Archive: Issue No. 83, July 2004

01.07.04 'Thingerotomy' by Joanne Bloch at João Ferreira
01.07.04 'Members' exhibition' at the AVA
01.07.04 A group show of woman artists at the AVA
01.07.04 'Mind's Eye' at 3rd i Gallery
01.07.04 Grundlingh, Bozas and Levitan at Photographers Gallery ZA
01.07.04 'Traffic' at VEO Gallery
01.06.04 Julia Rosa Clark and 'A Million Billion Gazillion' at João Ferreira
01.06.04 'Three Young Painters' at Michael Stevenson Contemporary
01.06.04 Olivia Scholnick at Irma Stern Museum
01.06.04 Corinne Smit and Katie Spiegel at Rust-en-Vrede Gallery
01.05.04 'Democracy X' at The Castle of Good Hope
01.04.04 'Old Masters, New Perceptions' at SANG
03.03.04 A Decade Of Democracy at the SANG

STELLENBOSCH

01.07.04 'Face(in)themirror' at the US Art Gallery
01.06.04 '40 Years, 40 Artists' at Sasol Art Museum

WEST COAST

01.07.04 'Graphics and Ceramics' at Chelsea on 34

Advance Notice: Artists are often also collectors of objects that catch their eye. Joanne Bloch started this obsessive endeavour early in life. Her amassed array of cheap trinkets forms the basis of this exhibition, 'Thingerotomy', which was hosted at the Johannesburg Art Gallery in April.

Toys from Christmas crackers and lucky packets, key rings and egg machines are re-presented in a contradictory form, as both treasured object and emblem of excess. Bloch says: "At the heart of my work lies an enduring interest in this world of trashy ephemera. 'Thingerotomy' evokes an imaginary surgical procedure that cuts open and lays bare this world, with the intention of both commenting on it as well as reconfiguring a new, personalised order."

Bloch's exhibition reflects her own ambivalence about what constitutes 'trashy' or 'valuable' as it reconsiders notions of beauty in a celebration of the daily pleasures of the visual. She was artist-in-residence at the 2003 Grahamstown National Arts Festival, where she pinned up her plastic bric-a-brac on the walls of a room.

Opens: August 5
Closes: August 28

The AVA, as a non-profit art gallery, has over 1,000 members, some of whom are themselves practicing artists. Each year, they are invited to exhibit their own original artwork with no restriction in style or medium. The exhibition is not curated. Its only constraint is the size of the artworks, which are all for sale.

The works on show range from still-life's to landscapes, figure studies, nudes, interiors and portraits to non-figurative collages, sculpture, photography, textiles and ceramics. It is a mixed bag of more accomplished pieces by established artists and professionals as well as more tentative attempts at art-making.

Opens: June 21
Closes: July 9

This exhibition of artists, primarily from Cape Town and Durban, is curated by Vuyile Voyiya, who, until recently, was a curator at the National Gallery. The artists on show are Bongekile Bengu, Zama Dunywa, Pauline Mazibuko, Gabisile Ngcobo, Gabisile Nkosi, Nontobeko Ntombela, Sophie Peters, Thembeka Qangule, Fikile Skosana and Noni Vakalisa.

Voyiya is also an artist in his own right. In 2000, he had his own solo show at the AVA with a selection of linocuts. He has exhibited internationally on such events as the Sydney Biennial of 1992-93.

Last year, Voyiya co-produced a film with Julie McGee called The Luggage is Still Labelled: Blackness in South African Art. The documentary sparked fierce debate in art circles. If he brings the same critical mind to this show, it should be an intriguing one.

Opens: July 12
Closes: July 31

PE Technikon Fine Art graduate Luc van der Walt has digitally manipulated drive-by scenes of an industrial environment as he moves in and through it, taken through the windshield of his car or through scratched glass.

In addition to the industrial as a signifier of urban living, his photographs also focus on the organic form to create atmosphere and suggest its subliminal power. Van der Walt says the combination of the two elements suggest a relationship of each to the other.

The idea behind the exhibition is to transform these digital images on Photoshop to "visionary, revelatory signs of the apocalyptic". The result is grainy, evocative urban landscapes, mostly in black and white.

