KEYSTONE
Group Exhibition
Marc Edwards. Kaelo Molefe
Ntsako Nkuna. Johann Moolman
KEYSTONE
Synonyms for keystone include base, groundwork, and underpinning. Each word signals the start of something, the holder of a structure, the key element to forgo collapse. By criss-crossing between the works of different generations within South African sculpture, the idea of a starting point, or even ‘form’ itself becomes twisted as each work both questions and pays homage to the bridge between modernism and postmodernism. These four artists – Ntsako Nkuna, Johan Moolman, Kaelo Molefe, and Marc Edwards – ask how sculptural form can become a keystone in the arch between structure – in all its various iterations – and human interaction.
Ntsako Nkuna’s artistic practice focuses on the design of buildings, values, and modes of interaction. The artist’s practice delves into the thin barrier between the digital and the real, exploring the concept of world-building and examining the extent to which virtual and physical realms intersect architecturally and philosophically. Nkuna utilizes a blend of screen-printed 3D renders and metal fabrication evoking domestic structures. The work transcends conventional architectural representations, as Nkuna interrogates buildings as dynamic entities, continuously evolving based on the interactions and occupants they accommodate.
Johan Moolman uses fragments from biomedical and ethnographic archives, aesthetic recombination and invocations of scientific regimes of representation to think through the politics of modern knowledge production. His work questions the formation of rational thought within the context of science, speculatively exploring the socio-historical conditions that led to the current epistemic order. Moolman digs beneath the surface of scientific reason by questioning its relationship to historical territorial expansion, empire, racialization and subjection of the other and how it lingers still in this school of thought.
Kaelo Molefe’s artistic practice critically peels back the layers of knowledge production, contemporary power structures, the production of bodies and the organisation of space by interrogating the bureaucratization of human difference and how this socio-historical process is embedded within the structures of being. Going beyond what is commonly understood as sculpture, his practice uses archival material and is an alchemical blend of bio-scientific idiom and artistic speculation that seeks to introduce new ways of thinking through, with and about difference and world-making.
Marc Edwards also considers an alchemy within his work, but one that lies in the performative action of making assemblages. For the artist, these assemblages emerge from a process of ritual and material investigations of found and recycled objects, where the logic of joining and reforming of materials are assembled to offer hybrid sculptural configurations, that seek to rethink the relationship between human and nature and object. This activity lets the material lead in conditions of ambiguity while employing principles of absurdity, awkwardness, improvisation and glitches in building new language and knowledge.
Two significant periods that we are taught about within art history are Modernism and Post-Modernism. With regards to sculpture, in short, and relatively general terms, the paradigm shift was from ‘perfecting form’ to questioning ‘what is form’. Keystone, rather than becoming a narrative timeline between modern and post-modern sculptures within the current South African sculptural context, places these works as a wedge at the crown of an arch. The arch, as such, becomes integral to a doorway or opening, the meeting place between what was, is, and could be.
MARC EDWARDS
b. 1958 – Pretoria, RSA
Marc Edwards (b. 1958 – Pretoria, South Africa) graduated with a Master of Arts in Fine Arts from the University of the Witwatersrand in 2010, a National Higher Diploma in Sculpture in 1982 and a National Diploma in Fine Arts 1980, both from Pretoria Technikon. He currently lives and works in Johannesburg where he has been a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture within the University of Johannesburg for nearly four decades.
Edwards is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice works across multiple media including drawing, sculpture, photography and video. His work considers decolonial modes of making and thinking, exploring themes of nature in visual culture, the artist as conduit, de-centering the subject, assemblage, and a critically questioning of the social and political landscape of the world today. His creative research methods include the exploration of a knowing-doing approach to making, enabling process and experiment to lead to unexpected outcomes. He also draws from object orientated ontology (OOO) in the making process. OOO posits that objects (both living and non-living) posess their own inherent realities, independent of human perception. In his work, he aims to respect the agency of materials and objects, allowing them to influence the process and shape the final work.
