Your complete guide to Jo’burg’s Spring Art Tour

Johannesburg SPRING ART TOUR 2009

October 08: Gallery openings at 6pm

Goodman Gallery
163 Jan Smuts Ave, Rosebank
011-788 1113
www.goodman-gallery.com
Goodman Gallery presents Absent Fields, the sixth solo exhibition by Marco Cianfanelli. He is described as an artist who works across the public and private realms, thinking of the world more in terms of systems than discrete objects or fenced off territories of engagement.

Central to the show is the artist’s attempt to give shape to the convergence of multiple kinds of data, knowledge and experience, asserting the interrelatedness of all things. He explores social hierarchies and channels of consumption and their relationship with aspects of human desire, value, and beauty.

Cianfanelli’s work encompasses a vast variety of media and materials, from burnt mielie skins and sculpted sea sand to laser cut materials, masked glass and digital imaging. He unites computer-aided design and technology with more visceral organic aspects of the material he works with. He also experiments with physical acts like the slinging of muddy pigment or the branding of animal hides.

Johannesburg Art Gallery
King George Street, between Wolmarans and Noord Streets Joubert Park
011-725 3130
Us is an exhibition featuring new work by both young and established local and international artists. It’s themes focus on group identity: national, cultural, class, gender, sexual or racial.

The show emerges out of the context of the xenophobic violence of last year, as well as the ripple effects of the world economic crisis. It explores how the substance of any Us is often not fixed, but constantly shifting, fluid and unstable. Taking place at two venues, the show opens with a daring and original selection of new performance work, sculptural installation, painting and photography, each exploring a point of view.

Us is curated by Simon Njami, founding editor of Revue Noir and curator of Africa Remix, and Bettina Malcomess, a writer and artist.

The show takes place in partnership with the Goethe Institute, Pro Helvetia, and the Goodman Gallery.

GoetheOnMain
Arts on Main, 245 Main Street (corner Berea Street)
Maboneng District, Doornfontein, JHB
Borders was conceptualised by the Goethe-Institut to form part of the series of events titled Cracking Walls. It commemorates the 20-year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, but also considers South Africa’s fifteen year old democracy. The exhibition will deal with issues around inclusion, exclusion and walls in South Africa, which speak of a fragmented society. The work on show was produced by young photographers at the Market Photo Workshop, who worked with mentors Mikhael Subotzky, John Fleetwood and others.

Everard Read, Johannesburg
6 Jellicoe Ave Rosebank
011-788 4805
[email protected]
The gallery has prepared an exhibition of work by two artists, Walter Voigt and Carl Becker. The show is held together by the artists’ mutual interest in landscapes.

Harold Voigt’s oeuvre encompasses landscapes, abstract works and the human figure. He concentrates on textural qualities, light and colour. He works in a wide range of mixed-media techniques incorporating sand, marble dust, wax and oil. His series include The Animal in Africa (1974), The African Landscape (1975-79), The Female Figure (1986). From 1986 he has created abstract work derived from the colours and textures of Africa.

Carl Becker dispatches the political activism of his youth into art. His work involves ironic and symbolic pictorial treatments of Johannesburg mines and the surrounding wastelands, which embody the essential mythology of this entire city. Becker uses oils to create beautiful colour effects. He creates gentle and beautiful points of transition into moments of brightness where the colour seems to sing. The result is unusual; rich but quiet.

Gallery MOMO
52, 7th Avenue, Parktown North
011-327 3247
www.gallerymomo.com
Murder on 7th is a solo show by Gabrielle Goliath. It explores South African’s collective neurosis by highlighting how even the most ordinary and normal interactions in our suburbs are infused with paranoia and worry — of crime and other forms of disorder. The show draws upon and plays with the murder mystery “whodunnit” tradition.

CCTV-like images or visual stations of various rooms (kitchen, dining room, bathroom), are presented as potential crime scenes to be investigated by the viewer. The CCTV implies a general sense of insecurity, and suggests that the viewer is spying on these private worlds — not viewing, but investigating.

Each station is accompanied by a floor panel suited to the room in question: parquet, tiles and linoleum. Standing on the floor panel and looking up into the CCTV-structure of the room, the viewer participates and is drawn in.

