Volume 1 issue 1
MAX BOUFATHAL
JEFFERY CALLAHAM
NKULE MABASO
INTRODUCTION 5 THE BIGGER PICTURE 6 EXHIBITION: JEFFREY CALLAHAM 8 EXHIBITION: MAX BOUFATHAL 18 Navigating COPYRIGHT IN SOUTH AFRICA 25 EXHIBITION: NKULE MABASO 26 COLLECTOR profile 34 DATEBOOK: Go see art 38
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Contributors Max Boufathal was born in Paris, France. He lives and works in Brussels and studied at the School of Fine Arts of Nantes. His large projects have been supported by institutions including CAPC, the museum of contemporary art of Bordeaux. He is represented by the gallery Isabelle SURET in Paris, France. He participated in the OFF in 2010 contemporary art Biennial in Dakar, and the 2010 in the biennial of dance in Bamako. He held a solo exhibition in 2011 for the city of Saint-Quentin, France. www.maxboufathal.com Allen Day was born in California, but was raised in Louisville, Kentucky, where he currently resides with his three-year-old daughter. He is a bartender professionally, but also contributes writing to a few sources on a freelance basis. For recreation, Allan enjoys cooking and listening to music. He is also an avid reader and watches far too many movies; he is an amateur filmmaker himself and always has a project or two in various stages of planning or production.
Jeffery Callaham graduated from Atlanta’s Bauder College of Fashion and completed his studies with an internship at the fashion house of internationally acclaimed designer, Mary McFadden. His interest later turned to education, graduating with a BA and PhD in art and education, teaching for many years in South Carolina and Augusta, Ga., schools. Callaham’s works are in pri- vate and public collections in Georgia, South Carolina, Ohio, New Jersey, and elsewhere. www.facebook.com/jeffery.call aham.3
Mariëtte du Plessis is a partner at the South African law firm Adams & Adams. She specializes in all aspects of trade mark litigation, including trade name infringement, passing off and unlawful competition, as well as company and close corporation name objections. She is listed in the The International Who's Who of Business Lawyers 2013. www.adamsadams.com. Mariette.duplessis@adamsadams.com
Nkule Mabaso lives in South Africa. She graduated from the University of Cape Town Michaelis School of Fine Arts with a major in painting and is pursuing a Masters in Curating at the Zurich University of the Arts. She founded the Newcastle Creative Network in 2011, which aims to provide exposure to and connect artists in Newcastle and its environs. She was a finalist in the Absa Latelier Art Competition and was a runner up at the first inaugural National Youth Development Agency's South African Youth Awards in the Art and Entertainment Category.
Despina Yeargin is head of Alpha Publishing and Communications, and VP-Marketing, Health-Related Products, Inc. Her varied experience spans creative writing, business consulting, and marketing and sales of contemporary art. She is currently serving as curator of TEDxGreenville 2013. www.alphaconnections.net/
INTRODUCTION This is where you would find an earnest statement about how the artists exhibited in this first full issue of Open Gallery fit together to make a grand statement about contemporary art—if that were the case. But it’s not. Our first full issue (cue the trumpet blast, please) is mostly a small sampling of the work that new and established artists are creating. If there is a theme that runs through these artists’ works, it is the stories we tell ourselves. In the case of Jeffrey Callaham, these are stories that are cherished, passed down, repeated from embellished memory. The narratives we see played out in Max Boufathal’s plastic and wire sculptures, on the other hand, are complete works of fiction. His world of soldiers, angels, and even animals comprises a legion that aims to combat the mindmelting decadence of popular culture. In an epic battle for human consciousness, I’d bet on his side. Finally, Nkule Mbaso confronts head-on (literally) the dubious sources of some of the stories black women tell themselves about how they should look. Using language from the days when marketing was much less sophisticated, she holds those stories up to the light, and offers a re-write of the ending. In addition to artists, we’re also featuring collectors and practical information that will help artists better connect with those who would love their work, and vice versa. And there’s the datebook, which will be a growing resource for where to encounter contemporary visual art from Africa and the Diaspora. Know that by the time this issue was put to bed, we were already revamping and rethinking for issue two. We sincerely hope you’ll stick with us as we find Open Gallery’s place in the conversation on contemporary art. By all means, talk to us. Send us your work. Tell us what you think. Tell us what you need to know. We’re open.
