RMB Latitudes Art Fair 2023 - Gallery 2 - Shaping Land

SHAPING LAND

Themba Khumalo, Nhlanhla Nhlapo,

Wessel van Huyssteen, Jaco van Schalkwyk

THEMBA KHUMALO

Themba Khumalo born in 1987 in Soweto, Johannesburg, South Africa is a full time practising artist working from his studio in Johannesburg. He graduated from Artist Proof Studio in printmaking, where he obtained a Design Foundation Certificate. He furthered his printing skills by completing a professional printmaking development course sponsored by Pinpoint One, at Artist Proof Studio in 2009 where he was an intern in the silkscreen unit and special project team.

Khumalo’s practice explores different mediums, such as printmaking, charcoal drawings and painting. More recently exploring painting and sculpture.

He has been involved in many group exhibitions, commissions and special projects. He had his first solo exhibition at Gallery 2 (2016) with his most recent solo exhibition, Emhlabeni, at Gallery 2 in 2019.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Themba Khumalo’s work looks to interpret life situations through of traditional African religions and spirituality. Exploring traditional beliefs and practices that include spirituality as a concept, beliefs in ancestors, a higher power.

In Zulu tradition, religion has numerous Gods or general classes of natural phenomena. uNkulunkulu is the highest creator of everything. The idea of God is of a non-physical entity that is combined with the sky, which is Umvelinqangani (meaning the one who was in the beginning).

It is through this connection to uNKulunkulu no Mvelinqangi that he observes how the people comment and respond to life challenges such as poverty, economics, politics, corruption, and the recent rise of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He also uses this connection as a way to explore how the believers use the land as a space of refugee, of faith and the expressing thereof, and praying to Umvelinqanga; and how loss and hope are often found in transit between spaces.

Themba Khumalo, UntitledI , Charcoal, coffee wash, pastel on paper, 100 x 70cm, 2023, Framed

Themba Khumalo, UntitledII,Charcoal, coffee wash, pastel on paper, 100 x 70cm, 2023, Framed

Themba Khumalo, VelaLanga , Oil paint on canvas, 130 x 90cm, 2022

Themba Khumalo, Umkhuleko , Oil paint on paper, 50 x 70cm, 2023, Framed

Themba Khumalo, InOtherNews,Charcoal, pastel on Fabriano paper, 200 x 140cm, 2023

Themba Khumalo, Waiting , Coffee Stain, Charcoal and Pastel on Paper, 140 x 200 cm, 2019

NHLANHLA NHLAPO

Nhlapo (b. 1988, Frankfurt, Free State, South Africa), studied a fine arts degree (four year program) at Tshwane University of Technology specializing in painting and has subsequently taught there as well

Nhlapo’s practice references Dutch masters’ techniques and 17th century Dutch landscape painting in the South African landscape, particularly in his hometown of Frankfurt, which are populated with images from his family albums. The works engage both with the nature and the cultural context of depiction in art history as well as the personal and implicit trauma of colonization, loss and confrontation between modernity and tradition in family photographs.

Through many day to day conflicts growing up in rural Free State and later having moved to the city in Gauteng, Nhlapo endeavors to create a personal narrative with this body of work His reference to the Dutch Baroque interior paintings reflects the firsthand experience of both his late grandmother and mother being domestic workers and the hardship he experienced with their absence in his formative years during Apartheid.

Nhalapo was awarded the 2018 Unisa Academic Portrait Commission of Chairperson Mr Simelane and the 2018 Artist residency at Lacreusette in France Boussac with Louis Jansen van Vurren.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Nhlapo plays with the politics of the ‘self’- an exploration of his personal history in an African and global context. The artist draws inspiration from landscape paintings, portraits and photographs from his family photo albums and the immediate surroundings of his hometown Frankfort in the Free State.

