Archive: Issue No. 68, April 2003

15.04.03 Jane Alexander at SANG
15.04.03 Willie Bester at the AVA
15.04.03 Straight to Video at The Cold Room
15.04.03 Walkabout of 'White Like Me' by Brett Murray
15.04.03 Charl Gräbe at Art.b
01.04.03 Brett Murray at the SANG
01.04.03 Véronique Malherbe at Joáo Ferreira
01.04.03 Bruce Gordon at the SANG
01.04.03 Abrie Fourie at at Joáo Ferreira
01.04.03 Male Order at the Irma Stern
01.04.03 Penny Siopis Michaelis Lunchtime Lecture
01.04.03 Yohannes Gedamu at Greatmore Studios
01.04.03 Trilogy at the Sanlam Gallery, Art. b and Rust-en-Vrede
15.03.03 Lexicons and Labyrinths at the SA Museum
15.03.03 Tony Grogan at the 3rd i Gallery

01.04.03 Anni Snyman and Chris Diedericks at the Ibis Gallery

Jane Alexander, winner of the 2002 DaimlerChrysler Award for South African sculpture, is best known for The Butcher Boys, which she made in 1985. The work remains the SANG's most popular and famous work. But it is not only this work that won her the prestigious award, which provided funds for a major international exhibition and the production of an impressive catalogue.

This exhibition at the SANG includes The Butcher Boys, 'The Bom Boys' series (which she showed at the Irma Stern a few years ago) as well as her new tableau 'African Adventure'. Where the first work made specific comment on the brutality of South African apartheid society, with the 'The Bom Boys' Alexander has narrowed her focus to her immediate environs. This series found the artist looking to Cape Town's street kids, a problem which inspires empathy and fear in equal measure amongst Capetonians. These street kids are particularly prevalent on Long Street, where the artist lived for a period.

Alexander never limited herself to simply depicting these young children, and the scaled-down and masked figures spoke much more widely about the human condition and South African society generally. The odd scale and proportions of the figures was very disquieting and the recurrent trickster figures prevented any interpretation from resting too easily.

Alexander's 'The African Adventure', her most recent series, also looks to Long Street, home to an increasing number of tourist operations and adventure centres. Sculptures, photomontages and video work look at the uneasy truce between the 'African Adventures' offered to backpackers and the gritty realism of the increasingly multi-cultural street with its problems that just won't go away.

Alexander is a senior lecturer at the Michaelis School of Fine Art and has received several major awards including 1995's Standard Bank Young Artist Award and the FNB Vita Art Now Award the year following. She has exhibited extensively internationally and her work is to be found in numerous public and private collections.

Opens: April 26
Closes: July 27

South African National Gallery, Government Avenue, Company Gardens, Cape Town
Tel: (021) 481-3823 from 8:30am-1pm
Fax: (021) 461 0045
Email: ebedford@iziko.org.za
Website: www.museums.org.za/sang
Hours: Tues - Sun 10am - 5pm

Willie Bester is among the country's best-known artists. He has enjoyed major solo shows in many parts of the world, including Belgium and Italy, and most recently Stellenbosch.

Bester's output is nearly all made from re-used and recovered materials and includes large collaged assemblages, paintings and sculptures in-the-round. At the AVA, the centrepiece of the show is a large sculpture made from recovered machine parts and other scrap, entitled Monument vir die Agtergeblewenes. In keeping with Bester's refusal to make nice about South African society, this large figurative work takes a merciless look at those, who through their own unwillingness or inability, remain unaligned with the new order. Most of the rest of the works are paintings characteristically framed by old road signs and implements.

Bester held his first one-person show in Cape Town in 1982. He has since participated in several biennales, including 1993's Venice Biennale, the Havana Biennale in 1994 and the Dakar Biennale in 1998. He has exhibited all over the world and his work is to be found in collections in many different countries. Born in Montagu in 1956, apart from a brief stint at CAP and the help of Cecil Skotnes Bester is a self-taught artist.

