(Detail from “Belongings”, a work by Bronwen Findlay)Former Durban artist Bronwen Findlay to appear on National Arts Festival main exhibition programme.
The forthcoming National Arts Festival visual arts programme includes former Durban artist Bronwen Findlay.
Matter and Treasure and Paint, celebrating Bronwen Findlay’s 30-year love affair with paint, is curated by Naomi Roux and presented by Wits Galleries. The show is dominated by three vast canvases, each six square metres.
Uninhibited, articulate and accomplished Nicholas Hlobo is every inch the contemporary artist of the industrial age. This 2009 Standard Bank Young Artist Award Winner presents Umtshotsho, a multi-media exploration of partying with a purpose. His fellow awardees over the past 25 years are showcased in a fascinating retrospective exhibition curated by Professor Alan Crump of the University of the Witwatersrand and Barbara Freemantle of the Standard Bank Gallery. Many of the winners have gone on to become major figures in the art world.
The art of photography always enjoy a special spotlight at the festival and this year is no exception.
Construct: Beyond the Documentary Photograph, curated by Heidi Erdmann and co-curated by Jacob Lebeko, features the work of ten unique artists who all challenge preconceptions in different ways. Works by Roger Ballen, Zander Blom, Lien Botha, Jacques Coetzer, Abrie Fourie, Nomusa Makhubu, Zwelethu Mthethwa, Barbara Wildenboer, Dale Yudelman and Bernie Searle are arranged to interact with one another as well as the audience.
A haunting 12-minute video is the centrepiece of Transitions by Paul Emmanuel who reflects on the rites of passage that mark key life-stages. He also presents five large photo-realist drawings, carefully etched into exposed photographic paper. Gillian Ruth de Vlieg was probably the only professional White woman photographer in the firing line during the apartheid struggle, and her collections of images, Rise Up!, brings a different and important perspective to a period largely documented by males. The exhibition is curated by Carol Brown and Jenny Stratton in collaboration with the Durban Art Gallery.
Celebrating the wealth of creativity in the festival’s home province, the Eastern Cape Art and Craft Exhibition includes work in a wide variety of media from rural and urban contexts. Collapsing the divide between installation and performance, Brett Bailey’s Blood Diamonds will happen in three unconventional sites during the Festival. Audiences can expect to be provoked and bemused while this internationally renowned avant-gardist pricks and tickles our consciences.
The National Arts Festival is sponsored by Standard Bank, The Eastern Cape Government, The National Arts Council, The National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund and The Sunday Independent. It runs from July 2 to 11, 2009, in Grahamstown. For more information visit www.nationalartsfestival.co.za
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