Catch Gonçalo Mabunda @ Afronova
Jan30

Catch Gonçalo Mabunda @ Afronova

Catch one of Mozi’s most talented and respected young artists Gonçalo Mabunda at the Afronova Gallery in Newtown. In this first solo show in Johannesburg, Mozambican artist Gonçalo Mabunda explores the cycles of destruction and regeneration in the process of creation and history, suggesting new symbols of universality and vitality. An internationally acclaimed artist, Mabunda deals with the fierce destruction of civil war in Mozambique by neutralizing its weapons and creating peaceful or cheerful sculptures. Read more about Gonçalo at his Vgallery: Started his studies in 1982 in Maputo City, and now has intermediate level. In 1992, began working in the Art Nucleus Association as gallery assistant, and currently working as Gallery manager. Also in 1992, began to paint. In 1995 participated in the Ujamaa IV Workshop as assistant to the south Africa artist Andries  Botha.  In 1996 participated in a course of metal and bronze sculpture for 3 months at the Tecknikon of Natal. Since 1997, full time artist. Exhibition runs until Saturday 16 February Gallery Hours Tuesday to Friday : 13 :00 to 19 :00 Saturday 13 :00 to 17 :00 Contacts e: afronova@tiscali.co.za w: www.afronova.com c: +27 (0) 83 726 59 06 The gallery is just across the Market Theatre entrance Safe parking corner Miriam Makeba and Gwigwi Mrwebi St – Newtown Po box 3205 – Parklands 2121 – Johannesburg – South...

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Alison Kearney and Emily Stainer @ Goodman
Jan28

Alison Kearney and Emily Stainer @ Goodman

We forgot to let you know about this bewitching expo earlier this month – it’s running for another two weeks so get there! The Goodman Gallery is pleased to host a new body of work by two young South African artists from the 19th January to 9th of February 2008. This exhibition comprising new works in various media by Alison Kearney and Emily Stainer opens at noon on Saturday 19th January, on this day the gallery will have extended hours from 09h30 to 17h00. Alison Kearney is a South African artist interested in issues to do with the contexts of art production and display, as well as issues to do with how value is determined in culture. Within Kearney’s current art production, she explores the role of the audience in making meaning and contributing to the creative process when engaging with conceptual artworks, using a combination of mixed media, installation, and photography. In her most recent exhibition titled About Context, An exploration of Value in Four Parts [November 2006], Kearney asked audience members to participate in a performance work by bringing objects to exchange with her ad other participating audience members. The purpose of this public exchange was so that she would ultimately have a collection of objects to work with that she did not choose. The starting point for this exhibition is an engagement with, and documentation of the objects Kearney received. Kearney’s current interest is informed by her early works, which interrogate the institutions of art as institutions that to a large extent determine cultural value and influence cultural production, through parody of some museum practices. Included in this interrogation is an engagement with theories around public art through the construction of monuments which challenge the conventions around monuments through their subject matter, and also through the scale and the materials used. Emily Stainer is a South African artist and art historian, working in watercolour, mixed media and installation. Stainer was educated at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg and the Courtauld Institute of Art, London. The body of work that Stainer has created for this exhibition entitled Cautionary Tales, alludes to those popular nineteenth century children’s tales that sought to warn children about the perils inherent in life. In ‘Struwwelpeter’ (1845) by H. Hoffman there is a contradiction between the comic verses and the abhorrent punishments meted out to the characters. There is something paradoxical about the rhymes’ delight in cruelty and in their concern for the welfare of the child. The fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm include many stories of young people abandoned, kidnapped and sometimes even murdered. The perpetuation of this abuse is...

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Jozi Art Fair- A contemporary African Art Showcase
Jan28

Jozi Art Fair- A contemporary African Art Showcase

The Joburg Art Fair – the first African contemporary art fair which will be held in Johannesburg from March 13 to 16 – will establish South Africa as an essential stopover on the global contemporary art buying calendar. On sale at the Sandton Convention Centre will be the largest collection of African and South African contemporary art the world has ever seen. Prices will range, making art accessible to all – from arts appreciators to serious collectors. The fair will provide buyers and art lovers with a single point of access to a wide range of galleries. Potential buyers can also see a cross section of work in a short space of time by the continent’s best artists including Zwelethu Mthethwa, William Kentridge, Santu Mofokeng, David Goldblatt, Pieter Hugo and Sabelo Mlangeni, as well as being exposed to the continent’s best newcomers. The Joburg Art Fair will include a specially curated show entiled ‘As You Like It’ by Simon Njami and Thembinkosi Goniwe. Njami was the chief curator of the highly successful Africa Remix exhibition, as well as the Africa pavilion at last year’s Venice Biennale. Njami is choosing a selection of art from artists throughout Africa who are not represented by galleries on the fair and all these will be on sale. Artists selected (although this is subject to change) include video and installation works by Bili Bidjocka (Cameroon), Loulou Cherinet (Ethiopia), Amal Kenway (Egypt), Myriam Mihindou (Gabon), IngridMwangiRobertHutter (Kenya), Jimmy Ogonga (Kenya), Zen Marie (South Africa) and Patrice Felix-Tchikaya (DRC). Mixed media works by Modou Dieng (Senegal), Berry Bickle (Zimbabwe), Joël Mpah Dooh (Cameroon), Dominique Zinkpé (Benin) and Tamrat Gezahegn (Ethiopia) as well as sculpture by Shuck (Guadeloup), Isoje Chou (Nigeria) and Jems Koko Bi (Ivory Coast) will be shown. There will be photographic works by Omar D (Algeria), David Damoison (Martinique), Ihosvanny (Angola), Thando Mama (South Africa), Ananias Leki Dago (Ivory Coast), Jellel Gasteli (Tunisia), Kiluanji Kia Henda (Angola), Malala Andrialavidrazana (Madagascar), Mouna Karray (Tunisia), Emeka Okereke (Nigeria), and Michele Magema (DRC). International contemporary art galleries confirmed for the Joburg Art Fair include the Jack Shainman Gallery from New York, Galerie Peter Herrmann from Berlin, Gallery Ames D’Afrique from Strasbourg and the October Gallery from London. Morocco’s L’ Appartement 22, Rabat and Cairo’s Townhouse Gallery will also be participating in the Joburg Art Fair. The New York Perry Rubenstein Gallery has chosen to feature their South African artist Robin Rhode as part of the Special Projects section of the Joburg Art Fair. Other special projects include the FUNDA college booth that highlights emergent artists from this significant South African arts institution. TONIC Design will create a...

