Cape art picks: January 13 2012
Simon Stone’s new series of paintings, Thrown Together, is an exploration of chance encounters. He uses an artistic language that is, by turns, digressive, obsessive, romantic and mundane.
“I do not think about meaning; it comes out in the end,” he says. “I spot something and I take it further.” Compositionally, the paintings are split and fragmented, with layers of hidden messages, coded symbols and cryptic gestures. Familiar landscapes undergo a transformation as Stone tilts the world as we know it, challenging our senses. His startled lone figures appear caught in the moment or suspended in time. Thrown Together is a deeply personal exhibition that restores the power of the familiar by rendering it uncanny.
SMAC Art Gallery Cape Town, Fin Art Building, corner of Buitengracht and Buitensingel streets, until January 31. Tel: 021 887 3607. Website: smacgallery.com.
■ Implemented Environments is one of a spate of recent group shows that explore the ecology and the environment from a South African perspective. Implemented Environments is an exhibition of contrasts, collisions and conversations. Hard-hitting, socially conscious depictions of township life by Zwelethu Mthethwa and Willie Bester are juxtaposed with Sean Slemon’s muted but menacing exploration of nature and urbanity. And Mohau Modisakeng’s dark, visceral meditations on history, environment and the body enter into an awkward dialogue with Jan van der Merwe’s disembodied, decayed histories.
Brundyn + Gonsalves, 71 Loop Street, until January 25. Tel: 021 424 5150. Website: brundyngonsalves.com.
