KathrynSmith
65 Galway Road, Parkview, Johannesburg. Opening on September 28 at 6pm for a very short run, Carol Lee presents Incidental Landscapes, an exhibition of recent paintings and drawings by Carl Becker. Thereafter, it’s open all day on September 29 and 30 with viewing by appointment from October 1 to 3. Tel: 486 0526.
African Window (National Cultural History Museum), 149 Visagie Street, Pretoria. Pierneef: Master of Medium has been extended until the end of October. The show includes objects from his studio as well as art works. The Pretoria Weavers’ Guild celebrates 50 years of the guild’s existence with work by all its members. Ends September 30. Ancient Civilisations is a permanent display featuring artefacts from Peru, China and Egypt, as well as a Faiyum mummy. Tel: (012) 324 6082.
Alastair Findlay Showcase, opposite Franco’s restaurant, 54 Tyrone Avenue, Parkview. Isabel Thompson shows a sample of work from her current Goethe Institute exhibition. Tel: 486 2940.
Alliance Franaise, 17 Lower Park Drive (corner of Kerry Road), Parkview. The Jo’burgers by Patric de Mervelec features social portraits of Johannesburg residents. Ends September 22. Tel: 646 1169.
Art on Paper, 8 Main Road, Melville. Associated with the Artist’s Proof Studio, printmakers Nhlanhla Xaba, Osiah Masekoameng and Jacob Motsoane have been working together for some time promoting the original print as an accessible and affordable art form. Their exhibition ends on September 27. Tel: 726 2234.
Association of Arts Pretoria, 173 Mackie Street, Nieuw Muckleneuk, Pretoria. Wendy Malan shows a selection of paintings inspired by a recent stay in Spain and the idea or manifestation of duende, a mythical demonic creative spirit that sometimes possesses artists, leading to great work. Rudolph Vosser also shows new work. Both shows end on September 20. Karin Skawran speaks on Jackson Hlungwane on September 19 at 7pm. Tel: (012) 346 3100.
BCI Fine Art, 37 Wantage Road, Parkwood. Chinese and Japanese porcelain, jade, furniture and bronzes dating from the 7th to the 19th centuries are on view, curated by Susan Ollemans. Tel: 447 2608.
Bensusan Museum of Photography, 121 Bree Street, Newtown, Johannesburg. TJ Lemon, winner of the arts category at the World Press Photo Awards 2001, presents his photo essay on, among others, the private lives of men from Jeppe hostel. The show opens on September 16 at 4pm. Ends on October 28. Tel: 833 5624.
Camouflage Art.Culture. Politics, 140 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parkwood. Last days of the excellent MTN New Contemporaries Award, which is also the last show at this gallery. Ends September 15. Tel: 447 5461.
Department of fine and applied art, Technikon Pretoria, Building 9 (room G6), 24 Du Toit Street (corner of Struben Street), Pretoria. Carl Jeppe hosts an intensive figure-drawing workshop for beginners and experienced drawers from September 22 to 24. For more details or to book your place, call Jeppe on Tel: (012) 318 6143.
Florence International Biennale of Contemporary Art. The organisers are seeking entries from South Africa. Forms must be completed and sent to info@ artconnected.com by September 15 at the latest. This year’s show is to be held in Florence from December 7 to 16. Contact Larissa Cox at larissa@ artconnected.com for more information.
Gencor Gallery, Rand Afrikaans University, corner of Kingsway and University Road, Auckland Park. Carmina Burana: View of a Stage Production gives credit to the behind-the-scenes craftspeople whose work is not always acknowledged. The university’s production of the famous opera was an unprecedented success. First sketches, set models, costumes and the moveable elements of the set will be on display. Dr Ivan May opens the exhibition on September 19 at 6.30pm. Ends on September 26. Tel: 489 2608.
Goethe Institute, 119 Jan Smuts Avenue (corner of Newport Road). Isabel Thompson presents a collection of woodcut prints entitled Shukumisa “to shake” in Xhosa. The show opens on September 14 at 6.30pm. Ends on October 17. Website: homepages.acenet.co.za/ shukumisa. Tel: 442 3232.
Goodman Gallery, 163 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parkwood. Walter Oltmann and Peter Schtz show Saints, Bugs and ??. See Art Pick of the Week. Tel: 788 1113.
Graphiti Gallery, 78 Fourth Avenue, Melville. Cape Town-based animator and artist Peter Eastman shows a selection of paintings. Ends on September 29. Tel: 726 6058.
Innerspace Exhibitions, The Cloisters, corner of Ninth Avenue and Rivonia Boulevard, Rivonia. Zerk de Villiers shows an exhibition of what he calls meta-realistic paintings. Ends on September 23. Website: www.art4u.co.za or www. ndoroarts.com. Tel: 803 9944.
Johan Smith Art Gallery, corner of Duncan and Marais streets, Brooklyn, Pretoria. Johan Smith shows new paintings until September 22. Visit the artist’s website at www.johansmith. co.za. Tel:(012) 346 2427.
Little Louvre, 69 Eleventh Street, Parkhurst. Bodies, Movement, Solitude is an exhibition by Rob Mills, Conni Beaumont and Trevor Kobrin that explores these themes photographically. Ends September 29. Tel: 327 1384.
