Archive: Issue No. 114, February 2007

04.02.07 Christiaan Nagel at Bean Bag Bohemia Gallery
04.02.07 Fran Saunders and Peter Machen at artSPACE durban
04.02.07 'Bob Marley: A Life in Photographs' at the Durban Art Gallery
04.02.07 Edoardo di Muro at the BAT Centre
04.02.07 'Naked Heart' at Durban Manor
04.02.07 Dale Yudelman at the KZNSA Gallery
04.02.07 Gabi Ncgobo, Deanne Donaldson, Grace Kotze and Themba Shibase at the KZNSA Gallery
04.02.07 Jurgen Schadeberg at the Durban Art Gallery
04.02.07 'Women for Children' Print Portfolio at Tatham Art Gallery
04.02.07 Marklyn Govender and Andrew Verster at the KZNSA Gallery
04.02.07 Michele Silk at artSPACE Durban

15.01.07 Robert Balfour at ArtSpace
15.01.07 Sibusiso Duma, Julius Mfethe and Sfiso Ka-Mkame at the African Art Centre
15.01.07 KZNSA Members Exhibition

'Bob Marley: A Life in Photographs' is an exhibition of photographs to mark the 62nd anniversary of Bob Marley's birth. The exhibition features 100 colour and black and white photographs by 12 photographers including Adriann Boot, Dennis Morris and Lee Jaffe. Marley is one of the major cultural icons of the 20th century. His death from cancer at the age of 36 left a legacy of music which represents African liberation. The exhibition aims to show the subject's public and private persona and is not curated as a linear narrative.

Opens: February 6
Closes: February 27

Christiaan Nagel takes the title of this exhibition from the lyrics of a song which he wrote based on the Nature vs Nurture debate. 'Wise Child' is also based on the Information Age where everything has been globalised due to the Internet. The 24 year old artist holds an Honour's Degree in Psychology and has started exhibiting widely. Three of his works are to be shown at the Totondo Gallery in Amsterdam in April and he will hold a solo exhibition at the Coningsby Gallery in London in August.

He uses car paint on framed masonite boards. His technique involves dripping oil-based super enamel paint on the 'glossy canvasses' to create his mainly abstract works.

More of his work can be viewed at www.artenade.com/Nagel Gallery.aspx or christiaannagel.blogspot.com

Opens: February 1
Closes: February 26

Fran Saunders is well known for her collages, which have been exhibited in South Africa, Germany, the Czech Republic and the National Gallery in Bulawayo. She draws inspiration from Max Ernst and his refusal to apply simplistic categorisation to work. Her chosen medium thrives on rearranging objective elements as a reaction against the predictable.

Peter Machen is a well known arts journalist who currently writes for the Weekend Witness. He was formerly Arts Editor for the Independent on Saturday and is currently establishing a reputation as a visual artist. In this exhibition, Machen takes shopfront mannequins as his subject matter, re-humanising them to unsettling effect. The fact that these mannequins, with their perfect skin tone and potential for immortality, feel more human than the airbrushed images which fill our 21st century media, says much about the construction of self in an age of super-perfect reproduction.

'The Love we Leave Behind', the title given to their joint showing, reflects a view both artists hold - that our lives derive meaning from moments infused with love.

Opens: February 5
Closes: February 24

'Street Life' is an exhibition of lithographic drawings by artist Edoardo di Muro. Born in Cuneo, northern Italy in 1944, Di Muro has shown his work in many African countries as well as in France, Italy and the United States. Long-time resident in Dakar, Di Muro now lives in Italy.

An initial series of drawings was published in 1990 under the title Afrique (Editions, Hatier) and a second one came out in 1995 in a book entitled Afrique Capitals (Editions, Sepia, Paris). Beneath Edoardo di Muro's pen, urban Africa flows onto the drawing with all its diversity of living quarters, ethnic influences, and social contrasts and with all the humour and high spirits of its inhabitants who, like Di Muro himself, never abandon these qualities.

Opens: February 9
Closes: March 10

'Reality Bytes' is an exhibition of photographic images that portray decisive moments in a collective still. Embracing fictive 'truths' which retain the raw quality of real moments without compromising the authentic ethics and precepts required by photographic naturalism. Imbued with story-telling innuendo, satirical humour and social commentary, within a global fabric, fable and fact blend to create a new reality that dwells within the eye of the beholder. Yudelman also presents a second body of work entitled 'Post Mortem 2010'.

Yudelman's career in photography has led him through two eras of South African history as well as across several continents. Born in Johannesburg, he began photographing at a young age under the tutelage of his father and was barely out of his teens when he landed a job as staff photographer at South Africa's largest daily newspaper The Star in 1979.

In 1986, Yudelman left South Africa to work as a freelance photographer first in London and later in Los Angeles. He returned to South Africa in 1996 and currently lives in Cape Town. For the past five years he has worked collaboratively with painter Arlene Amaler-Raviv, creating multi-media images addressing a wide range of social issues - their most recent collaboration 'Livestock' was exhibited at the 8th Havana Biennale, Cuba and Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Oslo, Norway. Yudelman's work can be found in major corporate and private art collections worldwide.

Opens: 6pm, February 13
Closes: March 4

'About the Surface' is an exhibition that celebrates the art of painting as a tool of communication. The exhibition, curated by KZNSA Gallery curator Nathi Gumede, features the work of four prolific painters - Grace Kotze, Themba Shibase, Gabi Ngcobo and Deanne Donaldson. The exhibition intends to pay tribute to and also acknowledge the contribution of the invited artists towards ensuring that the culture of painting proliferates in the province of KwaZulu Natal.

Painting has undergone a number of challenges over the years with the growing trend of new media practices. However, the invited artists have continuously ensured the credibility of the practice especially within the Durban area and its surroundings.

