Current Review(s)
Variants
Robin Rhode at White CubeTen years ago Robin Rhode made his first trip to London: he attempted to hijack a car, failed, then promptly ran away, leaving behind the sound of an alarm and confused applause. A few months later Rhode returned to Tony Blair’s capital, attempted to kick-start a lifeless motorcycle outside the Gasworks artists’ studios where he was doing a residency, failed, and again ran away from his wall-drawn fiction, the applause this time a little louder. A decade later Rhode is now exhibiting his scored digital animations and monochromatic still life photographs at one of London’s premier commercial galleries. What happened? Progress.
08 June 2011 - 09 July 2011
Listings(s)
'Variants'
Robin Rhode at White CubeFor his second exhibition at White Cube, Rhode presents five animations that take the chair designs of Dutch furniture designer and architect Gerrit Rietveld as a starting point. A member of the De Stijl movement, Rietveld aspired to bring high design to the masses. A precursor to the 'flat pack' furniture style now prevalent, Rietveld's designs 'advocated pure abstraction and universality by a reduction to the essentials of form and colour'.
08 June 2011 - 09 July 2011
'Prism. Drawings from 1990 to 2012'
Penny Siopis, Robin Rhode and William Kentridge at Museum of Contemporary Art, OsloRather than exhibiting drawings in a classical sense, the exhibition 'Prism', curated by Gavin Jantjes, presents drawings as understood and defined by a select group of important contemporary artists. The discipline has expanded and evolved over the past two decades and currently includes several creative forms of expression that were previously not defined as drawing.
The exhibition’s name, 'Prism', evokes a tool that enables a variety of approaches, akin to how a glass prism disperses light into a multicoloured spectrum. In order for drawing and its new forms and variants to survive as an autonomous art form, it is essential that we take a closer look at the ongoing experimentation.
The exhibition features everything from digital drawings to drawing as performance, from sculptural paperwork to pictures made with needlework on fabric. We are also presented with works that reveal a more conceptual approach to the medium: What is a drawing? And what is a copy of a drawing? Or what is reality, and what is a representation of reality? The artists thereby problematise and experiment with different levels and aspects of the age-old discipline.
02 March 2012 - 05 August 2012
'Contemporary Art/South Africa'
Sue Williamson, Gavin Jantjies, Robin Rhode, Santu Mofokeng and William Kentridge at Yale University Art Gallery'Contemporary Art/South Africa' features more than 30 artworks produced in South Africa or by South Africans from the late 1960s to the present, a period of immense political and social change. The artists in this exhibition—including Gavin Jantjes, William Kentridge, Santu Mofokeng, Zanele Muholi, Robin Rhode, and Sue Williamson—address key aspects of the experiences of South Africans, offering multiple perspectives on their lives, their society, and their world. Contemporary Art/South Africa features a small but growing body of South African artworks acquired in recent years by the Yale University Art Gallery, alongside loans from public and private collections. Organized by Yale students, the exhibition highlights the vibrancy of South African culture and society, and it invites viewers to question whether it is possible to understand a country through the art it has produced, and to understand contemporary art through the country in which it was made.
Exhibition organized by Yale University students under the mentorship of Kate Ezra, the Nolen Curator of Education and Academic Affairs. Made possible by the Jane and Gerald Katcher Fund for Education; the John F. Wieland, Jr., B.A. 1988, Fund for Student Exhibitions; and the Nolen-Bradley Family Fund for Education.
09 May 2014 - 14 September 2014
'it began with a walk'
Dineo Seshee Bopape, Penny Siopis, Robin Rhode, Kemang Wa Luhelere, William Kentridge, Robert Hodgins and Deborah Bell and Moshekwa Langa at Ntsikana AnnexeCurated by Portia Malatjie
Lefu La Ntate (3 minutes 1 second) Kemang Wa Lehulere
Where Do I Begin? (4 minutes 20 seconds) Moshekwa Langa
is i am sky (17 minutes 48 seconds) Dineo Seshee Bopape
The Master Is Drowning (9 minutes) Penny Siopis
A Day in May (3 minutes 15 seconds) Robin Rhode
Bird’s Milk (5 minutes 44 seconds) Dineo Seshee Bopape
Memo (4 minutes) William Kentridge, Deborah Bell, Robert Hodgins
it began with a walk is an exhibition of video works from the Emile Stipp collection that was first screened at the Bioscope Theatre in Johannesburg in September 2013. The artworks have
been pulled together under the theme of ‘becoming’. The framework posits that nothing is ever static, that we are never as we were and that our presents are always fluid.
The exhibition aims to explore the curation of video works. Portia Malatjie examines how the medium is viewed in a gallery context, and how it can form part of a collection. This interrogation culminates in a cinema setting, where viewers are allowed the opportunity to see the time-based works from
beginning to end, an act that is often a challenge in a gallery setup.
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue.
Presented by the National Arts Festival in association with the Emile Stipp Collection.
03 July 2014 - 13 July 2014
'Mine'
Berni Searle, Dineo Seshee Bopape, Gregg Smith, Johan Thom, Robin Rhode, Bridget Baker, Various Artists, William Kentridge and Nandipha Mntambo at Dubai Community Theatre and Arts CentreThe first exhibition of contemporary South African art in the UAE, 'Mine' is curated by South African artist, photographer and curator Abrie Fourie, who explains the concept behind the exhibition: 'The title refers not only to the idea of deep level mining, but to the concept of personal ownership. The works featured have been chosen for their diversity, with the common denominator that the artists make reference to themselves in their work, either in person, as actor, model, observer, interviewer or instigator. Mine seeks to explore the myriad ways in which we identify and position our "selves".'
Artists featured in this video exhibition include: Berni Searle, Bridget Baker, Cedric Nunn, Dineo Seshee Bopape, Donna Kukama, Doris Bloom, Dorothee Kreutzfelt, Gregg Smith, Jaques Coetzer, Johan Thom, Lerato Shadi, Michael McCarry, Minette Vari, Nandipha Mntambo, Penny Siopis, Robin Rhode, Simon Gush, Teboho Edkins, William Kentridge, Zanele Muholi
18 January 2012 - 06 February 2012
'Paries Pictus'
Robin Rhode at STEVENSON in Cape TownSTEVENSON is pleased to present 'Paries Pictus', Robin Rhode's first solo exhibition in South Africa in over a decade.
Rhode creates narratives that are brought to life through stop-motion animation, using quotidian materials such as soap, charcoal, chalk and paint. In addition to the street art and performance aspects of his work, there is always a formalist foundation inspired by his interest in abstraction in general and Russian constructivism in particular.
For 'Paries Pictus', Rhode will use the walls of the gallery for a site-specific intervention of drawings. The artist has partnered with the Lalela Project, a Cape Town-based organisation that specialises in arts education for children from disadvantaged neighbourhoods. A group of learners from Lalela will be invited to use oversized crayons to colour in geometric vinyl graphics applied directly to the walls by Rhode. This interactive component of 'Paries Pictus' was first enacted at the Castello di Rivoli in Turin, Italy, in 2011, and subsequently in New York at Lehmann Maupin gallery this January.
In addition Rhode will show a range of photographic, drawing, moving image and sculptural works, ranging from abstract drawings made in Germany in 2007 to new photo series done in Johannesburg in 2013. Two threads to be explored in depth are Rhode's interest in abstraction, and imagery connected directly to South Africa.
11 April 2013 - 01 June 2013