Millennium Gallery, 75 George Storrar Drive, Groenkloof, Pretoria. Toni-Anne Ballenden presents Inside Outside the House, mixed-media “diary images” integrated with work done in art therapy. Ends on September 21. Tel: (012) 46 8217.
Millennium II, 19 Jellicoe Avenue (corner of Bath Avenue), Rosebank. (to be) FRANK, an exhibition by Clifford Charles, Samson Mnisi and Sandile Zulu, takes the form of a cultural metaphor, exposing art practice to the ambiguity of defining a local aesthetic that has nothing to do with technical aspirations or specific media. It opens on Saturday September 22 at 6.30pm. Ends on October 13. Tel: 880 5270.
Manor Gallery, Watercolour Society of South Africa, Norscot Manor Centre, Penguin Drive, Fourways. Places features work by a selection of artists in a variety of styles focusing on cityscapes, skylines, domestic environments and historical buildings. Ends on September 16. Website: www.wssa.org.za. Tel: 465 7934.
MuseuMAfricA, 121 Bree Street, Newtown. POW: Arts and Crafts 1900-1902 is an exhibition of art works and handicrafts produced by prisoners of war during the Anglo-Boer South African War. Tel: 833 5624.
Open Window Art Gallery, 410 Rigel Avenue, Erasmusrand, Pretoria. Observations features works by Wilma Cruise, Guy du Toit and Diane Victor. Ends on September 29. The gallery is also offering art-appreciation evenings. Booking is essential. Tel: (012) 347 1740.
PhotoZA, The Mews, Rosebank. Acclaimed photographer Jrgen Schadeberg shows a selection of historical and contemporary photographs. Ends October 5. Tel: 082 533 7143.
Pretoria Art Museum, corner of Schoeman and Wessels streets, Arcadia. Ceramics Now, the annual exhibition by South African potters and ceramicists, runs alongside China Today: Modern Development of an Ancient Art, an exhibition of contemporary Chinese ceramics. The Chinese show will tour to Cape Town and should be a treat. Ends on Sunday September 23. Tel: (012) 344 1807/8.
Spark!, 10 Louis Road, Orchards. Nuno da Cruz shows Sunrise, an exhibition that interrogates the relationship between Gautengers and our modernist architecture. Ends on September 16. Website: www.nunodacruz. com. Tel: 485 4602.
Standard Bank Gallery, corner of Simmonds and Frederick streets, Johannesburg. Threads is a fabulous exhibition featuring work by Bronwen Findlay, Daina Mabunda and Faiza Galdhari in the main space.Downstairs, Mandla Mabila shows a collection of powerful, autobiographical paintings entitled From Where I am Sitting. Ends on September 15. Tel: 636 4231.
Tina Skukan Gallery, Plot 6, Koedoeberg Road, Faerie Glen, Pretoria. Retha Buitendach presents Terra Incognita, an exhibition of paintings and three- dimensional works. Until September 20. Tel: (012) 991 1733.
Vega, Orbit Crescent (off Benmore Road), Sandton. NERVE is an exhibition by lecturers (also known as navigators) at the Vega Brand Communications School. Touted as the best school of its kind, the lecturers now get a chance to put their money where their collective mouth is. Until September 21. Tel: 883 0130.
Voortrekker monument and Heritage Site Art Gallery, Pretoria. Forty-one artists show works produced in under four hours on Youth Day 2001 and donated to the Artists for Children in Distress project. The works will be sold to benefit Destiny Child Care Action. Website:www. khulumani.co.za/artists. Ends on September 30. Tel: (012) 326 6770.
Unisa Gallery, Theo van Wijk building, Unisa main campus, Pretoria. Land features work by some of South Africa’s best-known contemporary artists alongside pieces from the Unisa art collection. Ends on October 26. Tel: (012) 429 6255.
Art pick of the week
Saints, Bugs and ??
Goodman Gallery
Until October 6
Walter Oltmann and Peter Schtz are the perfect two-person show couple local art-world legends who manage to marry finely tuned technique with conceptual gravitas, with their tongues firmly planted in their cheeks. It’s a recipe that always delivers exhibitions of visual magic that make you want to rush up to the gallery owner and say, “I’ll have one of each, please!”
Oltmann is the Standard Bank Young Artist Award winner for 2001, celebrated for his labour-intensive, fantastical wire-woven creatures and flowers, which refer to the domestic sphere as well as scientific scrutiny and dissection. Playing with scale and techniques of lace-making, weaving and embroidery translated into wire, Oltmann says: “Enlarged and displayed like trophies or specimens, the insects and flowers become both comic and disquieting, attractive and repulsive or threatening. The metallic sheen and articulated surfaces give the works devotional or iconic auras that elevate the ordinary and suggests the possibility of transformation.”
Picking up on this, Schtz gives us more of his quirky incarnations of saints and dumb-waiter figures in brightly coloured carved wood. Rooted in Western religious art and colonial politics, the work recognises the reciprocal relationship between power and morality by bringing together icons of the sacred and the secular.
Join the artists for opening drinks at the Goodman Gallery at noon on Saturday September 15. You’d be a fool to miss this one. For more information on the exhibition callTel: 788 1113. Kathryn Smith