Wits Art Museum

Listings

'NEWWORK14'

Wits Art Museum, in partnership with the Wits School of Arts, is proud to announce the exhibition 'NEWWORK14'.

This final exhibition features a selection of dynamic and innovative works by the graduating artists of the Division of Visual Arts (DIVA) at the Wits School of Arts (WSOA).  This exhibition is an annual showcase and is in many instances the initial public debut of a new generation of young artists. With 33 exhibiting artists, NEWWORK14 spans a diverse range of media, from performance, photography, drawing, painting, sculpture to multimedia installation and interactive events.

'NEWWORK14' is curated collaboratively by the graduates themselves – drawing together a range of critical and material interests. Often informed by social realities in Johannesburg, South Africa, and beyond, the works offer varied reflections and new imaginings. As the culmination of a four-year process of learning, exchange and experimentation NEWWORK14 is an important indicator of emerging possibilities within the contemporary South African arts industry.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS

Daniel Baeta, Antonia Brown, Chrisantha Chetty, John Constantinou, Alexia Cost, Michael Crouch, Daniella Dagnin, Katherine Donald, Siphesihle Portia Dube, Quaymberley Dudley, Michelle English, Jonathan Gecelter, Belinda Grobler, Tanja Harbottle, Jayson Junkoon, Lauren Kerr, Joy Lowdon, Daniella Malkin, Mmabatho Mokalapa, Kirsty Morrison, Palesa Mopeli, Merilyn Mushakwe, Prinella Naidoo, Ndaxola Nkalashe, Zandri Oosthuysen, Joshua Rogers, Ruwadzano Rusike, Skye Quadling, Tamsyn Stewart, Riccardo Tagliatti, Karin Tan, Jodie Tracey, Bianca van Heerden, Struan Watt, Lillian Williamson.

26 November 2014 - 14 December 2014

'TAPESTRIES'

TAPESTRIES: William Kentridge - A collaboration with the Stephens Tapestry Studio

William Kentridge’s work will be presented in three major art venues in Johannesburg in late 2014. Johannesburg Art Gallery will be hosting 'The Refusal of Time', the installation first shown at Documenta in 2012. The Goodman Gallery will be exhibiting a series of landscape drawings made on the pages of a 1906 ledger from East Rand Proprietary Mines. Wits Art Museum will be showing an extraordinary collection of tapestries, created in conjunction with Marguerite Stephens’s weaving studio, plus associated works.

19 November 2014 - 22 February 2015

What's Happening at WAM - October

Saturday 4 October | 10h00 – 11h30

FORECOURT PAINTING WORKSHOP
‘Hair Confessions’
Presented by Jessica Foli

Join the artist for a TALKABOUT– WORKSHOP themed around her installation
‘Hair Confessions’

Do you have something to confess?
Come and share your hair stories and create an artwork that you can take home.
Please RSVP to ensure that enough art materials will be available.
RSVP: msjessicafoli@gmail.com or 079 468 4677

Saturday 4 October | 12h00 – 13h00

DROP IN DRAWING: Exploring Hair
Presented by  Gina Van Zyl de Oliveria
 
Adults are invited to join an experienced art educator for a fun and informal drawing workshop. No previous drawing experience necessary! Basic drawing materials are provided, but please bring your own if available.

Saturday 11 October | 12h00 – 13h00

Adult TALKABOUT:
Doing Hair Art and Hair in Africa
Presented by Professor Anitra Nettleton

Professor Anitra Nettleton will share some of her encyclopaedic knowledge of the diverse artworks on the exhibition.

Thursday 16 October | 17h30 – 18h30

CCAA Panel Discussion:
DOING HAIR: Hair and Art in Africa

The panel discussion explores the curatorial elements of the current exhibition.
RSVP: Matshediso.Radebe@wits.ac.za
 
Saturday 18 October | 12h00 – 13h00

Family TALKABOUT:
Presented by Leigh Blanckenberg

This Family TALKABOUT explores the exhibition Passing the City through you. There is no cost for this event but booking is essential.
 
