ART | 11
30 October 2019
Take a walkabout of Mpai exhibition T
raveller’ is the title of an exhibition of works by Clifford Mpai which opened at the FynArts Gallery last week, in collaboration with the Liebrecht Gallery in Somerset West. This collection of Mpai’s drawings in lead and coloured pencil were directly inspired by his overseas visits; works that were exhibited abroad; and also works that illustrate how effortlessly the artist bridges the divide between the urban and rural. Born near Pietersburg (now Polokwane), Clifford left school at 14 and worked several jobs in Johannesburg before being employed by the Oppenheimer family at their Parktown home, Little Brenthurst, as a gardener and waiter. Here he resumed his childhood passion for drawing and his talent was
recognised by Strilli Oppenheimer, who enrolled him for weekly art classes at Bill Anslie's Johannesburg Art Foundation in 1984. At a time when other black artists were producing political works, Clifford specialised in colourful drawings of rural and urban environments, from the modest homes in his village of Phoffu, to the suburban gardens of Little Brenthurst, and the buildings and highways of Johannesburg. His style was often to draw from an angled perspective, flattening forms and altering the scale to create a world of structured fantasy characterised by what has been described as “a strange silence”. Art critic Ivor Powell concluded that “Mpai’s drawings represent the resounding triumph of the naïve sensibility over the complexities
Exhibit explores theme of ‘broken’
of 20th-century consciousness.” Notable exhibitions of Mpai’s work have been hosted at the Standard Bank Gallery in 1997, at Tokara Winery in 2007, and a retrospective titled ‘Two Worlds in Four Decades’ at the Liebrecht Gallery in Somerset West in 2014, amongst many others. He has also participated in several group exhibitions abroad, including ‘City on paper’ hosted by the Netherlands Architectural Institute, Rotterdam in 1998. The curator of the ‘Traveller’ exhibition, Avril Gardiner will be available at the FynArts Gallery for a conversational walkabout during the Hermanus First Fridays Artwalk on Friday 1 November from 17:00 – 20:00.
‘Broken’ is the title of a new exhibition that opens this Friday, 1 November at Rossouw Modern Art Gallery, featuring works by Cape Town-based artist, Juanita Oosthuizen. Being broken is a concept we are all familiar with. In her art works Juanita explores this theme and the opportunities it affords to creatively mend or adjust fragmentation; as in the Japanese art form of Kintsugi, where broken pottery is mended with gold to elevate it to the next level of beauty, by treating the breakage as part of the history of the object.
Present at the opening of ‘Traveller’ at the FynArts Gallery last week were (from left) Chantel Louskitt, administrative coordinator of FynArts; Matthew Partridge, contemporary art specialist at Strauss & Co; Karen McKerron, who hosted the first of several solo exhibitions of Mpai’s works in her gallery in Johannesburg in 1988; Mary Faure, festival director of FynArts; and Avril Gardiner, curator of the exhibition and author of Road to Luxemburg: The Clifford Mpai Story.
Juanita is inspired to come up with creative ways to incorporate miniature figurines into her art works, placing them in carefully planned scenarios to fit the theme of ‘broken’, as well as the healing, restitution and aftermath of such an action. Torn paper can be the cornerstone of a new insight in design, and an unfinished puzzle the yearning for and possibility of perfection.
She works mostly in black, white and grey, sometimes introducing a smattering of colour to surprise. When she composes a piece, she feel herself instinctively drawn to depict something surreal, wistful, pensive and sometimes playful. At times, she uses old photographs as a backdrop to the figurines, to create an element of nostalgia and tender memory. Her work varies from playful to serious and emotional, with the subject matter telling a story through the body language or interaction of the figurines. She creates a space for the spectator to make his or her own interpretation.
Join Juanita for the opening of her solo exhibition at Rossouw Modern this coming Friday at 17:30. RSVP: info@rossouwmodern.com. Available works can be viewed at www. rossouwmodern.com. The exhibition will run until 14 November.
Rosssouw Modern presents
Broken
a solo exhibition by Juanita Oosthuizen
Winner of the Tollman Bouchard Finlayson Tondo Art Award 2018
Opening Friday 1 November at 5.30 pm Please RSVP at info@rossouwmodern.com
3 Harbour Road, Hermanus • 028 313 2222 • info@rossouwmodern.com / www.rossouwmodern.com
TVN 20191030
Drinks and Canapés will be served