The exhibition also a video piece and ceiling-mounted chandelier-like structural installations.

David Krut Projects
142 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parkwood
011 447 0627
www.davidkrut.com
David Krut Projects will present Patmos and the War at Sea by Alastair Whitton. Through this show Whitton endeavours to force the viewer to work a little harder for their education. He cuts against the grain in the age where enlightenment is realised by the mere click of a search button.

Whitton reflects on language and interpretation; and our ways of seeing — or our failure to see — parallel worlds and landscapes. His process of concealing and revealing alludes to parables that always only partly reveal their message. Laser-cut Braille texts recall the World War II Enigma machine used for decoding secret transcripts. Whitton seems to be suggesting to the viewer that the key to transcendence lies in the deciphering of the messages that, if we are sensitive, we will see all around us.

Brodie/Stevenson
Ground floor, 373 Jan Smuts Avenue, Craighall Park
011 326 0034
[email protected]
Brodie/Stevenson presents Nandipha Mtambo’s solo exhibition. Titled Umphatsi Wemphi (loosely translated as “the general charged with overseeing a battle) — the exhibition comprises several new sculptural works as well as video, photography and drawings.

Central to this body of work is the concept of the boundary as something that constantly shifts and mutates, something that is never fixed or static. The boundary between corporeal awareness and revulsion is explored through the artist’s use of raw cowhides, tails and ears, which are cured and sculpted. In Penis Vagina — One-Man Capsule, the boundary between the need to fight and the need for protection is also apparent.

Gallery AOP
44 Stanley Ave, Braamfontein Werf
011 762 2234
www.artonpaper.co.za
ArtOnPaper presents Parrot, an exhibition of work by Colin Richards. Described as one of South Africa’s most intriguing artists, he calls himself a “pictorial illusionist” whose work depends on “skill and fakery — deceptive magic”. He uses conventional techniques such as drawing and watercolours, rendering a nexus of images and symbols, often informed by personal events.

Rooke Gallery
37 Quinn Street Newtown
0726580762
[email protected]
Rooke Gallery’s exhibition, The Unseen Works features unseen vintage works by Mark Kannemeyer and Roger Ballen. Kannemeyer’s is a collection of large-scale paintings completed whilst he was completing his Meisterschüler at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin between 1986 and 1992. Though some of the paintings produced during this time have been shown in South Africa since Kannemeyer’s return in 1996, the works on this exhibition have not been exhibited. The paintings will be shown alongside twelve illustrations completed by Mark over the same period in Berlin.
On show also is Roger Ballen’s unseen photographic works dating back to the early 1980s. This collection provides a unique glimpse into the mysterious world of Roger Ballen, revealing a number of formative works that provide context to the trajectory of Ballen’s career over the last 30 years.

CO-OP
68 Juta Street, Braamfontein
www.whatiftheworld.com
www.dokterandmisses.com
Dokter and Misses and WhatIfTheWorld are pleased to present CO-OP, their new collaborative project space and showroom in the central Braamfontein.

For the Spring Art Tour, CO-OP presents its debut exhibition titled Manifesto. It showcases a selection of recent works by some of South Africa’s most exciting young artists, including Dan Halter, Georgina Gratrix, Stuart Bird, Cameron Platter, Jan-Henri Booyens, Pierre Fouche and Athi-Patra Ruga.

The main space will also include the presentation Blom & MacGarry Presents, a new initiative by Zander Blom and Michael MacGarry of Avant Car Guard fame.

In the adjoining ramp space, Dokter and Misses will present mutated versions of their latest utilitarian bent metal range of furniture which focus on storage.

October 9 2009 — Gallery openings at 6pm

Special projects

Art Videos at Paul Smith
25 Seventh Ave, Cnr 4th Street, Parkhurst
011-447 1074
Galleries have been invited to show art videos at two exciting venues in Cape Town and Joburg. Twiice International in Cape Town is housed in a three storey high building full of classically designed furniture while Paul Smith in Jo’burg is a shop in a house designed by award-winning architect Sarah Calburn. Both of these venues provide interesting spaces in which to experience the video art which will be displayed on various monitors throughout the venues.

Highlights of this special project include work by the art collective Avant Car Guard, Lerato Shadi, a young performance and video artist based in Johannesburg, and Athi-Patra Ruga a young artist whose work straddles the divide between fashion, performance and photography.

