Archive: Issue No. 101, January 2006

13.01.06 20<artists>06 at the Bell Roberts
13.01.06 Deborah Poynton at Michael Stevenson
13.01.06 Woven into Life: Basketry in South Africa at the Castle of Good Hope
13.01.06 Hylton Nel at Michael Stevenson
13.01.06 Strip Art Project at 34Long
13.01.06 Umzi and Amos Letsoalo at the AVA
13.01.06 Elsbeth Woody Exhibition at Art.b Gallery

9.12.05 Gerard Sekoto at SANG
9.12.05 Contemporary beadwork at the Old Town House
9.12.05 Iintsimbi zesiXhosa at the SANG
9.12.05 João Ferreira's Summer Show
9.12.05 Farrago at the AVA

4.11.05 Anton Kannemeyer at Erdmann Contemporary

2.09.05 'ReVisions: A Private Narrative of SA Art' at SANG

FRANSCHOEK

9.12.05 The Summer Show at Grande Provence
 

'2006' launches a book portfolio of 20 original prints by contemporary South African artists. The collection includes work by Svea Josephy, Cameron Platter, Conrad Botes, Sipho Hlati, Matthew Hindley and Julia Clark.

Opens: January 11
Closes: February 11

Painter Deborah Poynton holds her third solo exhibition at this venue, this one entitled 'Safety and Security'. In recent years Poynton has worked on an increasingly large scale, and this show will comprise four canvases each measuring 2m x 6m.

Throughout Poynton's work, the vulnerability and loneliness of everyday life and the isolation of the individual in contemporary society are immediately apparent. The titles of her four new works for the show illustrate these concerns: Safety and Security, For Ever and Ever, Betrayal and Surrender.

Poynton will conduct a walkabout of her exhibition at 11am, Thursday January 19. It costs R30 and proceeds go to the Friends of the South African National Gallery.

Opens: January 18
Closes: February 18

This exhibition in the Grain Cellar at the Castle of Good Hope intends to reveal the artistry of southern African baskets, paying tribute to the deep environmental knowledge and ways of life of South African basket-makers, past and present. The baskets on display cover a wide range of techniques, uses and regions of origin, collectively reflecting the knowledge and skill of their creators, as well as the beauty to be found in these practical constructions.

Opens: December 20
Closes: July 1

Well known 'artist-potter' Hylton Nel, will show a body of recent ceramic works in his third show at Michael Stevenson this month.

Over the past four decades Nel has developed a style of work that is rich in references to the decorative arts and literary and art historical sources. His ceramics are decorated with witty and sometimes poignant line drawings and script. On his functional ware, Nel's imagery ranges from penises to Madonnas, and from cats to angels, embellished by quotations drawn from poetry and the daily press as well as his observations of the world around him.

Opens: January 18
Closes: February 18

'Strip Art Project' is a collection of comics by Daniël du Plessis, Leonora van Staden and Nicolene Louw.

The Strip Art Project was founded in 2003 by Anton Kannemeyer, senior lecturer in the Department of Visual Arts, University of Stellenbosch and from 2003 to 2005, du Plessis, van Staden and Louw were closely involved with the project. All three artists are presenting this work as their final submission for their Master's degrees in Illustration.

The exhibition will be opened with an address by Anton Kannemeyer

Opens: January 17
Closes: February 11

In the Main and upstairs galleries, the AVA presents 'Umzi', a group exhibition by six local artists curated by Vuyile Voyiya. This exhibition is funded by the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund. In the Long gallery are new non-figurative works by Johannesburg-based artist, Amos Letsoalo.

Opens: January 23
Closes: February 11

Elsbeth Woody was Professor of Art at City University of New York for 25 years where she specialised in producing large-scale ceramic sculptures. She has held numerous exhibitions and workshops in the US and her two books on ceramic techniques have been published in several languages.

This exhibition of 30 large-scale paintings concentrates on her work since the death of her husband in 2001 and apparently represents a diary of her inner journey alone in the Riviersonderend mountains.

Opens: January 18
Closes: February 15

'Gerard Sekoto - From the Paris Studio' opens at Iziko South African National Gallery this month. In 2000, the Gallery received a donation of over 2000 items from Sekoto's Paris studio, including paintings, drawings and prints as well as memorabilia and photographs of an artist considered by many to be the pioneer of urban black art and social realism.
Also included in the exhibition are works by artists who knew Sekoto such as Gregoire Boonzaier, Peter Clarke, Solly Disner, Lippy Lipshitz, Ernest Mancoba and Louis Maurice.
At 10:30 on Sunday December 11, Friends of SANG host a walkabout of the exhibition which will cover different periods in the artist's life - from his early teaching years, his life in apartheid South Africa, his visit to Senegal to the time spent in Paris where he lived in voluntary exile from 1947.

