Ninetta Steer. (Lower Gallery) 18-29 October, Print, ceramics and mixed media by Lydia Holmes and Janice Mendelowitz. 36 Bird Street, P.E. T. 041 585 3641
Eastern Cape East London Ann Bryant Gallery The Main Gallery 07-23 October, “Space” by Lynette ten Krooden. Oil paintings on canvas, gold leaf and hand- made paper and a new series of sand and resin on canvas. Opening 07 October @ 6:30pm. 02-12 November, Walter Sisulu University B-tech degree Graduation exhibition, Group exhibition of oil paintings, and mixed media works by students from Walter Sisulu University. Opening 2 November @ 6:30pm. The Coach House 30 September-16 October, A Solo Exhibition by Chanelle Staude. Exhibition of oil paintings of Eastern Cape landscapes 21 October- 06 November, Solo Exhibition by Liz Sanchez. Paper Mache Sculpture, Oil painting, Ceramics and Fibre Art. Opening 21 October @ 6:30pm. 11-27 November, Solo exhibition of mainly woodblock prints with the original woodblock by Jeff Rankin. Opening Thursday 11 November @ 6:30pm. 9 St. Marks Rd, Southernwood, East London. T. 043 722 4044 annbryan@intekom.co.za www.annbryant.co.za
and Japanese collections.) 1 Park Drive, Port Elizabeth. T. 041 506 2000 www.artmuseum.co.za Ron Belling Art Gallery 21 September-08 October, “Face to face: intimate conversations with 25 PE(ople)” photography and interview by Sandy Coffey. 12-29 October, “Children of PE.” 30 Park drive, Port Elizabeth. T. 041-586 3973 ronbelling@mweb.co.za www.ronbelling.co.za
Montage Gallery Mid October-Mid November, “fine art sale”, in the run-up to the end of the year period, as an early boost for art lovers. The idea is to entice artists to clear out their studio’s by offering their work at reduced prices, and a number of well-known names have already pledged their support. 59 Main Road, Walmer, Port Elizabeth. T. 041 581 2893 montage1@iafrica.com www.montagegallery.co.za
Northern Cape Kimberly
Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum Permanent exhibition, “Art in Mind” Until 10 October, “Ubuhle bentsimbi: The beauty of beads” 15 October-05 December, “RE.SPONSE” Lecturers, students and Alumni from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University School of Music, Art and Design were challenged to produce artworks in response to selected works from the Art Museum’s Permanent Collection. This exhibition showcases these interpretations together with the original artworks. 23 October-12 December, “Fauna and Flora” Images and ceramics. (Artworks include a selection from the print portfolio “Art meets science: flowers as images” produced at The Caversham Press. Artists selected include Vusimusi (Derek) Nxumalo, Douglas Goode, John Manning and famous early South African 20th Century artists Hugo Naude and Irma Stern, will be featured together with ceramics produced at Ardmore Studio and a selection of Hilton Nel’s ceramic cats. Textiles from the Art Museum’s Chinese collection will also be displayed, alongside prints from the Indian
Port Elizabeth Epsac Gallery 17 September-01 October, a solo exhibition by Jennifer Crooks. (Lower Gallery) 05-15 October, Retrospective solo exhibition by
William Humphreys Art Gallery 14-24 October, Works by Grade 12 learners from the Kimberley Art Centre. 21–24 October, Travelling exhibition and outreach project – Richmond Book Festival. 27 October–15 November, Exhibition of works by lecturers of the University of KwaZulu Natal. Work on display from the William Humphreys Art Gallery Collection: Peter Clarke; New acquisitions from the Eastern Cape; Alan Grobler – linocut prints from Port Elizabeth; Contemporary South African Ceramics. Civic Centre, Cullinan Crescent, Kimberley. T. 053 831 1724 artmuseum@whag.co.za www.whag.co.za
Art Review
Jennifer Crooks - Fabric Works activity, the construction of fabric based art works are a labour- intensive activity. In itself, it is a meditative act requiring many hours to structure, arrange and complete each piece. Jennifer Crooks is a Port Elizabeth artist who has reexamined the way in which conventional approaches more suited to painting can be translated into images made from fabric, lace, beads and sequins. Her images are a fusion of her practical skills with her main activity as a landscape painter in which she develops single themes, placing them in a new dimension which is neither painting nor artifact. The process is the continuation of a life-long interest in plant form which she has always used as basic subject matter from the time she was a Rhodes University student in the late 1960’s. Trained at the height of the Grahamstown Group (of which she is a founder member) she was one of a handful of women who fought to establish her female identity at a school which was dominated by strong male personalities. Early oils and water colours show that she used flowers and organic plant forms in an intuitive attempt to explore the sensuous aspect of not only the paint medium but also as subject matter which could provide a vehicle for her need to express sensual aspects of her personality. Her sensibilities were that of a romantic in search of a tactile visual language which would express not only external aspects of landscape but
Jeanne Wright Images constructed from fabric and embellished with needlework have always been considered to be women’s work. There are many traditional female textile arts which include quilt making, beading, weaving, sewing and embroidery, most of which have their origins lodged in the domestic arts rather than the pure fine arts. However, in modern times with art works like Judy Chicago’s 1979 feminist statement “The Dinner Party” and recently, Tracey Emin’s notorious bed images with their intimate revelations of sexuality and private matters, the boundaries have blurred and textiles as an art form have entered the arena of high art. Essentially a pragmatic hands-on 38
also internal aspects of her emotional life. She recalls collecting seed pods and vegetal shapes to use as subjects to be placed in the context of her landscape paintings. Male sexuality is visual and literal. The female equivalent tends to be more comfortably expressed in narrative form, so over a period of years she developed a painting language which translated as textures, opulent colour and soft and hard forms used contrapuntally forming a coded personal erotic lexicography of metaphors for sexuality. In the Rhodes library, as a student, she discovered an 18th century portfolio of botanical illustrators which was to inspire and form her approach to plant forms as erotic subject matter in landscape. The subjects she chooses are simple themes of flowers, plant forms, birds and animals as well as autobiographical fragments from incidents in her own life.
Abjuring to the concept which author Linda Grant humorously declaims as … “being integrated above and below the waistline”, Crooks approaches her work with the minimum of fuss and intellectualization and the images are simple and forma. Large and small beads are used everywhere to define shapes, and as embellishment detail and every surface in her works coruscates with the shimmering textures of sequins, iridescence and opalescence, the gauziness of sheer fabrics, crisp lace and matt and intense velvets.
SA Art Times | October 2010