Archive: Issue No. 121, September 2007

08.09.07 The Magic Flute at Artscape
20.09.07 Penny Siopis at Michael Stevenson
22.09.07 Jeremy Wafer at Goodman Gallery Cape
03.10.07 Bridget Baker at João Ferreira
19.09.07 Johann Louw at Sanlam Art Gallery
06.09.07 Brendhan Dickerson at Erdmann Contemporary
10.09.07 Madi Phala and Marlise Keith at AVA
04.09.07 Ernest Cole at Iziko SANG
06.09.07 'Making waves' at Iziko Good Hope Gallery
25.09.07 Ilené Jacobs at Rust en Vrede
19.09.07 Cara van der Westhuizen at Bell-Roberts
31.08.07 Michael Taylor at whatiftheworld/Gallery
08.09.07 Strijdom van der Merwe at Focus Contemporary
26.09.07 'Contusion' at Irma Stern
05.09.07 'New Acquisitions' at João Ferreira
01.10.07 Jennifer Lovemore-Reed, Karen Cronje and Rudolph Tshie at AVA
04.09.07 Paul du Toit at 34Long
19.09.07 'Finding UCT' at Centre for African Studies Gallery
10.09.07 Frank van Reenen at Worldart
31.08.07 Janet Ranson at Gerald Cloete Gallery
29.09.07 'Pop Art' at RED! The Gallery
02.09.07 'Sculpture Garden' at Grande Provence
01.09.07 'Erotic Art' at Hout Bay Gallery
19.09.07 Jillian Lochner at Everard Read Gallery

05.08.07 Mikhael Subotzky at Goodman Gallery Cape
05.08.07 Nandipha Mntambo and Meshac Gaba at Michael Stevenson Gallery
05.08.07 Avant-Car Guard at what if the world/Project Room
05.08.07 'PRINT 07' at Bell-Roberts Lourensford
05.08.07 Kate Tarrat Cross, Timothy Zantsi and Joe Dolby at AVA
05.08.07 Clare Menck, Annelie Venter and Nicolaas Maritz at Chelsea on 34

02.07.07 'The Sneeze 80 x 80' at Iziko SANG
01.07.07 'Singing the Real' at Iziko SANG
06.05.07 'Art from Rorke's Drift' at Iziko SANG

04.03.07 'Fabrications' at Iziko SANG

STELLENBOSCH & PAARL

05.09.07 Jürgen Schadeberg at Sasol Art Musuem
15.09.07 Trasi Henen at SMAC
21.09.07 Kevin Brand at Cultivaria

RIEBEEK KASTEEL

01.09.07 Leon Vermeulen at Cape Francolin Art Hotel

William Kentridge's production of Mozart's The Magic Flute opens in Cape Town in September and then moves to Johannesburg. These performances in South Africa will be the culmination of a remarkable artistic journey that included the creation of the opera, an outpouring of drawings and prints on themes related to the production, and the completion of a seminal project, commissioned by Deutsche Guggenheim, called Black Box, that was unveiled in Berlin in 2006 before moving to the Johannesburg Art Gallery. The opera has been described as 'One of the most original and strangely beautiful opera productions of our time - an artwork in itself that never overshadows the musical element of this endlessly enigmatic piece' by John Allison of Opera magazine. Kentridge's trademark charcoal-erase technique is projected onto a combination of gauzes and screens throughout the opera.

South African opera singers such as Kaiser Nkosi, whose career is based in Europe and who sang the role of Sarastro in the European performances, will be performing. The production is conducted by Piers Maxim. The dialogue will use a modern translation and the songs will be sung in German with English subtitles.

A specially-edited children's version of the production will also be performed in Cape Town and Johannesburg with some shows for children from disadvantaged schools and communities. The objective is to increase access to the arts for youngsters and allow them the opportunity to be part of a historical cultural event.

David Krut will be publishing a book to accompany the opera, tracing the process of Kentridge's creation of The Magic Flute, the collaborations that produced Black Box, and the host of other works that flowed out of preparations for these two important productions. The book, edited by Bronwyn Law-Viljoen, will contain an interview with the artist, essays by Law-Viljoen, St&ecute;phane Roussel and Kate McCrickard along with numerous preparatory and production images.

Opens: September 8
Closes: September 18

Penny Siopis, one of South Africa's most highly regarded and influential artists, will hold only her second solo exhibition in Cape Town. 'Lasso' will continue exploring some of the concerns developed in her 'Feral Fables' series, giving even more powerful expression to the world of the emotions and the realm of the imagination.

