Art Times DEC/JAN 2024 Edition by SA ART TIMES

DEC/JAN 2024 ARTTIMES.CO.ZA

Lisl Barry, When whales fly,400 x 585mm, linoprint and oils on canvas panel

THE NATURE OF PATTERNING A solo exhibition by Lisl Barry Prince Albert Gallery, 14 December 2023 - 14 January 2024 princealbertgallery.co.za

Art Times Dec/Jan Edition 2024

CONTENTS Cover: 10. Tara Deacon, Garden Party, Gouache on paper, 84 x 64cm, 2023

10. M.O.L 42 THE ARAK COLLECTION Ashraf Jamal Column 18. UNBOUND Investec Cape Town Art Fair 2024 28. CASTED Scultura Italiana 32. THE MELROSE GALLERY AN ODE TO 2023 38. THE NATURE OF PATTERNING A solo exhibition by Lisl Barry 44. INTRODUCING TWO NEW SA NATIONAL ART COMPETITIONS 48. CREATIVELY CONTRASTED Oliewenhuis Art Museum Permanent Collection 52. THE UNVEILING OF MINKI AND THE STARFISH 58. THE SEA, THE SEA Time, like the sea, unties all knots 60. ANATOMICA BOTANICA ARCHITECTA NWU Botanical Gardens Gallery 64. WHERE YOU ARE Artist Proof Studio 3rd Year Students Exhibition 70. EMERGE: A GRADUATE SHOWCASE The Unisa Art Gallery 72. BUSINESS ART Fine Art Auction highlights 76. ARTGO Exhibition Highlights Elliott Paul Emsley, Study for Season, 2023, acrylic on cardboard mounted on canvas, 40x40cm

Editors Note

SOUTH AFRICA’S LEADING VISUAL ARTS PUBLICATION

CONTACT ART TIMES Tel: +27 21 300 5888 109 Sir Lowry Road, Woodstock, Cape Town PUBLISHER Gabriel Clark-Brown editor@arttimes.co.za ADVERTISING & MARKETING Eugene Fisher sales@arttimes.co.za

t gives me great pleasure to present the December January Art Times edition - full of beautiful and thought-provoking artwork and art news.

It seems customary to take time over this crazy season to enjoy, relax, nourish and rejuvenate for the next crazy spin. Folks will start saying soon, “Gosh that year went so quickly” and “Ahhh 2024 has a great ring to it”all optimistic-like. Truth is, probably after viewing countless self-improvement videos; how to be a millionaire; what to invest in 2024 etc; it possibly comes down to balance and attitude. Balance is tricky, as the thought of taking time off to relax seems crazy, and attitude could be challenging - given the ever-increasing demand for your attention by people who don’t know you. It seems the most challenging thing is to put down your cell phone, pick up a piece of paper or Plasticine look at it and let your hands and fingers free and not think. Mahatma Gandhi led a protest against the British imposing tax on salt, so he went to the sea and made his own salt as nature provided. Similarly, one gets so caught up in the hype and expectations of today that making art for oneself is free and in essence adds to the salt of life. Making art for oneself could evoke a consciousness about how others let their fingers loose as well, thereby discovering ourselves more while helping link together our human consciousness and diversity. I would like to emphasise that given this rough but colourful year it’s attitude and belief that counts so much in moving forward. The evolution of The Portrait Award to the Clay and Junior Portrait Award is brilliant and graduating from an art institution is a reason to celebrate. We look forward to the next Cape Town Art Fair edition when everyone comes together for a really great time filled with art, fun and a certain amount of good drama and a peek of the South African spirit of what is happening to us here and now. Lastly, I would like to thank you on behalf of all of us at the Art Times our advertisers and supporters - your interest and attitude have really been a huge blessing and inspiration to us. Here is a toast to 2024, may it be a good one and like every day on this beautiful earth a blessing!

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DIGITAL MEDIA & EXHIBITION LISTINGS Jan Croft subs@arttimes.co.za ON THE KEYS Brendan Body ARTGO CONTENT info@artgo.co.za Rights: the Art Times magazine reserves the right to reject any material that could be found offensive by its readers. Opinions and views expressed in the sa art times do not necessarily represent the official viewpoint of the editor, staff or publisher, while inclusion of advertising features does not imply the newspaper’s endorsement of any business, product or service. Copyright of the enclosed material in this publication is reserved.

@ARTTIMES.CO.ZA

CURRENT EXHIBITIONS CASTED Scultura italiana with Patrick Bongoy and Jake Michael Singer until 28 January 2024

THE JOHANNESBURG STATION PANELS Pierneef’s Journey

current rotation until 30 June 2024

STOREROOM SERIES Back by popular demand

Stills & Scenes by Irma Stern

until 4 February 2024

AbstRacT the hidden synchrony

Macrophotography by Oscar Forel in conversation with Modern SA abstract artists until 10 March 2024

FESTIVE HOURS

Museum and Café closed on 14, 15, 23 - 26 and 31 December

Entrance Complimentary Stellentia Road, Stellenbosch Tue – Fri: 10h00 – 17h00 Sat – Sun: 10h00 – 16h00 info@rupertmuseum.org 021 888 3344 www.rupertmuseum.org

MOL 42

THE ARAK COLLECTION Ashraf Jamal

he Arak Collection is housed in Doha, Qatar. An acronym for the name of the collector – AbdulRahman Al Khelaifi – Arak is the most in-depth grouping of SubSaharan African art in the Gulf Region. There are over 3000 works by 250 artists. It is this respect and understanding of an artist’s range, instead of cherry-picking an individual favourite, which affirms the quality of Arak’s approach; its desire, first and foremost, to present the artist and their works not as a commodity, but as a cipher for a complex cultural expression. For as we well now, Africa has for centuries been the victim of an extractive colonial economy. In this regard, the Contemporary African Art Market is no different. While its goal is to champion creatives who have historically occupied a cultural periphery, in relation to an imagined centre – excised from the Western Art Canon, and now, in this revisionist era, re-integrated into a rapidly evolving global canon – one cannot ignore the fact, despite this noble ethico-political enterprise, that the African continent remains a remote fetish, a morbid fascination, a begging bowl, a repository of colonial guilt. I say this, not to begrudge the successes of African art in the past decade. The global interest has been stratospheric. And here, one cannot ignore the invaluable role played by the Cameroonian-born curator and director of Zeitz MOCAA, Koyo Kouoh, who has spearheaded a potently Contemporary African Art Vision. Her ‘Africa’ surpasses the bounds of a continent, provides added depth to the euphemism, the ‘African Diaspora’. If ‘A country is an aggregation of cultural expressions and influences’, then those who conform to national aggregates such as Brazil, Cuba, or Haiti, for example,

should, perforce, also be recognized as ‘part of the African continent’. This is because, for Kouoh, Africanity is ‘an idea that goes beyond borders’, as inter-regional as it is trans-continental. She reminds us that ‘more than half of Brazil’s 200 million people are of African descent’. As for the USA? 12% are African-American. My point? That cultural singularities are built on shifting boundaries, and, as such, are immensely volatile and porous. Thus, it is absurd to conceive of ‘African People’ within a continental boundary, or ‘African Art’ from an essentialist perspective, despite the fact that this prejudicial and reductive approach persists. If I frame my reflection on the Arak Collection accordingly, it is because its goal is not to stunt or to overdetermine the nature and significance of Africa, but, more modestly, to grow an ever-evolving understanding. Africa, in this regard, is more an experience and an experiment, rather than an encompassing Idea. At the centre of the Arak Collection stands AbdulRahman Al Khelaifi – more familiarly known as A-Rahman – a retired banker who in 2016, following a 15-day adventure on Rovos Rail, from Dar es Salaam to Cape Town, developed an irresistible interest in African art. He, and his wife and daughters, travelled through Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and South Africa – diagonally from Africa’s East Coast to its Southernmost point. However, what was the trigger, what the generator of A-Rahman’s interest in African Art? Clearly it was not a fascination for the African curio, or curiosity, its decorous pastoral scenes, or its wildlife. Rather, it proved to be Africa’s aesthetic radioactivity, its visceral disregard for type, its disintegrative and transformative relationship with raw material, its rich complex of suffering and exhilaration – its agony and its ecstasy.

“It is this respect and understanding of an artist’s range, instead of cherry-picking an individual favourite, which affirms the quality of Arak’s approach.” 10

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Ange Dakuo, Mali, Espérance 3, 2023, Cardboard, Newspaper, Cotton Thread and Acrylic

David Koloane, Figures in Hat, Mixed Media with Ink on Paper 26 x 34 cm Opposite Page: Samson Mnisi, Abstract X, acrylic, spray paint, pastel and collage on paper 79 x 44.5 cm

It is this paradox, and its varied interregional expression, which has inspired A-Rahman to continue his travels, deepen local connections, better understand the specifics of culture-geography-politics in the expression of artworks which are not so much iconic as they are inter-zonal – forged between worlds. As such, it is not the essence of an artwork that compels A-Rahman, but its organic ambivalence, or, its ability to traverse the dogmatic constraints typically affixed to African Art. Here, the fate of the African Mask – its spiritual-emotional-cultural deactivation via European Modernism – is a case in point, which has since been corrected. For it is not the expropriation of goods that matters most, but the complexity of their circulation. The same applies to people. Which is why Kouoh can reasonably extend the boundaries of Africanity. As Olu Oguibe has noted, ‘Movement is the human condition’. In this regard, A-Rahman’s collection of

maps of Africa serves as a telling index, for boundaries are never fixed, always historically contingent. It is the ever-changing nature of places, countries, continents, in particular Africa, that has inspired A-Rahman, whose collection is as urban as it is pastoral, ‘Afropolitan’ in its largesse and generosity, temperamentally attuned to the legendary saying – ex Africa semper aliquid novi / out of Africa always something new. Because, if Africa embodies resilience, despite centuries of oppression, it also embodies an organically innovative openended authenticity. It is for this supreme reason that its artists, long neglected, now find themselves in the sight-lines of global interest and investment. That the LondonNew York-Marrakesh based African Art Fair, 1:54, is opening a platform in Hong Kong is a testimony to African art’s tentacular reach.

