SANLAM PORTRAIT AWARD IN FULL SWING Page 82

SANLAM PORTRAIT

AWARD

Rust-en-Vrede Gallery 2019 www.rustenvrede.com

Jody Waterson

The highly anticipated Sanlam Portrait

Award competition is once again in full swing at the Rust-en-Vrede Gallery in Durbanville. Although the window of opportunity for artists to enter already closed on 31 May, the next couple of months still promise to be filled with exciting Sanlam-related exhibitions. This includes the recent opening of three popular exhibitions, which has now become synonymous with this well-established biennial competition, and serves as a prelude to the Top 40 finalist exhibition (opening at Rust-en-Vrede Gallery on Friday, 23 August at 19h00) and the Portrait 100 exhibition (opening at the AVA Gallery on Saturday, 24 August at 11h00).

Besides the appealing prize of R 100 000, the winner of each competition year is given an opportunity to showcase their artistic prowess in a solo exhibition. Previous winner Kate Arthur created a series of intimate and confrontational renderings of the human body for her present solo exhibition.

Chris Denovan, Still Life with Moon Vase, Oil on Canvas, 100cm x 108cm

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Kate Arthur, 2017, Kyle, oil on canvas, 105x70

Kate Arthur, 2019, Brett, oil on canvas, 170x136

Robyn Pretorius, Unfolding Seeflex, 30cm Left: Andre Serfontein, Not the portrait

Robyn Pretorius, Kinetic pairing, 51x101.2cm

The subjects of these ‘body portraits’ all identify as queer – an identity which encompasses elements of sexuality and gender. The viewer is confronted with fellow human beings, standing vulnerably in their underwear, challenging the viewer to accept them.

Her paintings showcase an underrepresented community in a society that is not always accepting of each other’s differences.

Emerging artist Robyn Pretorius, selected as the 2017 SPA ‘Gallery Committee Favourite’, was invited to present a solo exhibition alongside Kate Arthur. Pretorius’s work is also concerned with the current discourse surrounding identity and ethnicity. The body of work titled ‘Unfolded’ serves as a celebration of the differences in identity and creative expression. Pretorius aims to convey, acknowledge and honour diversity and identity through her visual interpretation and storytelling. This young artist has a fresh, edgy approach when it comes to painting, and her work is a fusion of photorealism, traditional painting techniques and contemporary street art.

Contemporary portraiture exists not only to portray a physical likeness of the sitter, but naturally conveys a sense of who the sitter

is – capturing an essence of the subject’s identity. Given the right context, this genre confronts us with complex identity and social issues – something both Arthur and Pretorius approaches with great enthusiasm and skill.

It has also become tradition to challenge the Top 40 finalists of the previous competition to take part in an exhibition titled ‘Not a Portrait’. They are invited to showcase their skill in the creation of work in any medium and of any subject matter – with the exception being portraiture. The public can look forward to an eclectic mix of stills, animal portraiture, botanical illustrations, abstract art and landscape painting.

All three exhibitions will run until the 17 th of July.

Other opening events: Sanlam Portrait Award 2019 Finalist Exhibition Rust-en-Vrede Gallery, Durbanville Friday, 23 August at 19h00. Exhibition runs until 23 October.

Portrait 100 : 60 of the selected Top 100 artworks during the Sanlam Portrait Award 2019, AVA Gallery, Cape Town, Saturday, 24 August at 11h00. Exhibition runs until 21 September.

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