Bookings: info.wam@wits.ac.za
or 011 717 1378
 
Saturday 25 October | 12h00 – 13h00

Adult TALKABOUT:
Doing Hair Art and Hair in Africa

Presented by Laura De Becker and Hazel Cuthbertson
Join these two curators as they elaborate on the research that went into sections of the exhibition.

01 October 2014 - 31 October 2014

'Passing the City through you'

Wits Art Museum and the Embassy of Switzerland with the support of Pro Helvetia (Swiss Arts Council) are proud to announce the exhibition, ‘Passing the City through you’ by Catherine Gfeller.

In September last year Gfeller undertook a research residency in Johannesburg. Wits Arts Museum will exhibit the videos, photographs, audios and texts created during her stay.
 
Gfeller’s photographic and video work is based on incessantly pulsating urban landscapes and she aims to transform the anonymity of the city through her work, through the intersection of urban landscapes and human presences.
 
Catherine Gfeller incorporates people, buildings, bridges, windows, cars and every other ?xture of urban life into her photography. She walks through cities with her camera in hand, snapping pictures of architecture and pedestrians in their surroundings. There is a sense of immediacy to the images.
 
Visitors can look forward to photographs, videos and sound installations which trace the sensory experience of the city. The exhibition will highlight the inner city of Johannesburg, crawling with activity in the streets, the avenues and the pedestrians who are part of it. The photographs are not merely documentary images, but rather a succession of friezes where images are composed by collage, montage, superimposition; creating a rhythm and a contrast between still and moving images.
 
There will also be an interactive space where viewers will be invited to respond to the exhibition by writing about their experiences and responses to the city. Parts of the exhibition will also be visible via the street facing projection screens of the museum.

24 September 2014 - 09 November 2014

Towards a New Visual Language …

Ijusi is an experimental magazine first published in the early years following South Africa’s first democratic elections circa 1994. From the beginning ijusi posed an important question: “What makes me South African, and what does that ‘look’ like?”, gradually piecing together the various cultural dichotomies and social potentialities that have evolved following Apartheid’s demise. As was the case with the Soviet Union in 1917, a new social order begets a new visual order.
Garth Walker released the first issue of ijusi in early 1995 from his studio in Durban; then called Orange Juice design. From its onset ijusi effectively showcased a burgeoning South African visual culture, which has come to be recognized for its quality in diversity worldwide. Over the following years, subsequent issues have made invaluable contributions to the ongoing discourse surrounding representation and identity in South Africa, specifically within the context of Graphic Design, Illustration, Typography, Writing, and Photography. Ijusi is currently self-published by Walker in a small print run, roughly twice yearly from his Durban based graphic design studio called Mister Walker.

Despite having a print-run in the low hundreds, ijusi has developed a worldwide following, making it a much sort after publication. Resultantly, the magazine has reached cult status, largely due to its rarity and the fact that it has never been commercially for sale, and handed-out for free to anybody who sees value in the publications mission. The fact that ijusi is Africa’s only experimental graphics magazine may also facto into its popularity amongst collectors.

To ensure the survival of the magazine, ijusi magazine formed a collaboration with the Rooke Gallery, launching the limited edition ijusi Portfolio No.1 in early 2010, and most recently Portfolio No.2 in late 2011. Comprising ten quality printed lithographs, both portfolios showcase key works by selected artists taken from the first twenty-four issues of the magazine. The success of the portfolios is proven by the fact that they have been acquired by a number of leading art museums and private collectors worldwide.
Moving into its second decade, the ijusi magazines, accompanied by the portfolios, can be seen as a historic series of documents, testaments to a developing country dealing with various socio-economic stratifications and political dimensions. Even though ijusi is often satirical and parodic in approach, it is important to note that the publication has never been a negative or even critical visual commentary on South Africa, rather trying to emphasize a platform for discovery, safeguarding the wealth of talent, rich traditions, and strong sense of heritage in South Afirca, with its diverse cultural backgrounds, each with their own contribution to make, exposing a creative poignancy and visual vocabulary that remains unrivaled.

13 August 2014 - 14 September 2014