Fringe-Artists
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Mlamuli Mkhwanazi ARTWORK STATEMENT Isithunywa sedlozi (Messenger for the Ancestors) This is a self portrait of the artist showing himself as the conduit between the spiritual and the earthly worlds. He is placing himself in the role of a shaman and the red nose suggests the power of smell which is needed to communicate with the other world. Inyangas and Sangomas burn imphepo to achieve a trance-like state. The red marks are also important in expressing this state as red is often seen as a healing color and represents the power of transformation. Derrick Nxumalo ARTWORK STATEMENT Nxumalo is self-trained and has developed a unique style His work is based on acute observation, often omitting the physical human presence. The omission of the human presence often presents a surreal effect, with meticulously aexecuted fine architectural details deployed with an understanding of perspective and colour in its purest form. He creates environments which are imaginary and yet also real. His characteristically long paintings (up to 13 metres) are often worked over a period of a least 10 years demonstrating a commitment to his art. BIO Born: Umzinto, 1962. Lives and works in Kwa-Dumisa. Major exhibitions: Cape Town Triennial; Elizabeth Gordon Gallery, Durban Art Gallery and The African Art Centre, in Durban; Standard Bank Arts Festival; Zabalaza Art Festival, Oxford, UK; The Arnolfi Gallery, London; L’Altra Contemporanea; Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg. Public Collections : The Office of the Premier- KZN, the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban, the Durban Art Gallery, High Museum Atlanta Jeremy Wafer BIO He is professor of fine art at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. His work engages with the politics and poetics of space and place and with mapping the social, cultural and political geography of South Africa. He is the winner of a number of awards, including the Sasol Wax Art Award (2007), and has had fellowships at the Civitella Ranieri, Italy, the Thami Mnyele Foundation, Amsterdam, the Ampersand Foundation, New York, and with the South Project in Melbourne in 2005. He has completed public commissions for the Gugu Dlamini Park, Durban, and the International Convention Centre, Durban, amongst others. He was Visiting Artist at Monash University, Melbourne in 2012. Public Collections: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, Iziko South African National Gallery, the Johannesburg Art Gallery and many other museum, private and corporate collections. His work is currently featured in the South African Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2015. Jeannette Unite BIO Her practice has, for nearly two decades, been centred on a visual interrogation of mining’s rich and contentious heritage world-wide. Her life on Africa’s West Coast alluvial diamond mining prospects with earth- scientists in the 1990s presented an entirely new way of looking at the earth. It also led to her using paint, which she made from debris from mining such as titanium, slags, and other residue from 25 countries. These metal elements are organised in ‘periodic tables’ and then incorporated into pastels and paint used in artworks to draw attention to the paradoxes inherent in mining and the industrial sublime. Wonder Buhle Mbambo BIO Born in 1989, Wonder is a Durban based visual artist from Kwa-Ngcolosi.. Mbambo received his first formal training through the BAT Centre Artists in Residency (AIR) Program after which he studied fine art through the Velobala apprenticeship program at Durban University of Technology. Mbambo has participated in various art workshops and exhibited in galleries nationally as well as in Bremen, Germany in 2012. His local exhibitions include 20/20 – A Clearer Vision Unisa Art Gallery 2014; Blowing n the Wind – KZNSA Gallery and University of Free State 2015, Emerging Eyes – African Art Centre 2013. His work is in the permanent collection of the Durban Art Gallery. He works with charcoal, soft pastel and acrylic paint on Fabriano and canvas to articulate his ideas. He currently works at the Bat Centre and will shortly be taking up a residency in China. Vulindlela Philani Elliott Nyoni BIO Vulindlela Nyoni was born in Chilimanzi, Zimbabwe in 1976 and attained a Masters in Fine Arts from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in 2006. His Masters thesis was entitled “Representations of ‘other’ in selected South African artworks: Re-membering the black male body”. Prior to moving to Stellenbosch, Nyoni was the Academic Coordinator of the Centre for Visual Art, University of KwaZulu-Natal (Pietermaritzburg). Apart from being a practicing artist, Nyoni also lectures in Printmaking and Drawing at the University of Stellenbosch. ARTIST STATEMENT - Icarus “Conceptually I have always been fascinated by human behavior and personal narrative. This piece arose out of this fascination but more so with my preoccupation with the ‘group mentality/individual thought’ dialectic using Icarus as a metaphor for the individual who has chosen to go out on a limb. Agency and negotiations of agency is key to myself understanding the nature of human interpersonal relationships. Of course this dialectic extends to processes of identity formation, cultural identifiers, history and history making as an individual pursuit and not so much wholly dependent on the group. Tim Motsomi Bio Modisa Tim Motsomi (b. 1990) is based in KwaZulu-Natal and works between South Africa and Botswana. Motsomi’s works concern identity discourse as a migrant. He has featured in numerous exhibitions in South Africa and abroad (Kenya, China and the United Kingdom). He is currently completing his MA (Fine Art) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Pietermaritzburg. ARTIST STATEMENT - The Vikare (Greek for Icarus) series: “The series of images emphasises my interest in materiality and the liminal space between beauty and homeliness, loss and gain, fragility and strength, self and 'other', fact and truth and how these polarities can give insight to the development of both personal narratives and shared narratives. I take aesthetic references from documentations of African rituals as a means of reflecting symbolic gestures relating to rites of passage. I use my own body as a tool to reflect the act of ‘remembering’.” Andrew Verster BIO Andrew Verster is one of South Africa’s foremost artists who has been exhibiting and making art for sixty years. Born in Johannesburg in 1937, he moved to Durban in the 1960’s and his work has become synonymous with the city. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Technology, Durban for his contribution to art. He was one of the first artists in the country to openly express a gay identity in his art. His art is also rooted in a strong sense of place based on the sub- tropical foliage and environment in which he lives. India has also been a source of inspiration. Wayne Barker BIO Wayne was born in Pretoria, South Africa, in 1963. He completed his education with a Postgraduate Degree (Fine Art) at the Ecole des Beux Art, Luminy, in Marseille in 1998. He took a BA (Fine Art), Michaelis, at the University of Cape Town in 1984. In 1981 he took his Diploma in Fine Art, at Technikon Pretoria. He won the Volkskas Atelier, Merit award winner, 1998 and in 1992 Wayne Barker has been involved in numerous projects, symposiums and workshops, involving academics, artists as well as children and communities. Wayne Barker founded the Famous International Gallery, South Africa, 1989- 1995. He has been working in collaboration with beadmakers for several years who translate his artwork into beads. Selected Art Fair representation. 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, Pioneer Works, New York , Somerset House, London (2013 and 2014). Also Art Élysées Paris, London Art 13, Dubai Art Fair, Sydney Art Fair, Johannesburg Art Fair , India Art Fair, New Delhi, 1997 Frankfurt Art Fair, Frank Hanel Gallery, Frankfurt Mthobisi Maphumulo BIO I was born in 1988 September 9 at IMfume (South Coast). When I was at school I wanted to study Art but I was encouraged to study Electrical Engineering. I dropped out after 2 years to pursue my passion for art. ARTIST STATEMENT My work criticizes the social construction of our communities. I am interested in unpacking inhumane process involve in the construction and socialization of human stratification from lower class and upper class. Through my work I also revisit our colonial history as a point of reference in order to challenge the residue of the colonial past because I fell it still infringes majority on our present life. My work is also an exploration into different medium such as wood cut, oil pastel and mono prints. Its mixed medium qualities are also to some extent an extension of the negotiates between the subject; the human element and the tactility in the material choices such as the fragility and the looseness of mono prints which for me resonates with the quality we find in our immediate environment. .