Joburg

Johannesburg Art Gallery
Contact details: 011 725 3130

The Johannesburg Art Gallery will be hosting an exhibition of contemporary art from Denmark, Norway, Finland and South Africa, titled 'Disturbance', from 26 October until 1 March 2009.

The show will examine the relationship Nordic and South African artists have to notions of identity and place. Drawing on a strong romantic landscape tradition and constructed ideas of what constitutes Scandinavian nationalism; perceptions about self and society are explored through photography, video, sound and performance. The exhibition explores the paradoxes of what Nordic society entails from personal displacement to commentary on other communities or nationalities and as such the depictions in its contemporary art.

The thematic of the show will focus on "disturbance" as a term understood to explore both the literal and implicit rupture existing in society.

The exhibition includes artists from Norway — Bodil Furu, Torbjorn Rodland, Maia Urstad and the artistic duo Goksoyr & Maartens. In addition an artist from Denmark — Astrid K. Jensen, and a selection from Finland including Eija Liisa Ahtila, Marja Helander, Veli Grano and Mika Ronkainen’s documentary 'The Screaming Men'. South African artists participating in the exhibition are: Siemon Allan, Anthea Moys, James Web, Nandipha Mnthambo, Athi Ptra Ruga, Nicholas Hlobo and Alastair Mclahlan.

Seippel Gallery
Contact details: 011 404 1421

The Seippel Gallery will be hosting an exhibition of abstract works entitled 'South African Abstract Art, Volume 1'. The exhibition, which opens on 6 March, features works by Bill Ainslie, Mbongeni Buthelezi, Nicholas Hales, Malcom Jiyane, Howard Minnie, Jill Trappler and Joe Wolpe.

Artspace Gallery
Contact details: 011 880 8802

Artist Susan Woolf poses some challenging political questions in her latest solo exhibition, 'Jacob’s Ladder', which opens at Artspace on 5 November 2008.

Like much of her work, 'Jacob’s Ladder' is a controversial, politically loaded exhibition, layered with symbolism. In the current political climate 'Jacob’s Ladder' is opportunely positioned to provoke thought and debate around what we expect from our political leaders.

David Krut
Contact details: 011 880 5646

Bruce Backhouse has been at the David Krut Print Workshop working with printmaker Mlungisi Khongisa to produce stimulating new works for his upcoming show, 'Mirror', which runs from 15 November to 15 December.

Backhouse is well known for his watercolour paintings. In these, as well as in several earlier works created at DKW, his figures and settings have tended towards the satirical. This satire is carried through to his latest works but is now applied in a self-reflexive manner, through the motif of the mirror that appears in many of the prints. Despite this self-contemplation, however, there is a light-heartedness about the series.

The prints themselves range from small to very large — some of them over a metre wide. These large works are amongst the biggest prints made at DKW and they have introduced a freedom and expansiveness into Backhouse’s printmaking.

The beautiful liquidity and alternately striking and sombre colours draw the viewer into each work. By adding crayon to already-bold colours, Backhouse lends extra vivacity to the works. He also manages to create strong contrasts between backgrounds that are loose and abstract, and foregrounds peopled with crisply rendered figures. This body of work shows Backhouse successfully exploring the many possibilities of an often-neglected medium.

KwaZulu-Natal

Crouse Art Gallery
Contact details: 031 312 2315

An exhibition of evocative landscapes by Free State artist Kobus Kotze opens at the Anton Benzon @ Crouse Art Gallery KZN on Saturday 25 October.

What makes this exhibition unusual is that it has become a family affair with Kobus's work hanging alongside work by his wife, Joe, and daughters Hanlie and Mariaan — all of whom are also accomplished painters. This is the first time that the whole family has exhibited together in KZN.

Kobus Kotzé's passionate love for capturing landscapes is very much the essence of his inspiration. One of the exceptional qualities in his work is his ability to make the sky look real and radiant. He is an artist who uses his camera to capture landscapes, trees and cities. In his studio he combines the photographs with his emotions and traditions. These paintings capture the way he views the world.