Using painting, drawing and film, Siopis articulates this world through a strongly associative combination of imagery, sound and narrative. As in the 'Feral Fables' paintings, which combined liquid ink washes with viscous glue, Siopis also stresses the associative qualities of her chosen medium, which is as important for conveying feeling as imagery or narrative. In this new body of work, what the artist calls 'the poetics of vulnerability' - a feature characterising her oeuvre to date - is particularly strongly manifested.

Siopis was born in Vryburg in 1953 and is based in Johannesburg, where she is Associate Professor in Fine Arts at the University of the Witwatersrand. She has exhibited widely both in South Africa and internationally, but has not held a solo exhibition in Cape Town since 1984 when she showed alongside Peter Schütz at Gallery International.

Siopis' work has been selected for 'Bound', an exhibition exploring slavery at Tate Liverpool, UK, and for 'Local Racism, Global Apartheid. South Africa as a Paradigm', curated by Pep Suboris.

Opens: September 20
Closes: October 20

In Jeremy Wafer's first solo exhibition in Cape Town, he works with the performative aspects of minimalism, and the extent to which non-representational art is produced or experienced as a close relationship between viewer and object, with all the formal elements of size and scale, orientation, shape, colour and surface related to the artist's or viewers' own physical and psychological presence.

The exhibition includes a 6 metre floor sculpture, matt and polished discs, a photographic installation of paths crossing a burnt veld, a video projection and various sets of drawings, some exploring architectural themes, while others utilise bitumen and glass respectively. Wafer explores some of the ways in which he has worked in the past. The large curved floor sculpture echoes steel and wax works made in the 1980s in a similar reference to walls and barriers, alluding to internal and external space and to notions of inclusion and exclusion that were both literal and metaphorical representations of personal states of mind which at the same time could be read in more public or political ways.

Formerly from Durban where he was a leading figure in the visual arts community, Wafer is currently head of the Wits School of the Arts, Department of Fine Arts. In 2006 he won the inaugural Sasol Wax Art Award for his mixed media installation entitled Geography. Over the years, he has been awarded numerous residencies and is represented in many public collections.

Opens: September 22
Closes: October 13

The ever-whimsical Bridget Baker comes back from an expedition to Switzerland where she has discovered the progenitor of the Blue Collar Girl in the Swiss Alps: The Transparent Girl. The Blue Collar Girl has featured as the protagonist in a series of works Baker has been producing for several years now.

This will be her second solo exhibition with João Ferreira Gallery. Her works are part of many public collections including South African National Gallery, Billiton Board, Old Mutual, Johannesburg Art Gallery, UNISA (University of South Africa) and the Standard Bank of South Africa.

Opens: October 3
Closes: October 27

As an artist and painter Johann Louw stands out, comments Stefan Hundt, curator of the Sanlam Art Collection and gallery. 'His ability to manipulate and model paint and engage the inner psyche of the viewer through this medium place Louw as one of the few painters that have transcended the parochial self-indulgence that has characterised contemporary art in South Africa. Although his imagery remains enigmatic and may not be clearly explicable, it has become part of the iconography reflecting South Africa's evolving society.'

Over the past 20 years Louw has stood out as one of the foremost painters in South Africa. Although he has exhibited regularly in Cape Town and Johannesburg it has been hard to form a broad overview of his oeuvre. The exhibition in the Sanlam Art Gallery will show works from when Louw completed his studies at the University of Stellenbosch in the 1980s to the present. It is supplemented by an extensively illustrated catalogue of 60 pages with contributions by Professor David Bunn (head of the department History of Art at the Wits School of the Arts) and Andries Gouws, philosopher and acclaimed painter in his own right.

Opens: September 19
Closes: November 2

Brendhan Dickerson is best known for the biting wit and careful compositions of his mobile sculptures. This solo show, 'Living Conditioned', promises sculptures articulating droll and disquieting satire on social conditioning, relationships and, of course, politics. Composite sculptures consisting of figures and associated objects in carved wood and forge-blackened wrought stainless steel will be accompanied by photographic stills of Succession Debate, a recent fire-sculpture performance. This fire-sculpture reveals Dickerson's interest in sculpture as spectacle, and shows him engaged in an ongoing exploration of kinetic fire-sculpture as a form of performance art.

Opens: September 6
Closes: September 29

The late Madi Phala was an active member of the visual art community in South Africa, being a respected artist, teacher, and mentor. The AVA hosts an exhibition of his works in order to pay tribute to his contribution and commitment to the AVA over the years. Phala participated in many group exhibitions nationally since 1979, with his last solo exhibition being at the AVA in 2005. The body of work that will be exhibited reflects his utilisation of paint and collage and his exploration of tradition and modernity.

