BOOK REVIEW

CELEBRATING 35 YEARS AT THE UNISA ART COLLECTION

Sethembile Msezane, Chapungu, The Day Rhodes Fell

Since its inception in 1986, the Unisa Art Gallery has evolved into becoming one of South Africa’s significant exhibition galleries. The Unisa Art Gallery is privileged to own an intriguing permanent collection made up of some of the most prolific contemporary South African and international artists.

The Unisa Art Gallery hosts a range of exciting exhibitions each year, focusing on diverse and relevant aspects in the arts relevant globally, with a specific emphasis on Africa

Proclaimed as one of the most unique public collections in South Africa, The Unisa Art Collection features an array of artworks inclusive of paintings, drawings, graphics, photography, woven tapestries, appliqués, sculpture, and multimedia works from established and emerging South African and African artists at large. The Unisa Art Gallery remains focused on acquiring and exhibiting compelling works by both established and peripheral South African and African artists like Gerald Sekoto, Walter Battiss, David Goldblatt, Irma Stern, Nicolas Slovo and Angela Buckland, as well as engaging works by Roger Ballen, Nandipha Mntambo, Aida Muluneh, Muholi Muholi, Steven Cohen and other significant artists whose art serves as individual expressions of diverse South African and African identities.

Aligned with the developmental vision of the University of South Africa, the Unisa Art Gallery collection is a grand reflection of enthralling artistic renditions and expressions that form part of the greater African agenda in the context of both transformation and globalisation, highlighting diverse narratives and identities eminent in contemporary art.

K Chiurai, The Minister Of Finance, 2009 Aida Muluneh,The 99 Series: Part One, 2014, Archival digital print on cotton rag

Book Review: LUAN NEL - MALTA BELLA

LUAN NEL (Malta Bella) is an insightful look into the work of artist Luan Nel. Known for his paintings of the natural world as well as his performance work as Donatella Visagie amongst others. The book broadly covers all three decades of this artists output. Nel subscribes to an art practice that consistently catches the audience unawares with its poetry as well as with an attention to detail and timing. It is no ordinary monograph with essays by leading art writers and interviews with artists and activists covering areas of identity, our South African context and the queer archive.

Striking that this is not the unfolding of one academic reading of an artist’s work. It includes an insightful and touching collection of essays by authors - Alexandra Dodd, Brenton Maart, Wilhelm van Rensburg, Robin Sassen and interviews with artists, Moshekwa Langa, Ilya Rabinovich, and Social Justice lawyer and activist Keval Harie.

Adding to the multiple voices, this publication finds itself not looking at an artist whose practice is centered around one theme, but rather at an oeuvre that explores various themes executed in many different mediums like painting, installation, photography and performance.

Despite branding being the ultimate measure for much that is considered cultural production today, Nel’s diverse output holds together without the need to endlessly repeat. It is refreshing to find such diversity all by the same artist. Nel’s agility to jump medium and work on various themes at the same time is beautifully illustrated throughout the book. What binds the different works is Nel’s ability to create work that teases meaning and surprises.

Alexandra Dodd says it well: “Principally, Nel is a painter who revels in creating installations. Often the two come together. But his genius lies in variation, multiplicity, recombination, and the evolution of his own private set of codes. Privacy and expressiveness might seem paradoxical impulses, but in Nel’s work they are intrinsically related.”

We gain a better understanding of the artist and his work by looking at it through many lenses. In the end we are left with an impression of a whole person with many interests and much

ONTHOU-VERGEET. Installation, Tillburg, The Netherlands, 2000, Fundament Foundation

Spier Light Art, Luan Nel, Swell., 2019-2020

to speak about. Luan Nel’s book consists of a multitude of different stories and points of view, each explored in depth and with finesse.

“When the child was a child, it was the time of these questions: Why am I me, and why not you? Why am I here, and why not there? When did time begin, and where does space end? Isn’t life under the sun just a dream?” - From Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire (1987) – quoted from Peter Handke’s Song of childhood.

LUAN NEL (Malta Bella) is available through Nel Gallery at admin@nelart.co.za It is priced at R400 a copy, shipped anywhere within South Africa.

ABE OPPERMAN

Finding joy in the smallest corners of life

After completing his art diploma from art school in Pretoria during the 80’s Abe studied a further 2 years of fashion design and then followed a 25-year career in the floral art industry. He turned his creative talent towards the canvas in 2007. The initial and continued support from those who connect with his work on a deeper level as a creative in the field of floral design, has propelled his desire to pursue and evolve his message in the form of painting, sculpture and ceramics.

Abe`s work is neither purely figurative, sentimental, or ever political. It is a visual narrative and commentary that is mostly the storytelling of tales past and present. Textural and abstract expressions is often interwoven as part of his artistic expression. Abe is influenced by memories of past happenings sparked by occurrences in his present daily life. He works in a style that he has developed over a long period of time. Often presented in black and white only. As the expression demands it, he easily leaps into bright textural renderings. In recent years, color, which he loves, is presented more purposefully - as his desire to bring joy and respite to anyone who observes his work, is heightened.

Despite the multi-faceted hardship created by the lockdowns in response to Covid 19, Abe found the time to be rather fruitful. A time in which he has been able to explore, reflect and experiment with greater freedom and importantly, without distraction. The period of isolation was a great time of retrospection, consideration and challenging himself, his technique, and his abilities with new mediums.

Abe will be presenting his next exhibition at the Abe Opperman Gallery in Franschhoek, during November 2021. The exhibition is undoubtedly brought about by his considerations and feeling of gratitude for freedom, beauty in its many forms and finding joy in the smallest corners of life, even in the mundane. His simple carefree childhood, flowers and trees are ever present in his work while whim and fantasy, remains a standard ingredient in conjuring up the characters of his visual tales. Visit www. abeopperman.co.za

Above: Odeon, 1,5m x 1,4m, Acrylic/mix media on canvas Opposite Page: Andrea, A rendition of a photograph by Peter Hujar, Size: 1,8m x 1,6m, Oil on canvas