, who will exhibit new works in mixed media and video. Susan Kruger Grundlingh will show new paintings in her first solo at the AVA.

Opens: August 22
Closes: September 10

'Paper Never Lies', a group show by the staff of The College of Cape Town, questions the objectivity of paper. It proposes that paper is magical but subjective, that putting something in writing does not ensure its accuracy or even authenticity and that there is more to paper than meets the eye.
Participants in this exhibition have been encouraged to interpret the title in any way they see fit. The exhibition aims to reflect different voices and subjective viewpoints to generate a 'visual and verbal conversation', according to the curator.

Opens: August 23
Closes: September 1

A group exhibition of Capetonian emerging artists and designers is being held at DIRT contemporary this month, celebrating the power and beauty of black and white graphics.

Posters promoting bands and events, advertising cars for sale, looking for lost pets, or spreading political messages are everyday sights. This exhibition aims to foreground the beauty of posters in their own right, without their utilitarian value, as 'powerful and evocative stances against consumerism'.
Opens: August 9
Closes: August 27

Zoulikha Bouabdellah, an Algerian artist based in Paris, will exhibit her poetic video La Robe at the SANG this month, and at 1pm on August 18 will show a number of her videos and discuss her work. The artist was one of the prizewinners at Dak'Art 2004, the Dakar Biennale.

1pm, August 16

The Centre for African Studies at UCT is hosting an exhibition called 'The Model Men' by Joachim Schönfeldt, Ivan Vladislavic and Andries Oliphant. It comprises 26 illustrations by Schönfeldt, which represent found and sourced objects, implements and ruins. The illustrations became the starting point of a novel by Vladislavic who was invited to respond to them in his own way. The result is his latest book, The Exploded View. Selections from the Vladislavic texts have been 'matched' to the illustrations by writer and critic Andries Oliphant.

'The Model Men' investigates the relationship of objects to speech or written language - an ongoing concern in Schönfeldt's work. In this context, he has considered oral cultures, the charismatic speaker and perspectives of truth. Schönfeldt will be giving a lecture on 'The Model Men' at Michaelis School of Fine Art, Hiddingh Campus, UCT, at 1pm on August 10.

Opens: 6.30pm, August 11
Closes: Late August

Sculptor and printmaker Claudette Schreuders presents two new series of lithographs and two new sculptures at the Michael Stevenson Contemporary Gallery this month. The former include eight prints based on her seminal sculpture series Burnt by the Sun and three large-scale prints called The Three Sisters.

Schreuders is well known for her distinctive oeuvre of carved and painted figurative sculptures that formally reference the West African colon tradition. But her subjects are firmly located in the anxiety of suburban South African existence and often contain elements of autobiography, according to the gallery's statement. She has received wide exposure in the United States, with sell-out shows in New York in 2001 and 2002 and a touring exhibition of university gallery spaces last year.

Painter John Murray's exhibition runs concurrently in an exhibition of portrait and cut-out figure paintings that draw stylistically on West African barbershop signs. Murray's new work includes large-scale portraits of a number of African leaders, including United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan, which reflects a quiet and dignified statesman. Murray will also present charcoal drawings based on newspaper photographs that explore the subtlety of interactions between African politicians.

Opens: July 13
Closes: August 13

The inspiration for this body of work comes from Dario Matter's daily travels on foot from his home in Observatory to his studio in Salt River. He has captured ordinary moments on Polaroid film and reworked them into sculptures made of steel, stone and found objects.

The exhibition, 'dis-comfort', examines and comments on Matter's surroundings and his interaction with them. In this way, he moves from his background training of a precision stone sculptor to a more conceptual artist. Matter trained in Switzerland for four years as a stone sculptor before studying a Post Graduate Diploma at Michaelis School of Fine Art and more recently holding solo shows in Switzerland.

Opens: July 6
Closes: August 13

Lara Feldman is exhibiting paintings that are described as full of descriptive scenery, "like postcards from a laid-back city". She says returning to Cape Town from a few years abroad gave her a renewed sense of the city: "The distinctive colours of Cape Town impress me. My paintings are a reflection of all the diverse and magnificent scenery around me."

Toni Dorfman is a practising graphic designer and trained glass blower who has turned to painting. Her distinctive brightly coloured canvases in acrylic washes and abstract lines depict space, both real and imagined.

Opens: July 23
Closes: August 6

The Dumile Feni retrospective comes to Cape Town's National Gallery this month from the Johannesburg Art Gallery. Feni's drawings, which depicted township life and its values, won acclaim as South African social commentaries. His work has won numerous awards and in 1967 he represented the country at the Sao Paulo Biennale.

Feni's artistic ability was nurtured from 1964 when the artist Ezrom Legae encouraged him to draw and several artists later assisted him in his career, including Cecil Skotnes. In 1968, he went into exile and lived in London for many years. In the 1980s, he moved to New York after teaching art in Boston. He died in 1991.

Opens: August 11
Closes: November 5

An exhibition of photographs by Monica Dart, called 'Fleeting Childhood', takes an apparently provocative look at the tender age of transition, 'that gut-wrenching passage between adolescence and adulthood'.

Opens: June 16
Closes: August 6

This exhibition, which is drawn from the SANG's permanent collection, 'explores the multiple and complex subjectivities of South Africans through works of art that address the need for change and the process of transformation in South Africa'. The focus of the exhibition is not only on political transformation but also on the transformative power of desire and spirituality.

The exhibition profiles many recent acquisitions made with the gallery's funds from the Department of Arts and Culture's Transformation Budget. These newer works are juxtaposed with earlier works exposing intolerable conditions.

Artists include Jane Alexander, Tyrone Appollis, Willie Bester, Peter Clarke, Randolph Hartzenberg, Nicholas Hlobo, Ranjith Kally, Simon Lekgetho, Leonard Matsoso, Santu Mofokeng, Thami Mnyele, Zanele Muholi, Antoinette Murdoch, Tracey Rose, Philip Rikhotso, Alfred Thoba and Diane Victor.

Opens: March 19
Closes: August 28

Bonita Alice presents a multi-media exhibition called 'Promised Land' at the US Art Gallery this month, which addresses 'a tender node somewhere between the endlessly enduring human preoccupation with place in life, and the inescapability of our material return to soil after death'.

Alice says that previous works raised the question of what bond of blood or history produces mythical sense of lifelong attachment to a place, even one not visited. She adds: 'Now, it is an attempt to understand the nature of our desire for that connection to place.'

Professor Keith Dietrich of Stellenbosch University will open the exhibition at 6.30pm on August 4.

Opens: August 4
Closes: September 7