Marlise Keith exhibits 'Kners' (to grind one's teeth) simultaneously. 'Kners' investigates the underlying beauty and terror of an ordinary existence and an internal narrative. Keith completed a BA in Fine Art at the University of Pretoria in 1995 and went on to complete a Masters in Fine Art at the University of Stellenbosch in 2002.

Opens: September 10
Closes: September 28

Ernest Cole was a courageous young photographer who spent five years documenting everyday experiences of black South Africans under apartheid in the 1960s. Simply titled 'Ernest Cole', the exhibition is a commentary on many manifestations of apartheid, as seen through Cole's lens: the lives of migrant labourers recruited to the mines and the indignities that they were forced to endure, pass raids and arrests, the plight of domestic workers, 'Bantu' education, inadequate health care and poverty. The project culminated in the publication of House of Bondage in New York in 1967, negotiated by Magnum Photos, after Cole fled South Africa with a suitcase of his photographic prints.

The immediate banning of the book in South Africa imposed permanent exile on the photographer, who was then only 27. In the United States he undertook a project funded by the Ford Foundation, but this never reached completion and Cole finally gave up taking photographs. He died in New York in 1990, shortly before his 50th birthday and a few days after the release of Nelson Mandela.

Although the negatives for his South African images were smuggled out by fellow photographer Struan Robertson, with whom Ernest Cole had shared a darkroom in Johannesburg, their current whereabouts is unknown. In 2005, the Iziko South African National Gallery was granted funding by the National Lotteries Board to acquire a small collection of his photographic prints, possibly made in preparation for the re-publication of House of Bondage.

Opens: September 4
Closes: December 31

A version of this exhibition, previously shown at the Johannesburg Art Gallery in 2004 - 5 and at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown comes to Cape Town's Good Hope Gallery. The exhibition, which will feature approximately 100 works, attempts to provide both an interpretation of the development of South African art through the 20th century and a selection of the best contemporary work.

The historical coverage traces the emergence of a local tradition distinguishable from the earlier indigenous and Europe-derived traditions. The latter is illustrated in the work of Kay, Maggie Laubser, Alexis Preller and Irma Stern among others. The local tradition is seen as originating in the township painters from Gerard Sekoto among others in the 30s to Motjuoadi, Ngatane and Durant Sihlali in the 60s and 70s and also in the very different hybrid products of the Rorke's Drift and Polly Street art schools in the third quarter of the century.

Of pivotal importance in this process is the unique work produced in the context of political struggle after Sharpeville 1960 and Soweto 1976, seminally in the drawings of Dumile Feni and Motau in the 60s, followed in the 70s and the 80s by the work of Kumalo, Legae, Alexander, Ractliffe and others in a range of media.

In addition, distributed throughout the exhibition are examples of contemporary South African work in a range of media, including the sculptures of Jackson Hlungwane, Noria Mabasa and Peter Schütz, drawings by William Kentridge and Diane Victor, photographs by Santu Mofokeng and Guy Tillim, prints by Dan Rakgoethe and Cyprian Shilakoe, mixed media works by Sam Nhlengethwa and Tracey Rose as well as paintings by Robert Hodgins and Penny Siopis. The work of several younger artists including Gush, Nicholas Hlobo, Pieter Hugo and Churchill Madikida is also featured.

The exhibition has been curated by Koulla Xinisteris, Collection curator, and Graham Neame, Collection art advisor.

Opens: September 6
Closes: October 28

An exhibition of mixed media images by Stellenbosch graduate Ilené Jacobs, evocatively entitled 'Kaartehuis Kroniek', is on show alongside Susan Grundlingh's work. Jacobs obsessively investigates the mutable nature of identity through images that revolve around the simultaneous construction and deconstruction of self-representation, whilst Grundlingh's drawings and oil paintings concern themselves with 'Loss and Longing'. Grundlingh has previously shown at the AVA and artb.

Opens: September 25
Closes: October 18

Titled 'Venus Revisited', this show explores facets of feminine beauty while addressing issues of vanity and narcissism. Lithographic prints on multiple layers of glass rework and reconsider traditional representations of idealised women drawn from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Mounted on handmade cabinets referencing the furniture of the boudoir, these subtle and enigmatic images of women as objects of desire are broken apart to show their biological interior, echoing the transparent surface upon which they are printed. This strategy of layering as a form of visual dissection draws on historically conflicting associations between external appearance and internal value associated with womanly beauty.

In these representations of the body's interior, fauna and flora merge with anatomical details. Thus, reference is made to the ambiguous historical relationship between women and nature. 'Woman' is presented as both nurturing mother and dangerously sexual other.

