Cape Town-based artist Alice Toich’s exhibition, running from 31 October until 8 November 2020, features a new collection of oil paintings celebrating the garden, growth and new beginnings.

Eat the Tomatoes Where You Are From takes place at Wildekrans Country House in Houw Hoek in the Western Cape, in conjunction with Elgin Open Gardens 2020.

Road Trip Out Of Town

Alice’s visit to the historic Wildekrans Country House, where she created this body of work, saw her immediately taken by the beauty of the space. “The first time I came to Wildekrans Country House I was moved by the peace and unassuming beauty of the gardens,” says Alice. “Small little pink and white daisies dotted between the paving and green grass extending down to the arum lily-lined stream. There is a sort of zooming in and out from details of rambling vines over painted tiles to monumental mountains.” It was this encounter, and many others, she describes as “perfect” moments that eventually lead her to this exhibition.

Morning Moon (Wildekrans)

“Just like a painting is created by many moments layered onto one surface through brush marks, so is a garden made with many layers of hands, time and natural elements – curating the unique moment in which you see it,” says Alice.

Reflecting meaningfully on the process leading up to the exhibition, Alice adds, ‘’You cannot have a discussion with a rose bush and ask it when it plans to produce its finest rose for you to paint – you must simply accept: the gift of the rose. The rose that was made with what rain was available and what days of sunshine graced it. The gifts that are made available exactly – and this is the important part – only where you are. The gifts of eating the tomatoes where you are.”

Fresh Farm Vegetables

In addition to the exhibition, Alice will host a one-day oil painting workshop focusing on painting “from life” in the garden.  The workshop costs R1 200 per person and takes place on 7 November 2020. Bookings for the workshop and the exhibition will have to be made prior to the time via email. Visit Alice’s blog or wildekrans.co.za for more information.

Eat the Tomatoes Where You Are From will run from 31 October until 8 November 2020, Monday to Sunday, 9am until 5pm, by appointment. Entrance to the exhibition is free but attendees are asked to make a R20 donation to the Bot River Education Fund.

About Wildekrans Country House: Named after the “wild cliffs” at the bottom of the rambling garden, the Wildekrans farm dates back to 1811. The traditional Cape Dutch architecture, countered by a contemporary art collection, offers a city energy with a country soul, while the Houw Hoek Mountains make for a dramatic natural backdrop. This established garden of colourful roses, indigenous shrubs, aged trees, an olive grove and water gardens forms part of Elgin Open Gardens 2020.

Follow Alice on Instagram to keep up to date with her work and find out more about the exhibition.

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Local artist Alice Toich’s new exhibition at the Voorkamer Gallery at Chandler House, entitled When We Were In Quarantine, features a collection of pieces that she created as part of the #21DaysOfArtSA project.

The exhibition showcases the pieces Alice painted and sketched during the initial three-week lockdown in South Africa. Alice was motivated to initiate an online challenge, where people were encouraged to paint, draw or sketch around a daily topic, uploading work to Instagram with the hashtag #21DaysOfArtSA.

On the project’s inception, she elaborates, “Suddenly it dawned on me – with the amount of people going into what was surely one of the longest times they had possibly spent alone in quarantine – how would they mentally and emotionally cope? Then I thought: ‘How do I mentally and emotionally cope? Oh, duh – painting!’ And it hit me: the idea to host a 21 days of art-making challenge that would help, in some small way or form, all of us to get through this, one crimson crayon at a time!”

Not only restricted to artists and participants in South Africa, people from around the globe were encouraged to get involved. The challenge received over 3 000 entries, highlighting Alice’s manifesto, that art is universal and for everyone.

Follow @alice_toich on Instagram and take some time to look up the hashtag #21DaysOfArtSA to see more contributions to the project.

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Cape Town-based artist Alice Toich has created a 21-day art challenge, inviting the public to draw, paint, sculpt or sew, based on a daily theme posted on social media.

Anybody can participate using the hashtag #21DaysOfArtSA. Alice has posted a list of daily topics that you can interpret, with some days featuring local artists guest hosting.

To date, the topics have included “something growing”, “a door, entrance way or passage”, “something in your kitchen”, “flowers and/or fruit composition” and “exterior space”.

Every morning a new challenge is posted on Alice’s Instagram, and you have until 10pm CAT to upload your rendition of the artist’s brief.