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Samson Mnisi, Abstract Composition in Brown, Acryics on canvas 157 x 235 cm Opposite Page: Ange Dakuo, Espérance 1, 2019, Cardboard, Newspaper, Cotton Thread and Acrylic

“Arak is the most in-depth grouping of Sub-Saharan African art in the Gulf Region.” That A-Rahman, a Qatari, should find himself as smitten is especially intriguing, given, to date, the relative disinterest in the Gulf Region regarding Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, Qatar straddles the East and West, its role as mediator in the current regional war and unrest unsurprising. That A-Rahman should diverge and expand the focus, in the full knowledge of Africa’s growing global importance – because of its cultural strength, not merely its natural and human resources – affirms the perspicacity of his vision. After all, Steve Bantu Biko was profoundly on point when he noted that Africa would gift the world its ‘human face’. And how urgently do we need this humanity – given the threat of a world war, or the tragic fait accompli of our Anthropocene Age. Despite fatality, we must continue. Here, it is the undaunted strength of our African artists that carry the promise not only of the survival of humanity but its exultation. Some recently

acquired works by A-Rahman stand as a testimony to this vision. At 1: 54 in London, A-Rahman spotted the mixed media work by the Malian, Ange Dakuo. The impact was strong enough to compel the purchase of two works a few weeks later at AKAA, the Parisbased fair, ‘Also Known as Africa.’ Titled ‘Esperance’, they are made with cardboard, newspaper, cotton thread, and acrylic, a now familiar recycled composite, which typifies African expression. Translated as ‘hope’, ‘dream’, or ‘fantasy’, ‘Esperance’ supposes a positive yet abstract expectation. As such, it embodies the yearnings of the world. Another work acquired this year is ‘Abstract X’ by the late South African, Samson Mnisi, a combine of spray paint, pastel and collage on paper. A gnomic yet sunny work with a striated white-blue-black core, it once again conjures an aspirational mystique, in the manner, say, of a Rothko painting. That Rothko should note that his

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Hazim Al Hussain, MADANIH 1, Acrylic on canvas 130 x 150 cm

art is ‘not abstract, it lives and breathes’, should remind us that abstraction never operates at a remove, that it is an integral dimension of life itself. In the Arak Collection this insight is cherished. Abstraction and figuration are never seen as mutually exclusive. Indeed, it is their interpenetration that informs its greater body. Other new acquisitions of works by Hazem Alhussain from war-torn Sudan, and the late South African David Koloane, affirm this core intersection. Koloane’s charcoal and pastel drawing, ‘Traffic’, captures the implosive radioactivity I’ve noted earlier. A quintessential ‘Afropolitan’ work, it is life-affirming, and spectacular in its ordinariness. This qualification is crucial, when we consider that Africa has always been denied normalcy, always perceived in extremis.

If these acquisitions by A-Rahman, for the Arak Collection, tell us anything, it is that African art is a dynamic expression of a translocal and inter-zonal global reality. For while it is singular, it is never exclusive. This, after all, is Africa’s true purpose, its global-civilisational design, its creative all-too-human role. As I write, A-Rahman is heading to Kenya (Nairobi), Uganda (Kampala), and Rwanda (Kigali), to visit galleries, artist’s studios, artist’s residencies, art centres and NGOs. His inquiry, indeed, his great adventure, is openended, for nothing can quite be anticipated in advance. This has always been the case regarding one’s relationship to art, though art historians would tell us otherwise. Art, after all, is an unbidden encounter, a miraculous insight, a prompt, a spur – a hope.

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Irma Stern, The Consultation, 1992

Gems Sanlam Art Gallery 2 Strand Road, Bellville

On view until 9 February 2024 Open Mondays to Fridays 09:00 – 16:30 Tel: 021 947 3359 WhatsApp: 0834572699 Email: sanlamart@sanlam.co.za

Gerard Sekoto, Indaba,1945

Stern, Pierneef, Thoka, Laubser, Sekoto, Matsoso, Boonzaier, Mzimba, Louw, Hodgins... Selected paintings and drawings by celebrated South African artists from the Sanlam Art Collection

Ruth Prowse, St Geoge’s, Str.1910

Irma Stern, Nude, 1947

Leonard Matsoso, Warrio and Beast,1979

UNBOUND Investec Cape Town Art Fair 2024 investeccapetownartfair.co.za

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he eleventh edition of Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Africa’s largest art fair, takes place from 16 – 18 February 2024 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. The curatorial theme for the 2024 edition is Unbound focusing on emerging and ‘unbound’ voices. Art becomes a compelling catalyst amid global challenges. It offers individuals a platform for expression, a space where diverse voices can be heard. Unbound serves as a conduit for exploring alternative possibilities and breaking free from constrictive narratives. This edition of Investec Cape Town Art Fair sees the city of Cape Town play a far more significant role in foregrounding the Art Fair’s activities and artists for its local and international audience of collectors and institutions. As Fair director Laura Vincenti puts it, “The city’s geography is an integral part of Investec Cape Town Art Fair’s success. Cape Town is a vibrant cultural hub, with a supportive community. It is very attractive to international collectors, with the great combination of diverse, cutting-edge art and a favourable exchange rate. This year the Fair continues its work of providing an annual platform for artists, galleries, curators, museums, cultural institutions, collectors, and art enthusiasts to connect and interact in the name of art. The Fair is also becoming known for facilitating meaningful dialogue, education and far-reaching interaction around contemporary African (and global) art.” Growing a contemporary art ecosystem on the continent Having celebrated its first decade this year, Investec Cape Town Art Fair is now well established as one of Cape Town’s key international attractions. The Fair is strategically positioned as the leading art event on the African continent, connecting contemporary art from Africa to the markets in Europe, the US, and the rest of the world. This means that the Fair offers a unique platform for emerging contemporary galleries, artists and ideas from markets outside of the traditional centres of art power and those from the African continent, to interact on an equal footing. With significant and growing international participation, the Fair is an important forum for setting curatorial and collecting trends to understand the African art market’s direction and growth.

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The 2024 edition of Investec Cape Town Art Fair will again bring together Africa’s leading galleries as well as cutting-edge galleries from Europe and the USA, offering an unparalleled opportunity to view and acquire high-quality, contemporary artworks. Visitors to the Fair can expect an extensive public programme both at the Fair as well as in and around the City of Cape Town. Architectural and conceptual design for the Fair layout The physical layout of the Fair takes advantage of Fair Director’s Laura Vincenti’s experience and expertise as an architect. It is laid out in blocks related to the curatorial concepts and thematics of the Fair and the artists being showcased, rather than in the more conventional rows of exhibiting booths. Each curated section that is of interest to visitors will therefore be in the same space for ease of access. Extending the Fair’s reach into the city Watch out for Investec Cape Town Art Fair-related programming from all the leading Cape Townbased galleries, museums and institutions, who will open thought-provoking shows and host engaging programmes throughout the city over the period of the Fair. Among other events, there will be a major public art and urban intervention in the scenic innercity area of the Bo-Kaap, as the city truly becomes one of the most attractive and interesting art destinations anywhere in the world. ● The MAIN section comprises exhibiting galleries from around the world, many from the rest of the African continent. Exhibitor numbers are steadily increasing year-on-year, and international exhibitors are now getting back to pre-pandemic levels. ● Tomorrows/Today is a curated section that has grown exponentially and expanded to twelve exhibitors. Renowned Spanish curator for this section, Dr. Mariella Franzoni, provides a platform for emerging and underrepresented artists and acts as a forecast of future relevant practices and ideas. The section will feature twelve selected solo show projects, with a cash prize going to the artist with the highest quality presentation. Titled Inhabiting the Wild, the 2024 edition explores and reimagines the concept of wildness through artistic imagination. The concept extends the idea of liberation by seeking to bring together diverse voices through this renewed sense of the wild, inspired by queer, feminist, decolonial and materialist studies, and embracing both overt and subtle forms of political dissidence.

Above: Investec Cape Town Art Fair Director, Laura Vincenti. Top centre: Generations guest curator, Natasha Becker (USA). Top right: Generations guest curator, Amogelang Maledu (SA). Photography by Rammie G. Bottom centre: SOLO section curator, Sean O_Toole. Photo by Marc Shoul. Bottom Right: Tomorrows.Today curator, Dr. Mariella Franzoni (Spain).

● The SOLO section is curated by Cape Town based writer, critic and curator Sean O’Toole. Titled Loopholes in the Walls of Darkness, it focuses on painting. Notwithstanding astonishing advances in digital art, painting, though a solitary practice, continues to set the pace, in galleries and museums, as well as at market. The ten most expensive artworks sold anywhere in 2022 were all paintings. Figurative painting remains the medium du jour of commerce and a hallmark of the zeitgeist circa now. O’Toole states “But painting has rubbed up against disinterest and neglect so many times, and so is a medium aware of its own obsolescence and mortality. This might account for painting’s elastic form and unravelling edges, its infiltration into adjacent media of sculpture and photography, as well as spill over into performance, film and digital practices’.

stages in their careers and instigates crossgenerational conversations among them. The project is intended to foreground artists who address the flaws of the past and reconstruct a future that utilises the talents and creativity of all generations.

● GENERATIONS is the fair’s newest section curated by Natasha Becker from the United States and South African curator Amogelang Maledu, an intergenerational curatorial conversation between the two. The project celebrates artists who are at different

Other returning sections to the main Fair include EDITIONS for showcasing prints and multiples by various artists, as well as space for art magazines, journals and publications, and specialised educational institutions offering a window into the wider art ecosystem.

● An expanded ALT section returns this year. The section is dedicated to projects that reflect the many ways in which the art world must adapt to circumstance. Young, nontraditional art project spaces can showcase their artists in a non-conventional way through an installation that offers a fresh interpretation of the anti-booth. The section invites dialogue around unconventional, nontraditional modes of practice and thinking and intends to break away from the usual art fair environment, bringing in a diversity of emerging voices.