Having completed a diploma in graphic design (cum laude) at the Ruth Prowse School of Art in 1999, van der Westhuizen received a scholarship to study at UCT's Michaelis School of Fine Art where she completed her degree with double distinction. This is van der Westhuizen's first solo exhibition and is based in part on her Master's research at UCT.

Opens: September 19
Closes: October 10

This is the second solo exhibition by up-and-coming young artist and illustrator Michael Taylor. Entitled 'Nocturnes', the works draw on Taylor's continuing theme of 'nonsense' to create small-scale paintings which tell of nocturnal stories. Whilst not following a specific storyline, the pictures individually elucidate a happening around the hours of either twilight, midnight or dawn, and the titles function as entry points to the narrative, opening a parallel narrative to what its picture represents. This is the impetus for the exhibition: to create a body of work that poses to illustrate a single narrative, but in fact creates multiple sequences and moods for disparate occurrences - 'a harmonised mismatch of bits of night-nonsense'.

Opens: August 31
Closes: September 22

Local land artist Strijdom van der Merwe makes his work in response to his chosen site, either by inserting elements into the natural environment or excavating them in geometrical forms and patterns. 'Land art encompasses everything - wind, birds, smell, touch. And my work doesn't exist until I find it. In nature, the options are endless, and it's exciting working with materials never thought possible', says Van der Merwe. In this exhibition he will combine photographic prints with an installation in the gallery.

Van der Merwe studied at the University of Stellenbosch and has been a full-time artist since 1996. His work is in numerous public and private collections.

Opens: September 8
Closes: October 17

This exhibition by three recent Michaelis graduates navigates violence in our society, reflecting on the many ways that social disturbances in our environment are experienced as dark shadows of a deeper unrest. The works try to expose the coping mechanisms that hide the collective distress or unease. A common theme in the work of all three young artists is the recognition of this shadow on the social consciousness of our society.

Suzanne Duncan uses objects usually intended to protect the body in the anticipation of injury. The absent body is projected onto these objects. These objects' inability to defend the body reveals an underlying vulnerability.

Natasha Norman explores paradoxes of violence and its representation. Her work investigates how the ever-diminishing emotional impact of viewing violent acts distorts judgement and perception. Norman was a finalist for this years' Sasol New Signatures Competition.

Dale Washkansky uses his own body as a means to access historic trauma, specifically located in a South African context. Juxtaposing quasi-naïve imagery with state iconography, Washkansky attempts to peel away the façades disguising societal violence. The resultant imagery is meant to be frustrating and confusing, acting as a symbol for the implosion of language when it faces pain. Washkansky is currently facilitating a workshop and exhibition with Siona O' Connell at !Khwa ttu.

Opens: September 26
Closes: October 16

The 'New Work, New Acquisitions' show will showcase work created within the last year as well as acquisitions made. Exhibiting artists include Tom Cullberg, whose paintings move the viewer into the realm of memories; Nadja Daehnke, who has replaced her scarred and tortured canvas with metal and signage; a 'social documentary' photograph by Tracey Derrick; Swiss artist Remo's satirical art, as well as Egon Tania's first bronze sculptures alongside Anton Karstel's latest oil on canvas and a drawing by Stefan Balkenhol.

Opens: September 5
Closes: September 29

In a follow-up to her February 2006 performance piece at Erdmann Contemporary, 'Bag-lady, clown, sycophant', Jennifer Lovemore-Reed will show 'Remnants, Relics and Reasons' at the AVA Gallery. The process of the previous performance piece will be laid open, like a collection of multi-dimensional puzzle pieces, for the public to reassemble and form a personal picture of the experience. The initial performance was done in complete silence. Unknown to the viewers, the official performance started before the artist left home for the gallery and only ended after she returned. Lovemore-Reed had set up a video camera in her work space, to tape herself talking to the camera just before departing for the performance and to tape herself upon her return. The result is two very telling pieces of footage which contain an immediate and accurate depiction of the experience of the artist before and after the performance. These pieces of footage will be central to the exhibition at the AVA. Other physical 'remnants' of the performance will also be included.

Karen Cronje will show 'Just a Little more' which aims to create elusive and intimate moments, reflecting her art-making process. The oil on canvas paintings and large drawings are not about finite definitions of closed statement but personal interrogations of process. Cronje studied at the University of Stellenbosch where she completed a Master's Degree in 2001.

Rudolph Tshie is renowned for his skill with oils, pastels and watercolour. His work aims to capture the spirit of a place and more specifically his experience of African life. He obtained a certificate in Fine Arts from the federated Union of Black Arts in JHB where he studied from 1991 - 93 and has gone on to exhibit extensively nationally in many group exhibitions and has just returned from a residence in Mauritius.