Opens: July 7
Closes: July 14

The Photographers Gallery boasts images by three compelling South African photographers. Ronnie Levitan's black-and-white photographs of well-known South African artists include a striking portrait of William Kentridge taken in 1987.

Black-and-white landscape photographs by Michaelis lecturer Geoff Grundlingh hang alongside colour landscapes by Alex Bozas. The gallery will be closed for the last two weeks of July.

Opens: June 30
Closes: July 15

Young Cape Town painter Kevin de Klerk has returned to the VEO Gallery with a solo show after a successful joint exhibition at the end of 2003. This time, however, his work has a slightly darker theme.

It takes as its focus the accidents and incidents of life, the seconds that can forever change or redirect our course. In De Klerk's case, witnessing a dog being run over formed the impetus for this new series of works. Dogs are recurring motifs in his work and this show promises a fresh perspective on the ordinary.

Opens: July 27
Closes: August 7

Advance Notice: Clark delivers a humorous critique on the forces that shape one's worldview through her obsessive collecting, sorting and cutting of disparate elements into collage. Images of an idealised perspective, as depicted in old children's encyclopaedias, are transformed into a highly decorative collage.

Clark is aided in her work by willing assistants at "cutting parties" who transform second-hand books, magazines and coloured paper with glitter or Artliner, producing results that lightly reference educational charts, diagrams and models.

Clark's use of everyday materials in her work is integral to its meaning. These include polystyrene, confetti, nylon ribbon, wrapping paper, fluorescent ink and stickers. Some artworks hang while others stand forming a rich combination of party d�cor and school classroom.

Opens: July 7
Closes: July 31

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Three different approaches to painting are showcased in this group exhibition of contemporary painters Lawrence van Niekerk, John Murray and Peter Eastman.

Van Niekerk, a Michaelis Masters graduate, exhibits finely observed and executed portraits. He believes that portraiture allows the painter to engage directly with other people and to learn something of their lives and circumstances, which in turn allows the painter to reflect on his or her own place in the world. This empathy comes across strongly in his artwork, which distils this interaction between painter and subject.

Murray paints his figures on wood cut-outs. In part, this emphasizes shape and presence by eliminating the background of the canvas. It also adds a sculptural element to his paintings. Murray says this technique suits his process of layering and scraping the paint to create depth within the surface. The title of his exhibition, 'Uniformed', refers to the clothes his subjects wear.

Murray cites the photo collages of the Russian Constructivists and early propaganda posters of communist China as influences upon his style. The contrast created between flat areas and photo cut-outs intrigues him and is consciously incorporated into this body of new work.

Animator and artist Peter Eastman is another painter who uses layering to great effect. The flat, reflective surface of household gloss enamel reveals shapes in previous layers of paint underneath. His paintings in this show are themed around 'ego' - both the ego of the artist creating a work and the ego of the viewer who sees himself reflected in the images. Eastman's monotone paintings convey a humorous critique of this process.

Opens: June 23
Closes: July 31

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This veteran Cape Town-based painter Olivia Scholnick exhibits a series of paintings including landscapes of the Bokkeveld region. In the past, she has referred to her paintings as her own interpretation of the landscape.

Scholnick has had plenty of solo exhibitions and group shows here and in other countries including Holland, Belgium, West Germany, Australia and Israel. In 1963, she stopped teaching music and turned full-time to painting. Scholnick is known for her bold lines, abstract forms and use of vibrant colour.

Opens: June 9
Closes: July 17

Two Michaelis graduates - one sculptor and one painter - present a dual show with very different approaches. Corinne Smit exhibits a body of work that aims to create awareness of sexual abuse and the damaging psychological scars it leaves behind. The show comprises a series of sculptural clothing items that symbolize the fragile feelings of the abused person.

Katie Spiegel's work is less didactic. The surface texture of the paint in her works serves to both describe her subject matter while also defying it with leaks, stains and concealment.

Opens: June 15
Closes: July 15

This exhibition, in South Africa's oldest colonial building, brings together over 300 artefacts, contemporary artworks, documents, photographs, sound and film. Most of these are from Iziko's own collections but the exhibition also includes items on loan from public and private collections throughout South Africa.

The exhibition spans seven rooms, beginning with the early traces of the human past, the first farmers and early southern African states, and leading to colonial dispossession and African resistance. Mining, urbanisation and apartheid precede the turning points of the 1970s until democracy in 1994. A special room is dedicated to the Truth Commission.

