In her first solo exhibition with the Stevenson Gallery in Johannesburg, South African-American artist Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi explores the similar, unseen socio-political realities between gymnasts and artists.

As she discussed on Instagram, where the exhibition launched on 26 March 2020, in both worlds, success and failure rest on the public’s perception of the individual.

Audience

The exhibition visualises this collective similarity by focusing on the gymnasium as a space that holds physical, political and emotional aspects, much like an art exhibition, with an artist and the viewers. The crucial moments before and after a show are often unseen, and it is these moments that are perhaps more important than what the public sees: the preparation, the anxiety, and of course, the mental and physical ways in which the gymnast has to deal with the result. “I’m mostly interested in moments we overlook, the most painful moments in our lives… the fact that failure is about perception and perspective,” said Thenjiwe, while broadcasting on Instagram Live.

Team

A compilation of video footage serves as a digital extension of her oil paintings: close-ups of gymnasts in preparation, the tension and relatable emotions that are invisible when contrasted by the bold outfits and larger-than-life performances. This footage shrinks the gaze that places the gymnast as a superhuman spectacle – we’re reminded that gymnasts are people too, women of colour in this case, where the scrutiny is often heightened. Gymnasium invites us to shift our focus away from the isolated star, rather looking at the performer as an individual that is part of a network, a community.

Champion

You can view the exhibition online on Stevenson Gallery’s website and on the gallery’s Instagram from 26 March until 30 April 2020.

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After nearly a decade in Braamfontein, Stevenson Johannesburg has relocated to a residential building on 7th Avenue in Parktown North that has been converted into a gallery space by Tonic.

Before. Image courtesy of Stevenson.

Built in the early 20th century as a family home, with evidence in the original plans of a cow shed tucked alongside the building, Greg Gamble and Philippe van der Merwe of Tonic have worked to preserve and contribute to the building’s history. According to the award-winning design duo, “Our intention with the renovation is to retain the historical integrity and charm of the original building, at the same time gently transforming the interior to create a minimal environment conducive to viewing art.”

The decision to move follows years of consultation between gallery directors, artists and supporters. In particular, artists with a long relationship to the city such as Robin Rhode, Nandipha Mntambo and Moshekwa Langa have highlighted the need to broaden the gallery’s audience and accessibility.

“My art is always in dialogue with the architecture that surrounds it, and it is a wonderful prospect to show in a building that offers such a sense of Joburg history, not to mention the possibilities that the garden offers for new ways of working and thinking,” says Nandipha. “[I look] forward to seeing how Tonic’s modern touch will merge with the heritage of the house.”

As well as offering creative possibilities, Stevenson Joburg joins other galleries in the area to form a consolidated network for art goers. Plus the new building has practical advantages such as dedicated parking and wheelchair access.

“One of the things I have always enjoyed about how we function as a gallery in Joburg is our flexibility and interest in experiencing different parts of the city,” says director David Brodie. “From our early days in Craighall Park as a young upstart space, to Braamfontein, where our audience has largely comprised students and university-associated visitors, bringing a vitality and critical engagement to our programming – it has been almost a decade since we were last in the north, and I am excited to reintroduce the gallery and our artists to audiences there.”

The new gallery, located at 46 7th Avenue, opened to the public on 18 May 2019 with a solo exhibition by Portia Zvavahera.

Portia Zvavahera, Flight of Flames, 2019

Other artists set to exhibit here over the next year include Meleko Mokgosi, Dada Khanyisa, Zanele Muholi, Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi and Meschac Gaba.

For more information about what’s coming up, visit stevenson.info.

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Stevenson presents a unique exhibition that showcases the traditional media form of painting through a slideshow exhibition that recreates an Instagram feed, entitled A Painting Today.

Forty-seven paintings done by various artists with varied subject matter will find their place on the walls of Stevenson one by one, being “uploaded” daily in the recreation of a real-time, sequential Instagram feed.

The exhibiting painters will include artists such as Anna Boghiguian, Francis Alÿs, Turiya Magadlela, Penny Siopis, Mduduzi Xakaza and Portia Zvavahera. The range of work intends to reflect the breadth and depth of painterly concerns in modern art and will recreate the disorganised muddle of social media where both the ungodly and holy, the gargantuan and the minute all sit side-by-side in the palm of one’s hand.

Although the gallery determines which artists will be invited to exhibit their work, they intend to keep their control over the process to a minimum. The order of the sequence will remain dependent on the interplay of external factors such as the schedules of painters, the date of acceptance of their invitation and various other painting logistics.