Opens: October 1
Closes: October 19

Paul du Toit exploits the expressive power of line and colour to create quasi-simplistic paintings of humanoid forms. Asked about the show's title, 'Highly charged', du Toit says it describes the energy that goes into his production. His drawings are worked and reworked, and only after much consideration does he transfer ideas to the tactile surfaces of his canvases. Du Toit draws on the calligraphic quality of rock engravings, strange alphanumeric systems and Chinese pictographs as sources of inspiration.

Featuring both sculptures and paintings, the show is sure to delight his fans. Over the last ten years, du Toit's work has gained wide recognition, and has become sought-after by international collectors of contemporary art both corporate and individual. Whilst du Toit hasn't made it into the annals of the 'art-eratti', his work continues to be popular and accessible, joyously celebrating line and colour. 'Highly charged' marks the resumption of du Toit's collaboration with 34Long.

Opens: September 4
Closes: October 6

34Long
34 Long Street, Cape Town
Tel: (021) 426 4594
Email: fineart@34long.com

'Finding UCT' takes a new look at aspects of the University of Cape Town's permanent collection. The premise of the exhibition is largely to provide a space for students and the public to view both contemporary and more traditional works collected by the University that they might not otherwise get a chance to see.

The exhibition traverses notions of domesticity, space, place, gender and personal and historical narratives. In essence, the show presents a series of unexpected, sometimes even whimsical moments from the UCT collection. The exhibition is curated by Linda Stupart and Clare Butcher.

Opens: September 19
Closes: October 10

'Icing sugar mixed with cyanide' is how Frank Van Reenen describes his work. Van Reenen's art reflects his affinity for toys and an unashamed surrender to the colourful palette of our everyday existence. Apart from his obvious penchant for humour, his work is rooted in an appreciation of the absurd. Nor is he oblivious to the darker side of life.

Opens: September 10
Closes: September 22

'As Luck Would Have It' is a new exhibition of abstract paintings and mixed media work by Janet Ranson that highlights her preoccupation with process. Ranson states 'If paintings are visual nudges to focus on the important things in life, then this collection of works should remind us to be mindful of our good fortune. Use what you are given, make what you need.' Ranson often uses found materials and her studio practice is a tongue-in-cheek superstitious ritual involving 'watching paint dry' and 'looking out for magic'.

Opens: August 31
Closes: September 12

Pop Art was one of the most influential movements of the 20th century, breaking the elitist paradigm of previous artistic movements. Reacting against the predominantly 'abstract expressive' aesthetic of the late 1950s, Pop Art in the 60s glorified banal images drawn from mass culture. Using familiar icons from advertisements, comic books, cinema, and mass media, Pop art dissolved the primordial division between high art and mass culture. Boundaries between commercial art and fine art were voluntarily torn apart.

Selected artists will demonstrate a 'Proudly South African' interpretation of Pop Art. Drawing on images familiar to popular South African culture, this exhibit will offer a sentimental glimpse into the past and through the future.

Opens: September 29

Grande Provence Estate in Franschhoek is opening its 'Sculpture Garden', where sculptures will mingle with the surrounding gardens. This is an extension of the gallery on the Estate which hosts regular exhibitions featuring local artists. States curator Ilse Schermers Griesel, '''The Sculpture Garden' will be created by integrating space for works of sculpture, both freestanding and on plinths'.

The following sculptors will be represented in the exhibition: Angus Taylor, Anton Momberg, David Rossouw, Dylan Lewis, Francois Visser, Guy du Toit, Jacques Dhont, Richard Forbes, Rossouw van der Walt, Ruhan Janse van Vuuren, Uwe Pfaff and Wilma Cruise.

Opens: September 2

Hout Bay Gallery hosts a body of work by Vanessa Berlein, Sarah Danes-Jarrett and Claire Walker that explores a female perspective of sexuality. In an endeavour to capture what is very personal to each, the artists have worked in new ways to create a wide-ranging group of works that includes oil on canvas paintings, drawing, collage and photography.

Opens: September 1
Closes: September 15

Jillian Lochner, internationally acclaimed in the advertising and fashion world, creates a disconcerting narrative set against a sumptuously Baroque backdrop. A dead pig is ceremonially splayed across a table like a spatchcocked chicken, surrounded by apparently orgiastic revellers, immersed in acts of debauchery. The pig's skin tone and the fleshy folds framing its buttocks are barely differentiated from the textures and hues of the humans ravaging it. It is the victim of both feast and rape, in its literal animal form and as a metaphor of humanity's depravity, excesses and hypocrisy.

