Everard Read Johannesburg is proud to announce Bitches Brew, a group exhibition by Lucinda Mudge, Lady Skollie and Sanell Aggenbach.

Curated by Sanell Aggenbach, this provocative and powerful exhibition explores the concept of “Mother Nature’s Wrath mixed with Bad Feminism”.

Highlighting the idea that South Africa is a battlefield for women, the artworks in this exhibition use dark humour to explore this topic and how women face daily struggles and threats in this country. Mixing personal and political views, Bitches Brew expresses three women’s experiences and takes on society – as individuals and as a collective of women.

Lady Skollie’s work brings together elements of popular culture, history, violence, sex, sexuality and indigeneity.“(Her) work goes beyond artistic commentary on sex, politics and racial identity as a coloured womxn in post-apartheid South Africa. Instead, her multimodal body of work reaches into uncomfortable realms, so that it is a site of protest and a means of education,” writes Danielle Bowler. Lady Skollie uses ink, watercolour and crayon in her large-scale works to break taboos and talk openly about issues of sex, pleasure, consent, human connection, violence and abuse. “That’s part of being the bitch, we’re all just doing what we want”, says Skollie of the trio.

Lucinda Mudge asks serious and authentic questions using humour, irony and mockery, some of which may be experienced by the viewer as uncomfortable. She describes her work as unruly pottery art: “I may have a dark view of the world because I have life experience here. However, everyone has something that sent him or her reeling, so I like to make work that is honest about heaviness. My work actually embraces difficulty. It is not in denial but is ultimately beautiful and uplifting.” The paintings she has made for ‘Bitches Brew’ are an extension of her work as a ceramic artist.

Like the other artists in the exhibition, Sanell Aggenbach uses humour and visual layering in both her paintings and her sculpture. In 2017 Anna Stielau wrote: “Sanell Aggenbach practices a kind of feminist mycology. She excavates dark things in dark places, submits them to study, turns them inside out and pulls them apart.” Her pieces in ‘Bitches Brew’ expand on themes introduced in previous exhibitions ‘Atopia’ (2015) and ‘Bend to Her Will’ (2017), foremost among these a concern with the social and subjective experience of rootlessness.

Bitches Brew is on at Everard Read Johannesburg until 7 May 2023.

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Crackerjack ceramicist Lucinda Mudge spoke to VISI about the beauty of the round canvas, her artistic process and her latest body of work.

What sparked your love of ceramics?

I‘ve been fascinated since childhood. It’s the transformation that the clay undergoes, the potential of an unfired piece, and the chance beauty of the final product that enthrals me. I have a love-hate relationship with ceramics, because it’s such a difficult medium to control.

Why use vases as your medium?

The beauty of a round canvas is that the story will link up and repeat. I use this to reference the human condition – the idea that we are on repeat. With a vase, it isn’t possible to see the whole picture at once, which is another reference to the way we live – what we choose not to see. If you don’t like the message, you can turn it to face the wall.

Take us through your artistic process.

Building a large ceramic vase is similar to spending weeks stretching a canvas and mixing paints. All that time I’m thinking. My personality is to be free. I can’t make test tiles. I can’t measure the amount of stain in milligrams. I rebel against it all. These elements combined result in a rawness that’s carried through to the final piece.

What inspires you?

Observing people’s actions, human characteristics and traits. I live surrounded by nature, and draw immense daily pleasure from the natural beauty of our landscape around Plettenberg Bay. This paradise, however, like the rest of South Africa, sees a fast turnover of life and death, casual violence and social unrest. These are issues that I find impossible to ignore and which I spend a lot of time digesting.

Tell us about your latest body of work, The Wolf is Always Near.

It’s a visual and socio-political record comprising 20 new vases. It draws inspiration from art history, cartoons, pop songs, fabric designs and art deco vase patterns. There’s a whimsical collision of the popular and the refined, the violent and the beautiful. The title, taken from a Russian lullaby, refers somewhat humorously to the pressure to succeed as an artist. It also references the theme of animal predation and fables, a theme that I have explored for my London exhibition.

For more information about Lucinda, visit lucindamudge.wordpress.com.

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Here are 6 artists to watch at this exciting exhibition.