The exhibition runs until 22 April 2016 at the Cape Town gallery, located at 160 Sir Lowry Road, Woodstock. There will be a closing exhibition on the last day where all works will be on display.

Daily additions will be documented on Stevenson’s website.

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Internationally-acclaimed and locally-loved South African artist Nicholas Hlobo showcases his latest body of work entitled Sewing Saw at Stevenson in Woodstock.

Hlobo’s first exhibition at the Stevenson is a feast for the senses and makes use of various materials including sewing machines, leather, inner bicycle tubes, treasure chests, canvas and live performance in an attempt to uproot and expand the understanding of his own personal mythology in a sort of reaction to his own achievements thus far. Sewing Saw highlights the destruction central to renewal and through the balance of process between sewing and sawing Hlobo meditates on how builders, seamstresses and carpenters utilise destruction as a precursor to creation.

The exhibition focuses on two main sculptures that are metaphorical for sewing and sawing. The sawing is translated by the sculpture titled Intsimbi edlezinye, which means “the metal that devours the other metals” and is an idiom used in Xhosa and Zulu culture to demonstrate the power of God. The sewing is exemplified by means of a performance installation titled UmBhovuzo: The Parable of the Sower where performers seated at sewing stations raised two metres off the ground engage in sustained mending.

The accompanying performance features Mbulelo Tenza Mzazi, Unathi Mkonto, Abongile Sidzumo, Siwa Mgoboza, Mesuli Nale, Mthetheleli Dlakavu, Ndimphiwe Makateng, Yanga Jadezweni and Lunsindiso Dibela.

The exhibition runs until 21 January 2017 at Stevenson Cape Town. Click here for more details or visit stevenson.info for more information.

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Thursday 20 July will see the Stevenson gallery open a new exhibition, The Quiet Violence of Dreams, simultaneously across two cities, Cape Town and Johannesburg, and across three venues: the two Stevenson galleries in the two cities, as well as Blank Projects in Cape Town.

The exhibition borrows its title from and pays tribute to the seminal novel by late author K. Sello Duiker. The book follows the life of Tshepo as his “inner life traverses madness, shame, sex, violence, power, intimacy, history, xenophobia, sexuality, love, race, mysticism and mystery.” And according to the Stevenson gallery, “themes that in many ways foreshadowed prominent focal points in South African contemporary art as it emerged from the period in which the book was written.” We caught up with Joost Bosland, partner at the Stevenson gallery as well the curator of this exhibition, which he developed in conversation with acclaimed artist Moshekwa Langa.

How did this idea come about?

I first read Duiker’s novel in 2004, when I was studying at UCT and lived in Observatory. I think it was my friend Joan who gave me a copy.  It spoke to me then because of its vivid description of the world around me – we ate at Ganesh, partied in De Waterkant and hung out on Hiddingh’s campus; Joan’s cat was called Tshepo. When I reread the novel a decade later I realised how many of the themes our artists deal with were foreshadowed by the book, and how Duiker’s legacy had much broader implications.

How did you come to work with Moshekwa Langa on this project?

As the idea for an exhibition crystalised in my mind, I started asking people about their thoughts on the book. It turned out that many of the people I spoke to had known Duiker personally. Moshekwa met him in the Netherlands in 2003, where he attended the Crossing Border Festival, along with Stacy Hardy, Ivan Vladislavic, Lesego Rampolokeng, Phaswane Mpe and Nadine Botha. They stayed in touch afterwards, though they were never to meet in person again. Speaking with Moshekwa galvanised the process, and we soon set dates and started writing to artists to invite them to participate.

The exhibition opens simultaneously across two cities and three spaces, why did you decide to do that? And how do you manage it?

While the novel is very much a portrait of Cape Town, the issues it raises resonate across the country.  It also allowed the show to be a bit more amorphous, hard to pin down, which felt appropriate.

Managing it is an organic process – Sisipho Ngodwana, who produced the show, worked closely with Jonathan Garnham at Blank Projects and Kabelo Malatsie at our Joburg space. Sisipho is a bit of a miracle worker; the show would not exist, nor look as good as it does, without her.

What will be the difference in the experience and the art across the two cities?

In Joburg the opening night will feature a sound performance, Battle of the CBDemons, by ANGELBOYZ CHOIR (ANGEL-HO, Bogosi Sekhukhuni and Hlasko). The exhibition is in collaboration with Blank Projects in Cape Town, and we used this opportunity to show three artists affiliated with them in Gauteng: Igshaan Adams, Turiya Magadlela and Bronwyn Katz.