But the subtleties of Lochner's work are far more textured than mere messages on mixed morality. Lavish production design and immaculate lighting are offset by imagery of stomach-churning crassness and fragility, irony and empathy. Her work reminds one of 17th century 'Vanitas' paintings in which opulent - often decadent - arrangements of fruit, flowers and material finery serve as symbolic reminders of life's impermanence.

Born in South Africa, Lochner has achieved numerous international awards including, a New York Gold for work produced for her long-standing client Levi's in 2004 and a Cannes Gold in 2006. Her work was selected for Archive's '200 Best Photographers'.

Opens: September 19
Closes: October 1

This is the first solo exhibition in Cape Town by Mikhael Subotzky since Die Vier Hoeke, a photo essay exploring the South African prison system, was shown in the Nelson Mandela Cell at Pollsmoor Prison in 2005. The forging of relationships as the primary drive of his photography and his sensitivity towards his subject have garnered Subotzky awards such as the 2007 City of Perpignan Young Photographer Award; the 2007 KLM Paul Huff Award; the 2006 F25 Award for Concerned Photography; a one-year residency at Fabrica in Treviso; and a Civitella Ranieri Fellowship. At 25 years of age, Subotzky is the youngest photographer ever to be accepted into Magnum Photos.

In describing this latest Beaufort West series, Subotzky says:

'Despite being originally established to bring law and order to the central Karoo, Beaufort West is now a transit town. Situated at the intersection of two of the busiest national roadways, it serves as a food and overnight stop for travellers of all kinds. Every day, the town's population doubles with those who pass through it. Beaufort West has recently been described by the South African Human Rights Commission as "an isolated town that has not broken away from the shackles of South Africa's apartheid past, [where] economic and social integration is severely limited".

'I was drawn to Beaufort West when I came across its prison. It is bizarrely situated in a traffic circle in the centre of the town in the middle of the N1 highway. Most South African prisons are hidden from view on the outskirts of our towns and cities. I was interested in this image of the prison at the centre of the town and the irony that it is still hidden as most of those who drive around the traffic circle don't realize that they are passing the prison. This image thus became a locus by which to explore the town and its margins.'

On Thursday August 30 at 11am Subotzky will conduct a walkabout for the Friends of the South African National Gallery.

Opens: August 25
Closes: September 17

Rising star Nandipha Mntambo exhibits concurrently with the first South African exhibition by internationally renowned artist Meschac Gaba (Benin/Netherlands). Mntambo graduated in June with Master's in Fine Art with distinction from the Michaelis School of Fine Art. She has already received critical notice as one of five young artists selected for the 2006 MTN New Contemporaries exhibition at Johannesburg Art Gallery, and has taken part in a number of local and international exhibitions.

Mntambo has developed a distinctive aesthetic through her use of cowhide, which she tans and moulds onto casts of the female body - usually her own. She purchases the hide as raw as possible in order to engage fully with the material - its smell and textures causing revulsion but also provoking a consciousness of the corporeal. The hairy skin, cast in female form, is used, Mntambo says, to 'challenge and subvert preconceptions regarding representation of the female body', and to 'disrupt perceptions of attraction and repulsion'.

Mntambo's Beginning of the Empire, a series of figures based on her mother's body, has been selected for the upcoming exhibition 'Local Racism, Global Apartheid. South Africa as a Paradigm', curated by Pep Subiros for the Centre de Cultura Contemporania de Barcelona (opening September 26) and travelling to the Foundation Bancaja in Valencia in 2008.

Meschac Gaba is best known for his 'Museum of Contemporary African Art', a project in which he installed 12 'rooms' of a nomadic museum in various institutions over a period of five years starting in 1997. This exhibition will comprise new works from Gaba's Tresses series in which he reinterprets iconic buildings in the form of braided artificial hair sculptures. On a research trip to South Africa in 2006, Gaba selected 10 buildings ranging from the Sentech Tower in Johannesburg to the Castle in Cape Town. He then produced architectural drawings in Rotterdam, which his studio in Cotonou, Benin, used to craft the objects. Gaba uses the French term métissage (literally 'mixed-race') as a metaphor for global culture, of which both hair-braiding and architecture are instances.

Gaba is included on 'Africa Remix' which ends its international tour at the Johannesburg Art Gallery September 30.

Opens: August 16
Closes: September 15

   SEE REVIEWS

'Naked Frontier Ambition vibes' is a solo exhibition of recent work by Avant Car Guard's provocative trio: Zander Blom, Jan-Henri Booyens and Michael MacGarry. Their approach to art production, the art world and their own collective role as a singular artist is characterised by a foregrounded sense of humour and a punk sensibility. Their production focuses predominantly on conceptual art manifest through photography and performance. 'A sincere act to invent something insincere', is probably the most succinct definition of their method.