SELECTED AWARDS
2000 Daimler Chrysler Award for contemporary South African Art, nomination, Cape Town
1996 FNB Vita Art Now, Johannesburg Art Gallery
1993 Fulton Concrete Award
1993 Momentum Award, Pretoria Art Museum
1992 Volkskas Atelier Award, Durban
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023 Every Day is a Good Day - Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg
2022 Derivatives, in Situated Making - FADA Gallery, University of Johannesburg, RSA
2017 Drinking Water - Hazard Projects, Johannesburg, RSA
2011 Looking Around, in Interventions in PracticeUniversity of Johannesburg, RSA
1994 Marc Edwards - Everard Read Contemporary, Johannesburg, RSA
1983 Marc Edwards: Sculpture and Drawing - Market Galleries, Johannesburg, RSA
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2021 Handle With Care, curated by Gabi Ngcobo - Javett -UP, Pretoria, RSA
2012 Exposures - FADA gallery, University of Johannesburg, RSA
2010 Dada South, curated by Kathryn Smith - Iziko, Cape Town, RSA
2001 Switch on/off, A group exhibition - KKNK, RSA
2000 Killing Time - Civic Gallery, Johannesburg, RSA
2000 Daimler Chrysler Award for contemporary South African Art, Cape Town, RSA
1998 Green and Brown - Pretoria Art Museum, RSA
MARC EDWARDS
Never Alone, 2024
Pareidolia Assemblage, Paper pulp and found objects
350 x 200 x 200 mm
Price on request
MARC EDWARDS
Resting Muse, 2024
Subtle Energies, Paper pulp and found objects
200 x 200 x 200 mm
Price on request
Being Alien: Skiapod, 2024
Expanded foam and Acrylic resin
200 x 200 x 200 mm
Price on request
MARC EDWARDS
Pareidolia assemblage, 2023
Paper assemblage with found obejcts
350 x 200 x 200 mm
Price on request
MARC EDWARDS
MARC EDWARDS
Blind Spot, 2024
Paper Pulp and found objects
510 x 680 mm
Price on request
KAELO MOLEFE
ABOUT
b. 1990 - RSA
Kaelo Molefe is an artist, independent researcher and medical doctor based in Johannesburg, South Africa.
His creative practice is informed by his experiences in clinical medicine as well as a keen interest in the socioeconomic histories of the Global South and historiographies of otherness.
He is interested in how contemporary power structures, regimes of representation and notions of normality are all deeply coloured by histories in which ‘difference’ is produced and bureacratised.
He explores these socio-historical phenomena through writing as well as a variety of media including mixed media, collage and moving image.
SELECTED ART FAIRS
FNB Art Joburg, Johannesburg, RSA: 2023
Turbine Art Fair, Johannesburg, RSA: 2022
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023 Other Schematics - Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg, RSA
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024 Keystone - Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg, RSA
2023 Fresh Voices - Guns & Rain Gallery, Johannesburg, RSA
Tzatoe’s Gaze, 2024
Mixed media on board
400 x 400 x 20 mm
Price on request
KAELO MOLEFE
KAELO MOLEFE
The Consulting Room, 2024
Mixed media on board
300 x 300 x 20 mm
Price on request
KAELO MOLEFE
Keloid Scar, 2024
Mixed media on board
270 x 270 x 20 mm
Price on request
Red Peter, 2024
Mixed media on board
210 x 150 x 20 mm
Price on request
KAELO MOLEFE
KAELO MOLEFE
The Restive Native, 2024 Mixed media on board
1095 x 795 x 25 mm
Price on request
KAELO MOLEFE
On the Properties of Things, 2024
Mixed media on board 1620 x 1295 x 25 mm
Price on request
KAELO MOLEFE
The Examination, 2024
Lithographic print
Edition of 6
375 x 480 mm
Price on request
KAELO MOLEFE
The Department of Native Affairs, 2024
Photogravure print on Somerset 300gsm cotton rag fine art paper
Edition of 6
375 x 480 mm
Price on request
KAELO MOLEFE
The Visionary, 2024
Photogravure print on Somerset 300gsm cotton rag fine art paper
Edition of 6 (5 Available)
375 x 480 mm
Price on request
KAELO MOLEFE
Acuity Test (Code Noir), 2024
Painting on board
1100 x 750 x 25 mm
Price on request
KAELO MOLEFE
The Proportions of the Migrant Body According to Vitruvius, 2024
Digital print on cotton, steel pipe tubing and poly rubber castor wheels, safety pins, union jack flag
Dimensions variable
Price on request
JOHANN MOOLMAN
ABOUT
b. 1950 - Johannesburg, RSA
Johann Moolman was born and schooled in Johannesburg.
He studied art at the then Johannesburg College of Art and during 19751976 completed post-graduate studies at St Martin’s School of Art in London, majoring in sculpture.
From 1978 - 1989 Moolman lectured in sculpture and printmaking at the University of South Africa, Department of Fine Art.
During 1990 - 1996 he was a Senior Lecturer in the Fine Art Department, University of the North West, where he ran the Sculpture Department and also lectured drawing and history of art.
