Archive: Issue No. 115, March 2007

04.03.07 'Visiting Artists Programme - Angela Buckland' at DUT Art Gallery
04.03.07 'Michaelis School of Fine Art Masters Students at the KNZSA Gallery
04.03.07 Vicki Ross van Wyk at the KZNSA Gallery
04.03.07 Jacki Bruniquel at Bean Bag Bohemia Gallery
04.03.07 David Gaylard at Beanbag Bohemia
04.03.07 Grace Kotze at artSPACE Durban
04.03.07 Irvin Nkwanyana at the KZNSA Gallery
04.03.07 'A Life's Work - James O. Hall 1916 - 2006' at Durban Art Gallery
04.03.07 'Re-visions' at the African Art Centre

04.02.07 Edoardo di Muro at the BAT Centre
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

The Visiting Artists Programme is being launched this year with an exhibition and seminars by photographer Angela Buckland. The seminars and exhibition will be around ethical issues raised by her book Zip Zip My Brain Harts (recently reviewed on ArtThrob).This is targeted at Fine Art and Photography senior students but is also open to the public.

Opens: March 6
Closes: March 16

'Come' is an exhibition of work by students currently completing their Master's degrees at the Michaelis School of Fine Art. The exhibition includes a few already established Capetonian artists and also promises some exciting new talent. The work on show traverses media from painting to video, with themes ranging from the nostalgic to the political, playful to the austere and reverent to the obscene.

Artists include Jake Aikman, Jenny Altshuler, Stuart Bird, Justin Brett, Pieter Cilliers, Renée Holleman, Nandipha Mntambo, Andrzej Nowicki, Ruth Sacks, Linda Stupart, Karina Simonson, Lorraine Khoury and Barbara Wildenboer.

Opens: March 27
Closes: April 15

In this exhibition, Vicki Ross van Wyk explores the binary opposites of fragility and endurance that define the human spirit. These qualities are expressed though the juxtaposition of the tactility and inherent qualities of media such as clay, bitumen, copper, lead and paper.

Media and process become metaphors for one's existence, for pain, anger, rawness, seduction, fragility and temporality on one hand; with image and text as a questioning of our social context on the other. A material substance supports the philosophical and ephemeral reasoning of thought and action.

The intention is to evoke a response and question reality - to solicit emotions and an understanding through the subtle renderings of marks, textures, nuances of colour, text, video projections and photographic documentation.

Opens: March 6
Closes: March 25

After completing a Fine Art degree at Michaelis, UCT, Jacki Bruniquel spent a large portion of her adult life travelling around the world. An emotional trauma brought her home to South Africa and this particular experience taught her that is it sometimes better to stay and fight one's demons.

It is said that when a human is faced with a fearful situation his or her response will be one of 'fight or flight'. In Bruniquel's 'Fight or Flight', the artist has used photography, painting and collage to create mixed media works which are richly layered and textured. Symbols such as birds, proteas, and landscape vistas are used to explore the notion of South African identity while the use of fabric and lace creates an atmosphere of femininity and idealism. At a time when so many South Africans are emigrating, the fight or flight concept becomes both a personal and a social symbol.

Opens: March 7
Closes: March 30

'In this evocative exhibition of photographic artworks entitled 'Circles of Life', award-winning art director and photographer David Gaylard explores the macro world of botanica after the rain. Drawing on childhood memories of imagined worlds in a single droplet, the images take on an almost other-wordly feel with their moody tones and dramatic colours.

Gaylard is visual artist who has been acknowledged with a large number of awards ranging from the Emma Smith Scholarship award to top international awards for his art direction and design work.

Through the process of producing artworks for this exhibition, Kotze found that she had to engage with the power of an emotion remembered and the power that paint holds in communicating such a quality. Often a sense of a remembered person or incident carries far more resonance than a detailed representation, which can distract from the essence.

Her works explore such ideas, using both minimal detail in images and paint application which can break down form and introduce an emotional vocabulary of its own. Kotze is fascinated by the way in which the artist has the potential to manipulate in order to produce specific emotional keys. Kotze continues to investigate at what point does the image, when broken down by paint application, lose its visual literary meaning and paint become the dominant voice.

Opens: March 12
Closes: March 31

In an exhibition entitled 'My Home', Irvin Nkwanyana communicates issues related to his life, culture and the difficulties he has experienced. Nkwanyana uses borrowed images to contextualise his surroundings. His works allude to warm home interiors, created for families but at the same time, depict the challenges in contemporary South African daily life.

Opens: March 14
Closes: April 3

James Hall was one of the Durban artworld's most familiar and loved figures. His work is evident wherever one goes in the city, although it is not always recognised or as being by him. He cast many a school crest, he made lettering for buildings and among his religious pieces were the ceramic and fibre glass panels at the Jewish Hall of Prayer, Red Hill cemetery and the Madonna at the Holy Trinity Catholic Church. His work embraced the religious and the secular. The now trendy 70s hotel The Blue Water bears his mark along the poolside. One of his last commissions at the age of 89 was the bust of Nelson Mandela for the UKZN Medical School.

He was a teacher, mentor and an inspiration to many. This exhibition shows some of his public and private projects.

Opens: March 21
Closes May 15

The book Re-Visions: Expanding the narrative of South African Art edited by Hayden Proud is now available at the African Art Centre which is holding an exhibition of works by Durban Artists featured in the book (which focuses on the collection of Bruce Campbell Smith). Some of those featured include Joseph Manana, Themba Siwela and Zamani Romeo Makhanya, Lindelani Ngwenya, Sithembiso Sibisi, Derrick Nxumalo and Sibusiso Duma.

Opens: March 1
Closes: March 20

'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