Archive: Issue No. 86, October 2004

03.10.04 'Comics Brew' takes over Cape Town galleries
03.10.04 Cameron Platter and Miles Goodall at Erdmann Contemporary
03.10.04 DaimlerChrysler Art Collection at Iziko's SANG
03.10.04 'Textures' at VEO Gallery
03.10.04 John Sampson and Eris Silke at the AVA
03.10.04 Bruce Arnott and Cape Architecture at Irma Stern
03.10.04 'Pofadder and Back' and Natasja de Wet at Jo�o Ferreira
17.09.04 Alexander Podlashuc exhibits new work at Sanlam
03.09.04 Oltmann, Brand and Mudzunga at MSCG
03.09.04 'Flip' at the Old Town House
03.09.04 'A Place Called Home' at SANG
03.09.04 'New Light on Old Masters' and 'Ilifa' at SANG
01.08.04 Pain du Ciel/ Bread of Heaven at 3rd i Gallery

STELLENBOSCH

03.09.04 'Earthworks/Claybodies' at Sasol Art Museum

South Africa is this year playing host to an international comics festival that will help up-and-coming artists understand how to become competitive in the international market, according to its co-ordinator Anton Kannemeyer. 'Comics Brew' has been boosting this growing visual arts genre with events throughout the year.

This month, the festival comes into full swing with a variety of shows dotted around Cape Town's galleries. The Bell-Roberts Gallery is taking part from October 13 to November 6 (contact details below).

The AVA is also devoting all three gallery spaces to the famous satirical magazine, Bitterkomix. Kannemeyer (Joe Dog), Conrad Botes (Konradski) and Mark Kannemeyer (Lorcan White) will all exhibit their newest comics and prints. It opens on October 25 and closes on November 13 (contact details below).

In Stellenbosch, where Kannemeyer now teaches, the US Art Gallery is also participating with a show called 'Comics Bru!'. This exhibition of young South African comic artists includes the Strip Art Project, Durban Cartoon Project, Igubu and other young independent comic artists. It opens on October 12 at 6.30pm and runs until November 2 (contact details below).

The second version of the new comic book Stripshow will also be launched at the US Gallery on October 26 at 6.30pm. The comic is composed entirely of work by emerging female comic artists.

'In/ Motion: The art of production' is the title of a two-man show from multi-talented artist Cameron Platter and filmmaker Miles Goodall. The show brings together live action and animation images in a creative mix of moving films and stills.

Since his graduation in 2001, Platter has been making waves in the art world. His solo show earlier this year at Jo�o Ferreira, called 'The Love is Approaching' comprised video, drawings and prints. Paul Edmunds described his works as �crude colours, lines, shapes and conventions [which] obey no rules and hold nothing precious in their relentless desire to act out the simple narratives he has composed� (www.artthrob.co.za). Platter has recently become a director for the production company, Suburban Films. Its co-founder, Miles Goodall, recently won a Silver Lion at the Cannes Advertising festival.

Opens: October 6
Closes: October 23

Capetonians will be able to see one of the world's most highly regarded corporate art collections when DaimlerChrysler brings about 200 of its most important works to town. Artists on show include Josef Albers, Andy Warhol, Sylvie Fleury and our own Jane Alexander.

The collection reflects significant art developments over the past century. It provides a potted history of the last 50 years of international art production and history, moving through Concrete, Constructivist, Minimalist and Conceptual art to recent trends in abstract art.

Parts of the collection are connected to the sponsor with car-related art. There are also sections on South African art and new media.

A major feature of the exhibition is its educational programme, which includes a free publication in various languages aimed at learners and students. Workshops with artists and a trainee programme for museum staff are also being organised.

Opens: October 5
Closes: November 7

Painter Shannon Phillips is exhibiting her latest work in a show called 'Textures' at the VEO Gallery. She says: 'The texture of the painted surface embodies the very essence of me as an artist - constantly evolving and very exciting, with an endless range of new possibilities.'

New, large abstract works by South African artist John Sampson are on show in the main gallery and upstairs. Currently living in Namibia, Sampson investigates the plight, culture, language of the indigenous peoples of the region. In the Long Gallery, Eris Silke shows some of her latest, small works.

Opens: October 4
Closes: October 23

Consummate sculptor Bruce Arnott exhibits 35 small bronzes and 20 pen drawings in his latest show at Irma Stern Museum.

