The Bag Factory and APS to launch a catalogue of 20 prints from fine artists
TWENTY FINE YEARSThe Gauteng Department of Sports, Arts and Culture is supporting a joint project between Gauteng’s two leading visual arts nonprofit organizations, namely The Bag Factory Artists’ Studios and The Artist Proof Studio. The Bag Factory offers artists the opportunity to pioneer unmapped territories and test their limits in the spirit of exchange and global connectedness by focusing on a programme that stands for inclusion and diversity. Artist Proof Studio (APS) is an art education centre that specialises in quality printmaking through a variety of diverse partnerships. By providing state of the art equipment and materials they facilitate print collaborations between trained print technicians and professional artists. ‘Twenty’ is the number that rings loudly throughout this project. Both the Bag Factory and APS are celebrating their 20th anniversary of operation this year. To mark this they are producing a catalogue of 20 prints by a selection from the numerous fine artists who have been involved with their projects over the period. Twenty artists have agreed to participate in this project by creating a print each for the portfolio. Artists such as David Koloane, Patrick Mautloa, Colbert Mashile, Helen Sebidi, Richard Penn, Velile Soha, Senzo Shabangu, Senzeni Maraselle, Dumisani Mabaso , Charles Nkosi, Vincent Baloyi, Gorodn Gabashane, Kim Berman, Jacob Molefe, Pontso Sikhosana, Philemon Hlungwane, Motsamai Thabane, Lehlogonolo Mashaba, Nelson Makamo and Paul Molete will be featured in the portfolio. The Bag Factory and Artist Proof Studio will be presenting the results of this project at the Art Fair in September this year where orders for the portfolios will be taken. Bag Factory Artists’ Studios Facebook Fanpage 10 Mahlatini Street, Fordsburg, Johannesburg,...
MOMO Gallery: Gary Stephens BRAID opens Thursday
Gary Stephens BRAID, opens Thursday 2nd June 2011, 6.00 pm at Gallery MOMO, 52 7th Avenue, Parktown North Johannesburg. Gallery Momo on Facebook Gallery Momo...
Vernissage: Nicholas Hlobo and Lerato Shadi
Nothing like hanging out with arty types sipping on house red at an art opening in Jozi, always lots of eye candy around of both the artistic and human kind -after all, you can always hang out with the smokers outside if it gets too hot for you in amongst the talented. Tempted? Shimmy your touche over to the vernissage (très french for art exhibition opening) of Nicholas Hlobo and Lerato Shadi at on Thursday 6 May from 6 – 8 pm at Brodie/Stevenson gallery. The exhibition runs until 4 June 2010. Image: Left to right: Nicholas Hlobo, Isitulo samaNgesi sihlal’ iBhulukazi… 2010, ribbon, rubber on canvas; Isisele, 2010, ribbon, rubber on canvas Brodie/Stevenson is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Nicholas Hlobo, comprising new works on canvas. Any traditional notions of ‘painting’ technique are soon discarded as we encounter surfaces that have been slashed and then delicately stitched with ribbon and rubber, pockets of swollen canvas about to burst open, and ghostly allusions to real-world objects and spaces that seem to collapse in on themselves under the weight of imagined space. The artist has made the following comments on this new body of work: “The notion of pathways is carried out through this work. The lines that suggest these paths are drawn on a white sterile surface that I read as a landscape, or as skin. The lines bring with them energies that fertilise the landscape, resulting in certain areas swelling up as if impregnated by higher forces from faraway universes. The bulging areas are almost synonymous with skin trying to deal with ailments that have taken over. The skin of these objects also has to do with the space that exists somewhere deep in the core of one’s soul or imagination where everything moves with freedom that cannot be easily understood. Everything in this space is held tightly together and yet allowed to roam free. “One of the new works is titled ‘Icephe ifolokhwe ne bhoso yi five Pounds ten, isitulo samaNgesi sihlal’ iBhulukazi…’, which translates as ‘A spoon, a fork and a knife is £5.10, on an English chair now sits an Afrikaner woman’, and draws its title from a children’s game popular in the Eastern Cape in the early 1980s, where kids would sing this rhyme while running around chasing each other. I believe its origins have to do with the end of the Anglo-Boer war.” Nicholas Hlobo was born in Cape Town in 1975, and has a B Tech degree from the Wits Technikon (2002); he lives in Johannesburg. He was the Standard Bank Young Artist for 2009 with a solo exhibition touring...
Don’t miss Usha Seejarim @ Gallery Momo
While waiting for a very important pitch (VIP) at MTN headoffice a few years back (that big bold building situated way too far outside of our Jozi bubble but it’s ok cos they got larney furniture and fittings…) we were met in the foyer by an amused client who found the bunch of us staring awestruck, mouths agape at this massive cascading paperclip chandelier suspended from the roof. That was when we first heard the name Usha Seejarim; and we’ve never forgotten it since. Flash forward to 2009 and you too can stare dumbstruck at her work at the Momo Gallery – I miss going there for opening nights – always lots of wine, a fab crowd and good Jozi vibe. Wine is important. Oh ja, and by the way, of course we won the pitch. Usha Seejarim – Mine over Matter opening 5 november @ 18h30 – 20h00 concludes 30 november 09 # 52 7th Avenue, Parktown North, 2193,...
Don’t Miss: Nandipha Mntambo – Umphatsi Wempi
Nandipha Mntambo was blessed to be born in the mountain kingdom of Swaziland – anyone familiar with the magnificent mountain monarchy will know how ubiquitous cattle are, one has to wonder if growing up surrounded by the gentle beasts has anything to do with the makings of the first solo exhibition of Nandipha Mntambo taking place at the Brodie/Stevenson gallery in Craighall in September. Nandipha says her upcoming body of work was in part inspired by some bullfighting she came across in Mozambique; we’re wondering if it was at that bullring just outside Maputo – intrigued, we once stopped and checked it out – it’s really eery, reminiscent of the bygone era of Portuguese occupation of Mozi… Anyway, we’re rambling – go and check out the exhibition for yourself and ponder on this brilliant young artists talent… Titled Umphatsi Wempi – loosely translated as ‘the general charged with overseeing a battle’ – the exhibition comprises several new sculptural works as well as video, photography and drawing. Central to this body of work is the concept of the boundary, particularly as something that constantly shifts and mutates, that is never fixed or static. The boundary between corporeal awareness and revulsion is explored through the artist’s use of raw cowhides, tails and ears, which are cured and sculpted. In Penis Vagina – One-Man Capsule (2009), the boundary between the need to fight and the need for protection is also apparent. Like Mntambo’s earlier piece uMcedo (2009), this work offers a space that one may enter for protection and perhaps preparation, only to emerge when one is ready. The sculpture is both penetrative and encapsulating, an evocative hermaphroditic form that speaks of pure potential. The artist’s interest in the dynamic tension that exists within the self, the push-pull between libido and mortido, life instinct and death drive, also appears in her photographic images. In The Rape of Europa, a reinterpretation of a Picasso sketch of the Minotaur caressing a girl, the artist occupies both roles, and in her recreation of Caravaggio’s painting of Narcissus gazing at his own reflection in a pond, she replaces Narcissus with herself as Zeus in bull form. In the bronze head-and-shoulders bust in the Renaissance tradition, she combines her own feminine features with those of Zeus disguised as a bull. In another new sculpture, Waiting (2009), a cowhide figure disappears into a wall. It is unclear whether the figure is waiting for salvation, or seeking a hiding place from an unknown terror. While the exposed rear of the prostrate form is undoubtedly a gesture of submission, there is also a sensuality and beauty to the figure, imbuing...
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