Archive: Issue No. 46, June 2001

I was lucky enough to get a small preview of some of Jeremy Wafer's new works at his home in Durban, and if you thought his last Goodman exhibition was a knock-out, be prepared for more of his intensely considered, intimate forays into geographies, seriality, form and observation.

Educated under the typical Modernist "truth to materials" maxim, Wafer has always positioned himself slightly outside beyond or peripheral to this, with modular, minimalistic work replete with the metaphorical possibilities contained within his "imagery" or chosen media.

Inching ever closer to the complex territories of culture and identity, this new body of work is monochromatic and deceptively simple in form, consisting of coats of arms doubled and quartered, digitally manipulated photographs, glass paintings and sculpture. And although it may not appear so at first, it is without a doubt the logical next step from his pocked and striated sculptural forms.

Opening: Thursday June 14 2001
Closing: June 30

'The Hourglass Project: A Women's Vision' is an exhibition of original prints by 15 women from five countries produced during a two-month residency at the Caversham Press, examining ideas and values relating to the passage of time. Participating artists include Lynne Allen (United States), Deborah Bell (South Africa), Bongi Bengu (SA), Cristina Cardenas (USA), Pip Curling (Zimbabwe), Bronwen Findlay (SA), Sheila Flynn (SA), Faiza Galdhari (SA), Patricia Hurl (Ireland), Elaine Kennedy (Ireland), Lynn Marshall (USA), Semina Mpofu (Zimbabwe), Sophie Peters (SA), Mildred Thompson (USA) and Grace Tshikuvhe (SA).

Opening: Tuesday June 12 (no opening function)
Closing: June 28

Spark! hosts the Orchards Group (artists from the Artist Proof Studio and Wits Tech papermaking department) with a "hand-crafted print and paper market" including hand-printed greeting cards, stationery, artworks, embroideries and more.

There will also be a number of demonstrations on show and people can sign up to learn various techniques of print and papermaking. The various projects taking part in this exhibition all share a relationship with the Artist Proof Studio.

For more information contact Cara/Zanele on (011) 492 1278.

Opening: Friday June 15 at 6pm
Closing: June 24

Promising to be one of the most interesting photographic shows in a long time is 'Compound to Kraal', a collection of rare images of black mineworkers and the Kimberley elite dating from the early 20th century, shot by mine compound guard Alfred-Martin Duggan-Cronin. The exhibition is a public profile exercise, both to expose the images to the general public and to raise funds to salvage the rapidly deteriorating negatives, of which there are more than 7 000. Few will be on display, given their fragility. The exhibition is co-curated by Santu Mofokeng and Thierry Secretan.

Opening: May 29 at 6pm
Closing: June 24

The college launches its own space in the historical Herbert Baker house on the property, with a debut exhibition featuring mixed media work by staff members Sonja Britz, Fiona Couldridge, Aiden Don, Michael Mutsharini, Sue van Zyl and others.

Opening: June 02
Closing: June 07

The college launches its own space in the historical Herbert Baker house on the property, with a debut exhibition featuring mixed media work by staff members Sonja Britz, Fiona Couldridge, Aiden Don, Michael Mutsharini, Sue van Zyl and others.

The gallery launches photographer Michael Doran's limited edition signed artist's book, with text by Michael Hayworth. The exhibition features 56 debossed photographic prints.

Opening: June 03 at 6pm
Closing: June 10

It's called PhotoZA and it's South Africa's first gallery focusing exclusively on art photography. Intending to exhibit work by South Africa's foremost photographers who have gained considerable international reputations, it will show and market both traditional "wet-process" photography as well as digital work with a once-monthly exhibition turnover.

Says owner and curator Michelle Rock: "Photography is undergoing a worldwide resurgence and it is recognised as an art form in its own right. South African photos are underrepresented in this market, even though we have a high percentage of reputable photographers locally who hold their own with the world's best. Fine art photography has also seen an immense growth in the buyer's market with both investors and collectors bidding on escalating prices for these works."

The new space opens with an exhibition of work by Michael Meyersfeld, Jürgen Schadeberg, Victor Matom, Bob Cnoops, Marlene Neumann, Pierre Peters, Sally Gaule and Lawrance Brennon. The opening show will also form part of the Paris Photo 2001 exhibition at the Louvre in November 2001.

Opens: Sunday May 27 at 6.30pm

Well-known for her relief paintings of close-up creepy crawlies, Couldridge now chooses creatures of the deep as her subject matter. She shows selected works in this shop window gallery, opposite Franco's restaurant in Parkview. Winner of a Royal Over Seas League scholarship, the work forms part of a larger collection to be shown in London in July.