Wife Joe chooses acrylic and impressionist technique of painting as she loves the texture and body this creates in her work. Hanlie favours the symbolism and poetry blend and has always been fascinated by the interpretation of what could be called "word art". Mariaan's images are playful and quirky.

Fresh Paint Gallery
Contact details: 031 201 8367

Fresh Paint Art Gallery is hosting a series of exhibitions with a local African flavour: Celebrate African Art, starting off with three Zambian artists entitled a 'Movement Art Flow' opening on 23 July.

The series will include exhibitions from Zambia, Congo, Mozambique and local artists. The Zambian exhibition will have the two talented Lungu brothers, Jim and Jeff and their colleague Laurence MacTibuoy.

Rendered in mix medium on canvas, an impressive display of Zambian paintings will take you on an exciting visual journey of everyday life and events with strong visual links with such movements as expressionism, futurism and impressionism with a modern twist.

The works are mostly created using a series of boldly-coloured dots, stripes, numbers, letters and swirls which create a mosaic-like effect. The reader responds very differently if looking at the piece from close up or from a distance.

Adding to the mix is Laurence MacTribouy who exhibited at the French Embassy and Art Institution in Zambia. His style could be seen as very tactile and 3D incorporating elements such as rope, feathers and material.

artSPACE
Contact details: 031 312 0793

Internationally acclaimed Durban ceramic artist, Jane du Rand, is hosting her second solo exhibition 'Loathing and Loving and Giving' at artSPACE Durban, from 28 October until 15 November.

Du Rand’s exhibition combines small miniature pieces with six large statement domes; some are designed on the concave and others on the convex, each featuring a ceramic collage reflecting specific conceptual themes.

Deftly-crafted individual segments are woven together to create a complex and detailed work in a palette of carefully-chosen mostly muted and unexpected shades.

Cape Town

Iziko SA National Gallery
Contact details:021 467 4662

Albert Adams
The first comprehensive retrospective exhibition of works by Albert Adams runs at Iziko South African National Gallery from 19 July to 16 November 2008.

An instinctive expressionist Adams' subject matter is evidence of a deep social commitment and he can rightly be seen as an heir to Francisco Goya (1740 – 1828). Often his subject matter is inspired by international events but he always returned to South Africa for inspiration, depicting, amongst others, the homeless people of Cape Town, the darker side of the Cape Minstrels and in a more allusive way the 'baggage' or legacy of apartheid.

Although Adams exhibited extensively and, on more than one occasion was chosen to represent South Africa on international exhibitions, his long period of absence from South Africa has resulted in the undue neglect of a major talent.

Stephen Shore
'Stephen Shore: Colouring American Photography', opens at Iziko South African National Gallery on 24 September and is the first solo exhibition in South Africa of the work of American photographer Stephen Shore.

On view until 23 November, the exhibition is a component and highlight of MoP4, Cape Town's Month of Photography 2008 and focuses on two of Shore's seminal series: American Surfaces and Uncommon Places. It also includes a selection from the Amarillo postcard series along with more recent work such as Shore's ibooks, which use print-on-demand digital technology.

George Stow
The long awaited George Stow exhibition, 'Unconquerable Spirit: George Stow and the Rock Art of the San' opens on 8 November and runs until the middle of February 2009.

The exhibition of the work of the industrious (but little known) Stow includes a collection of his interpretations of rock art, a selection of his geological maps, documents and field notebooks. Also on display are some of his poetic works, quotations from his writings on the San and their history as he recorded and interpreted it.

Sanlam Art Gallery
Contact details: 021 947 3359

In celebrating the 90 the anniversary of the founding of the Sanlam in 1918, the Sanlam Art Collection is presenting an exhibition highlighting the last ten years of acquisitions. Since 1997 Sanlam has added some 544 works by South African artists to its celebrated collection begun in 1965.

In keeping with the collection's objective of compiling a representative collection of South African art, the exhibition of 83 works from the late 19th century to the present is a an eclectic mixture of past and present.

