(“African
Constellation” acrylic on canvas by Thami Jali)
Thami Jali : Restless
Spirit is an exhibition curated by Jenny Stretton from the Durban Art
Gallery which has just opened in the Main Exhibition Room of the Tatham Art
Gallery in Pietermaritzburg. The exhibition runs until November 2 at 17h00.
The exhibition celebrates this major KwaZulu-Natal artist
who hails from Durban. Thami Jali’s story is so much about South Africa’s recent
past: the fractured nation, its diverse cultures, seemingly endless journeys
and the hunger for an authentic artistic home. His life and work speaks of the
pain and triumph of South Africa, and is intensely human and direct whilst
maintaining a complex intellectual underpinning. He renders work about the
grim, cold realities of the street that is optimistic and emotionally balanced.
The work is beautiful, it buzzes in a way that marks it as current,
contemporary, and demands the viewer’s attention.
Jali is obsessed with structures: the artist returns time
and time again to buildings, ruins, old shipping containers through which the
artist peers, against which he crouches and to which he points in rage or sorrow.
The constructions are never obvious metaphors but lead us inevitably to
consider the structures we’ve been part of for most of our lives as South
Africans.
The Tatham will host four Thami Jali Workshops - two
Print-making workshops and two Pastel Drawing workshops. These will take place
in the Tatham Art Gallery on September
27 and October 4 from 09h00 to 12h00 Cost R60 per day
Booking is
essential as numbers are limited. Bookings
through Pinky.Nkabinde@msunduzi.gov.za or 033
392 2811 or Reena.Bhoodram@msunduzi.gov.za on 033 392 2823
Secure parking is available in the new parking lot on the parliament
side of the gallery in Chief Albert Luthuli (Commercial) Street.
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