CAPE TOWN

Artist Lynne Lomofsky describes this as 'a mixed media installation of photographs, video and found objects which deals with public and private dimensions of cancer and illness.' It is a distillation of a collection started in 1993, when Lomofsky was diagnosed with lymphoma. 'I feel that by taking my personal experience out of the private and into the public realm I can take a step towards demystifying the negative images and emotions that cancer evokes'.

The show opens at the Mau Mau (192 Long Street) on Oct ober 18 and closes October 31. Hours are 12 - 5 p.m. The artist will be present on the 18th fom 11a.m. to 3`p.m. and on the 19th from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Cape Town viewers now have the opportunity to see this show which opened at the Goodman in a new setting at the Mark Coetzee Fine Art Cabinet, featuring Kurgan's fine and sensitive drawings of her young children.

For Kurgan, her work is about the intimate relationship between her children and herself. To portray young children without resorting to sentimentality or archness requires a rigorous objectivity, but Kurgan meets this demand.

Until November 1

Writer Ashraf Jamal drafs around in the Karroo and picks up things and puts them together, and sometimes the results are felicitous, and pleasantly evocative of that harsh and open landscape with its dried out remnants of man, beast and plant.

At the Mau Mau Gallery, 12 noon to 5 p.m. daily until October 16.

Own

The subtitle of Brett Murray's newly opened show at the Hanel is 'Interpreting 18th century landscapes of the Western Cape'. Using as his source those horizontally extended drawings which suggest vastly sweeping landscapes, Murray attacks sheets of steel with a blowtorch, rendering soft lines and cross-hatchings as hard jagged cut metal, painted black, and mounted to stand away from the wall.

The hardness and blackness seems inappropriate for landscapes usually softened by haze and distance, and this viewer found herself gazing past the cutout metal to the softer, subtler grey shadows on the wall behind.

This visual shift caused the cutouts to take on a new role - as burglar bars. Words on brass plaques set into the landscapes such as 'Possession' and 'Heritage' served to strengthen this reading.

Two young artists, Trevor Stuart and Christopher Slack, show contemporary prints at Tragically Hip Clothing in Cavendish Close, Claremont. And the title? Stuart prints from old vinyl records, and Slack practises a very superior form of scratching - the mezzotint. Open business hours.

If you scratch

The Goodman Gallery's Biennale offering is an installation by two of the country's most respected artists, Kagiso Pat Mautloa and David Koloane. 'If you scratch' promises to exfoliate the 'many-layered patinations of the dwellings and history of our country'. October 14 to November 1.

Andrew Verster Retrospective

Andrew Verster has been producing work consistently since the 1960's, exhibiting regularly, outlasting many of his contemporaries. The results of this consistency can be seen at the Durban Art Gallery, where Verster's rich, lush colour, a fine painterliness and an assured and masterly draughtsmanship make the contemplation of his work a visual delight.