The imagery deals with concepts of nostalgia, community, survival, and decolonization. Portrait, interior, exterior and landscape are juxtaposed to underline the fugitive nature of time. The skilled and compassionate portrayal of the people and places he draws and paints, in diffused and subtle colour harmonies, create a mood of introspection, but also confronts the viewer with serious issues around land expropriation and the trauma and transformation of a community in Post-Apartheid South Africa.

Nhlanhla Nhlapo, OurLandMatters , Acrylic washes, charcoals, and oils on paper, 76.5 x 57.5cm, 2023, Framed

Nhlanhla Nhlapo, ThePastIsNotDead,NorPast,Oil on canvas sheet, 50 x 65cm, 2023, Framed

Nhlanhla Nhlapo, TheTouchoftheSurreal , Oil on canvas sheet, 99 x 99cm, 2023, Framed

WESSEL VAN HUYSSTEEN

Wessel van Huyssteen is a full time practising artist based in the Free State. van Huyssteen matriculated in 1980 at Voortrekker High School, Bethelehem, Free State. In 1985 he graduated with a BA Fine Arts (Cum Laude for Painting & Drawing) from the Free State University, later graduating with a BA Honours in Art History at Johannesburg University (1990). In 2017 he received his Master of Arts in Fine Arts with distinction from Wits University.

ARTIST STATEMENT THESTITCHANDTHEDIN

The works presented here are part of the series Thestitchandthedin . They predominantly consist of machine and hand embroidered textiles mimicking the painterly. The series explores the relationship between body and earth.

The fashion industry currently contributes 10% to global warming and have a very exploitative relationship with land. Textiles for ‘the poor’, like Rayon and Viscose, are produced through toxic wood pulp extraction and are a leading cause of deforestation. Most cottons are genetically modified and nylon is a by-product of crude oil, to mention a few.

To create these works the selected textiles are repeatedly cut and sown to create, what could read as, topographical maps or tilled landscapes. Under the stress of the needle the elasticity of the textiles transform expressionistically into marks I could not have foreseen, but have to embrace. When I buy fabric I am conscious of how colour, thread count and quality reflect regional identities. The colours bought in the Eastern Free State, where I reside, are often bright and vibrant echoing an aesthetic that can be seen as joyful, but also garish. The colour restrictions and textures of the textiles often challenge and subvert my aesthetic preferences and result in paradoxes and puzzles which I consider as a central to these works.

These works are visual but I would like to encourage the viewer to imagine the monotonous, persistent and ever changing tone and rhythm of the machine as my hand guides it across the textiles.

Wessel van Huyssteen, RedHotPokersI , Watercolour on paper. 32 x 24cm, 2023, Framed

Wessel van Huyssteen, RedHotPokersII , Watercolour on paper. 32 x 24cm, 2023, Framed

Wessel van Hyssteen, ScapeSansSky . Stitched Rayon, Viscose, Nylon, Cotton. 172.5 x 110.5cm, 2023, Sold

Wessel van Huyssteen, Skinned , Stitched Cotton, Rayon and Nylon, 144 x 85cm, 2022

Wessel van Huyssteen, GladiolusI , Watercolour on paper. 32 x 24cm, 2023, Framed

Wessel van Huyssteen, GladiolusII , Watercolour on paper. 32 x 24cm, 2023, Framed

Wessel van Huyssteen, TriptychNew , Cotton, Polyester, Rayon and Viscose, 95 x 147cm, 2022

Wessel van Huyssteen, TheHandthatGuidestheNeedle , Hand and machine stitched Rayon, Cotton and Viscose, 173 x 120cm, 2023

JACO VAN SCHALKWYK

Jaco van Schalkwyk was born in 1981 in Benoni, South Africa, where he grew up in the headquarters of the Latter Rain Mission International.