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Visit Body Maps @ David Krut
Dec03

Visit Body Maps @ David Krut

We remind all Representers to continue to support the HIV/AIDS initiatives way after December the 1st in every way you can.  Visit the David Krut Gallery for the BODY MAPS exhibtion: From 22 November David Krut Projects will show Body Maps by the Bambanani Women. The Bambanani Women were invited to tell their stories of living with HIV/AIDS through a community outreach program initiated by the AIDS and Society Research Unit of the University of Cape Town (ASRU) and Médecins Sans Frontières. This program sought to document the lives of this group of HIV+ women who were given access to drug therapies. The project was initially run by Jonathan Morgan with the help of Cape Town-based art therapist, Jane Solomon. Participants created Body Maps – life-size images that traced the contours of their bodies allowing each of them to ‘visualise’ the virus, how the drugs were protecting them from the virus and articulate their individual history. David Krut was approached to exhibit these works in New York for AIDS Day 2003. The exhibition continued at David Krut Projects New York and received a great deal of attention. Several academic institutions requested that the exhibition travel to their university art galleries. Long Life – Positive HIV Stories, a collaborative book based on the Body Maps project, profiles the lives of members of the Bambanani Women’s group and provides a context for these exhibitions. Body Maps became a touring exhibition that started at the Flaten Art Gallery, St. Olaf College, Minnesota in September 2004 and has since travelled widely in the United States. Johnson and Johnson, a company doing major research in AIDS drug research, adopted the exhibition and promoted it internationally as their cultural project for 2005. The World Food Programme has also adopted the imagery for use in their posters throughout the world. DAVID KRUT PROJECTS 142 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parkwood. Tel: 011 447 3157, lucy@davidkrut.com http://www.davidkrutpublishing.com/ http://www.davidkrut.com/ Tue – Fri 09h00-17h00 Sat...

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Represent Insists: William Kentridge
Nov22

Represent Insists: William Kentridge

We know it’s been open about 11 days already, but we like picking up the momentum halfway through… SO Representer’s – we’re Insisting that you make the effort to get to this.  People all over the world would LOVE to be able to pop into a Kentridge exhibition on their home way from work – think of it as a gift, one of our most iconic, respected and honoured artists, William Kentridge, gives you the free prize – a look at his recent work for mahala!!! Now don’t even consider looking this gift horse in the mouth – just point your car towards Jan Smuts Avenue and GO GO GO! William Kentridge  I What Will Come 10 November – 14 December 2007 http://www.goodman-gallery.com/ Gallery hours: Tuesday – Friday 09h30 to 17h30; Saturday 09h30 to 16h00.  An exhibition of recent work by William Kentridge opens on November 10th 2007, at the Goodman Gallery. This exhibition, entitled What Will Come takes its title from the Ghanaian proverb ‘What will come has already come’. Kentridge is renowned for his animated films, drawn and animated using trademark multiple erasure technique, in which he explores the nature of human emotion and memories, and deals with the quest for cultural identity, ingrained history and politics of South Africa, intensely dedicating himself to issues of sight in his work*. Through a series of new drawings, prints, and stereoscopic images that form the basis of What Will Come, Kentridge continues to explore the medium of sight, reflecting his continued concern with optics and the construction of seeing. The exhibition is centered around an eight minute anamorphic film, entitled What will come. This filmic anamorphosis in which images, drawn and animated by Kentridge, assume their proper form only when reflected in a mirrored cylinder positioned at the projection’s centre. This film draws on the idea of the picture puzzle that originated in the sixteenth century. Kentridge translates this play with perception that operates distorted images that can only be deciphered from a certain angle in his film. The technique of cylindrical mirror anamorphosis Kentridge employs is based on a further level of perception. It is not enough to change one’s point of view but a cylindrical mirror is essential to decode the picture, with a certain radius that reflects the distorted image, causing it to ‘straighten’ optically. The production of these images relies on Kentridge’s profound knowledge of mathematical rules and optical foundations*. A number of anamorphic drawings from the film will also be shown, mirrored in cylinders. Other work concerned with optics and the construction of seeing, includes series of stereoscopic photogravures that take on three dimensions as one looks...

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