When artists get together
MABONENG PRECINCT - If you've ever wondered what happens when artists share a workspace in which they sit together, plot together, focus and think in the same space, Nirox Projects could help enlighten you.
Thinking in a space is a group exhibition of five artists who, while working entirely in their own regime, come together once a week in Kim Lieberman’s Arts on Main studio.
Bev Butkow has participated in various group exhibitions and collaborative ventures, including the Turbine Art Fair in 2013, and opening a studio space at Assemblage, Newtown.
“All this is new for her, as in her prior life, Butkow was an accountant,” said the gallery’s Neil Nieuwoudt.
“The works for this exhibition are portraits of 10 women whom Butkow deems astute. They too switched careers mid-stride… This reiterates Butkow’s own experience, making the works… into a self-portrait.”
The exhibition has the potential for some controversy, in the form of Genoveva Fernandez’s tobacco works.
Most of the tobacco used in her art was collected from her teenage daughter’s cigarettes.
“Although the works are aesthetic and pleasing, the subject matter has enormous points to consider. The mother-daughter relationship and the line of independence that being a smoker demands,” he said.
Hadassah Myers lectures in interactive media at the University of Johannesburg while completing a master’s degree in digital art at Wits University.
Grappling with time, our relationship to digital and analogue, and how this can be stretched and orientated, Myers moves through time and considers what has and has not been investigated, and why.
Cathy Simon employs ephemeral silk thread and hardware materials to create works that are seductive without being ‘easy’.
“Meditating on the sentence ‘Apparently there is nothing that cannot happen today’, she examines one’s present reality and a larger perspective. She looks at the human imprint… literally and figuratively,” he said.
Leanne Shakenovsky began her art career by working for Strauss and Co. Auction House for two years.
“The influence of this can be seen in her work… She likes to investigate and reinterpret old South African masters in glitter. Her commentary on the price of works and who’s who in the market-related art world are seen most directly in graphs that measure and explain… a more hardened reality of art,” said Nieuwoudt.
The exhibition will run from 19 January until 11 February at Nirox Projects, Arts on Main, 264 Fox Street, Maboneng Precinct.
Details: 072 350 4326; www.niroxarts.com