Through a selection of exciting videos, the organisers hope to offer a promising peek at the future of video art in South Africa.

Tonic
Cnr third and seventh Avenues, Parktown Quarter
011 328 2028
www.tonicdesign.co.za
Established a decade ago by Philippe van der Merwe and Greg Gamble, the small design operation Tonic is built on a passion for furniture design.

Tonic runs a full studio, offering comprehensive design solutions for the domestic, hospitality, corporate and retail environments, as well as a furniture showroom showcasing their ever-growing collection.

To celebrate 10 years in design, Tonic will be showcasing 10 of the most iconic pieces they have designed over the last decade, complemented by an exhibition of the artists with whom they have collaborated in that time.

Willowlamp at Paco Rugs
143 Greenway, Greenside
011 486 0542
www.pacorugs.com
Paco and Willowlamp are proud to team up as partners for the Spring Art Tour at Paco in Greenside on October 9 2009.

Willowlamp is a result of the collaboration between architect Adam Hoest and industrial designer and jeweller Sian Elliot. They will launch Droplet, the first piece from their new collection called Ela, which is inspired by water and named after the Sotho word for flow. This piece encapsulates the characteristics typifying Willowlamp’s style — a marriage between organic forms and industrial materials, craft and design.

Paco is a leading designer, manufacturer and retailer of hand made carpets. They are best known for their wide selection of contemporary ranges. Both Paco and Willowlamp have worked on projects all over the world, ranging from simple pieces for private homes, to large custom pieces for public space.

October 10 2009 — Gallery openings at 6pm

Afronova
On corner Miriam Makeba and Gwigwi Mrwebi St – Newtown
083 726 5906
www.afronova.com
Godfried Donkor shows The Olympians and Muses. Donkor paints and works in mixed media collages and printmaking, and has also started working in video. The iconography of mass media has been a dominant them in his work. Mixing styles and imagery from conflicting sides of the political and cultural divides, Donkor’s work emphasises creolization as the creative force emerging from the reciprocity of language, culture, and social interaction. He was born in Ghana, and studied and the UK and Spain.

Seippel Gallery
245 Main Street (corner Berea)
www.seippel-gallery.com
The exhibition of work by Pierre Crocquet’s Enter Exit provides a snapshot of the surreal reality of a small community in South Africa. The images are at times austere but are always tenderly portrayed. The work shocks, engages and lingers.

Special Projects
Black Coffee and Bailey’s African History Archives at Arts on Main
www.baha.co.za
www.blackcoffee.co.za

The Ralf Seippel Gallery will present a specially curated installation by Black Coffee at the Arts on Main project space. This follows their selection for the Mercedes-Benz South Africa award for fashion design 2010. This installation will be presented with a series of black and white fashion photographs from Drum Magazine in the 1950s.

BMW Art Talks
9am: Brodie/Stevenson
Michael MacGarry, a Johannesburg based visual artist discusses New Work! a theme that looks specifically at the mechanics of control and vested interest that inform the production and trade of culturally symbolic languages.

11am: David Krut Projects
A walkabout of Patmos and the War at Sea with artist Alastair Whitton

11.30am: Goodman Gallery
A walkabout of Absent Fields with artist Marco Cianfanelli

11.30am: Everard Read, Johannesburg
Curator Jacques Michau gives a general walkabout and will also talk about the history of the gallery

Noon: Gallery AOP
Colin Richards will give a walkabout of his exhibition Parrot.

Noon: Boekehuis
Boekehuis presents a discussion between artist, writer and lecturer Sue Williamson, author of a new book, South African Art Now, and Thembinkosi Goniwe, curator, artist writer and Wits fine arts lecturer. They are on the corner of Lothbury and Fawley streets, Auckland Park. Tel: 011 482 3609.

4pm: Seippel Gallery
Pierre Croquet and Dr Ralf Seippel will give a walkabout of [itals]Enter Exit[itals].