Works on display range from; a Frans David Oerder watercolour of 1899, depicting the interior a sangoma divining from bones on the floor of a concession store, a 1970s watercolour of a view of Hout Bay by Durant Sihlali, a beautiful almost surrealist landscape by Ricky Dyaloyi; sculptures by Johannes Maswanganyi, Edoardo Villa and Philipps Kolbe, to the gritty installations of Jan van der Merwe, Gavin Younge and Leora Faber.

The exhibition will be on display from 7 August 2008 until 16 January 2009.

South African Museum
Contact details: 021 481 3800

'The Power of Rock Art'.
The Linton rock paintings, which were discovered at Maclear in the Eastern Cape, are among the most complex expressions of San beliefs. One of the painted figures in the panel provided the inspiration for the central motif of the South African Coat-of-Arms

Whatiftheworld Gallery
Contact details: 021 448 1438

The exhibition 'How the Troubles Started', running at Whatiftheworld Gallery from 5 to 29 November, shows the work of Wilhelm Saayman and Lizza Littlewort — two artists whose renown in the contemporary art scene is based in dark humorous commentary conveyed through annotated drawings which stretch and wrench graphic language.

The Rupert Museum
Contact details: 021 888 3344

Internationally acclaimed South African sculptor, Dylan Lewis, belongs to an elite group of just a handful of living artists who have held a solo exhibition at Christie's of London. South African art lovers will soon be able to view over 30 pieces of Dylan Lewis' extraordinary artwork, which will be exhibited at the Rupert Museum in Stellenbosch from 31 October 2008 for six months.

Sponsored by RMB Private Bank, the exhibition explores Lewis' passion for the wilderness and the forces that shape it, with his sculptures touching his audience through the elemental, the pristine, the primitive and the subconscious.

The exhibition, entitled 'Shapeshifting' — from animal to human, captures the timelessness of the anatomy of animals and the human form, while exploring the sculptor's broader concerns of environment, wilderness and man's increasingly fragile relationship with the earth. Like the wilderness that inspires them, these sculptures evoke rich mythological and psychological clusters of meaning.

Winchester Mansions
Contact details: 021 434 2351

Talented Cape Town artist, Lené Tempelhoff's inspiring exhibition entitled 'Building' opens at Winchester Mansions on 3 September.

Tempelhoff enjoys working in mixed media and feels this expresses her art in the best manner. Her work is largely created onto canvas or board and tends towards 'relief sculptures' that hang on the wall. Her work is mostly abstract, open-ended and speaks about the urban environment with specific reference to buildings.

3RD i Gallery
Contact details: 021 425 2266

3rd i Gallery presents an exhibition of works by photographer Sharon Peers and painter Chantal Coetzee. Both artists are inspired by the sacred and divine, manifested uniquely in their work. While Peers' imagery is inspired by nature, Coetzee's vision is depicted in figurative narratives with formats of unusual shape and size.

iArt Gallery
Contact details: 021 424 5150

Two of South Africa's acclaimed artists exhibit at iArt Gallery in Loop Street, Cape Town in November. Colbert Mashile explores his internal world through colour and archetypal images, while Clare Menck's paintings of objects express her vision.

As the first time such a body of work is jointly on show, visitors will enjoy a cross gender and cross cultural experience, which at the same time is indicating the zeitgeist of the South African contemporary world.

Both are multi-award-winning, with work in major collections such as Sasol, Muratic-Canitz, MTN and SA National Galleries. The exhibition opens on 6 November and although it closes on 20 November, both Colbert Mashile and Clare Menck's work remains part of iArt's permanent collection.

Upper Deck Gallery
Contact details: 044 533 6914

Upper Deck Gallery, Plettenberg bay opened its 'Spring' exhibition on 5 September. Ilse Fourie's series of meaningful canvasses is very appropriately entitled 'Dialogues'. Theo Zouves's vibrant depictions are a reminder of Spring in all its blossoming beauty. Lynette ten Krooden's striking art is superbly executed, each with the intention of telling an interwoven tale of its own. To complete the ensemble, Susanna Swart's bronze sculptures lend a strong yet delicately angelic flair to the display.