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There will be 112 exhibitors represented by 24 countries both on the African continent as well as internationally, with 375 exhibiting artists made up of 54 different nationalities from across the globe, showcasing artworks in over thirty art forms. The details: ● The eleventh Investec Cape Town Art Fair will run from 16 to 18 February at the Cape Town International Conference Centre from 11h00 to 19h00.

● Tickets can be purchased via the Webtickets link on www.investeccapetownartfair.co.za More information: Visit us on www.investeccapetownartfair. co.za or follow Investec Cape Town Art Fair on Twitter @Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Instagram @investeccapetownartfair and Facebook @ICTArtFair. Hashtag #Investec Cape Town Art Fair

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CASTED

Scultura Italiana with Patrick Bongoy & Jake Michael Singer On show until 28 January 2024 rupertmuseum.org

his exhibition is an appreciation of the expressive artistic period that transformed and even transfigured anthropomorphic representation and informed the alternative use of materials. The selection of mid-20thcentury sculpture in conversation with 21stcentury contemporary pieces by both Patrick Bongoy (b1980) and Jake Michael Singer (b1991) challenges the viewer with forms and materials that are often disquieting, aggressive, bold, and textured. Texture places itself at the forefront of Singer and Bongoy’s visually innovative work even though their use of material is worlds apart – thousands of stainless-steel rods of various lengths transforming into a ‘coat of feathers’ contrasted to recycled, upcycled rubber and inner tubes in the most delicate cuts, braids and weaves resulting in layered abstract yet metaphoric tapestries. With the Italians’ experimentation and expressive mark-making, the aesthetics of the surfaces are foregrounded yet juxtaposed with the contemporary artists. Harmony is found with wing-shaped forms that echo through the space – a sign of freedom, liberation or even flight.

Augusto Perez (1929 – 2000), Uomo con Maschera / Man with a mask, 1960. Bronze, unique. Huberte Goote Collection

The Modernist works represented showcase artists who rejected the tropes of representational art and typical views of historic, religious, and romantic ideals. Disenchanted by the times and struggles they had witnessed, these post-war sculptors searched for freedom and new approaches to artistic production. In comparison, the work of Bongoy, born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, drives deep into the history and economic displacement of the country, its people, labour-intensive work, and latex harvesting, leading to human and environmental erosion. Singer celebrates the “Murmurations” that echo the shapes when a flock of birds or even crowds of people move – the flow and waves this creates, the freedom of form it lends itself to. This craving for freedom is felt by Bongoy’s tiers and draping of rubber strings and weaves, breaking free from a rigid or squared-off canvas on a wall.

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1. Patrick Bongoy (b1980), Frozen in Time, 2022. Repurposed rubber inner tube, valves on wooden board. Courtesy of Southern Guild. 2. Quinto Ghermandi (1916 – 1994), Piccolo bronzo No.4, Small bronze No.4, 1959. Bronze, unique. Huberte Goote Collection 3. Jake Michael Singer (b1991), Untitled, 2023. Marine grade stainless steel (316), automotive paint. Courtesy of THK Gallery

Berto Lardera (1911 - 1989), Déesse antique II / Antique goddess II, 1958. Stainless steel, copper and iron, unique. Huberte Goote Collection

Luciano Minguzzi (1911 – 2004), Memoria dell’ uomo nell’ Lager / Memory of the man in the concentration camp, 1963. Bronze, Edition 1/3. Huberte Goote Collection

In this selection or collective of varied approaches to sculptural form and material, the works date as early as the 1950s up to the contemporary artists’ most recent creations. The structural presence of Franco Garelli’s (1909 - 1973) striking and bold forms, the playful and intimate characters created by Guliutte Scalini (1912 - 1966), the petite and fragile work of Luciano Minguzzi (1911 - 2004) - all have dainty qualities that can be closely compared to Bongoy’s woven elements. Augusto Perez’s (1929 - 2000) transforming and mysterious figures placed amongst the rubber tapestries whisper the fragmented identities represented through Bongoy’s references to the rubber trade.

by Berto Lardera (1911 - 1989) and winged subjects by Pietro Cascella (1921 - 2008), Marcello Mascherini (1906 - 1983), Quinto Ghermandi (1916 - 1994) and Giacomo Benevelli (1925 - 2011).

The patina and unusual attention to the surfaces of Francesco Somaini’s (1926 2005) and Basaldella Mirko’s (1910 - 1969) pieces echo the ancient as the sculptures almost appear as archaeological artefacts. This, in comparison with Singer’s vibrant colour variations on his ‘Murmurs’, challenges the traditional approaches to the textural in sculpture. Further similarity in form and material choice is seen in the constructed and welded works of stainless steel and iron

The play at semi and full abstraction is a testament to the confidence of these sculptors and artists in their unique creations of onceoff works in radical mediums. Although several of these artists were and are accomplished multi-disciplinary artists, they each have a love for sculpture. The nearly 30 sculptures by 16 artists, though vastly different in appearance, share a commonality in their approach to materiality. The mediums are celebrated in their raw and brutal form, exposing rough yet soft edges and welds to this purpose. As they embrace the new, they reference metaphorical, ancient, and even biblical figures and themes. Bringing these 20th-century artists’ work to light in conversation with two selected 21stcentury artists reminds us that the principles of experimentalism in applied art offer continuous opportunities to transgress the boundaries of art practice.

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Jake Michael Singer (b1991), Murmured, 2023. Marine grade stainless steel (316), automotive paint. Courtesy of THK Gallery

THE MELROSE GALLERY - AN ODE TO 2023 themelrosegallery.com

s we look back on the last year, we are proud of all that we have managed to achieve with our small but talented and committed team, wonderful stable of artists, and loyal and supportive clients. We took a decision when forming the gallery 7 years ago that South Africa has little place for exclusivity. The vast majority of our population has never visited an art gallery or museum and many of our talented artists have little opportunity to show their works and therefore to support their families. We believe that we have an obligation to provide opportunities for artists including many who are not part of our stable and to expose as many of our people to art as possible and have therefore chosen a business style that is less formal and stuffy and more inclusive than exclusive. This has worked for us, and our events are always fun and well attended and our artists, our collectors, and audiences have benefitted here from. SculptX, the largest annual sculpture fair in South Africa, was conceptualised by us and has run successfully for 6 years. During September and October, we host over 60 sculptures and more than 250 sculptures in indoor and outdoor spaces throughout the Melrose Arch precinct in Johannesburg. This popular exhibition has become a highlight of the Johannesburg art calendar and provides a valuable platform for emerging and established artists to expose their works and to generate revenue. Every August, Ruzy Rusike, our curator, conceptualises an exhibition with an exciting performance art programme with talented artists for Woman’s Month. This year’s exhibition titled ‘Quite as its Kept’ was extremely well received. This has also become a valuable platform for emerging and established artists which extends beyond our stable of artists. SculptX 2023

Above: Perfomance Art; Enkundleni, Pouring Healing by Philiswa Lila and Luvkuvuku Below: Dr. Esther Mahlangu. Photo/ Romain Darnaud. Courtesy Galerie 75 Faubourg, Paris .

SculptX 2023

“We believe that we have an obligation to provide opportunities for artists including many who are not part of our stable and to expose as many of our people to art as possible.” Our busy calendar of exhibitions, events, and activations within our galleries at Melrose Arch is also complimented by our belief in the presentation of museum shows. In April 2023, Pitika Ntuli’s multi-award-winning exhibition ‘Azibuyele Emasisweni’ (Return to the Source) travelled from a well-received run at Oliewenhuis Art Museum to the Durban Art Gallery and runs until January 2024. The exhibition features 45 sculptures created by Pitika from bone, praise songs accompanying each work and engagements with over 30 creative and thought leaders around African spirituality. These engagements include songs, music, film, dialogues, essays and poetry and collaborators include notables of the likes of Minister Naledi

Pandor, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Homi Bhabha, Ahmed Rajab, Phillippa Yaa de Villiers, Shaheen Merali, Ari Sitas, Zolani Mahola, Eugene Skeef, Kwesi Owusu, Simphiwe Dana, Napo Masheane, Yvonne Chaka Chaka, Ela Gandhi, Albie Sachs, Nduduzo Makhathini, Thembinkosi Goniwe and more. Our ethos of inclusivity has left us open to collaborating and this year we were pleased to collaborate with Almine Rech Paris and London and Enrico Navarra Paris on two solo exhibitions for Dr Esther Mahlangu. We also were excited to collaborate with BMW for Dr Mahlangu’s design of the 50th Anniversary of BMW SA, and the inclusion of Dr Mahlangu’s works in the AI project presented at Art Basel in Switzerland and Art Frieze in Seoul.

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Installation view of AGOA

Dr Mahlangu created a large mural for Jean Claude Mimran’s Chalet Africa in Gstaad Switzerland, a silk screen print of Dr Mahlangu’s was presented as a gift from President Ramaphosa to 50 heads of state for BRICS, we worked with Pambili Media to curate the Heritage Exhibition for the Department of Trade and Industry as part of the AGOA Summit. This involved close collaborations with the curators from Iziko Museums of South Africa, Freedom Park, University of Pretoria, JavettUP, Soweto Museum, District 6 Museum and veteran photographer Andrew Tshabangu. The exhibition was curated by Ruzy Rusike and was extremely well received. Much of our year was spent working on the research and curation of Dr Esther Mahlangu’s Retrospective Exhibition which is to launch

at the Iziko South African National Gallery in February 2024. We are very excited about this important exhibition curated by Nontobeko Ntombela which aims to research, document, present, and celebrate Dr Mahlangu’s enormous contribution to contemporary art over 7 decades. The exhibition has been supported by the National Arts Council and BMW and will tour to the Wits Art Museum in Johannesburg and then to museums in the U.S., Europe and other continents thereafter. This is but a small part of what we achieved during 2023 and we are looking forward to continuing to build on these successes in 2024.

