The art world kicks off the new year in style.
- For the past decade, Pretoria-based South African artist Jacques Coetzer has constructed a multi-media mode of expression that splices the avant-garde’s obsession with innovation, experimentation, and radicalization with a deep pop sensibility. The result: an extreme postmodern fusion and confusion of the traditional distinctions between “high” culture and “low.” In his new exhibition, title New Adventures he continues to railroad over the academic and elitist art world’s presuppositions of self institutionalization and incest, while simultaneously challenging mass culture’s commodity-infested cynicism. ‘Art invites you to take courage and play,” explains Coetzer. ‘You are a troubadour, a lone guerrilla or a rolling stone: not just a reluctant sculptor in a world over-saturated with objects. You are called to gather some faith and go knock on heaven’s door.” Driven by this free-spirited logic of inquiry, the exhibition features a globe-trotting array Coetzer recent works created in Barcelona, Berlin, Copenhagen, Kilimanjaro, Zanzibar and Pretoria.
Blank Projects, 113-115 Sir Lowry Road, Woodstock, Cape Town. Until January 29.
- After a decade in deep storage, African textiles, beadwork and items of body adornment from the Iziko Permanent Art Collection have finally found a home in the refurbished former Library at the Iziko South African National Gallery. This move presented the Gallery with an opportunity to explore the complex, often contested relationship between art and fashion in an exciting new exhibition. Titled Imagining Beauty, this deliciously eclectic, tactical and playful show brings historic treasures alongside new work by young South African designers. Highlights include contemporary works by catwalk stalwarts inspired by the richness of their African heritage, such as Black Coffee Craig Native, Mantsho, and Darkie; as well as works by fashion designer turned artist Athi Ruga Patha and artist turned fashion designer Doreen Southwood. Also on show are superb southern African beadwork; the work of Michael Kra’s collaboration with San artists; and the edgy designs of Beloved Beads, a fusion of the best British and African designs.
Iziko SA National Gallery, Government Avenue, Company’s Garden, Cape Town. Until April 30.