Opens: December 6
Closes: February 25

'Synergy', featuring contemporary bead art, opens at Iziko Michaelis Collection (The Old Town House) from December to March next year.
The brainchild of Dr. Elbé Coetsee of Mogalakwena Craft Art Development Foundation and Jeanetta Blignaut of Cape Town-based Qalo, the exhibition celebrates the work of 11 renowned South African artists, who have created designs that have been interpreted and realised by bead workers. The participating artists who have been commissioned include Willem Boshoff, Mbongeni Buthelezi, Paul Edmunds, Faiza Galdhari, Rookeya Gardee, Claire Gavronsky, Liza Grobler, Nicholas Hlobo, Karel Nel, Lindelani Ngwenya, Rose Shakinovsky and Doreen Southwood.

Opens: December 1
Closes: March 31

'Iintsimbi zesiXhosa' , an exhibition of glass beadwork, is on loan to the National Gallery from Switzerland for three months. This extensive collection of traditional, contemporary, ornamental and functional beadwork, created by South African women and collected by Margaret Holdsworth during the 1970s, was recently acquired by Zurich's Volkerkunde Museum.

Opens: December 1
Closes: February 1

The João Ferreira Gallery's Summer Show includes new paintings by artists who have previously exhibited at the gallery, as well as sculptures from the gallery collection. The pieces on display are intended to encourage an animated dialogue between the different works and the viewer. Exhibiting artists include Anton Karstel, Nicholas Hales, Paul Edmunds, Jordan Tryon, Tony Scullion, Arlene Amir-Raviv, Trasi Henen, Ruth Sacks and Tom Cullberg amongst others.

Opens: December 7
Closes: January 28

The AVA's final exhibition of the year is a group show featuring new works by Kevin Brand, Anthony Cawood, Matthew Hindley, Louis Jansen van Vuuren, Lonwabo Kilani, Greta Matthews and Gerald Tabata. The gallery closes on December 24 and re-opens on January 3.

Opens: December 12
Closes: January 19

'Days of my Lives' is a showcase of recent prints, drawings and paintings by Anton Kannemeyer. The theme (with a nod to the popular soapie) refers to the systematic recording and investigation of everyday events in the artist's journals and sketchbooks by himself or his alter ego, Joe Dog. These 'events' include newspaper articles, portraits, general and personal history, all scrutinized by Kannemeyer's ironic and satirical eye. Kannemeyer co-founded the highly regarded Bitterkomix with Conrad Botes.

Opens: November 28
Closes: January 21, 2006

This exhibition at the South African National Gallery claims to be drawn from one of the most impressive private collections of South African art assembled by an individual. Bruce Campbell-Smith started collecting in the mid-1980s and the result is a collection of work by almost 90 artists, mostly black South Africans, working from the 1920s until 1994.

Hayden Proud, curator at Iziko, says the collection is impressive because of its scope, its items of rarity and the fact that the collector has had a fine arts training himself, which has informed many choices. He says the collection contains works by well-known and now historical figures the public have never seen before. It is focused on artists working in the figurative traditions of painting, printmaking, drawing and sculpture, with a strong Natal bias.

Artists represented include Gerard Bhengu, Trevor Makhoba, Sthembiso Sibisi, Maggie Laubscher, Amos Langdown, Arthur Butelezi, Mizream Maseko, George Pemba, Gerard Sekoto, Dumile Feni, Billy Mandindi, Peter Clarke, Neville Lewis, Gregoire Boonzaier, Marianne Podlashuc, Selby Mvusi, Irma Stern, Gladys Mgudlandlu, Sydney Khumalo, Louis Maqhubela, Tommy Motswai, Alfred Thoba, Noria Mabasa and Johannes Segogela.

Opens: September 24
Closes: March 19, 2006

The Gallery at Grande Provence in the Franschhoek winelands presents its '2006 Summer Show'. Curated by Cape Town art consultant Rose Korber, the 'Summer Show' features an extensive selection of paintings, mixed media works, original prints, sculpture, ceramics, photography and contemporary beadwork by both leading and emerging South African artists.

Artists featured include Sam Nhlengethwa, John Kramer, David Koloane, Wayne Barker, Karl Gietl, Diana Hyslop, Stephen Inggs, Nina Romm, Kevin Collins and Shany van den Berg, Sannell Aggenbach and Peter Eastman. Alongside these are ceramics by Barbara Jackson, Louise Gelderblom, Hennie Meyer, Heather Mills and Helen Vaughan. A wide range of exciting new beadwork pieces by Martine Jackson, Carol Nathan Levin and Tamlin Blake will also be featured.

Opens: December 18
Closes: February 28