The Melrose Gallery is a leading Pan African Contemporary space located in Johannesburg. The gallery represents established and emerging artists whose voices speak to issues of significance to the Continent of Africa on a global basis. Introducing our Pan African Contemporary Art Catalogue, where we regularly curate and showcase the latest artworks by artists in our stable. Every month, we refresh this catalogue, allowing you to save this link for easy access to revisit at your convenience.

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VIEW OUR CATALOGUE

THE NATURE OF PATTERNING

A solo exhibition by Lisl Barry Prince Albert Gallery, 14 December 2023 - 14 January 2024 princealbertgallery.co.za

he works in Lisl Barry’s solo exhibition, ‘The Nature of Patterning’, are multifaceted, embodying the artists’ years of observation and gaining a deeper understanding of the equilibrium achieved in the natural world. Whether naturally occurring, human-made or behavioural, patterns are ever-present in our lives. It is said that our subconscious unravelling of the patterns around us give us a sense of harmony and a place in the world. Through multiple layering of medium (linocut printing, oil paint, pencil and sometimes gold-leaf application) Lisl creates playful patterning and striking compositions. Infused with rich colour and energetic lines and shapes, these works display a fresh vibrancy, as well as a feeling of quiet. There is a strong sense of movement in the patterning, an intriguing universe that a viewer feels compelled to engage in. “I wanted to explore our ability as humans to find joy, even in these most confusing of times, and to create a sense of freedom and even in some, a sense of humour.” To achieve a ‘perfect imperfection’ outcome, Lisl integrated linocut printing into her oil paintings. Since printing linocut shapes on a textured canvas surface creates varied impressions, she leaves the creative process to chance, and moves away from the traditional printmaking pursuit of a perfectly repeatprinted linocut. Her process stands as an ironic response to an increasingly controlled - and digitally orientated - world. “For years I have admired the Bogolan handblock printed fabric of Mali. ‘Bogolan’ means ‘originating or arising from the earth’. None of the hand-block patterning is perfectly repeated or even 100% aligned. It becomes instead the artist’s indelible mark on that rough mud cloth. To my mind, it gives each piece of fabric an authentic element because it tells a human story in a way that mechanically produced textiles do not.

As fish gather, 400 x 585mm, oil on canvas panel

On the silent edge of dreaming, 1100 x 1400mm, oil on canvas

A light dance with Titan, 1100 x 1400mm, oil on canvas

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Re-defined, 850 x 580mm, oil on board

The equation of bees, 400 x 585mm, linoprint, oils and gold leaf on canvas panel

At the same time, with a photographer’s eye, I have been drawn to patterns created in nature: geological formations, plants, and the way creatures move and survive in their environment. It’s ever changing yet retains a natural harmony, like the colours and shapes that are perfectly mirrored in water’s reflection, which shift and become quite psychedelic merely through a subtle change in air movement. The celestial scale of the starkness of patterning dominating a Karoo night sky can evoke an intensity of emotion. One’s perspective on life and humanity can alter dramatically when one is out in nature, just observing, quietly. There’s a kind of magic, everywhere you look.” Lisl has exhibited extensively at a number of established galleries and exhibitions. Her work is held in private collections locally and globally. Initially from Cape Town, Lisl was a Graphic Design Art Graduate (1991), who majored in Printmaking and Photography. Among her lecturers were the late Alma Vorster, Eunice Geustyn and Leon Vermeulen.

From 1993 her studio was based on the Gamkaberg Nature Reserve in the Klein Karoo, where she and her nature conservator husband, Tom, nestled in and remained for 25 years. Their two daughters, Jade and Kai were born and grew up on the Reserve. It is therefore unsurprising that Lisl’s work is rooted in nature, and these artworks stand as a significant personal point in her evolution as an artist. After years of pupating in the Karoo ‘bush’ this will be Lisl’s first solo exhibition. It is most fitting that it should be held in the town of Prince Albert. “My grateful thanks goes to Prince Albert Gallery, who have always been very supportive and encouraging of my work. I feel the time and the work is right.”

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INTRODUCING TWO NEW SA NATIONAL ART COMPETITIONS Rust-en-Vrede Gallery rust-en-vrede.com

ust-en-Vrede Gallery & Clay Museum in Durbanville, Cape Town, will be launching two exciting new national competitions for 2024 – introducing The Clay Awards and The Junior Portrait Award 2024.

THE CLAY AWARDS As November is traditionally Ceramic month, we are implementing a biennale CLAY AWARDS at Rust-en-Vrede Gallery + Clay Museum from November 2024. The Rust-en-Vrede Clay Museum was recently nominated to become an affiliate member of the International Academy of Ceramics (IAC) – an honour which we gladly accepted. Our aim is to bring exceptional ceramics to the attention of local and international collectors and lovers of clay! This Awards exhibition is open to all South Africans 18 years and older. Entries will be online and will be selected from the images supplied. It is therefore crucial that the images provided should be of a high standard. Local and international selectors, all authorities in the field of ceramics, will choose from the images supplied, the most exceptional works ranging from functional to sculptural to the decorative. These works will be exhibited at the Rust-en-Vrede Gallery + Clay Museum in November and part of December 2024. The online entries open in July 2024. What makes these Awards unique is that the sponsored prize money will be equally shared between the creators of the chosen clay pieces – which can be thrown, hand-built or sculpted in porcelain, earthenware or stoneware. Rules of the Clay Awards and a draft copy of the entry form will be posted on the website www. rust-en-vrede.com in February 2024. Be sure to read the rules, make exceptional work, photograph it carefully and enter at the end of July 2024.

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Junior Portrait 3d place, Issy Coetzer, Goodnight Mr Tom, 21 x 29.7 cm, Pencil on Paper, 2023

JUNIOR PORTRAIT AWARD 2024 After the excitement of the local Junior Portrait Award, initiated in 2023, we have decided to grow this into a permanent national exhibition on our art program. The first Junior Portrait competition was won by Malini Mistry. Every two years we will host a national Junior Portrait Award, to encourage all young artists 16 to 18 years of age to enter an artwork online. A selection of works will be made from the online entries and these works will be sent to the gallery to be displayed. The first national Junior Portrait Award will be held in 2024! Rules regarding this competition will be published on the website www.rust-en-vrede. com in February 2024. We encourage all creative youths to enter.

Junior Portrait 2nd prize, Fatima Ismail, Celebrating Culture, 21 x 29.7 cm, Acrylic on Paper, 2023 Opposite page: Malini Mistry, Happier, 29.7 x 42 cm, Acrylic on Board, 2023 (detail)

RULES OF THE COMPETITION 1. You will have to submit a copy of your ID with your entry. You have to be 16, 17 or 18 years old when you enter this competition, 2. You may use any medium – pencil, charcoal, oil, acrylic, water colour or mixed media on art paper or stretched canvas. 3. The work need not be framed. 4. The work should not be signed on the front in order for the work to be selected anonymously. 5. The portrait should be of someone you know who has given you permission to use them as a model. It may also be a self-portrait. You may only work from photographs that you have taken of the person or persons. 6. It is important to convey a mood, feeling or story with your portrait.

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CREATIVELY CONTRASTED New views on the Permanent Collection 01 December 2023 - 03 March 2024 Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Main Building

Creatively Contrasted: New views on the Permanent Collection is a curated exhibition from the Permanent Collection housed at Oliewenhuis Art Museum, an art museum committed to building a representative collection of South African visual art. Artworks with contrasting aspects such as the oldest and the ‘youngest’ artwork in the collection, were selected to give a fresh perspective on the collection and pay tribute to the incredible richness of South African visual art. 1st Donation and 1st Acquisitions. Oliewenhuis Art Museum officially opened on 11 October 1989 and the first donation received was Dorte Berner’s, Das Kranke Kind (1981) in 1990, an etching in sepia on paper. The first artworks were purchased from Gallery 21 in Johannesburg. These artworks were Norman Catherine’s Ritual (1985), pastel on paper, Eduardo Villa’s Torso (1968) in bronze and Ezrom Legae’s Head of a Wise man (n.d.) in bronze. Oldest artworks and most recently acquired and created artworks in the collection. The oldest artworks in the collection are three oil-on-canvas paintings by Thomas Baines. Bloemfontein about 1850, was donated by the Bloemfontein Municipality in 1990. This painting was originally purchased by the City Council in 1958 from Eric Bonner, a bookseller in London. Bloemfontein vanaf Naval Hill 1851, was also donated by the Bloemfontein Municipality. In the background of the painting, a small bag houses a piece of linen on which the words “Bloemfontein the Capital of the Orange River Sovereignty……Ma 23 1851” is featured. Uitsig oor Bloemfontein 1850, was donated to the National Museum, Bloemfontein in 1924 by Mr. Geo Page. This work was painted on a sturdy striped fabric Ticking, which was traditionally used to cover pillows and mattresses, because its tight weave prevented feathers from sticking through the fabric.

Walter Meyer, Selfportrait, 2009, Oil on canvas, 50.5 x 40 cm

Oliewenhuis Art Museum’s most recent acquisitions and recently created artworks include artworks by living legends Mam Noria Mabasa and Dr Esther Mahlangu. Born from Fire, an exceptional sculptural masterpiece by Mam Noria Mabasa, was purchased in 2019 and a painting, Ndebele Abstract by Dr Esther Mahlangu in 2021. Artworks acquired in the last five years also include paintings by Free State artists, Richard Bollers and Klas Thibeletsa. In 2020, as part of the first Presidential Employment Stimulus Programme funded by the Department of Sport, Art and Culture, three Free State woodcarvers were commissioned to carve two large pieces of dried out Wild Olive Wood in situ at the Sculpture Garden of Oliewenhuis Art Museum. Sefate sa dipale tsa Africa (a tale about an African Tree) was carved by Hartman Magasi, David Molapisi and Moeketsi Bernett Phalatsane. This artwork was officially added to the Permanent Collection in February 2023.

