/ 27 May 2003

Art and Urbanisation

Warren Siebrits is consistently revealing himself to be a treasure of the South African art world, curating exhibitions that museums should be fighting over to host and producing catalogues that are destined to become seminal reference points for scholars of modern and contemporary South African art. As museums struggle to reinvent themselves in a climate not that sympathetic to arts and culture, experienced and independent dealer Siebrits has an enormous amount of agency, successfully pulling together the worlds of commercial art dealing and academic and research-based curating. As such, his gallery plays a vital role in showing the complex relationships between visual art, history and economy. His current exhibition, Art and Urbanisation, looks at the reasons for the African population in South Africa being urbanised, a process intrinsically bound to the migrant labour system. Through work by some of South Africa’s pioneering black artists, including Gerard Sekoto, Andrew Motjuoadi, Lucas Sithole, Gerard Bhengu, George Pemba, Ephraim Ngatane, Durant Sihlali, Ezrom Legae, Dumile Feni and Julian Motau, the effects of urbanisation are played out visually and creatively in images that run the gamut from aesthetic and harrowing to romantic and arresting in equal measure. A beautifully illustrated and richly researched catalogue accompanies the show, in a limited edition of 500 copies. Exhibition runs until June 9Tel: 327 0000