Opens: April 7
Closes: April 26

Association for Visual Arts, 35 Church Street, Cape Town
Tel: (021) 424 7436
Fax: (021) 423 2637
Email: estava@iafrica.com
Website: www.ava.co.za
Hours: Mon - Fri 10am - 5pm, Sat 10am - 1pm

Eight Cape Town video makers have put their heads together to bring you 'Straight to Video', a one night video installation at the Cold Room. The bill includes short films, video art, music videos and animation. Participants include: Candice Borzechowski, Topsy Goldfinger, Alex Learmont, Jean Meeran, Francesco Nassimbeni, Kidd Parker, Colin Payne and Jill Slabbert. Popcorn will be served.

Opens: 7pm, Thursday April 24

For more information call Colin Payne 082 830-3508 or Candice Borzechowski 083 280-2757

The Cold Room Photographic Gallery, 143 Harrington Street, Gardens
Tel: (021) 447 4183
Email: coldroom@worldonline.co.za
Hours: Monday to Friday 9.30am - 4.30pm, Saturday 9.30am to 12pm)

The SANG is hosting a walkabout by Brett Murray of his Standard Bank Young Artist for 2002 exhibition. The walkabout will be followed by brunch. The cost is R50 for Friends of the SANG, R55 for other interested parties.

10am, Sunday April 13

Tel: 467-4662 (Tue - Thu 10am - 2pm)

South African National Gallery, Government Avenue, Company Gardens, Cape Town
Tel: (021) 481-3823 from 8:30am-1pm
Fax: (021) 461 0045
Email: ebedford@iziko.org.za
Website: www.museums.org.za/sang
Hours: Tues - Sun 10am - 5pm

Charl Gräbe's show is entitled 'Record'. His works, which consist of resin-encased objects, document human knowledge and symbols representing art and science, both showcasing a proud record as well as the ability of humans to survive and transcend.

Opens: April 9
Closes: May 3

Art.b., Library Centre, Carel van Aswegen Street, Bellville
Tel: (021) 918 2301/2287
Fax: (021) 918 2083
Email: artb@icon.co.za
Hours: Mon - Fri 8am - 8pm, Sat 9am - 5pm

Finally, Capetonians will get to see the body of work made by Brett Murray on receipt of the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for 2002. Typically abrasive, Murray has entitled his show 'White Like Me'. As is his standard practice with this work, Murray manages to raise laughs as well as a few eyebrows in a series of pieces that take a thought-provoking and penetrating satirical look at post-Apartheid society. Many of the works take as their starting point the bland cartoon so typical of old American weeklies like the New Yorker. Twisting these, Murray exposes the vulnerable underbelly of both white and black South African society. Made in his signature mild steel cutouts and perspex inlay, the works' attractiveness belie their satirical bite.

Murray, who resides in Cape Town, is currently completing a commission for the Cape Town International Convention Centre, which he won with San artist Tuoi Stefaans Samcuia.

Opens: April 5
Closes: April 30

South African National Gallery, Government Avenue, Company Gardens, Cape Town
Tel: (021) 481-3823 from 8:30am-1pm
Fax: (021) 461 0045
Email: ebedford@iziko.org.za
Website: www.museums.org.za/sang
Hours: Tues - Sun 10am - 5pm

Véronique Malherbe invites everyone to join her "for an eventful week�" No doubt it will be. Speedqueen & the Sample Gods will launch their d�but CD, Malherbe her satirical art-detective book with photos, titled "Suck my bic cause I'm a literate Chick". The show also promises new photographic works, including video-stills made in collaboration with photographers Crispian Plunkett, Oliver Polter and Dave Southwood. On Sunday April 6 Malherbe invites you to kick back and enjoy her readings "at home in Verospace". R120 gets you dinner and dance catered by a "half-Indian, half-Scottish professional chef with a flair for French cuisine and cake icing". She also promises that from 6p.m you can make a free exhibition of yourself for dropping your kit. Tickets are limited.

Opening 7pm, Tuesday April 1

Opens: April 1
Closes: April 7

João Ferreira Gallery, 80 Hout Street, Cape Town
Tel: 021 423 5403 or 082 490 2977
Fax: 021 423 2136
Email: info@artjoao.co.za
Website: www.artjoao.co.za
Hours: Tue - Fri 10am - 6pm, Sat 10am - 2pm

Bruce Gordon, owner of the infamous Jo'burg bar on Long Street, former manager of Amampondo and major purveyor of T-shirts to tourists, was recently sold at the annual Michaelis School of Fine Art auction to art and fashion personality and activist Suzy Bell. She paid a whopping R52 000 for Gordon, and subsequently donated her purchase to the South African National Gallery.

