JOHANNESBURG

This all-painting group show curated by artists Clare Menck and Johann Louw has now moved up from the Cape Town Castle to the Sandton Civic Gallery in Gauteng, with almost all of the original work rehung. It's a good show to go to for those wondering whether painting still has a place in the contemporary art world. From corporate art world favourite Walter Meyer with his atmospheric local landscapes to the quirky collage of Peet Pienaar - whatever it is that has happened to little Noddy - there's a full range of styles and subject matter. Richard Baholo, known for his exploration of cultural myths, offers here The Olympic Bid Celebrations. Painted in classic history painting mode and completed largely before the country had learned that the bid had failed, Celebrations poses a group of the down-and-out and the lame in front of pennants. Their hopeful power salutes gives an indication of the expectations pinned on a successful bid by large sections of the country.

The opening on January 12 also marked the launch of the 'Cyst' catalogue - 30 pages with colour illustrations and the Cape Town opening address by Jane Taylor. The show runs until February 28.

The Goodman Gallery is starting the year with a show that should be guaranteed to tide it over the financial deserts of more riskily experimental local work: seven monotypes by the serene Italian master Mimmo Paladino with his lyrical imagery. For the technically minded, we can provide this alluring advance information: each print consists of four sheets of Japanese paper mounted on a tarlatan (a coarse gauze) background. Etching and aquatint is used extensively in all, and each includes an etched chine colle panel. The monotypes were made last year at the Studios of Arte 3, Milan. The show opens on Saturday, January 24.

In the tradition of 'The Neglected Tradition:Towards a New History of South African Art', the landmark 1988 show in which the Johannesburg Art Gallery for the first time focussed on the contribution of black artists to our cultural history, we now have an exhibition which looks specifically at the older generation. Work by 47 artists gives a fine overview which should not be missed.

Isolde Krams

All those adults considered too old and serious to get toys in their stockings should pay a visit to the Mark Coetzee Fine Art Cabinet where luckily it's quite OK to crunch over the white salt covering the floor of the gallery and touch and play with Isolde Krams' artwork. Just as well., since the brilliant colours, unexpected juxtapositions and soft matte textures of her cast latex pieces involving fish, birds, worlds, women, mezuzahs, horses and bollards make stroking almost irresistible. Archetypes transcend the logical, the rational and the cognitive, and it is Krams's skill that she taps into the universal while appealing to our sense of play. Krams explains her philosophy in an Artist's limited edition book entitled 'Rubber Fables' which accompanies the show. Until the end of January.

In a curatorial statement introducing this show, Mirjam Asmal expresses her surprise on finding, when she first came to live in South Africa, that although a major section of the population of this country is of Indian descent, contemporary art from India is almost completely unknown here. Asmal is attempting to effect an introduction with a Festival of Indian Contemporary Art which will be opened in Cape Town by film producer Mira Nair at the Association for Visual Arts on January 26, and move to Durban in February.

'At the core of the current festival', writes Asmal, 'are two solo exhibitions of works by young yet established artists from Delhi. Much as their work differs, both Shambhavi and Sanjeev Sinha paint on handmade paper from Pondicherri, soaking the rough surface with brightly coloured pigments as if was sponge. Other works on show are by Raja Babu Sharma and Ganshyam Nimbark who use organic pigments on antique sheets of paper.

Calendar of events at the AVA (Reservations 24-7436):

• Weds, Jan 28 at 6p.m. Pather Panchali (1955, English subtitles) This Cannes Film Festival award-winning film was Satyajit Ray's first production.
• Weds, Feb 4 at 6 p.m. Vadhini Dance Academy - performance
• Mon, Feb 9 at 6 p.m. Indian Contemporary Art - a lecture cum slide show by Mirjam Asmal
• Weds, Feb 11 at 6 pm. Jalsaghar (1958, English subtitles) a film directed by Satyajit Ray

Known world wide in earlier decades for its shock images of the Police v. The People South African photography in the nineties has been able to stop, take stock, and adopt a more personal expression. 'Photosynthesis' - the process whereby plants absorb light in order to grow - is an inspired title for such an exhibition. Examples of the new explorations by a selected 34 photographers range from Angela Buckland's sublimely cropped ode to white suburbia, Kruger's Day, Durban, 1994 to images of black township life seen through such expert eyes as Vita-award winner Santu Mofokeng.

In an artist's statement, invited British photographer Joy Gregory says: "Much of the fashion and beauty photography is silent in the call for women to cultivate their independence. Instead, it presents us with a contradiction - offering us a taste of freedom laced with notions of beauty often resulting in self-hatred, physical obsession, terror of ageing and dread of loss of control.

'My area of interest is the impact that the numerous cultures, which have migrated to Britain over the last forty years, have had on British concepts of beauty.'

'Lost Histories' continues until March 22.

The Funktion, at the corner of Loop and Shortmarket Streets, is one of Cape Town's most popular clubs, and 'See You When I Get There' which will open at 10 p.m. on Friday January 16 picks up on a new trend by young artists to show work not just in galleries but in places where they hang out anyway. This latest 'installation and verbal performance' by Peet Pienaar and Alex Braun opens on Friday January 16 at 10 p.m. and will run for two weeks. Pienaar describes the installation as consisting of remade layered signage, little wrappings of cocaine in colour-graded pieces of newspaper, and on one wall, a single word. Guess you need to go see for yourself . Every day except Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 10 p.m. till late

Joao Ferreira runs an art consultancy and gallery on the 1st Floor, Creative House, Loop Street, and this month, in a fortuitous tie-up with the performances at Spier of the William Kentridge directed and animated Ubu and the Truth Commission, Ferreira is showing etchings from Kentridge's Ubu:101 series.

Conrad Botes is one of those rare artists whose strong graphic style is completely unmistakable whether it is being used in painting, as in the current 'Cyst' show, in the service of a theatrical poster, or as he first became known, as a key contributor to Bitterkomix. His show opens on January 23 and closes February 5.

The Area is a relatively new gallery in an attractive space in Radio House, an old building in Shortmarket Street, and it seems a pity that those who run the gallery seem so determined to utilise every inch of space that it is really difficult to see anything properly. Added to that, including as many artists as one possibly can usually leads to a weak show, and this is certainly the case here, with fine works by Bridget Baker and Stephen Inggs suffering by their proximity to many lesser art director type offerings. The tiny catalogue is indeed a triumph of miniaturisation, but one blanches slightly at seeing only the artists' first names under their photographs.

Installations by nine Cape Town artists in the block where prisoners used to meet their visitors. If you do take the ferry trip out there, please insist to the guides that you want to see the show - it's chaos out there, and recent visitors from the Chicago Institute of Art and Swedish curators left the Island without even knowing the show was on!

Lien Botha at the Durban Art Gallery

Cape Town artist Lien Botha is known for her evocative photo-based work and installations, work that earned her the Standard Bank Young Artist of the Year Award in 1997. For her Grahamstown award show, Botha produced a body of work entitled Boxing Days, and it is this work that Durban audiences now have an opportunity to see.