In exactly the same way we did last year, we all gasp that the first month of the new year has already passed. Maybe, though, with the rush of the festive season over and now that we are settling into the groove for another year's hard work, it is an opportunity for reflection on the year past and anticipation for the year (or 11 months thereof) to come. To this end, all of our regional editors have contributed to a review of 2006 [
See REVIEWS], listing their three best shows, a best newcomer, South Africans making the most interesting work and the most important local art event during the period. Given their regional biases there is a lot of variation in the results, but a number of names and events come up repeatedly - Peter van Heerden, Nicholas Hlobo, Mikhael Subotsky, the KZNSA's Young Artists' Project, and inevitably, 'TransCape' which was actually postponed until this year. It is set to begin next month, so we run an article [
See OPINION], previously published in
Domus, n. 898, December 2006, by Italian art critic and researcher Iolanda Pensa. Her reflection on the process leading up to next month's event, benefiting from her outsider's view, expresses equal measures of caution and optimism. I think that's pretty much how we feel here too, although I might add a dash of excitement. The latest issue of
New Yorker carries an image by Lolo Veleko on their art listings page. To order your own Lolo Veleko prints, exclusively offered by Editions for ArtThrob, check the EDITIONS section this month, and read all about this rapidly rising young photographer in ARTBIO, written by Tracy Murinik.
Paul Edmunds
CHIEF SUBEDITOR
Next update: Sunday 4 March
CAPE
Cape Town reflects a current resurgence in interest in figurative painting with a number of artists this month engaging to varying degrees with this genre: Mustafa Maluka, Corlie de Kock, Adrian Köhler, Roelof Rossouw, Grada Djeri, Polly Alakija and Jenny Groenewald are amongst them. Photography also continues to benefit from new exhibition spaces at The Old Biscuit Mill creative hub, which last month officially celebrated its opening with a one-night festival.
GAUTENG
2007 gets into swing with Warren Siebrits Modern and Contemporary's fourth installation of 'Prints and Multiples' and Nathaniel Stern at Art on Paper. Photography gets a good look-in with Santu Mofokeng and Guy Tillim at the Standard Bank and Goodman galleries respectively. Sanell Aggenbach opens her second major show in Jo'burg in as many years and UK-based artist Roger Palmer shows 'Plume' at The Premises.
KWAZULU-NATAL
Durban is set to wake up after a dull start to the new year. The DAG's forthcoming exhibition 'Bob Marley - A life in photographs' is eagerly anticipated by the many Bob Marley and reggae fans in the city of the notorious 'Durban Poison'. This is followed by 'Voices from the Land' where Jurgen Schadeberg highlights the contentious issues of land in this country. More photographs, but this time with a contemporary edge, will be shown by Peter Machen who has teamed up with Fran Saunders for the exhibition at artSPACE which they call 'The Love we Leave Behind'.
INTERNATIONAL
This month Claudette Schreuders holds a solo exhibition entitled 'The Fall' in New York, Ed Young shows in Madrid and Sue Williamson presents a large solo exhibition in Atlanta.
All of our regional Editors present their annual review of the year past, listing their three best shows, a best newcomer, South Africans making the most interesting work and the most important art event of the year.
CAPE
Wim Botha entices, unveils and eludes the viewer with his latest subversion of icons, objects and emblems of power. Recent Michaelis graduate Fabian Saptouw is refreshed and perplexed
GAUTENG
Michael Smith reviews Santu Mofokeng's 'Invoice' at the Standard Bank Gallery, which he says, functions as a survey show rather than a retrospective, never sacrificing depth for breadth. Smith contends that Mofokeng's oeuvre demands a new definition of the term 'documentary'.
KWAZULU NATAL
The annual KZNSA Members' Exhibition served up its customary 'something for everyone' fare. Against the background of waning membership of art organisations, which the KZNSA has managed to escape, Carol Brown picks out some of the show's highlights.
OPINION
In an article previously published in Domus, n. 898, December 2006, Italian art critic and researcher Iolanda Pensa expresses some cautious excitement about 'TransCape', due to open late next month in Cape Town.
A new alternative creative space opens in the Johannesburg CBD in Jeppe Street's Lister Medical Building, while in Cape Town, artist and designer Peet Pienaar launches The Bowling Club. The iLetters project invites contributions for a major international event. In KwaZulu Natal, Bongani Mkhonza is appointed as Education Officer at Durban Art Gallery, and a number of Art for Humanity artworks are chosen to launch 'Art Without Borders'. At the same time a book related to the same project, entitled, Look at me: Women Artists and Poets Advocate Children's Rights is launched. Carol Brown spots some work from Umcebo Trust on television. She also tells us about 'Naked Heart', a multi-media event to take place at Durban Manor.
Nontsikeleo 'Lolo' Veleko, whose photographic prints join the Editions for ArtThrob portfolio, is profiled by Tracy Murinik.
In her final contribution to the site, Carine Zaayman visits http://www.myturningpoint.com, an online database project that collects stories from people all over the net about turning points in their lives.
Carine Zaayman turns her attention to Mark Napier's www.potatoland.org/shredder/shredder.html, an application which scrambles websites.
AVA's Artreach fund invites applications, and the same organisation seeks a Gallery Assistant. The Sasol Wax Art Award 2007 invites entries. Africa Burns, a regional version of Nevada's Burning Man festival, is set to take place in the Western Cape.
Rat Western takes issue with Michael Smith's reflection on art criticism that we ran last month.
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Two striking photographs from Nontsikeleo 'Lolo' Veleko's signature Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder series of bold, funky street fashion portraits captured on the streets of Johannesburg. Memorable and powerful, Veleko's images pose questions around how identity is perceived, and often assumed, and at the same time of how her subjects use their clothes to construct their guises of identity.
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