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The Bigger Picture Items of note in the wider visual world Lagos Monopoly Lagos, Nigeria became the first African city to get a bona fide edition of the popular game. South Africa and Morocco already had national versions, but anyone who has visited the megacity of 15 million is well suited to a game where business moves fast, glitzy buildings are going up, and everyone wants in on the action. The chance and advance cards come with references to traffic and corruption, of course, and fines are tied to actual laws in the city. www.facebook.com/ MonopolyCityOfLagosEdition — Jennifer Oladipo
Forthcoming Book Due out in April, Henry Taylor covers the life and work of los Angeles-based artist Henry Taylor (born 1958) applies his brush both to canvas and to unconventional materials--suitcases, crates, cereal boxes, cigarette packs--using everyone and everything around him as source material. While Taylor drew and painted in his youth, he studied art formally only later in life, attending the California Institute of the Arts after working for ten years as a psychiatric nurse at a state hospital. This experience sharpened his interest in, and appreciation for, individuals from all economic and social backgrounds, and encouraged a passion to create an intensely empathetic style
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Bob Marley Documentary
While Marley’s message was global, he never forgot that Jamaica was his home. In a particularly stirring sequence, he returns to Kingston to headline a peace concert – sorely needed, as the city was rocked by violent political riots – where he is shot, but goes onstage anyway. There, he calls up the two leaders of the rival factions and forces them to shake hands in front of everybody in a stunning display of forgiveness and understanding.
Marley is certainly not the first documentary about the man, but critics have hailed it as the most in-depth treatment of his life to date. Filmmaker Kevin MacDonald has crafted an intricate portrait of Marley’s life, drawing from interviews with family, friends, and others, as well as archival footage, photographs, and voice recordings of Marley himself.
Ambassador of peace though he may have been, Marley did not lead a perfect life. The film does not shy away from the fact of his infidelities or indications that he may have been somewhat neglectful as a father. Shortcomings aside, however, he never strayed from his call to universal harmony, to which he devoted himself consistently until his death in 1981.
The viewer is taken through his humble childhood as the offspring of a mixed marriage, which to some degree caused him to be ostracized by his peers. We witness his discovery of music and how it became essential to him to use this new passion to spread the word of peace and love – not just to Jamaicans, but to the whole world.
Marley is a fantastic homage to an important man, one who espoused love and always practiced what he preached, setting an example to a world in crisis. It is a message which is still relevant and will always be relevant. It lives on in his music and his spirit. — Allen Day
of portraiture. Published on the occasion of Taylor's 2012 exhibition at MoMA PS1, where the artist established his New York studio for the duration of the show, the publication explores Taylor's ambitious and deeply humanistic project to present a worldview defined by the people-extraordinary and ordinary--with whom we live. Authors Laura Hoptman, Naima Keith, Henry Taylor, and Peter Eleey (from Amazon.com)
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Born into the story-telling tradition of rural South Carolina African-Americans, he absorbed the everyday life and work and worshiping of the people around him. The inventory of experiences like corn shucking, killing and dressing of chickens and pigs, the sugar cane being turned into syrup and helping neighbors in need grew from memories in his head to become the paintings masterfully captured on the canvas of Jeffery Callaham. Known as The Story-Teller Artist™, Callaham is following in the footsteps of family members like his grandmother, who many times recounted events in her life. Many of these are the subjects of Callaham's well-known paintings, like the story about the neighbor who once borrowed a cup of sugar and never returned it. This simple story is one of Callaham’s earliest porch paintings. Many of his stories feature ladies of the church wearing elaborate hats with feathers, netting, lace and ribbons in abundance, authentically illustrating the parade of color and one-upmanship of hat-wearing in the black churches of long ago, which continues today. Callaham’s education as a fashion designer is evident in so many of his paintings where, along with vibrant color, details such as delicate lace appear as a lady’s slip, paisley wallpaper or a delicate handkerchief. The most popular of Callaham’s paintings and some of his personal favorites include chickens, roosters and cows, evidence enough that he still loves and lives in the rural South. “I do love to travel, but I always return to my roots. It’s where I feel at home, because it is home and always has been. This is where my stories began and where they thrive and flourish still—it’s where I get my inspiration,” Callaham says.
