Durban art picks: November 5 2010

Durban’s galleries enter their festive season, with the annual African Art Centre sale already underway.

Recently opened in Durban for a brief run until November 7 are the finalists and winners of the prestigious NPC-CIMPOR Develop A New Angle On Concrete Photographic Competition. Now in its second year, the competition attracted more than 400 entries from enthusiastic amateur and professional photographers across KwaZulu-Natal. Photographers were required to capture beautiful, interesting and striking images which predominantly featured concrete and cement. Inspired by KZN’s cityscapes, bridges and a variety of innovative concrete structures, the works celebrate the art of cement and concrete as well as resonate with an aspect of narrative or mystery that transcends the purely physical. The exhibition features the three award-winning photographs along with the top 50 finalists.
KZNSA Gallery, 166 Bulwer Road, until November 7. Tel: 031 277 1705 Email [email protected] Visit www.kznsagallery.co.za
African Art Centre, 94 Florida Road. The exhibition runs until the end of the year. Tel: 031 312 3804 / 5 >
• As the final requirement of obtaining her MTech in Fine Art from the Durban University of Technology, Caryn Nolan has created a poignant, highly personal body of work entitled we loved being at home. Created over a period of four years, the work has been informed by the research Nolan performed into the history of her family and the history of needlework. The artist discovered that many artists – particularly female – before her used craft techniques in a Fine Art context. The feminist artists of the 1970s made advances with the use of needlework as a conceptual tool and Nolan sees herself working within this tradition as well as validating her matriarchal lineage.
  artSPACE durban, 3 Millar Road (off Umgeni Rd). Until November 13. Tel: 031 312 0793.