Gordon was put up for sale by the maverick Michaelis Masters student Ed Young, who entitled his submission 'Bruce Gordon (found object)'. Together with Michaelis Art Theory lecturer Andrew Lamprecht, Young has put together a beautiful little catalogue, which includes a pretty serious text by Lamprecht as well as photographs of Gordon, extracts from his 50th birthday speech and an unpublished cartoon drawn by Gordon's late friend Derek Bauer. Gordon recently had his acquisition number tattooed onto his shoulder.

'This stuff about tattoos being painful is bullshit', he says. Gordon, apparently, is not even required to be at the opening. Lending some more heavyweight support to this lark is Penny Siopis who will be opening the event.

Opening 11am, Saturday March 29

South African National Gallery, Government Avenue, Company Gardens, Cape Town
Tel: (021) 481-3823 from 8:30am-1pm
Fax: (021) 461 0045
Email: ebedford@iziko.org.za
Website: www.museums.org.za/sang
Hours: Tues - Sun 10am - 5pm

'Whatever, Wherever' is an exhibition in two parts by Pretoria-based Abrie Fourie. The first took place from February 7 - 28 at Camouflage, Brussels, Belgium. The second takes place here and comprises photographic images, including cibachrome prints and lightboxes produced between 1999 and 2003. Fourie's found-images reveal extraordinary moments in ordinary time and space. Sifting through the (sometimes) gritty realism of the external/ internal world, he constructs visual metaphors that create a shift in perception. He describes his work as, "a documentation of forgotten moments that jolt the collective memory. Traces of stories that have not been told but speak volumes about the transient nature of life. Something has died, something is born and the cycle of existence continues".

Opening 6pm, Wednesday 9

Opens: April 9
Closes: May 3

João Ferreira Gallery, 80 Hout Street, Cape Town
Tel: 021 423 5403 or 082 490 2977
Fax: 021 423 2136
Email: info@artjoao.co.za
Website: www.artjoao.co.za
Hours: Tue - Fri 10am - 6pm, Sat 10am - 2pm

South Africa is a country which has been shaped by issues of male identity; from the generals and foot soldiers of the colonial armies to the impis that opposed them; from the 'boys on the border' to the comrades in the streets; from the white patriarchal captains of industry to the newly empowered black businessmen who are replacing them. Over time this has given rise to creative tension, and from this tension has come art. Carol Brown, Director of the Durban Art Gallery, has curated a show drawn from the permanent collection of the gallery, which explores these issues. Artists represented include: Peet Pienaar, Paul Stopforth, Moshekwa Langa, Hentie van der Merwe, Langa Magwa, Zwelethu Mthethwa, Andrew Verster and Wilma Cruise.

Opening 6pm, Wednesday April 9

Opens: April 9 Closes: April 26

UCT Irma Stern Museum, Cecil Road, Rosebank
Tel: (021) 685 5686
Fax: (021) 686 7550
Email: bpettit@protem.uct.ac.za
Hours: Tue - Sat 10am - 5pm

Artist and academic Penny Siopis is the next in what has been a fascinating collection of visitors to Michaelis this year. Siopis came to prominence during the 1980s for her monumental 'history' paintings and has since then broadened her practice to include video and installation. She concerns herself with the repository of memory, amongst other things, and often approaches this in a highly personal but eclectic and wide-ranging way. Siopis' work is to be found in most major public and corporate collections in South Africa.

Date: 1 - 2pm, Monday March 31

Michaelis Lecture Theatre, Hiddingh Campus, 31-37 Orange Street, Gardens
Tel: (021) 480-7111/4
Email: lessex@hiddingh.uct.co.za

Painter Yohannes Gedamu hails from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and is currently completing a three-month residency at Greatmore. He was born in Ethiopia in 1947 and has also lived in Kenya and Germany, where he moved when he began to practice as a full-time artist in 1980. He has participated in numerous group exhibitions both on the African continent and all over Europe and the US. He has also held one-person shows in a similar array of places and currently lives in Addis Ababa.