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All paintings, acrylic on canvas: Porch Soaking Feet—After hanging out the sheets on the line, she’s tired and had to get a load off her feet. Sitting on the porch soaking her feet, she’s telling her neighbor about her long day of housework and that arthritis in her joints. She may be wondering if it’s going to rain, “’cause my joints can tell, you know.”
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Doing What Must Be Done—The artist as a boy and his grandmother are going to fetch the rooster for their dinner.
Good Friends—Is it the chickens or the two women who are good friends? Friends walk arm-in-arm talking about all of life’s toiling and achievements. “It’s good to have such a good friend,” says one to the other. This painting was featured on the cover of the Daufuskie Island Living magazine in its inaugural issue.
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Porch Shucking—If you wanted corn, once upon a time you had to get it yourself. She grew the corn and now it’s time to sit back on the porch and shuck it for Sunday dinner.
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Blue Moon—Every now and then, you give a cow enough light and it’s going to get up and find some grass to feed on. This cow’s ventured into a neighbor’s yard and is eating by the light of the full moon.
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Blue Mule—This diptych tells the story of neighbors coming together to harvest sugar cane and turn it into syrup. Look at the hands of the men handling the cane. They’re wearing socks on their hands to protect them from the cane. The mule is harnessed to the wooden beam that will turn the auger to extract the syrup from the cane.
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Sunday’s Best—Getting ready for church-going, she puts on the crowning glory, her feathered hat, hoping that all the other ladies will notice how grand she looks.
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EXHIBITION
Max Boufathal (Translated from French)
between his fingers.
I’ve always experienced contemporary society as an aggression, and I sought a way to defend myself against the invasion of my personal space, or to retaliate, as a matter of survival. Western culture became a kind of headless monster for which I do not want that my spirit to be an easy target. I prepare mentally and physically for a new era of natural selection; the psychological and environmental conditions of man seem to be ready to slip
I refuse to take part in this collective suicide, and I make every effort to survive it. Through a gathering of objects, weapons and statues which form a single monumental work, I build a kind of army. Handmade, well constructed, my artwork conveys a sense of organized crime, an a factor whose importance is just beginning to emerge. I juxtapose myths, politics and various systems of faith in a subjective exploration of my "inner blackness,"
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my cross-cultural heritage, and my notion of community. I do not hesitate incorporate the crafts, esthetics and knowledge of traditional world cultures to inform the creation of modern plastic forms with modern materials. The construction of a mixed culture obliges me to look beyond classical education to create new artifacts, a new referent, a new culture. The interracial procreation forces us to question the limits of every culture; my multi-racialism
thus becomes the expression not only of a biological mixture but also a cultural mixture. Sometimes I take a sort of warrior stance, adapting my works and the scenography according to the strategy that I settled beforehand. In a derisive tone I declare: according to a detailed plan, I build the invasion of art! I always use a very warlike or military language in Continued p. 20
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Max Boufathal
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Continued from p. 17
my art. No half-measure, I advocate a total and pred- the power to act directly, to produce creative actions atory art. and to order them into chaos. A lover of shocking The character of my projects is Pharaonic, tall, hercu- sentences, which I note carefully in my archives, I mix lean epics, a creative demiurge of plastic fancies and the words to strike and kick away the philosophic nonsense of the concepts of our time. Titans of the survival. It’s building my glory sitting cross-legged in my workshop-living room, I introduce Alone in my boat, without plans for a return journey, the gigantic like kings, dictators of this world. To me, a question comes to mind: is he prepared to die? I the artist is a war chief, they are the one who holds answer amazed: Well? Aren’t you?