'Dreamtime: Signs and Portents' reflects his interest in mythological subject matter. Arnott says 'Dreamtime' also refers to his inner work and the psychological space in which poetic imagery is generated. It reflects on icons and mythologems that have influenced his approach to art-making.

Arnott's ideas are expressed in this show in a loose, geometric shorthand, with idiosyncratic images offered for aesthetic enjoyment.

Opens: October 20
Closes: November 6

Also showing at the Irma Stern this month is an exhibition that highlights the serious threats to regional heritage and the daily losses of unique settlements and buildings. It explains the vernacular, demonstrates why it is unique, investigates cross-cultural links and historical influences, questions assumptions regarding building methods and highlights the vulnerabilities of the style.

The show commemorates 40 years of vernacular architecture studies at the University of Cape Town. A number of specialists including restoration architects, historians and archaeologists have collaborated with the Frank Joubert Art Centre to bring this show together under the auspices of The Vernacular Architecture Society of South Africa.

Opens: October 6
Closes: October 30

Africa has Timbuktu. South Africa has Pofadder. The town, which has been the butt of many jokes, is the inspiration for this exhibition of two painters.

On one hand, Pofadder represents the culmination of some arduous journey and the ultimate end-point of an adventure. On the other, reaching the town is something of a letdown.

It is in this ambivalent sense that these two artists engage with the notion of Pofadder in their painting. Capetonian Lise Hugo has teamed up with Durbanite Aidan Walsh to present a visual contemplation of South Africa's 'other' landscapes filled with human presence and social orders.

The two artists attempt to observe, record, reflect and paint the resonance and significance of their actual trip to Pofadder and back, imbued with irony. It takes in places like Putsonderwater, Prieska, Port Nolloth, Pella, Verneukpan and Hope Town.

Opens: October 6
Closes: October 30

Shortly afterwards, Natasja de Wet exhibits mixed media artworks in a show called 'Re-con-text'. By altering and adding elements to objects, she challenges perceptions about them. Found objects are the source of her inspiration for 'Re-con-text', which includes photographs and drawings.

De Wet says of her work: 'I attempt to draw analogies and parallels between the original use of objects and their current state � An object could have multiple meanings. When you remove one element of the whole, you can change the character of the remaining parts.'

Opens: October 11
Closes: October 30

A selection of works completed by Alexander Podlashuc over the last four years both in South Africa and abroad forms the focus of Sanlam's latest exhibition. Podlashuc has been painting since the late 1940s in South Africa, the UK and Europe.

Curator Stefan Hundt says Cape Town galleries are currently competing to give exposure to the latest fashionable young artists on the block. 'It is no surprise,' he adds, 'that some of our most accomplished artists are being marginalised, even though they are by no means non-productive - as the Podlashuc exhibition demonstrates."

Hundt says Podlashuc's painting is still fresh at the age of 74 - 'His painting technique, refined over all the years, still reflects a youthful and spontaneous character of mind and approach to life.'

Professor Karin Skawran will open the exhibition at 6pm on September 16.

Opens: September 17
Closes: October 19

A trio of heavyweight sculptors follows in the wake of last month's three painters at MSCG. First up is Walter Oltmann, a Fine Art lecturer at Wits University, who is well known for his wire sculptures. He has exhibited widely in galleries and museums and, completed numerous commissions, including three large aluminium wire flowers for the newly constructed Arabella-Sheraton.

In his recent work, Oltmann explores images that tease the borderlines between categorisations of humans, animals and plants. He often plays with paradoxes between vulnerability and the monstrous in his sculptures, while his drawings and lino-cuts are usually closely related in subject matter.

Kevin Brand exhibits a new series of works eleven a side. This installation of painted bronze figures is inspired by the popular table soccer game with its 22 figures that swivel on rotating bars. Each team comprises four sculptures of single players, two double-figure pieces and one three-figure piece.

Samuel Mudzunga is a self-taught Venda carver and sculptor. He has become well known over the past decade for large carved drums, which he uses to interrogate the customs of his community.

In 1996, Mudzunga staged his first 'burial' performance using a coffin-shaped drum. The following year, he transformed the traditional murumba drum used during ritual into an aeroplane to celebrate his fourth marriage.