For more information, tel: 082 401 0905.

Yes, so it's a bit twee, but as with most virtuoso-type activities with rather ordinary materials, you do tend to go 'Ooh! How'd they do that?' The First Paper House exhibition of paper sculpture with artists Hazel Buchan and Peter Holliday should be a case in point. Featuring all manner of beasts and humans fashioned from cut paper, the exhibition has a short run in Sandton City, after which it moves to Durban and Cape Town. Its shopping centre location is revealing of the intended target market, but if you happen to be trawling the malls, take a look. It beats découpage.

Without Hodgins and Neethling, the Johannesburg art world wouldn't be the same. So it's a pleasure to look forward to their joint exhibition of recent works on paper, including a series of monotypes produced by Hodgins with Mark Atwood of the Artists' Press.

Atwood and Hodgins will both give talks on May 26 at 3pm and 4pm respectively. Atwood will present 'Lithograph - serial box or work of art?' and show the video Four Stones for Kanemitsu (the drawing and pulling of a lithograph). RSVP if you would like to attend.

Nigerian born painter Ozor-Ejike Ezefuna and South African Selemogo Maleho will present work in the courtyard of the gallery's new location as part of Maitisong's celebratory launch event, styled as a traditional Nigerian 'Omenana' and subtitled 'The Journey of Afrikan Arts through the Ages!'

A major concern of the two-person show is to destabilise xenophobic attitudes in Johannesburg, particularly with respect to Nigerians. Artist Mahelo comments: "The myth that is prevalent in the minds of those of us, South Africans, who are very naíve to an extent that the only word that immediately comes to mind when we think about Nigeria and its people is drugs. Through Ezefuna and his work, we are trying to say there's a lot of beauty in Nigeria, and in being Nigerian, that other contemporary African cultures could emulate."

Ezefuna, who works in surrealistic and abstract styles, has had one previous exhibition in Nigeria. It is Mahelo's first show. Having worked previously as a graphic artist, he holds the dubious honour of having designed the car registration plates for Gauteng and all other provinces.

Ezefuna has taken up the post of gallery curator. Gallery manager Ntombifikile Molobi hopes to raise enough funding to take the show to Nigeria.

Guests at the opening of the exhibition will be entertained by jazz pianist Norman Chauke, a graduate of the London School of Music. Well known on the jazz circuit in Gauteng, he will be teaching music classes from the gallery.

And to live up to the cultural and spiritual demands of Omenana, the gallery is organising mobile exhibitions to various areas including townships, corporate offices, government buildings, community centres and shopping malls.

Opens: May 25
Closes: July 27

For more information, please contact:
Ntombifikile Molobi, Executive Manager
Tel: (011) 487 0937
Cell: 083 528 3090

Ozor-Ejike Ezefuna, Curator/Artist-in-Residence
Cell: 072 283 3597

Twenty new works by paper artist Durant Sihlali have been chosen by the gallery for this new exhibition. Referring to these works as the "blue inspiration works", Sihlali notes that they arise from his early love of classical composers such as Strauss, Handel and Mozart. The colour blue and various music notations become subtle but powerful leitmotifs in the body of work.

Simultaneously the gallery will be showing, for the first time in South Africa, a body of 13 works produced by Sam Nhlengethwa and Zwelethu Mthethwa in collaboration. Mthethwa applies his trademark photographic eye to capture domestic urban interiors, while Nhlengethwa alters and adapts elements of these scenes using collage.

Opens: May 19 with drinks at noon
Closes: June 09

Jürgen Schadeberg's previously unpublished images of white (often white youth) culture, in the 1950's make their debut at a special preview at Norwood's rather silent Crake Gallery before moving to the Bensusan Museum at MuseuMAfricA later on in April. Depicting scenes of vaguely rockabilly, bored Teddy-Boy type characters at social dances or an aerial view of a crowd of pop fans going typically hysterical, this collection of photographs guarantees a different take on a period of history we're more familiar with through our parents' photograph albums.

Opening: Sunday, April 22, 4pm
Closing: June 24

Franci Cronje and Magda Joubert present new work, including painting and photography, in an exhibition that challenges the conventional use of these media. Cronje is currently completing her MA(FA) at Wits. Their work has been described as "somnolent".