EXHIBITION
Max Boufathal
EXHIBITION
Nkule mabaso terial that readily adapts itself to creativity in a multitude of expressive appearances. By looking at some of the defining things like length and color I’m interested in using the hair or that which is added to the hair in a way that disrupts or enhances our understanding of it as hair.
My work stems from an interest in the literature and media produced around black women, their representation, their hair and how their contemporary identities are historically constructed. The initial investigation was around finding out the real reasons women develop close identification with their hair in all societies, where long hair represents all that is irrefutably feminine and forms part of the cultural definition of femininity and feminine sensuality. This definition obviously excludes black women’s hair in its natural state.
The multivalent layers of meaning embedded in hair are combed into complex art pieces that grapple with different fundamental concepts of hair, the body, and identity. Hair becomes a metonym for the body and once it’s off the body it assumes discomforting associations that exThe current trends of superficiality lead to women’s obses- tend its meaning as a substance. My use of excessive sive compulsion with hair which borders on the excessive, amounts of hair plays to the idea that excess hair is transespecially black women. African women in South Africa gressive and is understood as a symptom of sex embedded feel that in order to be accepted by their counterparts and in disease as is often illustrated by the murky sexual idenpeople that they are associated with, they have to contities of overly hairy women and the undesirable aspect of form to popular stereotypes and prescription of what it uncontrollable hair growth. means to be beautiful. This entails altering one’s physical Maybe the most important thing that I am trying to appearance with the most ridiculous hairstyles that make achieve with my work is to further challenge the prescripthem contemptuous. They end up having to spend a lot of tive stereotypes that many people unquestioningly premoney just to keep up this utterly ridiculous trend of havscribe and subject themselves to in relation to how they ing artificial material on one’s head. Their other more seriproject themselves to the outside world. ous responsibilities are compromised. These yearnings for attractiveness are fueled by the desire to appear appealing to men. Specifically, I have identified three areas within which to exploit the connotations and associations of human hair and commercially available synthetic fibres to engage my work’s explorations of status and identity, gender identification, and bodily alienation. These themes of race and racism, and physicality and alienation are explored through the use of performance, photography, sculptural form, installation, and the creation of artworks that blur the boundaries between painting and sculpture. In the creation of my work I approach hair as a raw material, not only constantly processed by cultural practices which invest it with meanings and value but also as a ma22
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EXHIBITION
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Exhibition
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Exhibition
Nkule mabaso 29
ART ISSUES
Navigating Boundaries in South African Copyright Law by Mariëtte du Plessis Artists generally want their work to be seen and be enjoyed by the public, but sometimes their rights can be infringed by the enthusiastic public. Collectors and others need to be aware of how the legal terrain changes from one country to another. How do you know who owns the work? In South Africa, copyright does not have to be registered. There is often uncertainty about the ownership of the copyright in art. Generally, copyright exists automatically in an artistic work if the basic requirements have been met. The work has to be original, in the sense that it must be the result of the artist’s own efforts and the artist must be either a South African citizen or a citizen of one of the Berne convention countries, of which South Africa is a member state. Most countries in the world are members of the Berne convention and the effect is that copyright ownership transcends national borders and that copyright can be enforced in other countries, not only in the country where the artist or the owner of the copyright is based. Art works fall into the legal category of “artistic works,” which covers paintings, photographs, drawings, sculptures and works of craftsmanship. Although it’s not always certain who owns the copyright in an art work, the general rule is that the creator – the artist – will own the copyright. There are a few exceptions, such as when someone commissions a photograph or a painting or a drawing of the portrait and pays for it, in which case the person who commissioned the work, will be the owner. If the artist is employed and creates the work during the scope and course of employment, the employer will be the owner. This will typically be applicable where a graphic designer is employed by an advertising or design agency. The ownership of copyright can, however, be regulated by an agreement, which must be in writing. If an art lover commissions an artist to paint a portrait of his wife for their annual Christmas card and pays the artist, the art lover will then own the copyright and has the right to print Christmas cards with the art work. However, if you purchased a painting, you cannot reproduce the painting