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Walter Meyer, Township, Luderitz, 2004, Oil on canvas, 55.5 x 70 cm

Clare Menck, Death and the sculptor (George Ramagaga), 2006, Oil on canvas, 50 x 65 cm

Ezrom Legae, Head of a wise man, n.d., Bronze 3/5, 34 x 12 x 17 cm

Edoardo Villa, Torso, 1968, Bronze, 40 x 20 x 24 cm

Depictions of artworks by artists and some of their artworks.

ordinary artworks such as artworks created by more than one artist, were also included to encourage visitors to explore and enjoy a bit of South Africa’s rich and varied visual art history and to learn about our heritage.

While planning the exhibition, we noticed that we have several self-portraits and portraits by artists in the collection of fellow artists. These self-portraits and portraits are displayed alongside related artworks. Examples of these include Walter Meyer’s oil paintings; Selfportret (2009) and Township Luderitz (2004). Stefan Ampenberger and his wife Iris Ampenberger befriended the well-known artist Father Frans Claerhout after settling in Tweespruit, close to Bloemfontein. Stefan was a painter of landscapes, while Iris painted people and portraits. On display are four of her portraits, one of Father Frans Claerhout and two of her husband and a self-portrait.

Oliewenhuis Art Museum is located at 16 Harry Smith Street, Bloemfontein. It is open to the public from Monday to Friday between 08:00 and 17:00, and on Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays between 09:00 and 16:00. R10 parking fee will be charged but entrance to the museum is free. For more information on Oliewenhuis Art Museum please contact the Museum at 078 968 4300 or oliewen@nasmus.co.za. Stay up to date by following Oliewenhuis Art Museum on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for all upcoming exhibitions and events.

Other contrasting artworks such as the largest and the smallest artwork or out of the

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Into the Deep

THE UNVEILING OF MINKI AND THE STARFISH Art@Africa Gallery CT Written by Alwill Westcott artatafrica.art

rt@Africa’s owner and impresario Dirk Durnez, has joined forces with the prolific sculptor and painter Johan Steyn to unveil the next collection in a series of exquisite bronze sculptures, in an exhibition named Minki and the Starfish. The genesis of Minki’s enchanting narrative is rooted in Dirk Durnez’s profound connection with South Africa, his home since 1997. It’s a place that has stirred his spirit and awakened a profound commitment to conservation. This visionary partnership was further elevated by Steyn’s artistic vision, his wellspring of inspiration, and his belief that art serves as a universal language, allowing for the purest form of self-expression. For Johan Steyn, art has been an integral part of his life, having grown up in Pretoria as the son of the renowned Batik artist, Louis Steyn. Johan’s quest for a more profound mode of artistic expression led him towards the intricate world of engraving. His fascination with the play of light and shadow as a means of capturing form would ultimately become a cornerstone of his three-dimensional sculpting endeavours. His artistic evolution is a testament to his commitment and ingenuity, with recognition in design and coin development culminating in his esteemed role as South Africa’s chief engraver. In 2016, Johan Steyn took the leap to wholeheartedly dedicate himself to the realms of painting and sculpture. Minki’s story continues in the Minki and the Sunbird series of sculptures, which formed part of Steyn’s solo exhibition in 2022 with Minki and the Starfish as she is transported from the north to the south on the back of a Martial Eagle (Minki and the Martial Eagle), and she is introduced to the abundance of diverse marine life on the Cape coast.

In pursuit of dreams

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Harmony of the deep

The rescue

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Henry (foundry), Johan (artist), Dirk (Impressario - agent)

The inspiration for Minki and the Sunbird blossomed from Steyn’s deep connection to nature and his homeland, South Africa. He considers nature to be his teacher, saying: “I think for me, all the answers to art are in nature. All the ratios, the relationships. When we look at nature normally, it is naturally beautiful. Nature is the place where we study. That is my university.”

Minki’s encounters with various forms of oceanic life highlight not just their spectacular diversity, but also subtly nudges the viewer towards a crucial reality - our shared existence and interdependence with these magnificent beings. Through Minki’s eyes, Steyn prompts a moment of introspection about the necessity of nurturing our precious marine ecosystems.

The rich tapestry of South Africa’s biodiversity provides him with endless beauty to draw from. Steyn focusses on proportion and capturing the flow and movement of elements such as anatomy, wind and water in his sculptures. He often spends extended periods with his subjects, allowing him to fathom and capture their essence. This approach perfectly aligns with Durnez’s design philosophy, emphasising a love for understanding and a dedication to preserving what we cherish.

In the larger scheme of things, Steyn’s works serve as a gentle reminder of the grand narrative of life on our beautiful blue planet. His sculptural depictions are not mere ornamental additions to one’s collection, but heartfelt dialogues about mankind’s sustainable coexistence with all forms of life on Earth.

The heart of this extraordinary collection speaks of a delightful, ever-curious little girl named Minki. Her explorations along the Cape coast and subsequent discoveries offer a playful, yet meaningful perspective on marine life. Each sculpture tells you a chapter of Minki’s unfolding adventures, inviting you to dive deeper into her world, to see the world anew, as if through the eyes of a child.

Minki and the Starfish opens on the Thursday 7th of December 2023 at Art@Africa located at the Clocktower Centre, in the Silo District of the V&A Waterfront. Minki and the Starfish exhibition Art@Africa Gallery - 7 Dec 23 – 10 Feb 24 The Clocktower Centre, Silo District, V&A Waterfront

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Johan Steyn t Brendon Edwards

Kunye ColabVuyo - Kunye Colababy

William Sweetlove

Sculpture Specialists - Concept - Art Direction Production - Engineering - Installation

info@artatafrica.art | 082 774 1078 |1st Floor, Clocktower Centre, V&A Waterfront - www.artatafrica.art

THE SEA, THE SEA A Group exhibition Curated by Gail Dorje Cape Gallery, 19 November – 05 January 2024 capegallery.co.za

‘Time, like the sea, unties all knots. Judgements on people are never final, they emerge from summings up which at once suggest the need of a reconsideration. Human arrangements are nothing but loose ends and hazy reckoning, whatever art may otherwise pretend in order to console us.” – Dame Iris Murdoch; The Sea, the sea. ‘The Sea, the sea’, at The Cape Gallery, 60 Church Street, is a themed group exhibition showcasing artists reflecting upon their personal connection to the sea. Here dreams meet immersive reality, waves pound the shore, monsters rise from unplumbed depths. Many years ago, a suggestion was made that I should curate an exhibition on the theme of ‘The Sea, the sea’. This was suggested by a highly literate person, and you will appreciate, as a theme, it comes with some challenges. At that time, I shelved the idea for a later date. A much later date as it transpires. Like many of the archetypes, and the Sea or rather the metaphorical allusions, the transference of thought and emotion, the archetypal characters and literary references associated with the Sea as a theme are numerous. The sea as a context for a work of art or novel has been revisited in many guises through time. I have been reading Virginia Woolf’s ‘The waves’ and’ because I chose the title ‘The Sea, the sea’, Iris Murdoch’s ‘The Sea, the sea.’ In both books the sea metaphorically describes the fluctuating mood of the narrator. You can plumb the depths of the sea off a rocky coast and convey the power of the breaking waves.

Laura Wenman, The water in my sky, 90 x 120 cm, Oil on canvas

Mandy Lake, Breaking Dawn, 1mx 1m (triptych), Oil on canvas

Makiwa Mutomba. The Galz Outing, 140 x 140 cm Oil on canvas

Some of the artists participating include Mady Lake, Simon Jones, Laura Wenman, John Kramer, Tyrone Appollis, Judy Woodborne, Makiwa Mutomba, Roelof Rossouw, Derek Drake, Robert Koch and Peter van Straten. The Sea, the sea opens at The Cape Gallery 19 November and will be available to view until 05 January 2024. Visit capegallery.co.za John Kramer, Marine Drive, Hermanus, 35.5 x 66 cm, Oil on board

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Above: Roelof Rossouw, Gordons Bay Sunset, 56 x 76 cm, Oil on canvas Below: Tyrone Appollis, We are all going to Blouberg Strand, 61 x 91 cm, Acrylic on canvas

ANATOMICA BOTANICA ARCHITECTA NWU Botanical Gardens Gallery www.services.nwu.ac.za/nwu-gallery

he NWU Botanical Gardens Gallery is proud to present ANATOMICA BOTANICA ARCHITECTA, a group exhibition by five (5) North-West artists all based in Potchefstroom Amogelang Ngake; Elna Venter; Mpho Gorewang; Pieter Jooste; Sandro Trapani. This exhibition will look at interpretations of arrangements of anatomical revisions, architectural inquiries, and the incorporation of indigenous or nonindigenous botanicals. ”Nonindigenous species are those that are not native to a particular area or are found living outside of their historic range. Also known as non-native, exotic, or alien species, these species do not necessarily cause harm to the environment in which they are found. However, when these species establish themselves and threaten the diversity or stability of a native species or environment, they are then considered invasive.” – www.usgs.gov

Pieter Jooste, Covenant, Cold cast bronze. 27 x 37 x 32cm, 2022

The USGS, an American government site for scientific research, describes nonindigenous species as those that are not native to a specific area or are found living outside their historic range. These species are also known as nonnative, exotic, or alien species. While they may not necessarily harm the environment where they are found, they can become invasive when they establish themselves and pose a threat to the diversity or stability of native species or environments. In the South African context, it is important to consider the sensitivity of certain terms used in the USGS quote, such as exotic, alien, and diversity. These terms carry different connotations and are nuanced in our sociopolitical climate. If this paragraph were written for a South African audience, it would likely use more carefully chosen words in the botanical context.

