Don’t miss the opening of Wilhelm Saayman’s solo exhibition In Season Five Everyone Dies at the Erdmann Contemporary Gallery.
“The show draws its inspiration from a fictional situation whereby the artist is the only survivor of a plane crash and is left alone on an island, painting his memories of the other passengers.”
63 Shortmarket Street, Cape Town
Starts 15 May
This weekend the acclaimed NIROX Sculpture Park was transformed into a contemporary wonderland, with larger-than-life sculptures dotted across the landscape. Some of Franschhoek’s top chefs and wine producers provided visitors with top-end meals, charcuterie, and wine and bubbly by the glass.
It was a magical day with fantastic food and wine in one of the most beautiful parks in our country. It truly felt like we were lazying about in a Seurat painting.
After having successfully created the FNB Joburg Art Fair and Sanlam Investments FoodWineDesign Fair, Artlogic has been looking to create a new event that offers Gautengers an opportunity for a day out of the city.
Well they’ve absolutely succeeded and I hope that this will become an annual event.
Follow Art Logic on twitter to find out more about all their fantastic events. @ArtlogicSA
The Candlestick Maker by Paul Senyol
Shy Girl by Paul Senyol
The Butcher by Paul Senyol
Fancy Girl by Paul Senyol
The Baker by Paul Senyol
Akivivi by Wesley van Eeden
I’ve been away for a while and I’ve missed quite a few things including this exhibition by Wesley van Eeden and Paul Senyol at A word of Art.
So it’s a bit late, but here’s some of their beautiful work from their recent exhibition.
“Transformative explored the notions of reality in society in a constant stage of change. Van Eeden was taken by the idea of how something we do today will have a certain influence on the way we live tomorrow, next week, a month from now and for many years to come. Trying to grapple for a grasp on the present moment, we find ourselves in eternal stages of change. Senyol took a deeper look at the very fabric of his everyday life and those who orbit his existence as a starting point.”
http://www.hopeproject.co.za/blog/
via 10and5
Hugh Byrne is a young upcoming artist who works and lives in Cape Town. The city is where he finds his influence. After gathering images he breaks them down into simplified geometric forms and hard-hitting colours.
The brightly coloured artworks shine and are highly reflective. He uses layers of paints, resins and various coatings to get this effect, which is most effective.
The paintings are effective on their own but are often assembled so that they build and extend on each other until networks of them have spread across the walls.
He has been exhibiting around country and most recently at Salon91. Today he is taking part in the First/Thursday art walk and his work will be up at the New Heritage Gallery at 100 Shortmarket.
From 28 January – 23 February NIROX projects will be hosting Cape Town based artist Georgina Gratrix at Arts on Main, Johannesburg where she will be using the project space as her private studio. The work that she will be creating in this space (not the artwork featured here) will then be exhibited at the end of this period in an Open Studio exhibition from 24 February to 06 March 2013.
“Georgina is one of the most exciting and innovative young artists on the South African contemporary art scene. Part mocking, part criticism, part play, Gratrix’s work offers an inverted visual take on the world. Instilled with her youthful energy and personal experience, her work is refreshing, entertaining and complex.” – SMAC Gallery, Stellenbosch
Artwork via SMAC Art Gallery
Adrie Le Roux
Adrie Le Roux
Kirsten Beets
Kirsten Beets
Kirsten Beets
Kirsten Sims
Kirsten Sims
Kirsten Sims
Maria Lebedeva
Maria Lebedeva
Maria Lebedeva
Don’t miss the enchanting Aurora all-female illustration show by Kirsten Beets, Maria Lebedeva, Adrie Le Roux and Kirsten Sims at Salon91 in Cape Town until the 23rd of Feb.
For the Summer Collection 2012 L’MAD presented beautiful pure silk scarves featuring artworks by leading South African artists. The artists included: Michael Taylor, Jan-Henri Booyens, Michael MacGarry, Titus Matiyane, Richard Penn and Jill Trappler.
“L’MAD – Lucy MacGarry Art & Design – is an arts-based production company that curates unique and limited edition collections in a variety of media.
Working directly with established and emerging African artists, L’MAD explores several concepts — at the forefront is the crossover between art, fashion and design and with it the juxtaposition of materials, scale and form.”
See all the scarves on the L’mad website.
The New Year is usually a time for Intro/Outro-spection. Please watch this wonderfully inspirational video about Empathy and the reason we need to step outside ourselves and discover the lives of other people and other civilizations in order to find life/design/creative solutions.
Initiate.
Empathise.
Solve problems.
Create.
In a great little post by Seth Godin he talks about how it’s much harder to initiate something new (a blog, an illustration, an exhibition, an Instagram photo or a Facebook status) than it is to copy edit or criticise. People are often quick to point out that there’s a spelling mistake, that it’s been done before or that it’s no good and although criticism plays an important part in growth and development, it’s important that we don’t become habitual critics or idea poopers.
