Self/Not Self – A collective of artists explore the Self
Brodie/Stevenson presents Self/Not-Self, the second curated exhibition that explores modes of self-representation across a range of contemporary art practices. Self/Not-Self 26 March – 25 April 2009 Opening on Thursday 26 March at 6pm The exhibition as a whole considers concepts of self-portraiture and the role of the artist/author. While it is undoubtedly reductive to interpret all work as autobiographical, the significance of how artists ‘write themselves into’ their work is fundamental to contemporary art practice. This ‘writing in’ may occur in various ways including performance, the gestural mark, the trace, the alter-ego, autobiography (both real and fictitious), confession and absence. This exhibition will look at indirect or ‘absent’ self-representational approaches, where strategies of surrogacy, projection and alternative personae are employed. Aspects of this approach include the object as stand-in for the self, self as alter-ego, self as artwork, as another’s body, and as text. These approaches contain an inherent sense of remove, and allow for a mode of autobiography through a third-person or object. In their ‘looking outwards’ to the world, these artists offer a challenge to the very idea of a coherent or contained self. Artists on the upcoming show include Avant Car Guard, Conrad Botes, Wim Botha, Reshma Chhiba, Simon Gush, Nicholas Hlobo, Lawrence Lemaoana, Michael MacGarry, Richard Penn, Wilhelm Saayman, Penny Siopis and Sober and Lonely. Brodie/Stevenson is located on the ground floor, 373 Jan Smuts Avenue, Craighall, Johannesburg. Hours are Tuesday to Friday, 10.30am to 5.30pm, and Saturday from 9.30am to 3pm. Email info@brodiestevenson.com. Telephone +27 (0)11 326 0034. Fax +27 (0)11 326 0041. Image: Lunga Kama – Ubuntu libhongo...
“In the Light of Play” at Durban Art Gallery
Much-loved South African storyteller Gcina Mhlope will open the first “In the Light of Play” this Wednesday at Durban Art Gallery. It is the first curated show of contemporary African women artists in South Africa. Curated by independent curator Bisi Silva,the director/founder of the Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos and an independent curator. Amongs her projects includes co-curator, Dak’Art Biennale (2006), “Democrazy: Three solo exhibitions and a publication”,(2008). Like a Virgin… Lucy Azubuike & Zanele Muholi, (2009). She is a curator of the 2nd Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, Greece in May 2009. The exhibition will feature artists Berry Bickle (Zimbabwe) Sokari Douglas Camp (Nigeria/UK) Helga Kohl (Namibia) Bongi Bengu (South Africa), Pinar Yolacan (Turkey) and Monique Pelser (South Africa). You can read more about the exhibition, Bisi and the artists on Bisi’s blog here. 11th – 27th March 2009 Durban Art Gallery, Durban 2nd Floor,City Hall, Anton Lembede Street, Durban 4001, South...
CT: Sometimes I forget… @ Blank Projects
Hang out in the BoKaap at the ‘vernissage’ this Wednesday the 4/3/09 of “Sometimes I forget that you exist” an exhibition that will be ‘developing’ over the month of March, ending on the 27th. It’s curated by Trasi Henen and features contributing artists Francis Burger, Sebastian Charilaou, Zipho Dayile, Anja de Klerk, Douglas Gimberg, Mendi Pantsi, Werner Ungerer and Ed Young. The liminal space is where binaries momentarily dissolve, the space in between… Dominant culture is a victim of the Will (after Schopenhauer’s The World as Idea and Representation) and therefore perpetually oscillating between Desire and Ennui. Desire is a state of potentiality. When the desired destination is reached, is this a tragedy? Sometimes I forget that you exist is a collaborative research project around desire and the heterotopia. Participants are asked to engage with the above dialectic. The exhibition process is ongoing, and contingent, culminating in a closing event. In the two weeks leading up the exhibition, blank becomes the research studio which opens the project to dialogue and interventions. Opening on Wed. 4 March 2009 @ 18h00 With a closing event Fri. 27 March 2009 @ 18h00 – Blank Projects is located at 198 Buitengracht Street, Bo-Kaap, Cape Town. – For more information on the artists or the exhibition: http://blankprojects.blogspot.com/ *27 72 1989221, *27 72 5075951...
Twenty Artist | Twenty Portraits @ UCA Gallery
The brand new UCA Gallery in OBS in Cape Town is launching with a brave group exhibit featuring work from both established and emerging local artists entitled Twenty Artists |Twenty Portraits. The artworks in this salon style summer show range from traditional to more conceptual approaches to the genre across a range of media. Sounds interesting… go go go. Whereas some of the portraits (such as Lionel Smit’s Chris Divided) are of potentially recognisable, yet probably unknown, individuals, the identities of the subjects in many of the other works have remained deliberately obscured or secondary to metaphorical emphasis and societal commentary. Gabrielle Raaff’s delicate, lyrical watercolour portraits Returning 1-4, and the veiled and blindfolded figures in Christopher Slack’s Virgin in Paradise and Julia Teale’s Annunciation are of particular interest in this regard. Though many of the works are figurative paintings of individual subjects, Kim Gurney’s Disinheritance, depicting a series of 24 chromosomes related to a hereditary disease, and Robyn Cedras’s sculptural installation Just as useless as the box it came in, mark less traditional approaches to the tension between individual and societal identity. Other artists include Norman O’Flynn, Jacqui Stecher, Wonder, Rebecca Townsend, Varenka Paschke and Christian Toujours.Work by students from Julia Teale’s Spencer Street Studios in Saltriver will also be on show. Twenty Artists|Twenty Portraits will open on Wednesday 17 December at 6pm and close on the Saturday 24 January 2009. UCA Gallery 46 Lower Main road, Observatory Tel: (021) 447 4132 Email: info@ucagallery.co.za www.ucagallery.co.za Hours: Tue – Fri 10am – 5pm, Sat 9am –...
Billie’s back at Afronova
We couldn’t get enough of her moving and finely detailed delicate tapesteries last time round, we’re delighted to see that Billie Zangewa is back at the quaint Afronova gallery in Newtown with a new showing of her talent till the 13th December… it’s the perfect opportunity to combine a visit to the When life Happens Festival and the Afronova Gallery in the wonderful Newtown precinct… finish it off with dinner at one of the MANY restaurants in the ‘hood. For more info on Billie, read our interview with her in May last year here. GO GO GO. Based in London and traveling extensively, Billie Zangewa has been feeding on her experiences and brings a whole new bag of stories revealing her appetite for life and awareness of the world. More than ever, in her new silk tapestries, Billie comes out as a triumphant African woman, conscious of her roots and fully in touch with her environment. Her intimate universes meet the public realm in daring and original silk tapestries with strong narratives and presence. The cut silk collage and cotton embroidery offer a rich medium with precious textures and sensitive palettes, feminine but never quaint nor decorative. Stitch by Stitch Solo exhibition by Billie Zangewa from 18:00 to 20:00 Exhibition runs until Saturday 13 December Gallery Hours Tuesday to Friday : 13 :00 to 19 :00 Saturday 13 :00 to 17 :00 Contact afronova@tiscali.co.za www.afronova.com +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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