Zondag 25 December 2011
African Mosaic: Celebrating a Decade of Collecting
Showcases museum purchases and gifts and provides a glimpse into collecting opportunities for art museums. Centerpiece: a towering and visually striking sculpture of Haitian leader Toussaint Louverture by contemporary Senegalese artist Ousmane Sow.
Dogon
Het verhaal van de Dogon cultuur uit Mali gaat terug naar de 10e eeuw. De bezoeker krijgt een introductie op de geschiedenis van de cultuur en maakt kennis met deze invloedrijke cultuur aan de hand van de diversiteit en kwaliteit van de objecten, het onderzoek door antropologen in de 19e eeuw en de toenemende interesse in de mooie objecten bij het grote publiek.
Appropriated Landscapes - 14 artists
Mainly artists from Southern Africa. Explores landscape typologies in South Africa, Namibia, Angola, and Mozambique. The concept of landscape here is not linked to historical notions of the picturesque and the sublime. Instead, the exhibition considers landscape as a prism of experience, a reflection of ideology, and a stage for the performance and perception of identity.
El Anatsui - When I Last Wrote to You about Africa
Brings together the full range of the artist’s work, from wood trays referring to traditional symbols of the Akan people of Ghana; to early ceramics from the artist’s Broken Pots series, driftwood assemblages that refer to the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and wooden sculptures carved with a chainsaw; to the luminous metal wall-hangings of recent years.
People Apart: Cape Town Survey 1952. Photographs by Bryan Heseltine
This striking collection of photographs, exhibited here for the first time in more than fifty years, offers a glimpse into the lives of South Africans who would feel the full force of apartheid through the 1950s and beyond. The images were made in the late 1940s and early 1950s and provide a rich and intimate description of life in a number of townships and areas of the city: Windermere, the Bo-Kaap, District Six, Langa and Nyanga.
Mbongeni Buthelezi - maNyauza: Silent messages to my Mother
Mid-career retrospective. Mbongeni Buthelezi's chosen medium is the humble plastic shopping bag, which he melts and collages to build his pictures. The hype machine argues that this allows Buthelezi's work to participate in debates about conservation, although in reality he contributes but a superficial commentary on consumer society. Expect instead conservative imagery (sentimental portraits, township scenes) rendered in an essentially gimmicky style.
Rencontres de Bamako 2011
Pan-African event presenting numerous exhibitions of photographers from all over the continent. Mali has become the center of African photography – it is the birthplace of Africa’s first two internationally recognized photographers – Seydou Keita and Malick Sidibé. As the home of the African Photography Biennial, Bamako continues to be the continental center of an artistic form in which Africans excel.
Uncensored
In juli 2012 sluit het museum voor een grondige renovatie. Deze tentoonstelling biedt de bezoeker een uniek kijkje achter de schermen. In een parcours met 30 stops wordt antwoord gegeven op uiteenlopende vragen, zoals wat doet een indiaan nu in een museum over Afrika? De stops presenteren markante feiten uit de geschiedenis van het museum en werpt tevens een licht op de toekomstplannen.
Africa XL
Honderden wondermooie foto's van Afrika: het resultaat van de vele reizen van fotograaf Eddy van Gestel. Zijn foto's zijn een hulde aan het continent. De portretten en de foto’s van landschappen en dieren tonen op een haast emotionele wijze de kwetsbare schoonheid van een divers en voortdurend veranderend Afrika. Eén ding hebben alle foto’s gemeen: ze zetten zich voor altijd vast op ons netvlies.
The Global Contemporary: Art Worlds After 1989
Exhibition aims to demonstrate how globalization, with its dominant market mechanisms on the one hand, and its utopias of connectivity and liberalness on the other, influences the different spheres of art production and reception. Apart from the large number of African participants, there are also noteworthy projects on Africa by artists from other continents.
Photography: New Documentary Forms - Guy Tillim
Explores the ways in which five contemporary artists have used the camera to explore, extend and question the power of photography as a documentary medium. Includes work by Luc Delahaye, Mitch Epstein, Guy Tillim (South Africa) and Akram Zaatari, as well as two important earlier works by Boris Mikhailov.