Avant Car Guard is a three member visual art collective from Johannesburg which has been exhibiting nationally over the past 18 months. They have recently published a book on their production entitled Volume I.

Opens: August 17
Closes: September 29

South Africa has a rich history of printmaking which dates back to the first settlers in the Cape and which was primarily aimed at disseminating information from the mother continent to the new settlers. The 60s saw an explosion of the print form as many young printmakers were trained at the Evangelical Lutheran Church Art and Craft Centre in Rorke's Drift, leading to the development of what is uniquely South African printmaking, merging social commentary and a truly localised aesthetic with broad appeal. Despite the closure of the Art and Craft Centre, its legacy has continued with many of South Africa's most prominent artists employing the medium as part of their repertoire.

The inaugural 'PRINT 07' is organised in association with UCT's Michaelis School of Fine Art, Stellenbosch University Visual Arts Department and Rhodes University Fine Art Department. It takes the form of an extensive educational print exhibition, consisting of three print portfolios: Working Proof, Spit II and Egazini Outreach Project, which showcase the output of some of the leading printmaking studios in the country as well as some of the less known printmakers. Bell-Roberts is planning to continue this focus on prints with an annual conference and exhibition at Lourensford.

Working Proof is a portfolio of lithographs, co-ordinated by Stephen Inggs, exploring how artists use and adapt commercial print technology. The portfolio, consisting of 10 contributions by staff of the Michaelis School of Fine Arts and other prominent artists, has a broad scope and aims to provide new ideas and approaches to contemporary printmaking. The Spit II print portfolio consists of 28 contributions by the staff of the Visual Arts Department, University of Stellenbosch. And the Egazini Outreach Project deals with the Battle of Grahamstown and has been produced by Fineline Press at Rhodes University.

Participating artists include Jane Alexander, Fritha Langerman, Stephen Inggs, Deborah Bell, Kevin Brand, Jane Eppel, Katherine Bull, Robert Hodgins, William Kentridge, Colbert Mashile, Sam Nhlengethwa and Lyndi Sales.

Opens: August 4
Closes: October 4

Kate Tarratt Cross will be exhibiting 'Shadows from Haiti' in the Main Gallery. Tarratt Cross' work revolves around her autobiographical journey through space and time, whilst acquainting herself with her shadow. Her journey is recorded by capturing her shadow in contrived situations. Although born in South Africa, Tarratt Cross is presently living in Haiti where she has been running an Art Foundation set up by herself and her partner Patrick Boucard. She has exhibited in Haiti, USA, England and South Africa.

Joe Dolby presents a recent body of work which includes pastels, charcoals and watercolours. His work ranges from landscapes and botanical studies to depictions of people. The latter are not completed portraits in the conventional sense, but are used as vehicles to convey different moods and emotions.

Timothy Zantsi has participated in numerous group exhibitions nationally, and returns to the AVA for his third exhibition there, this time in the long gallery.

Opens: August 28
Closes: September 7

Chelsea on 34 presents an exhibition of paintings on canvas, board and ceramic surfaces by Patsy Groll, Clare Menck and Annelie Venter to be opened by Nicolaas Maritz. This will be gallerist Lieschen Heinze's final exhibition after 35 years of art-dealing.

Menck explains her work:

'Much of what I paint invariably has autobiographic content as I use myself and those close to me as my most familiar subjects. I explore the dynamics between figure and surrounding spaces in the characteristic landscape environments of the Karoo, the West Coast, the Sandveld and the Cedarberg. I try to do unconventional nudes that emphasize the isolated existential experience of being alone in nature. The viewer is allowed a voyeurist peek into a private world of self-contemplation and interaction with natural elements such as the water of a rock pool.

Opens: August 25
Closes: September 15

'The Sneeze 80 x 80' was conceived and produced by the artists Peter Lloyd Lewis (UK) and Natasha Makowski (USA). The film pays homage to Thomas Edison's kinograph film of a sneeze, a random and connective act. It includes footage by 80 video artists from 29 countries and 5 continents and is presented as a single work, in which new narratives are constructed through the introduction of a continually changing sequence structure. The artists were invited to submit 80 seconds of footage for the film, meaning that accumulatively the pieces acquire the length of a feature film.

South Africa is represented by the artists Sue Williamson and Thando Mama.

Opens: June 26
Closes: October 28

'Singing the Real' is the first exhibition of contemporary Irish art organised by the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA), Dublin to be seen in South Africa. Patrick T. Murphy, RHA Director explains: '"Singing the Real" is a multi-media, cross generational and gender diverse exhibition that explores the combination of scientific method and art practice that is an evident and strong strain in Irish art today. Observing, recording, describing, hypothesizing and analyzing are the empirical dynamics that underscore the artwork in this exhibition. As if by the co-option of empirical that the artist can directly engage the material, and indirectly the new materialism in Ireland, to establish new relationships with traditional values of the land and the community.'

