Current Review(s)
Black: the antithesis of the fraudulent sensuality of culture's façade. An experiment in voluntary asceticism.
Liza Grobler, Mary Wafer, Hentie van der Merwe, Zander Blom, Kathryn Smith and Nomthunzi Mashalaba at blank projectsFor blank’s last show in their Buitengracht Street space, the walls have been painted black. Ditto the floors and ceiling, and what with the blistering spotlights burning down from above, it’s a rather uncomfortable space to find oneself in. Standing on the floor in one corner a doll-sized figure captures the mood: she’s wreathed in layers of black and brown tights, unable to see out, yet seems to be gazing up at a sickle moon through a little jail window, drawn on the black wall with white chalk. This playful chalk drawing effectively turns the whole gallery into a jail; a touch of magical realism not unlike that of Robin Rhode.
For the show, curators Jonathan Garnham and Pierre Fouché challenged artists to undertake a vow of ‘voluntary asceticism’, producing work in black only. Being contrary by nature however, several of the artists took this as something of a challenge and Liza Grobler's Little White Lies is not the only work which shows signs of mutiny.
05 August 2009 - 25 August 2009
Listings(s)
Black: the antithesis of the fraudulent sensuality of culture's façade. An experiment in voluntary asceticism.
Liza Grobler, Mary Wafer, Hentie van der Merwe, Zander Blom, Kathryn Smith and Nomthunzi Mashalaba at blank projectsInspired by the eternal-, yet sensual darkness of Adorno's observations on aesthetics & Anaïs Nin's multiplicative expansionist core, blank has decided to invite artists to engage in an experiment of voluntary asceticism, to produce an intimate work in which, formally, colour is reduced to black. Zander Blom, Liza Grobler, Nomthunzi Mashalaba, Kathryn Smith, Michael Taylor, Hentie van der Merwe and Mary Wafer are participating in this black-cube group exhibition.
05 August 2009 - 25 August 2009
No Closer to the Truth
Mary Wafer at KZNSA GalleryWith 'No Closer to the Truth', painter Mary Wafer presents two new series of paintings. The first series of small and intimate works are portraits and still lives of mercenaries and gun enthusiasts and their weapon collections. The second series is an investigation into the Durban architecture and harbour.
23 March 2010 - 17 April 2010
'MATRIX'
Maja Maljevic, Mary Wafer, Diane Victor, Senzo Shabangu, Deborah Bell, Stephen Hobbs and William Kentridge at David Krut ProjectsDavid Krut Projects Cape Town is pleased to present 'MATRIX', an exhibition of editioned works from the David Krut Print Workshop (DKW) that sheds light on the processes of printmaking. The selection of works present a range of different intaglio and relief printing techniques and are exhibited alongside the plates that were used to make them and, in some cases, the trial proofs that show the development of the work.
Prints, unlike paintings or drawings, generally exist in multiple examples. They are created by drawing a composition not directly on paper but on another surface, called a matrix, and then, by various techniques, printing that image on paper. The matrix (from the Latin word mater, meaning mother) can be made out of a number of things – a woodblock, a metal plate, a lithographic stone or a mesh screen for example. At DKW, etching (on copper plates) and relief printing (on woodblock and linoleum plates) are used most frequently. Artists in studio have the opportunity to work with a master printer, who helps to achieve the marks the artists want by guiding the artists in the manipulation of the matrix. The job of the collaborating printer, ultimately, is to build the confidence in artists that allows the way they see the world to come through their hands, even in a medium using techniques they may be unfamiliar with and taking the transformative nature of the press into account. Printmaking is the only medium in which the process of artists’ image creation is revealed, also to themselves – when a proof is pulled off the press, the artist is also seeing the result for the first time, along with everyone else. Consequently, the print workshop is a supportive environment that embraces technical and aesthetic exploration, innovation and collaboration.
Included in 'MATRIX' are works by Deborah Bell, Stephen Hobbs, William Kentridge, Maja Maljevic, Senzo Shabangu, Diane Victor and Mary Wafer that offer viewers insight into techniques from linocut to aquatint. As well as plates and proofs, the installation includes explanatory text for each technique used.
25 January 2014 - 09 March 2014