Mpho Gorewang, Kodu, 26cm, Clay Terracotta, 2022

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Sandro Trapani, Dolorem IV, Concrete, resin, driftwood. 65 x 60 x 45cm, 2023

Elna Venter, Veld I, Found objects gathered from the veld, 84 x 60 x 7cm, 2023

Amogelang Ngake, The hem of His garment, acrylic paint and metal bottle caps, wool on canvas, 41cm X 51cm, 2023

The exhibition will focus on arranging anatomical revisions, architectural inquiries, and the incorporation of indigenous or nonindigenous botanicals. Artists were given the exhibition brief and were free to address and interpret these themes as they pleased. An example of this theme can be seen in the mixed-media sculpture and painting of Sandro Trapani, which explore aesthetic dominance in portraiture and include architectural and botanical elements. Throughout history, botanicals have served various purposes such as food, medicine, and fabrics, and have been incorporated into architecture. They have been used to strengthen structures or for decorative purposes, cladding, and textiles, as seen in the Art Nouveau movement. Architecture exists to accommodate the human body and create environments and spaces we inhabit. The human form, architecture, and botanicals have long-standing relationships in art and design, playing significant roles in shaping culture and identity. These elements have evolved and adapted alongside our existence throughout history. In contemporary South Africa, architecture, botany, and anatomy still hold relevance, acting as metaphors or

symbols that contribute to the narratives we construct within our diverse cultural context. While these narratives may be contentiously changing, the values evoked by these elements become woven into the fabric of life. The show includes five artists: Sandro Trapani as mentioned above; Mpho Gorewang, a stalwart ceramicist explores the dynamics of earthenware, Raku Firing and traditional designs sort from nature; while Amogelang Ngake engages with her processes focusing her thoughts on sustainability and ecological concerns; Veteran artist Elna Venter utilizes relevant imagery and objects in her mesmerizing collages and sculptures; And Pieter Jooste explores abstracted visions of the world around him through the mediums of Oil and acrylic paint. The exhibition is curated by Sandro Trapani. The opening reception will be on the 27th of October 2023 and will run till the 31st of January 2024 For more information, please contact: email: amohelang.mohajane@nwu.ac.za www.services.nwu.ac.za/nwu-gallery

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WHERE YOU ARE

Artist Proof Studio 3rd Year Students Exhibition artistproofstudio.co.za

‘Where You Are’, is the title of an exhibition featured at Constitution Hill that probes and explores notions of freedom and expressions of self and identity through printmaking. This is an important exhibition at the beginning of 2024 ahead of the Soth African National Elections. The curated group exhibition showcases a collection of prints by 10 emerging artists (who coincidentally, were all born between 1994 and 2001, the same time-period when Constitution Hill was undergoing reconstruction, restoration, extension and ultimately, a transformation). As one of the most important historical sites in South Africa, Constitution Hill embodies a painful past whilst at the same time, offering reconciliation, hope and justice for past and present offenses on human rights. It offers a ‘safe place’ within a run-down and overworked city that overlooks the North of Johannesburg to an ever-growing built landscape. Where You Are, explores the impact that history has had on shaping societies, attitudes and identities within a democratic and free contemporary South African society. It reflects on past narratives of in/justice and offers unique perspectives and insights into the apparent contradictions and effects experienced as a result. Individual artists explore issues around classism, gender-based violence, cultural and traditional vs contemporary expectations, postcolonial dilemmas and persistent stigma of mental health conditions. The exhibition (installed in the Women’s Prison section) showcases a range of traditional printmaking techniques including etching, linocut relief, screen printing, lithography, cyanotype as well as mixed-media and digital artwork. Artist Proof Studio prides itself on printmaking excellence and innovation in printmaking. We are delighted to support this Graduate Show through Constitution Hill which exemplifies our Mission and Vision and commitment to training young artists as ‘active citizens’.

Above: Misa Boshoma signing prints. Opposite page: Tsako Hobyani, Dualism, Silkscreen, 2023

Thato Thobejane carving lino plate

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Above: Obakeng Masilo, A Maidens Lament, Etching, 2023 Opposite Page: Tsako Hobyani, Serendipity, Silkscreen, 2023

Obakeng Masilo, Vlakplaas, etching

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Obakeng Masilo (right) assisitng Tsako Hobyani (left) with his screenprinting

About APS APS is an innovative and engaged community printmaking centre of excellence focusing on all aspects of professional printmaking: creation, sales, training, and community engagement. Through its many activities, strategic partnerships and alumni, APS facilitates the transformation of passion into possibility. The Mission of APS is to provide an environment to develop citizens with a common set of values, expressed in the notion of Ubuntu, that have talent and passion to achieve artistic excellence. The Vision for APS is founded on a

sense of shared humanity whereby people of talent and passion can reach for excellence in art making to achieve self-sustainability. Venue: Constitution Hill, 1 Hospital St, Braamfontein, 2017, JHB, South Africa, Women’s Prison. Date: Opening 27 January 2024, Sat 11am, Closing 25 February 2024. Opening Hours: Monday to Sunday 9 am–5 pm

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Venue: NWU Botanical Gardens Gallery (Building H5) Time: 17h30 for 18h00 Opening: 27 October 2023

Opening Reception Event: 27 October 2023 Time: 17h30 for 18h00 Walkabout: 28 October 2023 Time: 10h30

EMERGE: A GRADUATE SHOWCASE The Unisa Art Gallery - 02 December 2023

Nkomene Hlongwane, I Nkomene (2023). Mixed media installation.

he “Emerge: A Graduate Showcase” exhibition features the exceptional artworks created by undergraduate and honours students enrolled in the Visual Multimedia Arts course offered by the Department of Art and Music at the University of South Africa. The choice of the title, “Emerge,” reflects our firm belief in the potential of these student artists to emerge as significant voices within the creative sector. Over the course of the year, these dedicated students have immersed themselves in rigorous research and artistic practice, culminating in the development of a diverse range of individual themes. The resulting collection of works encompasses a broad spectrum of artistic media, including drawing, collage, painting, sculpture, and multimedia installations. Curated by Lecturer in Visual Multimedia Arts, Andrew Smith, the select works invite the viewer to explore a captivating tapestry of themes that delve into personal and political identity, notions of spirituality, the intricacies of anxiety and obsession, and the pressing concerns surrounding our environment and geopolitics.

The Department of Art and Music, and the UNISA Art Gallery, have a rich history of nurturing creative talent and supporting emerging artists. This exhibition proudly continues that tradition, contributing to the enduring legacy of the arts at UNISA. It underscores our unwavering commitment to fostering creativity and nurturing artistic excellence within our vibrant community. We invite you to join us on this journey of discovery and celebration of emerging talents. UNISA Art Gallery, has a rich history of nurturing creative talent and supporting emerging artists. This exhibition proudly continues that tradition, contributing to the enduring legacy of the arts at UNISA. It underscores our unwavering commitment to fostering creativity and nurturing artistic excellence within our vibrant community. We invite you to join us on this journey of discovery and celebration of emerging talents. Exhibition Opening Date: 02 December 2023, UNISA Art Gallery, 274 Preller St, Muckleneuk, Pretoria, 0002. Closing: 30 January 2024

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Gabrielle de Saint Clair, Remnants: The, Traces Left Behind (2023) Eco print on silk and watercolour paper. Various, silk banners, 1500 x 60, prints on paper 150 x 200 cm

Dorothea du Plessis, Ephemeral Anemoi (2023). Installation: metal, wax, fabric, clay, and cement.

Peter Mitchell Gossayn

Shaylin Singh, Osiris the Destroyer (Spirit Duality Series) 2023. Mixed Media, 59.4 x 84.1 cm

Business Art

STEPHAN WELZ & CO. swelco.co.za

s the curtains draw to a close on another extraordinary year, we find ourselves immersed in a rich and impressive tapestry of South African art. Stephan Welz & Co. has had the privilege of handling many high-profile collections and have had the opportunity to offer the works of numerous blue-chip artists. Although we have had some interesting art on offer, our Johannesburg specialists have gravitated towards a few notable artists.

Alexia Ferreira, Art Specialist, Johannesburg The artistic journey of Nic Bladen (1974) is marked by a profound fascination with the intricate details of plant life, particularly the complex and often overlooked structures of flowers. His sculptures, predominantly crafted from bronze and other metals, showcase an extraordinary attention to detail. Bladen’s ability to capture the essence of a flower or plant in metal is nothing short of extraordinary, and his work has garnered attention both locally and internationally. Bladen’s career as a sculptor and jewellery designer began by pioneering a method of creating perfect castings of organic matter, based on his knowledge of the ancient technique of lost-wax casting, together with his training as a dental technician. Bladen’s “work as a crown and bridge technician involved extremely accurate casting methods. [He] began toying with casting flowers but these experiments stayed in drawers until, in 2000, a friend introduced [him] to Otto du Plessis at Bronze Age Foundry in Simon’s Town.” (Kalk Bay Modern Sa:sp) It was then that he realised that this was the next step in his journey and began an apprenticeship at the foundry the following year. The scale of Bladen’s sculptures varies, ranging from small, intricate pieces that fit in the palm of your hand, to jewellery pieces that can be worn, to larger installations that command attention in outdoor spaces. Regardless of

size, each piece reflects a commitment to excellence and a passion for showcasing the diversity of South Africa’s plant life. Bladen’s work has been featured in numerous exhibitions, both in South Africa and abroad. His sculptures have found homes in private collections, public spaces, and galleries, contributing to the broader conversation about the intersection of art and nature. His ability to capture the essence of the South African landscape has positioned him as a significant figure in the country’s contemporary art scene. One of the defining features of Bladen’s art is his commitment to authenticity. He meticulously studies and observes the plants he intends