The artists include Barrie Cooke, Dorothy Cross, Grace Weir, Susan Tiger, Cecily Brennan, Nick Miller, Neva Elliott, John Gerrard, Gary Phelan and Martin Healy.

Opens: July 19
Closes: November 18

Curator Joe Dolby presents an important collection of art from Rorke's Drift. A seminal fine arts training centre for black artists during the apartheid era, Rorke's Drift in KwaZulu Natal afforded oppportunities for those denied art training in South Africa. Established in 1968, the school was initially managed by two Swedish art teachers, Peder and Ulla Gowenius.

The show also demonstrates the collecting policy of the National Gallery. The first prints and tapestries from Rorke's Drift in the collection of the Iziko South African National Gallery were acquired in the mid-1960s. Most of the artists represented were confined to well-known names such as Azaria Mbatha and John Muafangejo. In 2006, funding provided by the National Lottery Board enabled the gallery to significantly augment their holdings and to assemble a more representative selection detailing the diverse range of artistic production of the school.

Opens: May 16
Closes: June 24

'Fabrications', an ongoing exhibition drawing on the gallery's permanent collection, examines the ways in which artists have creatively used, painted or sculpted approximations of fabric and costume in their work, revealing surprising insights into social history as well as the artistic process.

The book Voices from the Land and the photographic exhibition, which is about the lives of farmworkers, their plight, their problems, their hopes and fears, has been on Jurgen Schadeberg's mind for many years. He travelled through South Africa for two years documenting farm life and farm labour conditions, where he found some promising and positive situations where farmers are providing for their workers by giving them dignified and comfortable lives. However, many farmworkers are still living in unacceptable conditions and many are being evicted from their birth places.

'We allowed these men and women to talk about their lives and their problems, their grief and their anger. Many of the evictees we met were elderly and in bad health, a vulnerable and powerless group for which a farmer has little use, even though they might have sacrificed most of their lives in service', he notes in his introduction to the book which accompanies the exhibition.

'It is not an investigative report where judgements are made, but rather an attempt to open the eyes of society, particularly of those people in the urban areas who never come into contact with rural life and people. City dwellers buy their food in supermarkets and are presented with a tourist version of rural life while our politicians often visit the country on pre-arranged garden routes and are welcomed by cheering crowds, but they rarely stop to make surprise visits to hear the real stories of people's lives, the harrowing tales of destitution, poverty and despair', says Schadeberg.

Opens: September 5
Closes: October 13

SMAC hosts a solo exhibition by Trasi Henen entitled 'Delicate Life Pursuer'. Henen works in painting and mixed media. She graduated with a Fine Arts degree from Wits University in 2003, and has participated in several group exhibitions. She made her curatorial debut with the 2004 Women's Day Celebrations at Constitution Hill and organised 'Art in the Dark', a video art festival, in late 2004.

At the same time there will be a group show, showcasing a variety of painters, including Jake Aikman, Johann Louw, Andrzej Nowicki and Sanell Aggenbach.

Opens: September 15
Closes: October 15

As a former winner of the FNB Vita Art award, Kevin Brand is widely regarded as one of South Africa's foremost artists and received critical acclaim for his interrogation of urban and suburban South African life. Although best known as a sculptor, whose art reflected South African ideologies, his recent work examines more personal and everyday issues.

After returning from a three-month stay in Holland, Brand has turned his attention to more everyday inspirations and 'Set the World on Fire', his exhibition at Cultivaria, found its inspiration in the humble braai grid. 'In the 80s and 90s, I used my art to express relevant issues and politics did play a part in my motivation... After returning from Amsterdam, it became very important for me to gain enjoyment from my work and to become more playful. I don't think there is another symbol that is more inherent to the South African lifestyle than the braai grid,' mentions Brand.

Brand graduated from Michaelis School of Fine Art where he majored in sculpture and was one of the participating artists on 'Faultlines' at the Cape Town Castle in 1996. Brand currently works in the Industrial Design Department at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. He has exhibited widely both in South Africa and abroad and his work is held in many private, public and corporate collections.

Brand's work will form part of the representative exhibition of all participating artists.

Opens: September 21
Closes: September 24

Just in time for Spring, the Cape Francolin Art Hotel puts up Leon Vermeulen's eight fleshy, voluptuous and seductive new oil paintings on cloth. Vermeulen is known for his frank male nudes, which demonstrate why the bees, and often birds, are so fond of flowers.

Opens: September 1
Closes: October 14