Nabil Boutros - Egypte(s) au présent
Boutros: I have observed that in recent years a lot of people in Egypt, under cover of having a new financial or religious status, changed their look radically and relatively fast and, in the same way, changed their social relationships. What can be deduced from this? At the least, that everyone has multiple faces; at the worst, that clothes make the man.
Wrecking at Private Siding 661 - Bridget Baker
Site-specific installation sees Bridget Baker working with personal and historical elements relating to the immigration of British settlers to East London, South Africa. The work acknowledges the silent evidence of the many ships that were wrecked along its coast, as well as evidence of the demise of her father and grandfather's work in the wool and hide industry in that town.
Masters of the Intimate - Abe Mathabe (Zuid-Afrika) en Wim van der Meij (Nederland)
Duotentoonstelling. Te zien zijn kunstwerken van twee kunstenaars (Abe Mathabe uit Soweto en Wim van der Meij uit Zutphen) met de gave van de fijne motoriek en de vaste hand. Voorafgaand aan de tentoonstelling maken zij van de gelegenheid gebruik om met elkaar aan het werk te gaan en hun artistieke ervaringen, kennis en kunde te delen. Abe Mathabe zal tijdens zijn verblijf in Nederland ook op andere plaatsen aan het werk gaan.
Eternal Life after Death in Ancient Egypt
Focuses on Egyptian burial ritual, its place with ancient Egyptian cosmology, and the insights that mummies, burial ritual, and cosmology provide about life in ancient Egypt. Understand how burial practices and associated religious beliefs serve as windows into world cultures. Explore the ways in which mummies, tombs, and Egyptian mythology open new windows into the lives of ancient Egyptians.
No fashion, please! - Photography between Gender and Lifestyle
Rejection of traditional ideas of fashion and beauty. Nineteen solo presentations outline the contemporary international photography scene that explores the fundamental relationship between bodies and clothes, the dialectics between the form of the body and its appearance. With two South African participants: Steven Cohen and Viviane Sassen.
Ghana, An Organic Experience; architectural exhibition
In the exhibition Ghana; An Organic Experience the focus is on Ghana, and the way traditional organic materials and methods have been reintroduced in modern urban planning. The architect Joe Addo was invited to select several of his projects in Accra and the new towns of Teema and Takoradi, which make use of these materials and methods.
Hand Held: Personal Arts from Africa
Spanning 21 countries across the African continent, this exhibition brings together objects used in daily life that blend beauty and utility—several on view for the first time. This display is of more than 80 objects from the late 19th- and early 20th-century. A selection of videos and photographs will also be on display to show how the objects were created and used.
Karoo Highveld Exhibition
Karoo Highveld is the first showing of the work by British artist Richard Long in South Africa, and, indeed, the first on the African continent. Since his early work, the internationally renowned artist has maintained an affinity for Africa’s diverse landscapes and has returned to the continent several times over the years to create his unique sculptural works directly in the landscape. Twice, in 2004 and 2009, Long visited South Africa and produced works in the Karoo and in the Highveld.
A Natural Selection - various artists
Second half of the 40-year retrospective exhibition at AVA, with work by dozens of artists. To talk about the development of a contemporary art scene using scientific terms like Natural Selection seems odd. But in fact, the changing cultural climate, political terrain and available resources determining artistic evolution in an ecosphere like Cape Town, are at times quite Darwinian. Which qualities are inherited? What are the connecting traits? Are there radically new qualities which adapt under pressure?
Fucking Hell - Cameron Platter
Exploring a reality stranger than fiction, through fantasy, satire and subculture, Cameron Platter fills the ordinary and the marginal, with incendiary new meaning. Working from everyday experience with subjects overlooked or considered delinquent, sordid and lowbrow, he reconnoiters notions and concepts on the outside fringes of South Africa’s popular culture.
The Sun Stands Still - Sean Slemon (South Africa)
Envisions a scenario where the sun could be slowed, or stopped entirely, creating shadows that are physically tangible. This thought experiment intends to illustrate resources in the public sphere that are not easily quantified. Making their debut are the Shadow series of life-size sculptures of the artist’s shadow rendered in polymer gypsum, foam, and steel, and finished to appear as though carved from marble.