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Nic Bladen (South African 1974 - ), FIVE STAPELIADS, signed, dated ‘10 and inscribed with the title in pencil white bronze mounted in a specimen box, 32 by 15,5cm; 2,5 by 44 by 6cm including frame, Estimate: R25 000 – R40 000

to recreate, often working directly from life. Bladen’s work often blurs the lines between science and art, appealing to botanists and art enthusiasts alike. His sculptures are not mere replicas; they are expressions of the profound beauty he sees in nature. Through his art, Bladen invites viewers to slow down, observe, and appreciate the intricate details that might go unnoticed in the hustle of everyday life. Particularly with his jewellery pieces, Bladen believes that his “nature-inspired creations speak to the gardener, the bird-lover, the botanist, or the seer of patterns. [That] when people wear [his] jewellery, they are saying: ‘I’ve found something frozen in time.” (Kalk Bay Modern Sa:sp)

In addition to his artistic endeavours, Nic Bladen is known for his involvement in environmental and conservation initiatives. Bladen has been approached by the Table Mountain Fund to portray their motives with sculptural pieces, saying; “ There is a documentary value to these castings, in the sense that these pieces will exist long after many of the plants have died out.” Bladen invites viewers to contemplate the fragility and resilience of the natural world, highlighting the interdependence between humans and plants. These sculptures serve as a poignant reminder of the importance of preserving biodiversity and nurturing our environment. Bladen’s botanical sculptures are not merely artistic creations; they are powerful

expressions of reverence for nature’s wonders and an invitation to reconnect with the aweinspiring beauty of the plant kingdom. Bladen’s art not only serves as a visual celebration of nature but also as a reminder of the importance of preserving and protecting the environment. As with any artist, his work continues to evolve. His dedication to his craft and his exploration of the natural world ensure that each new piece adds depth to his already impressive body of work. Whether you encounter his sculptures inspired by flora in the natural landscape in a gallery, public spaces or art collections, Nic Bladen’s art invites us to reconnect with the beauty of the world around us. Robyn Woolley, Junior Art Specialist, Johannesburg Frans Oerder (1867-1944) is one of the most prominent figures within the canonical understanding of South African art history. His associations with masters such as Anton van Wouw (1862-1945) and Jacob Hendrik Pierneef (1886-1957) (one of Oerder’s students), perpetuates the significance of Oerder’s influence on the zeitgeist of South African art. This prominent position, within the art world as well as his reputation, as a well-respected teacher, is the reason why Oerder was appointed by Paul Kruger in 1899 as the official War artist during the Anglo-Boer War. Although Oerder’s depiction of the Anglo-Boer war still hangs in the Bloemfontein War Museum today, this is surprisingly not Oerder’s most revered body of work. Oerder has become associated characteristically with his bright and colourful still lives. He was deeply influenced by his wife, Gerda Ptilo, who later became Gerda Oerder, a painter of flowers, to embark on a series of flower/still life compositions and it was her impact which led to some of Oerder’s most revied works. “Still Life with Flowers in a Blue Vase” was one of my favourite artworks on auction this year as Oerder’s later works and more specifically his still lives have a sense of endearment to them that is hard to ignore. The influence of his wife on his body of work is a fact that unavoidably adds a sense of sentimentality for me as an art specialist. Especially, considering the contrast between Oerder’s earlier and later artworks as Esme Berman has noted “although many of Oerder’s later works – most notably his flower-pieces – are fairly bright and colourful, colour itself was not a primary ingredient of his style. He was more concerned with tonal values in his early work and often limited his palette quite severely in order to emphasise this aspect of the composition.” (Berman 1975: 20).

It is evident that Oerder throughout his career paid homage to the Dutch realists and his artworks contain several key characteristics of the movement such as symmetry, the construct of linear perspective, the manipulation of light and banal everyday subject matters. Even though there is a distinct difference between the tonal elements of Oerder’s earlier and later artworks – the other characteristics remain and are evident in both stages of his career. It should be noted that Oerder also dabbled with the characteristics of the impressionist movement however, he never consistently explored these techniques throughout his career although, it did impact the way in which Oerder tried to emphasise the visual sensations found within his subject matter. The country was impoverished by South African War (1899-1902) and the difficulty to make a living as an artist forced Oerder to return to his home-land in 1908. “Still Life with Flowers in a Blue Vase” is an exemplary artwork as it shows the early influence of the Dutch realists as well as the later influence of Gerda Ptilo on Oerder’s body of work. In 1938 he had become a mature successful painter. This piece, similarly, to all still lives, commemorates the concept that there is a sense of transcendental beauty found within the mundane, which compliments the notion that the simplistic beauty of nature will always transcend time. This is an element of all still lives which I have always thoroughly enjoyed as an art specialist. Oerder’s body of work and more specifically his later artworks are a fundamental reminder of this concept and combined with the vivid colour palette and accuracy of his depictions it is hard not to become captivated by his works. The execution of technique as well as the ability to capture the beauty of the mundane is why Oerder has received such a revied reputation as an artist. Until a few days before he died at the age of 77 in 1944, he was working on a flower still life (Scott 1959: 58). As 2023 comes to an end Stephan Welz & Co would like to thank the loyal collectors who have followed our sales throughout the year for their ongoing support. We would like to remind all potential sellers that we are actively consigning for our February Cape Town auction as well as our March Johannesburg auction in 2024. For any enquiries, please feel free to contact our Cape Town branch at ct@swelco.co.za or 021 794 6461 and our Johannesburg branch at info@swelco. co.za or 011 880 3125.

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Frans David Oerder (Dutch 1867 - 1944), STILL LIFE WITH FLOWERS IN A BLUE VASE, signed, oil on canvas laid down on board, 50 by 40cm; 68 by 58,5 by 3,5cm including frame, Estimate: R50 000 – R80 000, Hammer: R55 350

ARTGO

DEC-JAN 2023/4 NEW GALLERIES, ONGOING SHOWS AND OPENING EXHIBITIONS

Joshua Miles, Pining

ARTGO: DEC-JAN 2023/4

OPENING EXHIBITIONS

Art@Africa Gallery Minki and the Starfish exhibition Johan Steyn | A series of exquisite bronze sculptures 09/12/2023 until 10/02/2024 The Clocktower Centre – Silo District – V&A Waterfront www.artatafrica.art

Art.b gallery UN-CURATED 02/12/2023 until 20/12/2023 A group exhibition of 40 exquisite artists celebrating 2023 with live music and prizes. www.artb.co.za

Oliewenhuis Art Museum Christ and the other person A series by Father Frans Claerhout 01/12/2023 until 18/02/2024 16 Harry Smith Street, Bloemfontein

Oliewenhuis Art Museum Creatively Contrasted New Views On The Permanent Collection 01/12/2023 until 03/03/2024 16 Harry Smith Street, Bloemfontein

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Wanted for forthcoming auctions

Art, antiques, objets d’art, furniture, and jewellery

Esther Mahlangu, Abstract Ndebele Motif with Red, Blue, Yellow & Grey SOLD R75 000 Edoardo Villa, Standing Figure SOLD R230 000

Gregoire Boonzaier, The Old Oak SOLD R40 000

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View previous action results at www.rkauctioneers.co.za

011 789 7422 • info@rkauctioneers.co.za • Bram Fischer Centre, Lower Ground, 95 Bram Fischer Drive, Cnr George Street, Ferndale, 2194

Stevenson JHB I Miss Myslef The Most | Group Exhibition Curated by Aza Mbovane and Mosa Molapo Opens 02/12/2023 until 26/01/2024 www.stevenson.info

UNISA Art Gallery Emerge: A Graduate Showcase Undergraduate and honors students enrolled in the Visual Multimedia course offered by the Department of Art and Music at the University of South Africa. 02/12/2023 until 30/01/2024 274 Preller St, Muckleneuk, Pretoria

Karin Daymond, Soetwater, oil on wood panel, 40 x 50cm, 2023, Gallery2

ARTGO: DEC-JAN 2023/4

OPENING EXHIBITIONS

RK Contemporary Louis & Friends A group exhibition of Small Miracles curated by Louise Jansen van Vuuren. 03/12/23 until 28/01/24 www.rkcontemporary.com

Everard Read Cape Town This Quiet Company Neill Wright Solo Exhibition 07/12/2023 until 30/12/2023 www.everard-read-capetown.co.za

Prince Albert Gallery The Nature of Patterning A solo exhibition by Lisl Barry Opening at 18:00 Thursday 14/12/2023 until 14/01/2024 55 Church Street, Prince Albert www.princealbertgallery.co.za

EBONY/CURATED, Bordeaux House, Solo exhibition by Karen Elkington Opening Saturday 16th December 2023 www.ebonycurated.com

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The Cape Gallery Margot Gawith Solo Exhibition 07/01/2024 until 02/02/2024. www.capegallery.co.za

Rust-en-Vrede Gallery What’s Yours is Mined! - Jeannette Unite’s solo installation includes mineral GEO-SEAM Bar Code paintings that retuned from her London Space. Unite has interrogated mining artistically since living on African west coast diamond mines in the 1990s.16/01/2024 until 17/02/2024 www.Rust-en-Vrede.com

Rust-en-Vrede Gallery Atlas - A group exhibition curated by Jeannette Unite focussing on humanity’s relationship with the environment, in particular the complexities of land and heritage as it pertains to mining and extracting ore from the earth. 16/01/2024 until 17/02/2024 www.Rust-en-Vrede.com

Rust-en-Vrede Gallery Veronica Reid – Solo Exhibition An exhibition of landscapes and figures by Veronica Reid 16/01/2024 until 17/02/2024 www.Rust-en-Vrede.com

Balekane Legoabe, Golaszinski cloud, Ink graphite and watercolour on archival paper, 42 x 59.4cm, Gallery2

ARTGO: DEC-JAN 2023/4

OPENING EXHIBITIONS

Artist Proof Studio Where You Are Artist Proof Studio 3rd Year Students Exhibition 27/01/2024 until 25/02/2024 Constitution Hill, 1 Hospital St, Braamfontein, 2017, JHB, | Women’s Prison www.artistproofstudio.co.za

Gallery @ Glen Carlou Being Present | Group exhibition Curated by Heidi Erdmann This group exhibition is centred around a series of interpretative conversations and brings together a diverse collection of artworks by a wide range of emerging and established artists. 28/01/2024 until 10/03/2024 www.glencarlou.com/art-gallery

Gallery @ Glen Carlou Fecund | A group exhibition by the Overstrand Collective. The 5 Overstrand women involved in this artists’ collective give visual and tactile life to the concept of fecundity across a number of mediums. FECUND presents a positive, burgeoning, fruitful and hopeful perspective in a time of profound and uncomfortable earth change. 28/01/2024 until 10/03/2024 www.glencarlou.com/art-gallery

Prince Albert Open Studios 14-17 June 2024 Plan ahead to visit the next popular Winter Edition of Prince Albert Open Studios. Group Show at Prince Albert Gallery opening 6pm Wed 13th June. Winter Workshops Tuesday 12th and Wednesday 13th June. Visit the website for more details. www.princealbertopenstudios.co.za

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A GRADUATE SHOWCASE FEATURING WORKS FROM UNDERGRADUATE AND HONOURS STUDENTS OF THE VISUAL MULTIMEDIA ARTS DEGREES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA OPENING DATE: SATURDAY, 2 DECEMBER 2023 CLOSING DATE: 30 JANUARY 2024 TIME: 11:30 FOR 12:00 NOON VENUE: UNISA ART GALLERY, KGORONG BUILDING, 274 PRELLER ST, MUCKLENEUK, PRETORIA

Dorothea du Plessis, Ephemeral Anemoi (2023). Installation.