The artist holds a BA degree in Historical studies at UNISA and currently resides in Randburg.Since the conception of his 2015 solo exhibition ‘Eden’ at the Barnard Gallery in Cape Town , Van Schalkwyk has been concerned with the idea of the exotic and the symbolism of forests and islands. Exploring beyond the surface of these places, the artist challenges our idea of ‘Utopia’ or ‘Paradise’ and questions the western notion that paradise is found in the beauty of exotic landscapes and / or ‘the other’. Reminiscent of Romantic landscape painting, Van Schalkwyk’s works use metaphor and symbolism to ascribe moral significance to the growth and decomposition of natural objects.His contemporary vistas speak of man’s abuse of the natural world and the threat of climate change. Where romanticism celebrated the idea of nature as both refuge and dream, Van Schalkwyk reveals that this very nature is being neglected and abused.

Van Schalkwyk has participated in numerous exhibitions in South Africa and abroad and is represented in several collections: The Reserve Bank of South Africa, Absa bank, RMB, the University of Pretoria, the University of Johannesburg, the Pretoria Art Museum and the Ellerman Collection. The Barnard Gallery held five successful Solo exhibitions for the artist in recent years;”JustamatterofTime”in 2012 , “I,John,amtheonewhoheardandsawthesethings” in 2013, “Eden”in 2015 , “-arium” in 2017 and “ SmokeandMirrors”in 2021. In 2019 his work was shown as part of the 3 man exhibition “ALand INameYesterday“. The Gallery also presented the artist’s solo projects “Arcadia” at the 2016 FNB Jo’burg Art Fair and “ Nemora” at the 2018 Volta Art Fair in Basel, Switzerland.

Van Schalkwyk was awarded the Sylt Foundation Artist residency at the 2013 Absa L’Atelier Art Competition and has since been involved with several International projects hosted by the Foundation. The University of Johannesburg selected the artist in 2015 to attend the 6th International Beijing Biennale in China where his work formed part of the South African Group exhibition “ 20 – ArtinthetimeofDemocracy”.

ARTIST STATEMENT

The word” Landscape” literally means ‘to shape the Land’. In this group exhibition Jaco van Schalkwyk extends the exploration of the troubled and paradoxical relationship between man and nature begun in his 2015 solo show Eden - witnessing and calling attention to the inherent dichotomies on which our understanding of the natural world are predicated. These are dichotomies of reverence and destruction, indulgence and neglect, connection and alienation.

Van Schalkwyk juxtaposes images in unusual ways from his travels and previous landscape exhibitions to create something new out of the old. He is particularly interested in the tension created in juxtaposing images from different contexts. The artist further draws on forest mythology in his paintings and in striking monochrome he contrasts the hopeful and the desolate.

Even though our impulse to romanticise Van Schalkwyk’s Landscapes is constantly undercut with a distinct unease about the long lasting effects of the negligence and selfishness of the human race, there might be a possibility of regeneration. Perhaps we are now witnessing a demise, but something new might come in its place.

Jaco van Schalkwyk, ValleyandI-35 , Oil on paper, 18 x 17cm, 2023, Framed,

Jaco van Schalkwyk, ThePoet-NyanLynn(StudyII),Oil on paper, 40 x 30cm, 2023, Framed

Jaco van Schalkwyk, TheConstantGardener , Oil on Belgian Linen, 50 x 41cm, 2023, Framed

Jaco van Schalkwyk, ThePassage , Oil on paper, 50 x 25cm, 2023, Framed

Jaco van Schalkwyk, ShadowPlay- Meinersen , oil on paper, 11 x 18cm, 2023, Framed

Jaco van Schalkwyk, Refuge,30 x 40cm, Oil on Paper, 2023, Framed

Jaco van Schalkwyk, RequiemfortheLand , 50 x 82cm, Oil on Belgian Linen, 2023, Framed

Jaco van Schalkwyk, Glaucus,Oil on Belgian Linen, 152 x 80cm, 2023

Jaco van Schalkwyk, WatersEdge,Oil on Belgian Linen, Diptych, 18 x 49cm, 2023

Jaco van Schalkwyk, ValleySoNarrow , Oil on Belgian Linen, Diptych, 55 x 40cm, 2023