Central Nigeria Unmasked
Unfolding as a spectacular journey up the Benue River, Central Nigeria Unmasked introduces major artistic genres and styles associated with more than twenty-five ethnic groups living along the river's Lower, Middle, and Upper reaches. These diverse and remarkable artworks include sculptural forms in wood, ceramic, and metal.
Skyndood en Niemandswoord van Susan Opperman (ZA)
Voor de derde editie van Kunsthal Light maakt de Zuid-Afrikaanse kunstenaar Susan Opperman de wandschildering Skyndood & Niemandswoord, geïnspireerd op haar graphic novel Gifpit - die koms van die Vreemdeling. Tevens zijn enkele van haar meest iconische karakters uit Gifpit in rauwe zwart-wit tekeningen en met onverbloemde teksten in de etalage langs de hellingbaan van de Kunsthal te zien. Vanaf 16 november werkt Opperman in de Kunsthal aan haar wandschildering.
Fragments
De werken in Fragments laten veel te raden over. Het zijn flarden van herinneringen, onderdelen van een geheel, elementen van een groter verhaal, fragmenten van botsende culturen, uitgebeeld in schilderijen, collages en foto's. Werk van Hasan & Husain Essop uit de serie Haalal Art (foto's; Zuid-Afrika), LucFosther Diop (collages en schilderijen; Kameroen) en Edwin Jans (schilderijen; Nederland).
Drawings
More than three dozen works on paper made in a wide variety of media, including ink, graphite, watercolor, and collage that offer unique insights into the thought and work processes of the exhibiting artist. Despite their varied experiences, personal cultural backgrounds and styles their approach to drawing is through a contemporary experience, their metaphysics is distinctly new and refreshing. Work by African artists Victor Ekpuk, Osaretin Ighile, Uche Okeke (all Nigeria) and Ibrahim El Salahi (Sudan) and eight others.
Selected Works
Kehinde Wiley is an artist who mixes the culture of the urban fabric he grew up in with the traditional portrait style in which he paints. His strikingly large paintings depict young African Americans and portrays them within the visual codes of power, wealth, masculinity and prestige. His paintings represent a juxtaposition of art history and modernity with the aim of making paintings that matter in the 21st century.
Untitled - Summer Exhibition
Brings together a collection of prints that celebrate the diversity of associated and DKW artists, pooling together a variety of themes and techniques employed in printmaking. Artworks by Deborah Bell, Willem Boshoff, Wilma Cruise, Christopher Cozier (Trinidad), Ann Gollifer (Botswana), Trasi Henen, David Hockney (UK), William Kentridge, Laurence Lemaoana, Maja Maljević, Colbert Mashile, John Meyer, Richard Penn, Robyn Penn, Diane Victor, Jeremy Wafer and Mary Wafer.
AVANTCARGUARD, Jaco + Z-dog and Friends
We were offered this show at Blank Projects, and since we’ll all be in Cape Town over the Holiday season and we don’t have a central meeting point, we figured that Blank Projects could be just that. We’ll be at Blank from time to time, where we’ll be working on new AVANTCARGUARD shit, recording a new Jaco+Z-dog album, playing some shows, maybe we’ll even make a short film or two. We’ll also be inviting some collaborators and friends over. So come round to Blank if the weather is crap. Maybe we’ll be around making some new stuff.
Implemented Environments - Various Artists
An insightful and relevant investigation into South African artists’ meditations on notions of environment; whether addressing ecological, economic or sociopolitical conditions or simply reflecting on the earth-human connection. The exhibition incorporates a diverse array of responses to the theme although consistent throughout is a frank honesty in the artists’ reflections. Work by Jessie Hammond, Mohau Modisakeng, Daniella Mooney, Zwelethu Mthethwa, Sean Slemon, Jan van der Merwe and Barbara Wildenboer.
Thrown Together - Simon Stone
New series of paintings portrays a personal exploration of elusive memories, dreams and recollections - the silhouette of a receding landscape, framed cityscapes, lone figures or female forms, distinctly recurring motifs, lines, holes, slices and brief stops. Compositionally the paintings are split and fragmented, divided into a series of singular conversations and moments caught in their own time. Simple and complex, the paintings are other-worldly and magical, while remaining quietly every-day.