Above: Butcher Boys. Below: Die Antwoord on Christmas cards or calendars, without the permission of the artisrt, he or she will still own the copyright. It is also important to remember that, in South Africa, the copyright in an artistic work only expires 50 years after the artist’s death. In some countries the period has been increased to 70 years. Painters or other artists can therefore not reproduce them, even after the artist has died. In the 50 years after the artist has died, permission will have to be obtained from the artist’s estate or heirs. What happens if an art work is reproduced in a form that offends the artist? The well-known South African artist, Jane Alexander was confronted with such a situation last year. She created the iconic sculpture, Butcher Boys, as a reference to the dehumanising forces of apartheid. Now housed in the Iziko Gallery in Cape Town, depicts three life-sized humanoid beasts with black eyes and horns, seated on a wooden bench. Trouble arose when South African alternative rock band,Die Antwoord used costumes and masks that resembled the sculpture in a promotional video for their new album, without the consent of the artist. Alexander objected through legal counsel. According to Continued on p. 37
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Owning Art
Collecting Her Story Linda Singletary supports artists who honor the black experience in America Collecting seems too
Singletary took her commission seriously and set
clinical a description of
forth to school herself with the patience and per-
the way Linda Singletary
severance of a san under a sensei. She studied
brings artworks into her
up. She took the next opportunity to attend the
home, her life. Not being
Black Fine Arts Show in New York. She bided her
driven by big names or
time. “The first year I didn’t buy anything be-
zeitgeist, her process is a
cause if felt like I needed to read to learn about
continuous gathering up
what I was seeing so that the next year I could go
of pieces that make up a
back ready.” Instead, she opened a savings ac-
cultural story that she feels visual artists some-
count for art purchases, and returned the follow-
times tell best. She simply love artists who “tell
ing year with the funds and knowledge to make a
our story” with color, line, and brush stroke.
wise purchase. That was 12 years ago.
“I buy solely what moves me, and what I feel like
Those among us who had their eyes opened to
I can live with forever, because that way I never
art later in life are blessed in a way. To have a
lose,” Singletary says.
lifetime of questions, dreams and conclusions
Today she serves on the art council at the Newark Museum, but her foray into collecting was unplanned. The Northern New Jersey diagnostic
radiologist had just wanted to put some “stuff” on her walls, but a young mentee in her department literally stopped in her tracks (on the treadmill) and firmly suggested she reconsider. “She looked at me and stopped walking. ‘You don’t want to do that. What you want is to put good art on your walls, because once you live with real art, you will never want to put anything else on your wall again.’”
suddenly answered, portrayed and challenged visually is the kind of thing that turns novices into art’s biggest champions. Singletary says exposure to fine art changed a lot of things about her. Disposable income that would have gone to clothes and shoes now went to art, or art books. She says growing her collection has been a happy experience in continuing education. Among her favorites is Tamara Natalie Madden, a Jamaican-born-and-raised painter and mixed media artist now in the United States. Her work is in museum and private collections throughout
the country. There is also Stefanie Jackson, who 32
Stephanie Jackson, Massacre du Negres 1906
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teaches at the Lamar Dodd School of Art at the
one has their own fingerprint on how they
University of Georgia. She admires that Jack-
viewed it and how they portray it.”
son’s home is “floor-to-ceiling books” and looks
This drive toward recognition came not from her
forward to works that may come out of Jack-
introduction to fine art, but from her college
son’s examination of the economic downturn in
days in the Africana Studies and Research Center
Detroit. “When New York finds out about her
at Cornell University. Her professors had come
she’s gonna be huge,” Singletary says.
from around the coun-try and the globe, but
Singletary’s collection features artists of multiple
shared a singular ideology about the Black
racial backgrounds who she feels are telling the
experience in the world. “[They made a]
African-American story well. That includes
cohesive effort to make us aware of who we
Brooklyn’s Tim Okamura – of English and Japa-
were, our strengths, and who we owed for that
nese descent – known for depictions of the ur-
seat at Cornell. The reason you were there was
ban life and hip-hop that make up his environs.
because somebody else had to go through some
“I hunted him down like a stalker. That’s how I
major struggles, for you to be there. You have to
found him…He paints black women beautifully.
respect that and feel a sense of responsibility.”
