Standard Bank Young Artist for Visual Art, Nandipha Mntambo, exhibits her award exhibition.
? Cattle are hardly the most obvious subject matter for a young female artist to embrace. But they have become the signature of 2011 Standard Bank Young Artist for Visual Art Nandipha Mntambo.
In her hands the usual associations with the animals — tradition, the rural, masculine power — are overturned in dynamic, sexy works that engage everything from the libido to the death drive, from mythology to sport. Her Young Artist exhibition, Faena, is an extension of her interest in bullfighting. Taking its title from the “dance with death”, in which a matador must prove his courage and artistry, it comprises a range of media — painting, drawing, video and sculpture. Mntambo is an astute craftsman and she again displays her uncanny ability to transform seemingly mundane materials into powerful, playful and often surprisingly hip creations.
Iziko SA National Gallery, Government Avenue, Company’s Garden, until November 7. Tel: 021 467 4660. Website: www.iziko.org.za.
? Developing narratives from fragmented histories, the work of Maja Marx often involves a folding, or doubling, of her own thoughts with the thoughts of others. Her exhibition, entitled Fold features a selection of new paintings, drawings, objects and monotype prints that purposefully disrupt the flatness of inscribed surfaces. Here, crumbled paper and folded cloth gain dimension to become topographical shapes.
There is no boundary between the organic and the inorganic; each is folded into the other in a continuous “texturology”. Similarly, texts, ranging from profound quotes to mundane statements found on discarded bits of paper, leap off the page in an uncanny affirmation of difference, contact and communication.
Whatiftheworld, 1 Argyle Street, Woodstock, until November 19. Tel: 021 448 1438. Website: www.whatiftheworld.com.