Opening: June 10 at 5.50pm. Guest speaker is Professor Ronel Rensburg
Closing: June 28

The image on this invitation got my attention immediately. Very 19th century sideshow, it is a graphic of a staring, tattooed figure with arms folded. Actual temporary tattoos seem to have been added to the surface of the graphic. The show is called 'The Female Gaze', which makes me hesitate, but if Bodenstein comes up with more of this, then we're in for a treat.

Opening: June 17 at 5.30pm
Closing: June 28

The Pretoria Art Museum's retrospective on the work of Reshada Crouse has been extended by popular demand until July 8 2001.

Reshada Crouse, mistress of the photo-realist portrait that sometimes falls on the wrong side of kitsch, is currently the subject of a retrospective at the Pretoria Art Museum. On show are 88 works including portraits, the 'Icons' series (Madonna and Child works) and Passive Resistance, her mural commission for the Civic Theatre. Crouse's work purports to offer hints of subversion through parody that speak to social and historical contexts.

The Tshwane Art Kids will be involved in workshops with Crouse on Saturday mornings, and the artist will be in residence from June 1 to 9 during which time she will paint a portrait of a chosen sitter.

Opening: May 02

Landscape and its signifiers provide the focus for this exhibition of paintings by Thys Cilliers and Marius Lourens, and sculptures by Wehrner Lemmer. Cilliers' seemingly banal and well-known subjects reveal secret histories beneath the surface. Lourens juxtaposes landscape and interiors, revealing moments of intimacy or quiet reverence. Lemmer uses wood and steel to speak about organic processes of growth as well as landscape's expanse.

Opening: May 20 at 6pm with guest speaker Cecile Loedolff
Closes: June 07

'Tales' is Krams's first solo show in Gauteng for some time. Given focus by her strong personal interest in conservation and environmental issues, this new work continues her commitment to a feminist pursuit and body politic related concerns. As her statement reads: "The frame of reference has extended beyond the self and the body contextualised in a narrative space (important to the artist in the 1980s and early 1990s) to far more diverse and complex allusions to global issues, nature, the environment and the future."

The gallery will be filled with loose table salt and rubber latex sculptures of strange, evocative creatures including tattooed fish, double-headed horses, globes and metamorphosed animals, with an accompanying sound piece playing from loudspeakers. A horse and rider will make an appearance at the opening.

The work is playful and potentially threatening, referencing Dada objects and binary opposites in their quest to create meaning. A good opportunity to introduce your kids to the possibilities of contemporary art.

Opening: Wednesday May 23 at 7pm with guest speaker Lizz Meiring
Closes: Saturday June 09

For those who want to book in advance, this illustrated evening lecture series by the acclaimed Unisa art history professor and vice-chair to the council of Iziko (National Museums of Cape Town) begins on June 21 and runs until November. Booking is essential, and you can choose to subscribe for the whole series at a cost of R250, or pay R30 per lecture. A note to the leaflet designer: the three-quarter angle, studio portrait of Professor Skawran gazing into the middle distance and framed by twee, 'painterly' vignetting makes it look more like an obituary than a lecture series. Which I'm sure is not intended to reflect the expected audience reaction to an art historical tour of both local and international points of interest.

Lectures start at 6pm or 7pm and are divided into the following areas of research:

'Stained Paper: Images in Watercolour'
June 21: Masters of the Art: 19th century watercolour painting in Europe (6pm)
June 28: South African images in watercolour: A historical survey (6pm)
July 4: The 20th century: Watercolours in Europe and SA (6pm)

'Early Christian and Byzantine Art'
July 11: Byzantine art and architecture: An introduction (6pm)
August 1: The cave churches of Cappadocia, Turkey (7pm)

'Early German Expressionism: Two women painters'
August 16: The art of Paula Modersohn-Becker (7pm)
August 29: Kathe Kollwitz: Art as compassion (7pm)

'Two South African artists of the 20th Century'
September 12: Images and Symbols: Walter Battiss (7pm)
September 19: A prophet in his own time: Jackson Hlungwane (7pm)

'Fibre Art Projects in Southern Africa'
November 14: Fibre art in Southern Africa, with reference to the 'Mapula' and 'Kaross' projects in South Africa, and the 'Weya' project in Zimbabwe (7pm)

The World Court for Women Against War, for Peace and the Group of Cultural Documentation Inc present an exhibition of quilting and weaving by women who have survived and resisted armed conflict across the globe. Representing over 35 countries and some 50 ethnic groups, the works are both collaborative and individual productions. The selection features a broad range of work produced by women from South Africa. In addition to the fabric works, photographs, narratives, poetry, paintings and drawings lends additional texture to the exhibition.

Opens: May 08, 7pm
Closes: June 24