Here are just some example of the amazing entries so far, as well as the challenge rules.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B-S3uMJpUet/

https://www.instagram.com/p/B-W6MAJpwqu/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

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After a brief stint working in advertising, Pretoria-born artist Alice Toich pursued a postgraduate diploma in painting at Michaelis. And she never looked back.

We chat to her about her work, what inspires her, and her upcoming solo exhibition, The Icing Pink Ether, which reveals another delicious hidden talent of hers that we’re eager to get a taste of (true story).

How would you describe your work?

I think I’m a real ‘painter-painter’ and I love mark-making. I like to think my paintings and drawings are pieces in process. The kind of painting I love lives between the worlds of contemporary realism and conceptual work. There is a sweet spot in between work being visually representative and also thoughtful and meaningful. That is the place I like to aim for when deciding upon calling a work ‘finished’.

Who/what inspires your work? 

A plethora of things. My personal experiences as a woman living in South Africa. My family. Discomfort. The internet. Being white. Anger. Patriotism. Positivity. ‘Rules’. Quantum mechanics. Options. The power of the human mind. Laws of the so-called natural world. A lot of late nights and early mornings staring at the ceiling in my bedroom.

What do you love most about painting?

I love that painting gives me a place to understand the intricacies of living. The beautiful moments, but also, the complex, less understood moments. I go into the studio and paint everyday. I also like that painting ‘removes’ me from the pace of daily existence, which I often find chaotic and overwhelmingly fast.

What has been the highlight of your career so far?

Making the cut in the top 100 for South Africa’s first-ever portrait awards, the Sanlam Portrait Awards. Also, my first artist residency in Istanbul last year.

You also bake? Tell us about that.

I love baking! I am discovering more and more that, like creating art, baking is a ‘practice’ in its own right. I started baking when I moved into a flat while studying. I think it was an exploration of sorts – looking for a safe space in the big city and I feel I found it. I think baking is magic. How random measured-out ingredients can go together and, with added elements of acidity, heat or whipping, can essentially become sculptures: edible ones that bring people together!

Any correlation between your paintings and baking?

Yes! For a long while I thought I couldn’t be taken seriously as an artist (or as a feminist for that matter) if I was also a baker. But I have come to reject that notion and I am reclaiming it fully. This is reflected in my upcoming solo exhibition, The Icing Pink Ether, in which I have allowed myself to go full tilt with the influence that my baking has on my art-making and I have loved every moment of it.

Tell us about your upcoming solo exhibition, The Icing Pink Ether. What can we expect? 

The Icing Pink Ether is my first official solo exhibition. I prepared for it by asking myself a number of questions. What does it mean to be female? Feminine? A South African? An artist? Free? I have explored the nuances of being young in our current socio-political landscape and asked myself, as a South African female, how I respond to the notions of ‘freedom’.

While preparing for this show, it felt like my mind was constantly moving from my personal space to the situation of the world at large. To my history, to our country, to the future. There is so much thinking that has gone into each piece; there are layers (even if they may just be seen pictorially). I have used a lot of baking techniques in The Icing Pink Ether both as a metaphor and also as a component to aid my exploration of the ideas I have encountered while researching. I have been reading a lot about quantum physics and that is evident in my work.

I think it’s funny how when life and humanity at large appear to have such macro issues, we turn to the micro, to understanding the ‘tiny’ in the hopes that it will have some clues to help us understand the ‘larger-than-others’. I think I have found some wonderful clues so far.

Exciting plans in the pipeline?

Many. Firstly, the aforementioned exhibition opening at 99 Loop on the 28 September 2016, including a bunch of interesting little projects that will be exhibited in The Castle of Good Hope, in a group show of artist exchanges between disciplines (more on this in months to come), as well as all the baking! I am also moving to Florence, Italy towards the end of the year to pursue a full year of technical training at the Florence Academy of Fine Art. It has been a long held dream of mine to attend the academy and the time has finally come!

The Icing Pink Ether runs from 28 September – 21 October at 99 Loop gallery at 99 Loop Street (Corner of Church Street), Cape Town. The gallery is open Monday to Friday from 9am – 5pm and on Saturdays from 9am until 1pm. Visit alicetoichart.com or 99loop.co.za for more information.

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