Summer Show - Various Artists
Review, focusing on new and recent work by South Africans artists either represented by or associated with the gallery. Includes prints from Siemon Allen's Records series, while hotography is strongly represented, with works from Jodi Bieber, David Goldblatt, Mikhael Subotzky, Nontsi Veleko and Patrick Waterhouse. Also a text piece by Stuart Bird, new works by Gerhard Marx and Walter Oltmann, paintings by Moshekwa Langa, Lisa Brice and Clive van den Berg, drawings by Minette Vari and more.
Artist in residence in het Afrika Museum
Van 13 t/m 27 december is kunstenaar Gerard Quenum uit Benin als gastkunstenaar aanwezig in het Afrika Museum (bij Nijmegen). Onder toeziend oog van het publiek vervaardigt hij een kunstwerk voor de tentoonstelling Goddelijk en Griezelig die in 2012 te zien zal zijn.
Call and Response - Cedric Nunn Retrospective 1981 - 2011
An important retrospective by the oft-neglected South African photographer Cedric Nunn, this exhibition has a wealth of images, showing the country at its most tumultuous, explores a deep compassion for people who are struggling to survive amid the social change of a post-apartheid South Africa.
Pinky Promise - Pierre Crocquet
An exhibition that presents the stories of five victims and three perpetrators of childhood sexual abuse and subsequent healing. Pierre Crocquet approaches the subject with sensitivity, nonetheless adopting a robust stance on this destructive and increasingly prevalent phenomenon.
Malete - John Phalane
John Phalane is a cartographic artist. He draws maps with coloured pencils of his native Limpopo province and of the streets and suburbs of Johannesburg, where he worked for a brief period of his life. His maps are artful, providing routes into and out of the ‘unknown’. But he also uses maps as shorthand for such ready metaphors as seeking location and experiencing dislocation, bringing order to chaos, exploring rations of scale, and charting new terrain.
It's A Wrap - Various artists
artSPACE durban's Annual Affordable Art Show continues at it’s initiative called the COLLECTIVE with a maximum sale price for works at R1 500. The exhibition includes paintings,street art, jewellery and used art books. The COLLECTIVE is an art gallery that has been created for, but not limited to, the promotion of young artists under the age of 35 within the Durban area. Not only does the gallery promote the visual art spectrum, but music and poetry as well.
South Africa: A Nation in Transformation - Jurgen Schadeberg
In recognition of World AIDS Day. The exhibit, presented by Altadena-based Art AIDS Art, features the work of 80-year-old Jurgen Schadeberg, a pioneer in southern African photography. The images capture 60 years of South African history. The exhibit also includes contemporary photography by Pasadenans and young South Africans, along with contemporary handcrafts and fabric.
Spectres - Sven Augustijnen (België)
Documentaire thriller over één van de donkerste bladzijden uit de geschiedenis van de dekolonisatie van Belgisch Congo rond 1960. Augustijnen volgt Jacques Brassinne de La Buissière, in 1961, toen Patrice Lumumba werd vermoord, een hoge Belgische ambtenaar in Congo op zijn zoektocht naar de waarheid. Onderdeel van totaalproject met verder installatie Les Demoiselles de Bruxelles en krantenbijlage Panorama, fotoseries en meer.
Victims and Martyrs - with Conrad Botes (South Africa)
Examines the complexity and internal contradictions of the conceptual framework of victims and martyrs. The exhibiting artists interpret, activate and stage the landscape where victimisation and martyrdom takes place. Boundaries between victims and perpetrators dissolve and the premises that maintain and reproduce these roles are scrutinized.
Fototentoonstelling Wereldvrouwen
De foto’s geven een beeld van de resultaten die de ‘Wereldvrouwen’ met financiële steun van Pequenita in de afgelopen zes jaar bereikt hebben, zoals de graanbank en waterput in Niger; een cassaverasp en bakkerij in Suriname; een kombuis en moestuinen in Zuid-Afrika. De inkomsten genererende projecten vormen een basis voor verdere ontwikkeling van deze vrouwen en stimuleren een collectief verantwoordelijkheidsgevoel en dragen bij aan een groeiend vertrouwen in eigen kracht.