Cape Town art picks: August 27 2010

Cape Town offers up a mix of photography and self-referential, irreverent art this week.

• According to one astrological website, Leo’s tend towards enthusiasm, passion, and optimism, making them excellent fine artists. Not surprisingly then, rising art star Michael Taylor’s new exhibition falls under this sign. Titled The Lion’s Den it features a subversive look at the common perceptions of horoscopic astrology. “These images are interpretations of human characteristics as seen specifically through the eyes of one character, the Leo,” explains Taylor. If that sounds whimsical be warned, Taylor’s paintings always come with a bite. They can be terse, deadpan and ironic, playful, deranged micro-stories or intriguing visual poems. Almost all of them, however, deal with, on some level, failure – of words to communicate, of astrology to predict, of people to behave as we expect, or of representation to represent. World Art, 54 Church Street, Cape Town. Until September 12.

• Anyone who has ever accused the Cape Town art scene of narcissism, self-absorption and cliqueness will feel vindicated by Youngblackman’s new Who’s Abject Now Bitch? Now. The show sees Andrew Lamprecht and Jonathan Kope riffing off Linda Stupart’s earlier exhibition at the gallery, Who’s Abject Now Bitch, which investigated gender in art. Rife with in-jokes, parody and wise-guy glibness, Lamprecht and Kope’s excursion promises to ‘address the difficulties in claiming agency as a young male artist.” Typical of the ‘artworld boys’ club” who refuse to let women have the last word? Certainly. But to simply dismiss it is a lost opportunity to open up what promises to be an invigorating, controversial debate on sexism, the politics of gender in art, subjugation and subversion. Youngblackman, Roeland Street, Cape Town. Until September 25.