Since 1997 he has been living and working as a full-time artist in Groot-Marico, North-West Province.
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Johannesburg Art Gallery
Rand Afrikaans University
University of the Witwatersrans
University of South Africa
Pretoria Art Gallery
Olievenhuis Bloemfontein
Kimberley Art Gallery
The National Art Gallery Cape Town
The M-Net Collection
The Pelmana Collection
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2016 SOLO Exhibition at Fried Contemporary, Pretoria
2009 SOLO Exhibition at Fried Contemporary, Pretoria
2007 SOLO Exhibition at Gordart gallery, Johannesburg
2007 SOLO Exhibition at Karoo Arthouse, Pretoria
2006 SOLO Exhibition at ABSA Gallery, Johannesburg
2006 2 Person Exhibition at Fried Contemporary Gallery, Pretoria
2004 2 Person Exhibition at Gordart Gallery, Johannesburg
2004 Group exhibition at the ArtCoZa Gallery, Johannesburg
2001 Group exhibition at the Millenium Gallery II, Johannesburg
2001 SOLO Exhibition at the Millenium Gallery, Pretoria
2000 SOLO Exhibition at Aardklop Art Festival, Potchestroom
2000 2 person exhibition Potchefstroom Museum
1999 SOLO Exhibition at the Millenium Gallery, Pretoria
JOHANN MOOLMAN
Untitled Mild Steel and Mixed Media
Price on request
JOHANN MOOLMAN
Untitled Mild Steel and Mixed Media
Price on request
JOHANN MOOLMAN
Untitled Wood on steel base
NTSAKO NKUNA
ABOUT
b. 2001 - Kempton Park, RSA
Ntsako Nkuna’s mixed media work consists of screen-printed 3D renders enhanced with architectural metallic structures, her approach to merging digital and physical mediums was influenced by the virtual realm and its relation to reality, this interest took shape through her exposure to virtual gaming, photography, and film. She explored more of the digital world while studying design in high school and had a growing love for digital art and sculpture, these fundamentals have fed into her practice. Nkuna’s work explores the ways in which architecture acts as a language. She believes that architectural structures can influence how people interact within a space, thus people’s interaction within a space informs how a space is designed.
“The intention behind my work is centered around how we choose to design our society architecturally and how these architectural decisions bring light to our values, beliefs, and fears, we shape our buildings, and they shape us. There’s always a sense of mystery once you enter a neighborhood with high fences, this eerie ambiance sparks the urge to find out what happens on the other side, this speaks to our need to connect within gated communities. I incorporate modular play systems (restaurant slides) into domestic spaces because I can recall playing and interacting in them in a way that mimicked a neighborhood type of interaction, factors like territory, privacy, and ownership exist in spaces of play.”
SELECTED ART FAIRS
RMB Latitudes Art Fair, Johannesburg, RSA: 2024
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Cape Town, RSA: 2024
Turbine Art Fair, Johannesburg, RSA: 2023
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023 STOP NONSENSE - Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg, RSA
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023 NEWWORK - University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, RSA
2023 FREE FORM - Kalashnikovv Gallery in collaboration with Future Classics, Johannesburg, RSA
2022 The Julie Miller African Contemporary Art Gallery Visual Artist Incubation Program Exhbition
2021 Summer Salon - Bag Factory, Johannesburg RSA
2020 ‘The Nano Film Festival’
2020 ‘Artist Book Exhibition - The project Space, Johannesburg, RSA
2018 We See You at the Hospital Club, London, RSA
Breathing Barrier, 2024
Mixed Media, Screen Print on metal
750 x 1070 mm
Price on request
NTSAKO NKUNA
Fence to Face, 2024
Mixed Media, Screen Print on Wood
1300 x 1150 mm
Price on request
NTSAKO NKUNA
Visions on Shades of Grey, 2024
Mixed Media sculpture
500 x 500 x 400 mm
Price on request
NTSAKO NKUNA
kalashnikovv gallery
72 6th Street
Parkhurst Randburg
South Africa www.kalashnikovv.com @kalashnikovvgallery info@kalashnikovv.com
Matthew Dean Dowdle - Co-director
(+27) 083 781 7406 matthew@kalashnikovv.com
MJ Turpin - Co-director (+27) 073 124 8183 mj@kalashnikovv.com
Zanele Kumalo - Associate director (+27) 083 381 8746 zanele@kalashnikovv.com
Nicola Kritzinger - Junior Director
(+27) 082 552 0369 nicola@kalashnikovv.com