His work was recently included in an exhibition called 'New Identities' in Bochum, Germany, and will be on show later this year in 'Personal Affects' at New York's Museum of African Art (see International Listings).

Opens: September 15
Closes: October 23

Both the artworks and public expectations will be unceremoniously flipped in this exhibition at the Old Town House. Various paintings by Old Masters like Jan Steen and Frans Hals from the well known Michaelis Collection of 17th century Dutch paintings will be displayed back-to-front.

The installation is under the curatorship of art theorist Andrew Lamprecht, a lecturer at the Michaelis School of Fine Art. 'Flip' aims to raise questions and issues around perceptions in a gallery space, while also drawing attention to the important information found on the backs of paintings.

Old labels, inscriptions and other material have become attached to paintings over hundreds of years. These markings provide clues to their previous ownership, origin, provenance and how they were made.

Lamprecht will give a walkabout at 2.30pm on September 4. Call Lizzie on (021) 467 4662 for details.

Opens: September 1
Closes: October 31

   SEE NEWS

'Diaspora' is a term frequently used but hard to define. Although the diaspora is a somewhat nebulous concept, artists are more commonly engaging with complex and multi-faceted identities in a world where geographical boundaries are more easily permeated.

'A Place Called Home' brings together the work of various British, South African and international artists from the South Asian diaspora. They include South Africans Omar Badsha, Faiza Galdhari, Zen Marie and Usha Seejarim alongside artists like Sunil Gupta (India/ Canada/ UK), Moti Roti (Trinidad/ Pakistan/ UK) and Prema Murthy (Philippines/ India/ US).

Sponsor, the British Council Southern Africa, says the show probes the experience of minority cultures claiming space in wider social and cultural landscapes. The exhibition is curated by South African Zayd Minty and includes photographic, print, video, web-based and installation works.

Minty says the project came from a subjective position. He writes in the catalogue's introduction: 'It arose out of a long engagement with my own sense of self and of my place on the globe.'

Opens: September 22
Closes: November 7

   SEE REVIEW at the NSA

As a sequel to 'Old Masters, New Perceptions', the SANG has put together a demonstration on how old oil paintings, works on paper and even Jane Alexander's famous Butcher Boys are being conserved by experts for future generations. In 'New Light on Old Masters', photographs show the effects of artworks treated to a makeover.

Closes: mid-2005

A separate SANG exhibition, opening on Heritage Day, showcases 150 African artworks acquired by the gallery over the past decade. 'Ilifa Labantu Heritage of the People' is curated by Carol Kaufmann, Iziko's African art specialist. She says: 'The post-1994 sense of freedom has encouraged South Africans to look to the north to rediscover cultural affiliations with the rest of the continent.'

'Ilifa' includes textiles from Ghana, beaded crowns and gold-weights from Nigeria, Kuba ceremonial beadwork from the DRC and 'repatriated' works like engraved Nguni cattle horns depicting scenes from the Zulu war of 1879.

The exhibition will include a series of organised tours. Contact Carol Kaufmann on (021) 467 4672 or email ckaufmann@iziko.org.za

Opens: September 24
Closes: April 2005

Painter Catherine Raphael exhibits new work at the 3rd i Gallery, which takes as its thematic starting point the recognition of 'the feminine' in a patriarchal world that can objectify and devalue it.

3rd i describes Raphael's work as a witty and subtle reaction to this recognition, 'weaving a tapestry of female sexuality, charm and bewitchment in a provocative assertion of the feminine'.

Opens: August 18
Closes: October 8 (extended from September 25)

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

Deborah Bell, Wilma Cruise, Guy Du Toit and Petros Gumbi exhibit together in this show of sculpture in clay at the University of Stellenbosch. 'Earthworks/Claybodies' was recently on show at Pretoria's Art Museum and last year at the Standard Bank Gallery in Johannesburg.

Curated by Cruise, the show features artists using the body as their subject matter. Bell creates spiritual links across boundaries of history and style, as depicted in the Sentinel series of nine large sculptures. Cruise creates expressionistic works with 24 cloned sheep marching through the gallery.

Du Toit uses casting to create ironic works like Plates, Venus, Moulds that tackle feminist issues. Gumbi, a 2003 Brett Kebble finalist, is known for his fine modelling of the human form and his preoccupation with Zulu history.

Art critic Hazel Friedman will open the exhibition.

Opens: 6.30pm, September 15
Closes: October 24