THE DEPARTMENT OF ART AND MUSIC IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE UNISA ART GALLERY INVITE YOU TO THE EXHIBITION

ARTGO: DEC-JAN 2023/24

ONGOING SHOWS

EBONY/curated Cape Town Gallery Solo exhibition by Rentia Retief In this series of charcoal drawings and oil paintings, Retief plays with the idea of the intrinsic marks that the earth leaves upon us physically and spiritually. 08/11/2023 until 16/12/2023 www.ebonycurated.com

Everard Read JHB The Imprecision Of Feeling Caryn Scrimgeour Solo Exhibition 16/11/2023 until 22/12/2023 www.everard-read.co.za

Everard Read JHB Lady Skollie: Winner of the 2022 Standard Bank Young Award for Visual Arts 31/11/2023 until 31/12/2023 www.everard-read.co.za

Oliewenhuis Art Museum Threads Of Visual Narratives Traditional Artistry, Contemporary Art and National Heritage. Until 03/12/2023 www.nasmus.co.za/visitorinformation

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100 95 75

25 5 0

Christ and the other persona series by Father Frans Claerhout_Art Times_02_with a outline_set up for print 13 November 2023 12:20:35 PM

100 95 75

25 5 0

Creativley Contrasted Exhibition 2023_Art times_set up for print 15 November 2023 03:46:51 PM

ARTGO: DEC-JAN 2023/24

ONGOING SHOWS

Goodman Gallery JHB You’ll be sorry Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum | solo exhibition New large-scale paintings 21/10/2023 until 03/01/2024 www.goodman-gallery.com

Goodman Gallery Turning the Pages Sue Williamson | solo exhibition The exhibition includes historically significant and new works spanning 1992 to 2023. 21/10/2023 until 03/01/2024 Oude Leeskamer, Stellenbosch www.goodman-gallery.com

The Cape Gallery The Sea, The Sea | Group Exhibition Themed exhibition showcasing artists reflecting upon their personal connection to the sea. Here dreams meet immersive reality, waves pound the shore, monsters rise from unplumbed depths. 19/11/2023 until 05/01/2024 www.capegallery.co.za

AVA Gallery An apologetic remorse code | by Trude Gunther Her new body of large scale paintings presented at the AVA draws on the Lacan’s theory of the Other. 24/11/2023 until 11/01/2024 www.ava.co.za

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The Sea, The Sea GROUP EXHIBITION

on show from 19th November to January 5th,2024

Artwork : Entrance by Mandy Lake

60 Church Street, Cape Town 0214235309 web@capegallery.co.za Saturday 10am - 2pm weekdays 9.30am - 4pm

ARTGO: DEC-JAN 2023/24

ONGOING SHOWS

AVA Gallery Animal Gods | by Amber Alcock & Gabriele Jacobs Animals in the history of art seem to have inhibited two distinctly opposed areas; that of food, and that of god. This exhibition aims to critique the kinds of relational modes the modern human has formed with nature. 24/11/2023 until 11/01/2024. www.ava.co.za

Knysna Fine Art 25th Anniversary Exhibition A collection of the best South African contemporary fine art as part of Knysna Fine Art’s 25th anniversary. 23/11/2023 until Mid January 2024 www.finearts.co.za

DAOR Contemporary Clusterplak? How Bazaar! A bumper salon-style group exhibition at DAOR Contemporary featuring over 30 artists and more than 140 artworks leading up to our 5th Birthday Celebration in 2024. 30/11/2023 until 20/01/2024 www.daor.co.za

Goodman Gallery CPT William Kentridge What Have They Done with All the Air? An exhibition of new drawings and sculptures 25/11/2023 until 20/01/2024 www.goodman-gallery.com

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MARGOT GAWITH SOLO EXHIBITION Artwork : by Margot Gawith

on show from: January 7th, 2024 to February 2nd, 2024

60 Church Street, Cape Town 0214235309 web@capegallery.co.za Saturday 10am - 2pm weekdays 9.30am - 4pm

Lee-Ann Heath, Bloom Bloom Mountain, oil on canvas, 140 x 200cm, Knysna Fine Art

ARTGO: DEC-JAN 2023/24

ONGOING SHOWS

Goodman Gallery JHB Sam Nhlengethwa | Art Meets Fashion An exhibition of new paintings and prints 30/11/2023 until 20/01/2024 www.goodman-gallery.com

Durban Art Gallery | Kwa Zulu Natal Pitika Ntuli | Return To The Source Curated by Ruzy Rusike of the Melrose Gallery Until 21/01/2024 themelrosegallery.com

Gallery @ Glen Carlou ZOO // ANIMALIA A Group Exhibition featuring works by Amber Alcock, Andrew Mogridge, Candice Dawn Blignaut, Emily Rae Labuschagne, Gabriele Jacobs, Jacob van Schalkwyk, JP Meyer, Katherine Bull, Katja Abbott, Miro van der Vloed, Morne Pierre Venter, Nathan Janse van Vuuren, Nelis Singels, Pauline Gutter, Stephen Rosin and more…12/11/2023 until 21/01/2024 www.glencarlou.com

Gallery @ Glen Carlou The History of the Accidental Green Finger A Solo Exhibition by Alex Hamilton Image: Alex Hamilton, Crassula Ovata Dude, mixed media, 30 x 30cm 12/11/2023 until 21/01/2024 www.glencarlou.com

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FynArts Gallery A Journey Red hot Glass has relocated to the Overberg. This is an exhibition of their work titled “A Journey”. This exhibition is an eclectic mix of blown, cast and fused glass. 16/12/2023 until 21/01/2024 www.hermanusfynarts.co.za

The Norval Foundation, Cape Town Collectors’ Focus: The Kilbourn Collection Famakan Magassa: Witness of My Time Curated by Phokeng Setai Until 25/01/2024 www.norvalfoundation.org

The Viewing Room Gallery Off The Wall | Studio Sale 11am 09/12/2023 until 21/01/2024 www.theviewingroom.co.za

Nel Summer Salon 2023/2024 Our annual Summer Salon features work by well-known as well as emerging artists. Are you looking for botanicals, portraits or landscapes, paintings or drawings? We have the most original examples for you. Come and have a look. 22/11/2023 until 26/01/2024 www.nelart.co.za/exhibitions

ARTGO: DEC-JAN 2023/24

ONGOING SHOWS

Springs Art Gallery Peter E. Clarke - For Some the Pathway to Education Lies Between Thorns showcases Clarke’s linocut and woodcut prints, rarest paintings and watercolour drawings that explore the themes of education, space and social justice. 25/11/2023 until 27/01/2024 www.ekurhuleni.gov.za

NWU Botanical Gardens Gallery Anatomica Botanica Architecta Group exhibition by five North-West artists all based in Potchefstroom. This exhibition will look at interpretations of arrangements of anatomical revisions, architectural inquiries, and the incorporation of indigenous or nonindigenous botanicals. 27/10/2023 until 31/01/2024 www.services.nwu.ac.za/nwu-gallery

Sanlam Art Gallery Gems | Selected paintings and drawings by celebrated South African artists from the Sanlam Art Collection Until 09/02/2024 - 2 Strand Road, Bellville Open Mondays to Fridays 09:00 – 16:30 Tel: 021 947 3359 WhatsApp: 0834572699 Email: sanlamart@sanlam.co.za

Gallery 2 The Garden of My Mind “Your mind is a garden. Your thoughts are the seeds. The harvest can either be flowers or weeds.” William Wordsworth In this exhibition each artist was asked to interpret and explore the William Wordsworth quote.11/11/2023 until 24/02/2024 www.gallery2.co.za

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Rupert Museum AbstRacT - the hidden synchrony On show till February 2024 This exhibition takes a closer look at the synchrony in the complete Synchromies series by Swiss psychiatrist, psychotherapist and later turned photographer Oscar Forel (1891-1982) that was published in 1961. www.rupertmuseum.org

Zeitz MOCAA Self as a Forgotten Monument Mame-Diarra Niang Solo Exhibition Bringing together significant bodies of work in dialogue in a spatial choreography. Niang’s prolific practice is characterised by an exploratory, abstract and subversive approach to lens-based media, such as photography and immersive audio-visual installation. 17/11/2023 until 07/07/2024 www.zeitzmocaa.museum

SELLING YOUR ART Consign your fine art to one of our upcoming premium auctions in February or March 2024. For more information, please contact us: Cape Town | 021 794 6461 or email ct@swelco.co.za Johannesburg | 011 880 3125 or email info@swelco.co.za w w w. s w e l c o . c o . z a

Alexis Preller | HEAD | R300 000 - 500 000

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