So this year let’s rather become habitual creators and innovators who live and create from a place of empathy.
Start something.
(Another great article on Empathy in Creativity and Design Thinking.)
Gráinne McHugh is a Cape Town based artist who mainly works with clay. “She creates ambiguous figures: beautiful, cute, fun, but also discomposed, ironic and muted. A range of every-woman doll heads has been her chief preoccupation.
Nomadic and self-taught she works like a magpie – finding the textures of an odd button, a soiled doily and throwaway scrap inspirational.”
“My work is really a series of mistakes, riffs and quirks.”
See more of her beautiful work here: http://www.grainnemchugh.com/
Follow her on Twitter: @GrainneMcHugh
Cats by Gillian Greer
I just love all these beautiful handmade tiles by Southern Art Ceramics. Gerrit Oosthuizen heads up the company situated in Hermanus and they’re known for designing and producing beautiful, customizable handmade tiles. I can spend the whole day trawling through their lovely tiles.
Some of the artists they work with include Gillian Greer, Sim Cqushuza, Gerrit Oosthuizen and Hele Oosthuizen.
http://www.handmadetiles.co.za/
Or join their Facebook Page.
Make sure you don’t miss Paul Senyol‘s much-anticipated first solo exhibition opening this April. He’ll be showcasing a collection of new paintings on paper, entitled The Man of Dust at Salon91 in Cape Town.
This body of work will explore our shared experience of the human condition in relation to the phrase:
“And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly man.”
His unique abstract style with its roots in Street Art, and inspired by great artists like Basquiat and Miró, remains open-ended, expressed through a visual language, which may be universally understood. In collaboration with Salon91 Senyol will also be publishing a highly collectable book that will catalog and form part of the exhibition and showcase the creative processes, drafts and thoughts behind the finished artworks.
MEDIUM: Abstract, mixed media paintings on paper.
26 April – 26 May 2012
Salon91 Contemporary Art Collection
Good luck Paul!
Handsome Things chatted to young Port Elizabeth illustrator Wonder Tatum Meyer about her illustration, her inspiration and sailing around the world in a small boat.
Tell us a bit more about yourself.
I’m a freelance illustrator and I’ve just completed my 3rd year at NMMU in PE, where I majored in Printmaking and Illustration. I was considering furthering my studies at Stellenbosch, but decided to take a year off instead to work on my illustration and see where it goes.
What inspires you?
My family have always travelled, but the most exciting adventure for me was when my parents decided to pack up their jobs and our house and sail the high seas on a very small boat. During that round the world trip I was exposed to so many other cultures, beliefs and experiences that really opened my 10 year old eyes and still influences my work.
I’m also really inspired by childhood, myth, folklore and nature. And birds! I really like drawing birds.
Have a look at Wonder’s blog for more of her whimsical illustration http://wonder-meyer.blogspot.com/
Maaike Bakker
Maaike Bakker
Maaike Bakker
Louis Minnaar
Louis Minaar
/ THE RIVER
From the minds of two young thinkers in a purple-flowered-city
This fantastic tale emerges, mysterious and gritty:
A sloth, on a terrible journey, hoping to recover what he has lost;
banks will be flooded, lines will be crossed.
Pretoria visual artists Louis Minnaar and Maaike Bakker present a twisting narrative exhibition of
collaborated visual works blending with words by Jaco van der Merwe.
I’ve featured Quintin’s strange and beautiful artworks before so you read a bit more about him here. These are some of Quintin Weyer‘s latest works. You can order the prints from him at quintinweyers@gmail.com
Contact him for prices, size info, and commissions.
On Saturday I had the pleasure of spending the morning with artist Mariëtte Bergh and her three dogs as she prepares for her upcoming exhibition entitled Bare your Bones. Mariëtte is known for her beautiful reverse-glass paintings and this exhibition also includes some work that combine reverse-glass with ink drawings on wood. My photos don’t do her stunning work justice, so make sure you don’t miss her exhibition at ROOM, 70 Juta Precinct, Braamfontein.
OPENING 15 March at 18:00.
The exhibition runs from 15 March – 14 April 2012.
“BARE YOUR BONES is an introspective collection of work exploring disenchantment during the transition from whimsical youth to responsible adult. Whereas some accept this transition, many resist it for a period or indefinitely, but the merciless nature of time isn’t kind to such individuals and is usually the motivation behind eventual submission. How does one ‘grow-up’ without losing the magic of a youthful spirit? The exhibition alludes specifically to the experience of the artist herself, and to that of misfits and bohemians.”
Thanks Mariëtte!