Opens: February 13
Closes: March 4

Jurgen Schadeberg's 'Voices from the Land' is a photographic essay, looking at the living and working conditions of the farmers and farm workers on South African farms today. This six month project examines farm conditions nationwide, looking at the successful farms run by both black and white farmers. The exhibition also considers farms which, due to mismanagement have failed, and why.

The essay also looks at farms where labour conditions are unacceptable and where farm workers are exploited and ill-treated by the farmers. The photographic essay complements the research work commissioned by the organisation, Atlantic Philanthropies, such as a study on farm schools by the Wits Law Clinic and a study on farm evictions by the Rural Legal Trust.

This project began in 1952, when Schadeberg, along with investigative journalist Henry Nxumalo, produced a series of now historic images for Drum magazine, which focused on the brutal working conditions of the farm labourers in Bethal. These photographs forced the apartheid government to investigate labour conditions on farms. Schadeberg also did a photo study on the 'tot' system on Cape wine farms which exposed the unacceptable working conditions. The exhibition is accompanied by a book.

Opens: February 14
Closes: March 4

Art for Humanity's 'Women for Children' print portfolio consists of a collaboration of 50 foremost women artists and poets, 46 of whom are South African, on the issue of children's rights and welfare.

The print portfolio includes etchings, linocuts, digital and mixed media prints created specifically for the campaign. Each artwork is accompanied by a poem in dialogue with the art, communicating a strong message on the rights of our children and each poem has been translated into one of South Africa's 11 official languages.

Some of the art and poetry collaborations included are from the following prominent women artists and poets: Bronwen Vaughan-Evans and Nise Malange; Gabisile Nkosi and Mavis Smallberg; Bronwen Findlay and Yvette Christiansë; Kim Berman and Mmatshilo Motsei; Diane Victor and Michelle McGrane; Lien Botha and Karen Press; Giselle Baillie and Magasina Majundo, and Judith Mason and Magasina among others.

Opens: 6pm, February 15
Closes: April 18

As the title '@30' indicates, this is an exhibition by Marklyn Govender - his first solo exhibition - to celebrate turning 30 on February 19. In keeping with the policy of the Nivea Gallery, Andrew Verster will show a small collection of works done at the same age.

Govender collaborates with Clint Singh in the making of his works. They have developed a technique of applying oil paint using empty Mendhi tubes, a similar technique used when decorating brides' hands and feet with the intricate henna patterns for weddings. Both Govender and Singh have collaborated on a number of projects with Andrew Verster, recently on a three panel composition to celebrate the centenary of Gandhi's Satyagraha, which was exhibited both in Delhi and Durban.

Opens: February 19
Closes: March 11

'Being Frank... ' comprises a selection of Michele Silk's paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture using various media and techniques including expressive line, colour and brushstrokes. She has centred on themes such as ageing, decay and mortality. Silk's work invites the viewer to integrate those aspects of life that society may prefer to marginalise. In addition, more personal themes associated with family and history suggests a more intimate narrative of self.

Silk is finishing her Master's in Fine Art at the University of KZN in Pietermaritzburg this year.

Opens: February 26
Closes: March 10

The historic and elegant Durban Manor (formerly the exclusive gentleman's club called the Durban Club) will be the venue for a one night only event conceptualised by choreographer, David Gouldie. It will be a blend of music, fashion, intervention theatre, drama, art and dance. See News for more information.

Time: 8pm - 4am

Influenced by Hopper, Masereel and Stagg, Robert Balfour focuses mainly on streets and buildings of Durban in 'Intimate Aversions' in which the night is explored as an 'othering' influence on identity in the city. Employing oil and acrylic paints to create highly textured and rough surfaces, colour and form clash as highways end abruptly, figures taper into neon signs and become part of buildings or struggle to escape them. At night the city is both sealed by darkness and defined by light. Grey Street landmarks, easily identified by day, become unreliable at night as streets and buildings disappear into darkness. And, what appears as night 'life', flickering neon signs, or the twinkle of sodium lamps over the harbour water, can suggest, just as easily, desolation and abandonment, activity or energy.

Balfour holds degrees from the universities of Rhodes, Natal and Cambridge. He currently teaches at the University of KwaZulu-Natal on modules in language education and has taught in both the Humanities and Education faculties in the College of Humanities.
Opens: January 15
Closes: February 3

These three prominent KZN artists are showing a small selection of works this month at the African Art Centre. Sfiso Ka-Mkame is one of the province's most prominent and senior artists. He was born in Clermont on the outskirts of Durban in 1963. He continues to live in the area and commutes to his studio in the Umkhumbane/Cato Manor area each day. He rose to prominence in the 80s when his Letters to God series was purchased by the South African National Gallery and the Durban Art Gallery. He is known for his political commitment and also his decorative, bold compositions which celebrate the power of the African woman. Sibusiso Duma is a younger artist who was trained by the late Trevor Makhoba. He initially showed with Welcome Duma but is now exhibiting his socially conscious, narrative works in his own right. He is influenced by traditional stories and life in the township. Julius Mfete is well known for his beautifully carved scenes of rural life. Highly finished pale wood is often detailed with small leather and horn elements in these very accomplished and much imitated works.

Opens: January 1
Closes : January 31

The KZNSA this year invited its members to produce work for the annual Members' Exhibition on the theme 'Naked Truth'. The artists were invited to interpret the theme in their own ways using their medium of choice. The exhibition always sees a mix of ideas from traditional to contemporary art practice created by both established and emerging artists.

The artist who produces the most outstanding work will be awarded with a floating trophy in the name of the late Joan Emanuel, made available by the Emanuel family. In addition there will be three prizes for the three best entries: A first prize of R3000, a second prize of R2000 and a third prize of R1000.

Opens: January 23
Closes: February 11