ON SHOW AT GALLERY 2

Opening ---- November 10th  

11:30 for 12:00

10th of November 2018 - 31 January 2019

SEE ART: Contemporary Drawing

  A GROUP EXHIBITION

  CURATED by DEREK ZIETSMAN

Participating Artists

Abe Mathabe, Alex Hamilton, Audrey Anderson, Bevan de Wet, Carl Jeppe, Collin Cole, David Paton, Diane Victor, Dina Kroon, Eric Duplan , Gordon Froud, Helena Hugo, Hermann Niebuhr, Ivy Grobler, Izanne Wiid, Kyra Papé, Leanne Olivier, Lehlogonolo Mashaba    , Linda Hess, Linda Rademan, Lothar Böttcher, Mandy Coppes-Martin, Marcus Neustetter, Maria Lebedeva, Marianna Keyser, Nhlanhla Nhlapo, Nico Ras, Nicolas Durocher-Yvon, Paul Mantzios, Pauline Gutter, Ramarutha Makoba, Rosemary Joynt, Setlamorago Mashilo, Verna du Toit, Wayne Matthews, Wessel van Huyssteen, Themba Khumalo, Gideon Appah 

Although drawing has been at the core of all artistic processes since the dawn of art-making, it has only comparatively recently attained full status as an art practice in its own right. This exhibition acknowledges the central role of drawing in artmaking with a focus on South Africa.

Giorgio Vasari, a famous Renaissance artist and painter, was eloquent on the importance of drawing in the field of fine art. Vasari states, “Drawing… is the necessary beginning of everything [in art], and not having it, one has nothing.” 

The practice of drawing has changed over the last four decades. Since the 1970s mainly technology changes have reshaped our political and social worlds, such as the rapid rise of digital technology, instant global connectedness, enhanced mobility, the internet, social media. Artmaking has adapted to these new paradigms. The styles, materials, and forms of artmaking have expanded, and drawing has further entrenched its status as a recognised self-sufficient art form – drawing has broadened our assumptions about art.

To quote Anita Taylor, director of the Jerwood Drawing Prize and dean of Bath School of Art and Design, “The need to understand the world through visual means would seem more acute than ever; images transcend the barriers of language, and enhance communications in an increasingly globalised world.”

Drawing now enjoys a visibility so evident it seems almost organic, essential; a practice that can identify with, and fulfill the expressive needs of today's artists.

The exhibition, SEE ART: Contemporary Drawing, will be displayed in a salon-style. The salon-style of displaying artworks originated in the 1700s when artists were given an opportunity to hang their work in a public venue. The works are displayed close together, floor to ceiling and in a non-linear fashion. During the exhibition period, viewers will be able to buy artwork and take it with them when they leave the gallery.

The overarching aim of SEE ART: Contemporary Drawing is to challenge established traditions of artistic practice. The exhibition will not represent a stylistically coherent body of work, but rather a variety in modes of mark-making, where artists redefine materials and conceptual conditions of mark-making.

I therefore expect a variety of approaches. Some artists may foreground social commentary and insight as the essential components of their artworks; while others focus on the materials themselves, or on symbolizing or clarifying ideas and creating new concepts of “drawing”.

The definition of “drawing” has been reinterpreted to incorporate anything involving mark-making on any surface and by whatever means. The intention is for the diversity of methods and media in the exhibition to provoke debate; there will hopefully be works which push the boundaries of traditional “drawing” – some may even conceivably be identified as sculpture, painting, and digital or installation art.

SEE ART: Contemporary Drawing attempts to make visible the artist’s exercise of imagination, or mind, on line - an approach that, even though it may seem nebulous, must still not detract in any way from the quality of the work on exhibition. 

 Please join us on Thursday, the 10th of November, at Gallery 2 for the opening of this group exhibition

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