Opening 5.30pm, Monday March 24

Opens: March 24
Closes: March 28

Greatmore Studios, 47-49 Greatmore Street, Woodstock
Tel: (021) 447 9699
Email: artmore@mweb.co.za Website: www.greatmoreart.org
Hours: Mon-Fri 9 a.m � 4 p.m

'Trilogy: Innocence, Awakening and Fulfillment' is a group exhibition in three parts which take place simultaneously at the Sanlam Gallery, Art b. and Rust-in-Vrede respectively. Contributions come from 38 artists, ranging from young, emerging artists to well-known and established names. Each has produced one work on each of the themes. Participants include: Tania Babb, Lien Botha, Jacques Dhont, Gavin du Plessis, Mongezi Gum, Sandra Hanekom, Sipho Hlati, Theo Kleynhans, Adam Letch, Xolile Mtakatya, Solam Mkhabela, CJ Morkel, John Murray, Diana Page, Selwin Pekeur, Solomon Siko, Doreen Southwood, Vernon Swart, Giulio Tambellini, Julia Teale, Lené Tempelhoff, Strijdom van der Merwe and Evette Weyers.

'Innocence' runs at the Sanlam Art Gallery from March 22 to April 17.

'Awakening' runs at Art b. from March 22 to April 5.

'Fulfillment' runs at Rust-en-Vrede from March 22 to April 17.

For further information, contact Tel: (021) 918-2287
dacona@capetown.gov.za

Sanlam Art Gallery, 2 Strand Road, Bellville
Tel: (021) 947 3359
Fax: (021) 947 3838
Email: stefan.hundt@sanlam.co.za
Hours: Mon - Fri 9am - 4.45pm

Art.b., Library Centre, Carel van Aswegen Street, Bellville
Tel: (021) 918 2301/2287
Fax: (021) 918 2083
Email: artb@icon.co.za
Hours: Mon - Fri 8am - 8pm, Sat 9am - 5pm

Accompanying the African Human Genome Conference taking place in Cape Town is a broader visual arts programme at the South African Museum that includes both a competition and a curated exhibition. 'Lexicons and Labyrinths' is curated by artist Fritha Langerman, who has selected along with herself Alan Alborough, Willem Boshoff, Lien Botha, Nadja Dhaenke, Isaac Khanyile, Malcolm Payne and Sandile Zulu.

Langerman has chosen the above for their "conceptual approach to art production and specific concerns with language, form and science". All of the artists will show new work, which will range in media and be largely installation-based. Given the venue it's quite likely that some of the artists will establish some kind of dialogue with the museum's existing exhibits in order to explore concepts and implications of the Human Genome Project.

The original opening date has been moved from March 5 to March 22 and the closing date is unclear at this stage.

Opening March 22

South African Museum, Company Gardens, Queen Victoria Street, Cape Town
Tel: (021) 481-3943/0 or 083 316-8794
Fax: (021) 481-3941
Email: cquerido@iziko.org.za
Website: www.museums.org.za/iziko
Hours: Mon - Sun 10am - 5pm

Coinciding with the launch of a collection of Tony Grogan's cartoons is 'Grogan's Cape Town', an exhibition of drawings of the Mother City. Grogan is as well known for his pointed satire as for his accurate and descriptive drawings and watercolours of his surrounds. The book covers work starting in the early 1970s right up to the present.

Opening by Chris Whitfield, Cape Times Editor, 6.30p.m, Wednesday March 12

Opens: March 12
Closes: April 25

3rd i Gallery, 95 Upper Waterkant Street (corner Buitengracht)
Tel: (021) 425 2266
Email: fcinciii@iafrica.com
Hours: Mon - Fri 9am - 6pm, Sat 9.30am - 1.30pm

Hoping to catch some passing traffic from the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees, Anni Snyman and Chris Diedericks are showing a selection of digital works entitled 'The Icarus and Pandora dialogues - 'the space between''. Both Icarus and Pandora were condemned for acts of disobedience, both guilty of upsetting the established order. Snyman and Diedericks find more than common purpose through the adopted personae of these mythological misfits. Through such visual dialogues, the artists attest to crimes of being human. 'The space between' is the third of these dialogues and explores the situation of loneliness and longing - a state that is also the wellspring of creative impulse.

Opens: March 24
Closes: April 28

Ibis Art Centre, Nieu-Bethesda
Nieu-Bethesda is situated 25km off the N9 between Middelburg and Graaff-Reinet
Tel/fax: (04984) 11623
Email: ibis@intekom.co.za
Website: www.ibisartcentre.co.za