(Pic: “Domestic Farming” by Welcome Danca))Exhibition of landscape paintings by Welcome Danca at African Art Centre.
Durban’s African Art Centre are currently hosting an exhibition of Welcome Danca’s latest landscape paintings. The show serves to fulfil the undertaking of the African Art Centre as an organization to empower young artists from underprivileged communities by offering a platform of exposure through art exhibitions.
Welcome Danca is an active young artist who is gradually gaining reputation through undeterred participation in art-related activities. His talent evolved while in high school under the mentorship of the renowned late visual artist Trevor Makhoba. Danca fondly recalls the delicate moments of art classes held under mango trees at Umlazi, where he first began paving way towards his art career. This artist’s particular interest has been the landscape paintings in which the theme of memory interfaced but was often not acknowledged as a crucial entity in his work.
Danca has ventured into the threshold of personal language expressed and interfaced in landscape scenery, largely extracted from rural childhood home in Port Shepstone. Crucial to the exhibited scenery is how each piece invites personal encounter allowing the viewer to venture into a land beyond the actual landscape surface.
The concept of memory has been delicately dispensed in Memory through the window (1,2 & 3) where viewers are allowed to gaze beyond the window into distant hazy landscape scenes. This feature is reminiscent of the manner in which memories exist as fragments and apertures to which we reflect back. Danca has explored landscapes of his former and current surroundings but was able to invite our participation in taking the journey beyond the painted surface. The nostalgic nature of the work engages our attention enabling us to project personal meaning to each exhibited piece.
The quality of memory is also heightened by the evocation of gradual erasure of recollected facts manifest in peeling crusts of dry paint, the dark dreary walls and the distant landscapes. We are confronted with walls of a dilapidated house; we all look through its window and access the artist precious recollection. This series of landscapes question the reason behind the artist’s move from Port Shepstone - was it forceful movement, and was it violence that forced the artist to evacuate his treasured hometown.
“Conceptually I explore my personal memories, specifically focusing at my rural childhood,” explains Welcome Danca. “I look at how these memories influence the manner in which I respond to my most immediate space, the urban space. I look at myself as a child growing up from a rural area, the delicate family moments and at how my current urban lifestyle contrasts with my childhood. I revisit precious family moments and try to re-experience them as if they are tangible memories; I beckon the viewer to embark on my personal journey of self discovery.”
Welcome Danca’s expertise in art and concise presentation of the landscape genre was acknowledged when he was awarded the first prize on the START Art Nivea Award in 2005 and has been a finalist in the prestigious ABSA L'Atelier Award Competition in 2008-9.
More information from the African Art Centre in Florida Road on 031 312 3805/4 or email: africanartcentre@afri-art.co.za
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