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
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.