Wait, let me back up and give him his due: he
She has taken on that responsibility in part
paints all women beautifully,” Singletary says.
through her support of artists. “It’s my story. It’s
Still, she tries to support African-American
about identity. It’s about paying homage to peo-
artists in particular “because they just don’t
ple who want to record our history. I think
have the opportunities that Caucasian artists
artists have a little bit more vocal freedom with
have in the US. I think art is difficult for every-
a paintbrush than writers even have with a pen.”
body, to be fair, but to make a living might be
She says some visitors to her home have
harder for African-Americans because they may
questioned her about her art choices.
not have gallery representation and the audience to dig into their work.” So she engages with artists and those who support them; she felt a particular sense of loss at the closing of AVISCA
Fine Art gallery’s brick-and-mortar space in
“Sometimes guests in my home are surprised at all the African American, Caribbean or Latin American art," she says. "But I collect things that reflect me, my story and the story of my
Marietta, Georgia, last year after six years of op-
people. They should be more surprised if none
eration.
of the paintings looked like me ”
Her favorite contemporary image-makers are part of the continuum of whose depictions of 20th Century Black life are as documentary as they are artistic. John Biggers, Hale Woodruff, Charles White, Jacob Lawrence, “all document the struggle but so differently…there’s the com-
mon theme of struggle in the story, but every34
OWNING ART
From Linda Singletary’s collection, clockwise from the bottom: Guinep, Tamara Nathalie Madden; Always a Bridesmaid, Zoya Taylor; Erykah Badu, Tim Okamura
It’s my story. It’s about identity. It’s about paying homage to people who want to record our history.
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Datebook: where and when Birmingham, AL Collecting Black: Sankofa Aquisitions June 9–September 1, 2013 Birmgingham Museum of Art artsbma.org
Atlanta, GA Nellie Mae Rowe: At Night Things Come to Me Ongoing High Museum of Art high.org
Belmont, CA The Roots of the Spirit: Lonnie Holley, Mr. Imagination, Charlie Lucas Wiegand Gallery, Through November 15 http://www.ndnu.edu/the-arts/wiegand-gallery/
Macon, GA Various Exhibitions Tubman African-American Museum tubmanmuseum.com/
Los Angeles, CA Go Tell it on the Mountain Through April 7 California African-American Museum caamuseum.org/
Chicago, IL Geoffrey & Carmen: A Memoir in Four Movements DuSable Museum of African-American History Opens February 9, 2013 dusablemuseum.org/
Hartford, CT Contemporary Memories: Selections from the Collection of The Amistad Center for Art & Culture, Through April 21, 2013 including Hank Willis, Sheila Pree Bright and others amistadartandculture.org/exhibitions.php
Overland Park, KS Oppenheimer Collection Including Kerry James Marshall Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art nermanmuseum.org
Miami, FL American Sculpture in the Tropics Through May 20 The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum Florida International University, University Park /thefrost.fiu.edu/ Orlando, FL African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond Through April 28 Mennello Museum of American Art mennellomuseum.com Athens, GA Defiant Beauty :The Work of Chakaia Booker Through April 30, 2013 Georgia Museum of Art georgiamuseum.org/
Baton Rouge, LA Louisiana's Artist: Clementine Hunter Through March 31, 2013 LSU Museum of Art lsumoa.com/content.php?display=exhibit_present Salem, MA Nick Cavel Soundsuits Through June 2 Peabody Essex Museum www.pem.org/ College Park, MD Convergence: Jazz, Films and the Visual Arts Through May 31 David C. Driskell Center driskellcenter.umd.edu/ Brooklyn, NY eMERGING: Visual Art & Music in a Post-Hip-Hop Era Through Mayy 26 Museum of Contemporary African and Diasporan 36
n to see art Arts (MOCADA) mocada.org The Boombox Through June 9 House of Art Gallery hoagallery.com
New York, NY Hayward Oubre: Difficult to Impossible Through April 5 Debra Force Fine Art debraforce.com/events