5pm: GoetheOnMain
There will be a walkabout of the Borders exhibition

Spring Art Tour Grolsch Party Arts on Main
(9pm on October 10)
Arts on Main in the Maboneng Precinct, one of the leading examples of the urban regeneration revolution and central meeting place for the creative industries, will be the focal point for the Spring Art Tour Grolsch Party, the place to be on Saturday night. Free Grolsch will be provided to party guests. Tickets available at all participating galleries and GreenLight Outlets.

A shuttle service will be available hourly from 5pm until midnoght between the parking lot opposite vida e caffè, Parktown North (corner of 3rd and 7th Avenues) and Arts on Main.

October 11 2009
Nirox Foundation
www.niroxarts.com

The Nirox foundation is a centre for cultural activity. They offer a multi-disciplinary artists’ residency, Sculpture Park and performance facilities.

Toon Verhoef, a leading Dutch contemporary painter and teacher, will be in residence at Nirox until October 15. During his residency Verhoef will produce work drawing on the local environment and his prior experience of Johannesburg. He will collaborate with Penny Siopis to conduct a painter’s master class for eight selected Wits University students. Eight Artist Proof Studio students will also attend a monoprint master class with Verhoef and Kim Berman. The Wits student master class is titled transformation — making the familiar unfamiliar. Its concluding session will be on the Sunday morning, October 11, during which the Spring Art Tour will enjoy a studio walkabout, interact with the students, their work and Verhoef himself. At the conclusion of the residency, Verhoef’s work (including significant works transported from Holland) will be exhibited at Arts on Main.

The German photographer Tobias Zielony will also be in residence and visitors will be able to engage with him about his work and experience in South Africa.

Restaurants
Il Giardino Degli Ulivi
44 Stanley Avenue, Braamfontein Werf
011 482 4978
Marc Letzler (of Casalinga, Assaggi and Il Fiume), now in his 20th year in the restaurant business, has joined up with Brian Green and a very strong kitchen team to turn out simple and delicious Italian dishes, pizzas and desserts. The restaurant is beautifully decorated with chandeliers, rich colours and brass clad, white marble topped bar. It lights up magically in the evenings. It also boasts a cheeky little wine list.

Fino
Fino the Spanish Tapas Bar & restaurant
011 447-4608 / 011 880-6808
Parktown North
Fino, the Spanish tapas bar and restaurant located in Parktown North is now in its fifth year. Though Fino specialises in Spanish cuisine with the focus on tapas and paellas’, a few other Mediterranean favourites also appear on their menu. Most of the clientele prefer to go the tapas route and will order and share a couple of tapas dishes at the table, while others prefer to indulge in a paella or other main dishes of the season. The Spanish are a very sociable crowd and enjoy their ciders and sherries just as much as their wines. Fino has an extraordinary selection of both sherries (from the dry to the sweet) as well as Spanish wines.

Narina Trogon
011 339 6645
81 De Korte Street
Braamfontein
email: [email protected]
Narina Trogon restaurant serves inventive and locally sourced seasonal food in a visually sophisticated environment. Showcasing local talent was a priority in the design of Narina Trogon. The menu offers a full complement of dishes, both homey and exotic, that are updated frequently. The wine list offers a range of the top, best-priced South African wines available from smaller wine farms.

The Troyeville Hotel
25 Bezuidenhout St, Troyeville
011 402 7709
www.troyevillehotel.co.za
It’s a working class hotel where food became important when Portuguese owners took over in 1970s. The hotel is famous for being a melting pot of Jo’burg’s strong art, academic, political scene in the 80s and 90s mixed with Portuguese builders and artisans. It is a big rugby and sports venue with screened football and live games from Ellis Park. For the Spring Art Tour the special menu will comprise a seafood hot pot of prawns, mussels and calamari; grilled prawns by the kilo; pan fried prawns in beer and piri-piri by the kilo; a mixed platter of grilled piri-piri chicken, beef trinchado, calamari, chicken livers, chouriço sausage and prawns with chips and salad.

Canteen at Arts on Main
245 Main Street (corner Berea), District Maboneng, Doornfontein [email protected]
For restaurant reservations contact Matthew on 083 3999 740
When guests visit Canteen, the first thought that pops into their mind is “oasis”. Situated in the JHB CBD Canteen, surrounded by olive and lemon trees, focuses on friendly, knowledgeable service creating an informal, relaxing ambience. Chef Karl Brown has created a menu which focuses on simplicity and quality. The menu changes regularly and dishes to look out for are maltabella porridge, lamb stew and dumplings, beer-battered fish and chips and burger on toast.