Interviews with and self-portraits of 28 year-old South Africans conclude the exhibition. Sue Williamson's Messages from the Moat, a permanent installation piece on slavery at the Cape, looks right at home in the basement of the Castle's Block B.

Opens: April 21
Closes: September 30

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This exhibition brings a fresh lens to restored and newly acquired pre-20th century European paintings, sculptures and art works on paper. The major highlight is a new arrival, Antonin Mercié's Gloria Victis (Glory to the Vanquished) of 1875, described as a tour de force in bronze casting. Pietro Calvi's marble and bronze bust Othello (1868), now retitled Portrait of Ira Aldridge as Othello, is unveiled as an actual portrait of the internationally famous black American Shakespearian actor.

Opens: March 2004
Closes: December 2004

To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the first democratic elections Iziko: South African National Gallery is showcasing a comprehensive exhibition featuring works of art made and acquired between 1994 and 2004. This exhibition presents an astonishing visual record of the hopes and aspirations, the fears and concerns of ordinary South Africans in this extraordinary decade of transformation.

Works of art produced during the decade by over 150 South African artists will be on view in nine rooms throughout the Gallery. In addition, a contemporary site-specific work on slavery at the Cape by Sue Williamson will be installed at the Castle of Good Hope. Works by major artists such as Jane Alexander, Willie Bester, Marlene Dumas, Kendell Geers, David Goldblatt, William Kentridge, Moshekwa Langa, Zwelethu Mthethwa, Malcolm Payne, Johannes Phokela, Berni Searle and Tracey Rose will be shown alongside the work of emerging artists including Thembinkosi Goniwe, Thando Mama, Colbert Mashile, Robin Rhode, Usha Seejarim, Mgcineni Pro Sobopha and Doreen Southwood.

The accompanying book, co-published by Double Storey Books and Iziko, is lavishly illustrated, includes a comprehensive listing of all works and features discursive essays by authors, curators and critics including Emma Bedford, Rory Bester, Joe Dolby, Ashraf Jamal, Andrew Lamprecht, Moleleki Frank Ledimo, Marilyn Martin, Zayd Minty, Andries Oliphant and Liese van der Watt.

Exhibition enquiries should be directed to Emma Bedford on email: ebedford@iziko.org.za.

Opens: April 3
Closes: August 31

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This exhibition is the result of an experimental socio-artistic project by Belgian artist, Nelson Hoedekie. It combines workshop and exhibition activities by underprivileged children with the aim of improving their self-image and self-esteem. The children produce a series of self-portraits: imaginary, shadow-mirror and photo-portrait. Hoedekie, was inspired by a thesis on 'shadows' and developed the method in collaboration with a Belgian NGO.

The South Africans' self-portraits will be displayed in Belgium as part of a similar exhibition in that country, and the Belgian children's work is also integrated into this show.

Opens: July 6
Closes: July 24

The University of Stellenbosch's Sasol Art Museum has this month invited a group of artists - all former students - to showcase their work in a celebration of the 40th anniversary of its visual arts department. The guest curator for the show is Victor Honey.

Exhibiting are Claudette Schreuders, Peet Pienaar, Doreen Southwood, Conrad Botes, Anton Kannemeyer, Strijdom van der Merwe, Jean Brundrit, Sandra Kriel, Keith Deitrich, Sanel Aggenbach, Johann Louw, Gerda Genis and Obie Oberholzer.

This group show is a departure for the museum, which in 2002 instigated an Invited Artist Project. The idea was to give prominent South African artists working in academic research a chance to showcase their work.

Victor Honey will give a walkabout of the exhibition on Saturday July 24 at 10h30. Booking is essential. Call Lizzie O'Hanlon of Friends of the SANG on 021 467 4662.

Opens: May 19
Closes: August 4

An exhibition of work by artists including Judith Mason, William Kentridge, Hanneke Benade, Laura du Toit, Nicolaas Maritz and others opens at the Chelsea on 34 in Darling and runs until the end of the month.

The exhibition is basically a collection of works on paper, including etchings, lithographs and charcoal drawings. The ceramic show includes some sculptures and objects like vases.

Opens: June 26
Closes: July 6