south african art

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19 February 2006 by nathaniel

Happy 3rd b-day, blog!

No sh!t. Tomorrow, the NAN blog is three years old! As I write this, we are at “1,010 posts and 393 comments, contained within 25 categories.” On February 20th, 2003, I started using blogger in a frame on the front page of this (back then, a very different) site, to say, in my very first post:

So, I decided to take a leaf out of the books of josh and jonah and start a weblog on my site. This is the first week of the class I’m lecturing at MCAD, and things are looking good so far. In other news, odys, Nathaniel, hektor, x goes up in Cape Town on Saturday and [odys]elicit has been selected as an exhibition piece for The Chiangmai First New Media Art Festival [note: used to link, but now dead], Thailand. More to come…

Funny, Josh never really updated his blog (like, three times in 3 years) and Jonah, at that point, really just used it for news in a pop-up (and later down the road started the awesome Coin-Op blog, tho this has taken a back seat to his other great writings for more popular web sites). But hey, I didn’t know, and wanted to join (what I perceived to be) the cool club! Art Fag City says that, “2004 saw the rise of blogs in popular mainstream media, but the art community has started to see this medium explode only recently,” and MTAA-RR also only celebrated its 3rd b-day this month, so I am Mos Def an Innovator (early 2003! do I get double points for being in SA, and kind of still being the only art blogger?) and am undoubtedly in good company. (Shout out to Tim – the ‘T’ in MTAA – wazzup?) I win. W00+.

Some highlights of blogging here have been, I think:

Not bad for a three year run, and as I said in the very first post, More to come….

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18 February 2006 by nathaniel

Kentridge, Subotzky, Siebrits

Mikhael Subotzky, from Die Vier Hoeke and Umjiegwana
Mikhael Subotzky, from Die Vier Hoeke and Umjiegwana

Hit up the William Kentridge book launch – William Kentridge Prints – at David Krut this morning, and got a fresh start of drinking wine before noon. W00+! A beautiful book, some nice text, and an interesting opening by drama academic Jane Taylor, who William said finally explained to him what he was doing. Mostly dry humor and appreciative verbiage, she treated the prints, and the new book, as an intertext to the history of printmaking…

By her prompting, and after a chat with Michael McGarry, I headed over to the Mikhael Subotzky exhibition at the Goodman. The goods: some riveting prints with a lot of power were present, and I’ve no doubts that this young artist is going places, especially in a world desperate for more political work from from the New South Africa.  The bads: terrible frames (I know, young artists need money!), and perhaps too many images – I think maybe 1/3 less the current amount would have done the trick. The uglies: nothing – strong solo.

Also stopped by Warren Siebrits to see his Prints and Multiples III, a group exhibition, some local and international stuff, including Moffatt, Warhol, Beuys, Edmunds, Battiss and several other Rorke’s Drift artists.

Some good shows – worth a visit to the gallery strip….

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14 February 2006 by nathaniel

Gordart and the Project Room

from Laure Djourado, Metaphysique du lien
from Laure Djourado’s Metaphysique du lien

So after my illness, my trip, and all my busy bees  of bumbly beginnings in the new year, I’m finally starting to emerge again and cover artwork in Jozi a bit more. My guest bloggers, it seems, have mostly deserted me (I’m still, and always, open for more, if you want to cover art or the like in your area!), but I’m still trucking…

On Sunday, I hit the Gordart opening of  UPS and DOWNS (Susan Jowell and Ellen Papciak-Rose) in Melville. Lots of red and green stickers on paintings and prints that have a formula like:

(quirky + fun) * ((Kieth Haring – AIDS) || (Cubism + dogs)) * (domestic + mom)2

I had missed Gordon’s opening of his project room the week before – very exciting, this space is for short, 2-week exhibitions of artists who’ve shown little (or not at all) in Johannesburg. He starts with  Laure Djourado’s Metaphysique du lien from Paris. These are also very fun and interesting and sexy and new – a nice juxtaposition with the aforementioned. The G-man and I spoke about a second potential Project Room that can be for on-the-fly art (this one is already booked for the whole year!), and perhaps a connection between it and SAartsEmerging.

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12 February 2006 by nathaniel

Rhona Gorvy @ the new Art on Paper

For those of you who have not heard, Art on Paper has moved into 44 Stanley; a newly renovated ex-Franchise is looking fab with all kinds of nooks and crannies for prints and marks… Admittedly, I always thought this space was a bit big, and the art tended to sometimes get lost in it, but it’s already working better than before at its launch, and I’ve no doubts that as time goes on the AoP gallerists will figure the best ways to enhance the work.  The space itself is, as always, stunning….

Denigration, from The Dream and The Abuse. Rhona Gorvy. Pic by Daniel Hirschmann
Denigration, from The Dream and The Abuse. Rhona Gorvy. Pic by Daniel Hirschmann

Rhona Gorvy has been quietly producing loud prints (etchings, aquatints, drypoints, the list goes on…) for over forty years, and her grandson (none other than Daniel Hirshmann, recently featured on this blog and at Upgrade! Johannesburg), decided it was time for a solo show.  He spent approximately one year sifting through piles of gems (he related to me a story, in fact, of finding a Kentridge print in with his grandmother’s at some point – turns out she had done some workshops with him) simultaneously reminiscing, curating and constructing a representative body of work. Gorvy’s prints are mostly surrealist in nature, with strong narrative components that tend to question (at least to my eye) structures of power: religion, government, race and gender. Recommended.

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11 February 2006 by nathaniel

Daniel Hirschmann @ Upgrade! Joburg

Upgrade! Joburg 1 - the crowdAs you can see, our first Upgrade! here in Johannesburg was a huge success! Nice big attendance for a Soiree (upgraded), and there was general excitement around being plugged in to a global network of artists and curators, about MTAA and turbulence.org‘s upcoming virtual and physical visitations to our space, respectively.

Hirsch mostly talked about his experiences at Benetton’s creative industry venture, Fabrica. It was interesting to hear about the importance of networking, proposal-writing, quality images and representation of not-yet-formed projects… It was comforting to know that creative industry, like the art world, is also largely based on who you know and how you know them.

Of course, Daniel also spoke about his work in Nice, his upcoming show at the Pompidou, and some of the projects he proposed that may one day yet get produced. Mostly, his energy, can-do attitude, excitable charm and technical know-how made the day – a personality that kept us all on our toes….

Upgrade! Joburg 1 - Daniel Hirschmann
Daniel Hisrchmann @ Digital Arts, WSOA. photo credits: me

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