Art exhibitions not to miss
Follow up the excitement of last weekend’s Turbine Art Fair.
After the excitement of the RMB Turbine Art Fair last weekend, don’t think there’s not a lot to more to see.
The Art House
Death, Dreams & Dragqueens: An unusual body art event takes place tomorrow night as a once-off event at The Art House in Melville.
The night celebrates body art and the body as art, featuring an exhibition of body painting and make-up installation, photography, sculpture, stop-motion video and musical performances in an intoxicating social setting.
Live entertainment includes Hannah Foster and Joburg DJ Joy, but a definite highlight is the collaborative conceptual works by fashion designer and performer Herman Botha (best known as Ally Ooop, the drag queen who played Lady Gaga and gave birth to a Parktown Prawn in Die Antwoord’s Fatty Boom Boom music video) and artist Lila O’Donovan.
There’s also an exhibition of limited prints by photographers Jade Holing and Liane Kim.
R100 gets you in, and tickets are available from Quicket.
Pretoria Arts Association
An exhibition of paintings by Johan Steyn exploring endangered species is on at the gallery until August 7.
Art is intrinsically part of Steyn’s being – he was raised by the foremost batik artist in the country.
“While playing in his dad’s studio, the smell of art and paint seeped into the fibres of his being. “I think I could paint before I could talk,” he says.
He qualified as a die-sinker and engraver in 1992 and started his artistic career as a professional engraver at the SA Mint, where he designed and developed circulation and collector coins for several countries.
Nature is his greatest inspiration. “I live in a country where fauna and flora are abundant. Namibia’s virtual desolation begs to be committed to canvas. I find stimuli in South Africa’s east and west coasts,” he says.
His exhibition of endangered species was opened by Pieter van Heerden and runs until Tuesday, August 7 at noon.
The address is 173 Mackie Street, Nieuw Muckleneuk. Tel: 012-346-3100; artspta@mweb.co.za;www.artspta.co.za. Hours: Tuesday to Friday until 5.30pm; Saturday until 1pm and Sunday, August 5, from 10am to 1pm.
Absa Art Gallery
The changing face of South Africa and that of her people as the country journeys through its young democracy is revealed for all South Africans to see in the very moving solo exhibition. New Dispensation, by renowned local artist Pat Sithole.
The must-see exhibition comprises 30 pieces, including 20 pastel and acrylic works on canvas and board, and 10 sketches on paper.
New Dispensation is an introspective and reflexive project that focuses on the social conditions that many South Africans experience on a daily basis.
The exhibition draws on the emotions of sadness, pain and joy that individuals experience in their daily lives, and how these feelings motivate them to continue to strive for a better life and a better tomorrow.
“The pieces are mostly inspired by societal changes, memories and the lived experiences that various South Africans and South African communities have and use to construct and understand their daily reality,” says Sithole.
In drawing further on his own social surroundings, personal life and experience of living in a constantly changing South Africa, the works ultimately question notions of human endurance, emotion and position.