The Cradle Restaurant
Route T9, Kromdraai Road, Lanseria
011 659 1622
www.thecradle.co.za
The Cradle is a 3 000 hectare nature reserve situated in the heart of the Cradle of Humankind, a World Heritage Site a short drive from Johannesburg. In the middle of this natural beauty is The Cradle Restaurant — a beautiful stone, steel and glass building that opens up on three sides with a view of the waterhole.

There’ll be an opportunity to hear Willem Boshoff presenting a talk at The Cradle Restaurant on Sunday October 11 at 2.30pm for the Spring Art Tour.

The Monarch Hotel
167 Oxford Road, Rosebank
011 341 2000
After extensive refurbishment, the Monarch Hotel now welcomed guests by reservation. The dining room offers lunches and dinners as a seven course a-la-carte menu whilst the bar offers cocktails and a selection of choice morsels. Executive chef Keith Frisley amends the menus regularly in keeping with seasonal produce and his personal fancies. Not catering to fussy foodies only, the menu also includes homely favourites. Ditto for the wine list, which is very drinkable and features some rare finds.

The Monarch Hotel has twisted its stuffy old-world charm by introducing contemporary South African artworks in to fancy, period-like interiors, and DJ Damian Armstrong is credited with creating upbeat playlists. No Mozart sonatas here.

Coffee shops
Bean There
44 Stanley Ave, Milpark
0861 23 26 86
www.beanthere.co.za
Pop in to experience a true mix of African authenticity and coffee charisma. Inspired by the principles of fair trade, Bean There Coffee Company builds beneficial relationships with Africa’s coffee farmers and their communities. They offer a wide selection of Africa’s finest coffee.

Boat
44 Stanley Avenue, Milpark
011 482 7793
Since 2004, Johannesburg’s espresso connoisseurs have known the little hatch that opens onto the main courtyard of 44 Stanley Avenue as Boat, the city’s most authentic continental takeaway. Serving up a selection of gourmet coffees and Portuguese patisserie at the counter, to eat at a table with friends or on the run to your next appointment, this tiny culinary jewel has gained a reputation for some of the most inspiring sandwich creations on the block. The renowned range of Boat sandwiches are assembled on freshly-baked bread with a wide variety of the finest deli cold meats and cheeses.
(from the 44 Stanley Ave website)

Vida e Caffé
Parktown North Joburg
Kloof Street, Cape Town
Church Street, Stellenbosch
www.vidaecaffe.com
A reaction to the insipid coffee shop culture that is prevalent in our daily lives. vida e caffè is a simple, focused concept that delivers an authentically European experience in espresso and coffee drinking. As a concept it has existed, in one form or another, for centuries. Walk down any street in Lisboa, Porto, Rome, Paris or Barcelona, and you will see the sidewalk cafés that have been the inspiration. It is a shrine for the wonderful bean and the drinking of it in its purest form; the espresso.

Nice
Cnr 4th Ave and 4th St, Parkhurst
011 788 6286
Parkhurst’s only truly decent coffee shop, continues to expand with the launch of Nice Things – next to the fabulous second-hand bookshop adjoining the café.
Very popular is a poached egg in a toast basket with bacon, spicy tomato relish and a bit of parmesan or, for a light lunch, sandwiches, pies, quiches and salads. Desserts are remarkably good. The restaurant is split into two; at the corner is its bookshop with tables down the centre.

Lulu’s
made for today Parktown Quarter corner 3rd and 7th Avenues Parktown North
082 584 6286
www.eatlulu.com
The menu runs to such items as chicken Caesar salad and club sandwiches. There are also interesting soups like spinach and feta, and a wide range of smoothies. The coffee is very good.

Service Station
Ninth Avenue and Rustenburg RoadMeville
011 726 1701
Open seven days a week for breakfast and lunch,
it offers salads and quiches which patrons heap on to their plates and then pay for by weight. It opens early for breakfast and closes in the late afternoon.

The Greenside Cafe
34 Gleneagles Road, Greeenside
011 646-3444
They offer delicious vegetarian and vegan cuisine in a stylish and chic environment.