Spartanburg, SC A Celebration of Spartanburg Works of Art June 12-August 31 Chapman Cultural Center chapmanculturalcenter.org/ Dallas, TX Witness: The Art of Jerry Pinkney African-American Museum March - May 2013 aamdalas.org Memphis, TN Romare Bearden: A Black Odyssey Through April 28 Memphis Brooks Museum Of Art brooksmuseum.org/upcomingexhibitions?edl=all
Seattle, WA El Anatsui: Broken Bridge II Bearing Witness from Another Place: Through Spring 2013 James Baldwin in Turkey The High Line, between West 21st and West 22nd St Photographs by Sedat Pakay Through September 29 thehighline.org/about/public-art/anatsui Northwest African-American Museum Charolotte, NC naamnw.org/exhibits.html I Got Freedom Up Over My Head: Portraits by Julie Moos Jonathan Green: A Spiritual Journey of Life African art from Etched In The Eyes: David Herman, Jr. Through June 15 The Harvey B. Gantt Center 314 W. Stone Avenue Greenville SC ganttcenter.org
The Roop Collection
864-235-7550
Durham, NC Wangechi Mutu: A Fantastic Journey March 21-July 21 Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University nasher.duke.edu/mutu Portland, OR Carrie Mae Weems: Three Decades of Photography and Video Through May 19 Portland Art Museum www.portlandartmuseum.org/ Greenville, SC William H. Johnson: Native Son Through September 29 Greenville County Museum of Art www.gcma.org 37
Continued from p. 31 her lawyers, she was concerned that Die Antwoord’s use of her work and its contents might be publically perceived as reflecting her own artistic intentions. Die Antwoord admitted that the dark-horned creature in their video was definitely influenced by the Butcher Boys sculpture, but had been intended as an homage to her work. As a result of Alexander’s intervention, distribution of the video was halted. Although this matter was not argued in court, it raises the importance of the artist’s moral rights, which are protected under the South African Copyright Act. It allows the author of an artistic work to object to any distortion, mutilation or other modification where it will be prejudicial to the artist’s honour or reputation. The artist’s moral rights are separate from his/her copyright in the work. Even if the copyright in a particular work is assigned (sold) to another person, the artist always retains or her moral right. It is an important aspect of an artist’s intellectual property rights and ensures that the artist’s works are not used in a manner which would offend the artist or give the wrong interpretation to his/her works. Mariëtte du Plessis is a partner at the South African law firm Adams & Adams. adamsadams.com
through June 2, 2013 540 Buncombe St. Greenville, SC upcountryhistory.org 864-467-3100
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Join us. Open Gallery is looking for contributions from visual artists in any medium whose work originates from, is reflective of, or responds to engagement with the people and places of Africa and the ongoing global Diaspora from the continent. We welcome those who proudly claim the labels attached to these notions, and those who just as adamantly work toward their evolution. Sculpture, painting, photography, digital, multi-medium artworks are welcome. Artists, send us a note along with 5-10 high quality images or samples of your work. We champion the artist’s perspective, so please be prepared to discuss your work with a statement whose form will be discussed should we find your work a good fit with our mission and objectives at this time. Gallerists and museum professionals, send information about your upcoming events, favorite arts, and pet projects. We welcome your snippets, as well as your written contributions of 600-1200 words, depending on the topic.
Writers, we seek your reviews and previews, especially of events of regional importance. Academic explorations are welcome, but the style must be widely accessible. Timely pieces and historical reflections are welcome. Send materials and inquiries to JoinUs@AnOpenGallery.com.
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