From the opening on Wednesday, 15 December 2010 to 15 January 2011, the Kalk Bay Modern will be hosting a luxurious show of artisan textiles and jewellery - over 35 designers, proudly South African, of course.
This stunning assortment of work provides an incredibly tactile and varied display in which there is definitely something for everyone.
Nic Bladen
House of Hector -Paula White
Erika Akira
From Nic Bladen there is an array of his exquisite silver jewellery cast from fynbos flowers. Work by Paula White from the House of Hector and Erika Akira reveal a different side to this beautiful medium while jewellers like Jane Eppel and Marzipan venture into the playful and offbeat with their unusual and creative pieces.
Jane Eppel
Marzipan
Wonderfully Mediaeval works by Michael Cope contrast and yet marry beautifully with the enchanting creations of Smith while Love Joy by Stephy is simply a magpie's delight.
Michael Cope
Love Joy - Stephy
And the jewellery display is not the only sumptuous feast for the eyes. Ornate felt creations like the one featured below by Nicole De Jaager are sure to whet your creative appetite while the delightful and funky works of Shine Shine will delight and amuse.
The comical Woo-men are sure to capture your heart (if they have not already) and make adorable gifts for the young and young at heart.
There is a striking display of work from Yda Walt and some beautifully delicate prints from Veldt, Skinny Laminx and of course,the superb Ekoka textiles, the designs of which are derived from the work of the San people who receive royalties on the printed meterage.
The Kalk Bay Modern recently hosted an unusual exhibition of both pinhole and conventional photography, Point of Focus.
The show featured both seasoned photographers such as Glen Green and Jenny Altschuler and novices such as Sandy Mclea and Lesley Goodman. Amongst the conventional photography are some beautiful portraits of the Himba of Namibia by Glen Green.
HIMBA WOMAN - Glen Green
As pointed out in a review by Lucinda Jolly, pinhole photography, which utilizes a combination of chemistry and uncertain childlike experimentation, has the qualities of the semi-magical science of alchemy.
The images produced, mostly landscapes with a few subtle portraits, are atmospheric, fey, transcendent.
LINDA AND THE GHOST - Gavin Foley
Lesley Goodman who produced the astonishing series, Baptism says, “My intention is not to take the ‘perfect shot’, but to allow the camera the camera to surprise me with images a conventional camera could not produce.”
BAPTISM 8 - Lesley Goodman
BAPTISM 13 - Lesley Goodman
Jenny Altschuler says of her work, “[This] project...extends my current focus on mortality,the inevitable passing of time and the transience of all experiences, good and bad.”
WE ONCE WERE HERE - Jenny Altschuler
Three of the pinhole cameras made and used by the photographers are on display, objects of beauty and curiosity in and of themselves.
Be sure to head down to the Kalk Bay Modern this week before part of the show comes down though a few of these beautiful pieces will have a place in the KBM for a while to come.
The Kalk Bay Modern is pleased to announce that the current exhibition, Art on Paper & Ceramics, will be extended to the 15th of September.
Featured in this intriguingly curated exhibition, are a number of new prints, a combination of etching and drypoint, by accomplished printmaker Deborah Bell. They are the result of her latest collaboration with David Krut Print Workshopin Johannesburg.
Bell's work is fundamentally informed by a personal search for the 'Self' and she often draws on spiritual imagery from a wide range of sources. Mythical figures, birds, beasts, boats and fusions of all these, populate her otherworldly spaces, whose dream-like qualities are enhanced by cycling imagery of people waking up and falling asleep.
Bell's belief that the 'Self' is discovered "through forms of intuition and intensely personal, individual experience" naturally result in a visual language that is intensely personal, while managing to reach the level of universality.
There is a review of Art on Paper and Ceramics in the 8 September edition of the Cape Times featuring an image of Deborah Bell's etching, Red Flux III (state I).
Red Flux III (state 1)
Bell has been represented by the Durban Art Gallery, the Johannesburg Art Gallery, the SA National Gallery in Cape Town, the Tatham Art Gallery in Pietermaritzburg, the University of Natal, the University of South Africa and the University of the Witwatersrand.
The Kalk Bay Modern is pleased to be featuring, in the current Art on Paper exhibition, some of the work of Jane Eppel, an artist who celebrates beauty and depth in unexpected places. Her work described as "quiet meditations which operate on two intersecting planes that allow the fusion of seeming opposites: privacy and accessibility, the personal and the public, the mysterious and the mundane, the spiritual and the worldly" by the late Professor Neville Dubow of the University of Cape Town.
Her work explores notions of homecoming, roots/routes, and hallowed space through personal iconography, often using images of her friends and family and the scenery of Cape Town.