1. Lucinda Mudge, ceramic artist

With her work exhibited at reputable galleries and exhibitions across the country, Lucinda’s unique ceramic vessels and vases have become highly collectable. While global pop culture and time spent in England has influenced her style, her love of South Africa is evident with plenty of bright and quirky cultural references. Her sense of humour is also a dominant feature in her work, with fun phrases and imagery giving each of her bold and satirical pieces a little something extra.

Her work will be featured in the “Colonial Lounge” at MAKE IT NEW.

2. Patricia Fraser, artist

Working from her home studio in Newlands, Patricia is a multi-disciplined artist working in various mediums from acrylic and charcoal to lino. Her latest exhibition at Chandler House explores the lushness of KwaZulu-Natal’s landscape. Patricia worked in advertising and graphic design for 30 years, winning several awards for packaging and corporate design. In 2005, she decided to focus on painting.

One of Patricia’s bold paintings will be featured in the “Indoor/Outdoor” room as wallpaper at MAKE IT NEW.

3. Lucie de Moyencourt, artist

Lucie is a young Capetonian artist with talent that warrants thorough scrutiny. Most mornings, you’ll find Lucie walking through the Sea Point neighbourhood, sketchbook in hand, before she heads off to her job as an architect. She derives inspiration from Cape Town’s urban and rural surroundings. Lucie studied architecture at the University of Cape Town but has had no formal art training. She opted to rather practice her art while travelling in London and Paris and continues to do so almost daily. She has exhibited at Salon 91 and Chandler House.

One of Lucie’s ink pieces will be turned into wallpaper with the help of Robin Sprong at MAKE IT NEW.

4. Jean Theron Louw, sculptor 

Evocative and thought-provoking, Jean Theron Louw’s sculptures explore our connection with the world around us. This Somerset West-based artist had a passion for sculpture early on in life, winning the Sanlam African Art Award while she was still at school. Jean uses a wide range of materials for her work, ranging from timber and metal to bronze and wire. Besides aiming to evoke human consciousness, she also experiments with scale, producing both life-sized and more intricate pieces.

Jean’s iconic bird sculptures will feature in the “Indoor/Outdoor” room at MAKE IT NEW.

5. Christina Bryer, ceramicist

You’ll probably recognise Christina’s delicate geometric-inspired porcelain plates. From translucent to almost skeletal porcelain, Christina is well known for her fine, paper-thin pieces. Patterns are based on the geometry in unicellular organisms and the cross-section of DNA strands. While her background is in jewellery design, she studied ceramics in London where she discovered Penrose’s aperiodic tiling that informs the aesthetic principles of her work today.

One of Christina’s platters will feature at the MAKE IT NEW exhibition.

6. Chris Bladen, sculptor

Kalk Bay resident Chris Bladen is an avid fly fisherman and marine life is the primary inspiration for his sculptures. Of particular interest are his Flying Fish and Manta Ray series. Chris is involved in every aspect of producing one of his works, from sketching and moulding to casting and creating the intricate scales and colours of each piece. His smaller works are also created as pendants for necklaces.

Chris Bladen’s work will be used in the “Historical” section of the MAKE IT NEW exhibition.

For more information about this exhibition, visit ccdi.org.za.

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Shipwrecks, sea monsters and mermaids… Seems like yarns for spinning children’s fantasy tales, but put beauty and fear in the mix and you have a taste of the many ideas shaping artist Lucinda Mudge’s new body of handmade coil vases, showing until 20 May at The Gallery at Grande Provence, Franschhoek.

Lucinda’s ceramics have always stood out from the pack with their wry slogans and illustrative embellishments.

South Africa hasn’t always been home to her, or her only place of inspiration. After art studies at Michaelis in Cape Town, she moved to London where she taught herself ceramics. Back home a few years later – husband and the first of two babes in arms – she set up a home studio in sleepy Keurboomstrand.

But not much sleep is on the cards: after the Franschhoek exhibit, Lucinda starts working on a show for Circa in Jozi.

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Lucinda was one of the 15 hip young design talents to watch that we featured in our April/May 2014 REWIND REDO RENEW edition, now on shelves.

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