Eppel, a Michaelis School of Art graduate, lives and works in Cape Town. She has displayed work at the Irma Stern Museum and was selected as a finalist for the Brett Kebble Awards in 2004.
The delightful works featured in this post are from the series Let Them Lie they along with her Fairground Series from part of the Art on Paper & Ceramics Exhibition.
The Kalk Bay Modern is pleased to be presenting an exciting new exhibition: Art on Paper & Ceramics, which will open on Wednesday 11th August at 6:00PM and run until August 31st. The concept behind this exhibition was born when KBM received some exciting new work from David Krut, The Artists Proof Studio and Tim Foulds.
The Artist Proof Studio is a quality Art Education Centre that specializes in printmaking through a variety of diverse partnerships with creative young artists, established professional artists, community groups, patrons and funders.
Paul Molete
An unusual and sensitive curatorial process has brought together an eclectic mix of artists and methodologies. The exquisite ceramics of John Bauer, Christina Bryer and Katherine Glenday sit alongside the edgy, disquieting work of Dumisani Mabaso and Deborah Bell and the charming kitchen-sink-inspired prints of Zak Benjamin.
Dumisani Masabo
The ethereally delicate prints of David Koloane sit shoulder to shoulder with the lucid, limpid work of Charles Gassner. Some powerful and often disturbing work from Paul Molete and Colbert Mashile add further food for thought.
Deborah Bell
Look forward to a truly stunning array of work from some of South Africa’s most established and respected artists – with so many big names all together in one room this is a show to be visited more than once!
As the end of Nicolaas Maritz’s exhibition, Mermaids and Mountains, draws to a close we will be taking a closer look at the some of the themes this exhibition explores.
A portion of the work features a child-like dreamy version of Table Mountain, depicted in his characteristically vivid and unusual colours.
It seems as if Nicolaas Maritz has always painted the mountain. Since his first Table Mountain ‘post-card’ paintings of 1988/89, he has often re-visited the subject, each time looking at it with a fresh eye, and starting from a different point of view. This time round he is less concerned with the actual topography of this large piece of Cape rock, than with the emotive atmosphere created by different artistic colourings.
In a quirky and wry body of work, his mermaid paintings are certainly the epitome of his special brand of humour and artistic discourse.
With these quirky new works Maritz seems to investigate the thin sardonic line that exists visually, between figurative confrontation, and overt painterly aggression. Three artistic species of sublime mermaid is depicted, rural Swartland Mermaids, sophisticated Cape Mermaids and evanescent Darling Pond Maids.
As is customary with Maritz, there is a disturbing undercurrent of wry humour, something ambivalently demonic and possibly unwholesome present, all of which lends a pressing ‘moral’ and ‘modern’ aspect to the otherwise febrile pictorial aesthetic.
In Kalk Bay Modern’s current exhibition by Nicolaas Maritz, Mermaids and Mountains, we see examples of the artist’s three painting ‘themes’, namely those of mermaids, mountains and flowers.
Featured in this blog are some of the smaller and more intimate series of ‘Cape Lizardgy’ paintings - playful foreground lizard shapes encircle the vision of Table Mountain in the distance. Like good omens, these guarding reptilian presences act as auspicious cryptographic symbols of permanent and prevailing life; representing pre-historic, contemporary, and future existence on these southern mountains, as opposed to the quick ‘shutter snap’ encounter; the fleeting ‘few-second moment’ engagement of the passing tourist-consumer.
Make sure you schedule in a visit to the Kalk Bay Modern before the 25 July when this intriguing exhibition closes.
The Kalk Bay Modern has recently acquired some exciting new work by the artist Zak Benjamin.
The etchings featured in this blog, now part of the KBM collection, are intricate depictions of the most ordinary household scenes, naturally occurring still lives. There is however, something delightfully quirky about them, elevating them far and above a simple study. Their humbleness is the basis for an extremely genuine quality that, to me, seems to stem from a deep love of life and shrewd sense of humour.
Born in 1951 in Pretoria, the son of a typical Afrikaans family, Zak Benjamin’s artistic and spiritual path has led him to struggle enormously with the social systems he grew up under. Though at one point a member of the Voortrekker movement and the Nationalist Party Youth Movement, his deep seated Christian values could not coexist with the policies of the Nationalist Government.
He dropped out of University and spent the next few years doing odd jobs and living in Europe before returning to South Africa and university where he did a BA in Fine Arts.
In the mid 1980’s Zak experienced a profound religious conversion that led to his friendship with sculptor Gert Swart. Together they have worked on many projects, continually working through what it means to be committed Christians and contemporary artists.
In 1991 Zak was able to start working as a full time artist. His work is varied in theme, some involving a personal iconography set in fantasy, whilst others look into the simplest aspects of everyday life and unearth their subtle poignancy.