In Cape Town we have a bit more space to play with, so it allows for installations that are a bit grander. A new video by Robin Rhode, based on a poem by Don Mattera, for example, shares a space with a Penny Siopis painting and an installation by Buhle Siwani. We have also given Unathi Sigenu, who passed away in 2013, a posthumous solo show – an exhibition within the exhibition, if you like.

What was the thinking behind your selection of artists?

All artists in the show, one way or another, make work that relates to the themes in Duiker’s novel. Artists associated with Stevenson were a point of departure, and from there Moshekwa invited the young French artist Raphael Barontini and Abdulrazaq Awofeso from Lagos, and we started speaking to Jonathan at Blank. It was also a great opportunity to show historical works by Lyle Ashton Harris, a conceptual American photographer who grew up with a South African father, and Akram Zataari from Lebanon. We gave copies of Duiker’s novel to a number of younger artists, like FAKA, Jody Brand, Buhle and Bronwyn. For some of them it was the first time encountering the book, and many made work in direct response.

Lastly, what excites you the most about contemporary South African art at the moment?

Mmakgabo Helen Sibidi and Jody Brand hanging side by side.

For more information, visit stevenson.info.

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Artist Zander Blom’s recent exhibition at Cape Town’s Stevenson Gallery, titled New Paintings, sees him further explore his fascination with and talent for painting, especially looking to the influence of two great 20^th century artists, Pablo Picasso and Piet Mondrian.

In Zander’s own words, “In terms of influence I have generally favoured warm-blooded chameleons like Picasso over stiff squares – excuse the pun – like Mondrian. Previously, to me, this simply meant: Picasso was interesting and having the best time, while Mondrian was boring and having a drab time. But now that I’m in my 30s, doubt has entered the room, as it tends to do, and I’ve started to re-evaluate old Piet.” We caught up with the artist to chat painting and his latest exhibition.

What drew you to the works of Mondrian and Picasso?

Mondrian and Picasso never really leave my mind or the studio. Their books are all over the house. They are a bit like uncles, I didn’t choose them, they have just somehow always been part of my life. 

Elements in your work have a suggestion of Formalism, which is then interrupted with a bit of your own playfulness/experimentation. Is it indeed Formalism interrupted?

You can also say generic composition interrupted. I enjoy making ridiculous, illogical, bizarre compositional choices – choices that aren’t supposed to lead to successful paintings – and see if I can somehow make it work, pull it off.

Formalism in Modernism was about judging an artwork’s success purely on its form, on basic design elements like colour, line, composition and texture, while ignoring contextual and conceptual elements. So I suppose I am somewhat of a formalist but on the other hand I would happily place my painting practice under the banner ‘Critical Form’. Because in today’s world, abstraction can no longer aspire to being a pure expression. In each shape, each gesture, lies some kind of quote or reference to the past, whether you intend it or not. Form has context and all contemporary art is laced with some kind of conceptualism. So a black square will reference Malevich, drips quote Pollock, and if you make a crude drawing there will be talk of Outsider Art, or Dada, or Surrealism etc, etc, etc. So painting today has a really dense and complex language that only gets deeper as time goes on. Everybody has to find their own way through this. For me it’s been via a kind of cross-reference mash-up which relies on Formalist strategies as much as it does on the conceptual and contextual.

You have said in the past that as an artist gets better at their technique it can become a prison, especially as they become more pedantic. How do you ensure a spirit of constant experimentation in your own work, so that you don’t become a prisoner of your own mastery?

I think it is all about what motivates you. I am motivated by a desire to keep learning new things and innovate within my own practice. Basically I’m against boredom, but I also want to make the best work humanly possible. So sometimes I’m willing to be pedantic if it means that the work will be better, but I can’t stay in that state for too long because my desire for experimentation and learning new things is too strong. I want to stay open and loose. It is no good to kill yourself in order to make the perfect painting. I tend to throw a spanner in the works from time to time when I find myself getting too serious.

What are you working on at the moment?

There are some new paintings developing in the studio. I’m not exactly sure where it is going yet but there are lots of big smears, scrapes, blotches and scratches. Very loose and wild. I’m working my way out of the pedantic technical prison I got myself into with the last body of work.

Who are some of your favourite living artists?

Alive: John Baldessari, Jordan Wolfson, Olafur Eliason, Raymond Pettibon, Wolfgang Tillmans. Not alive but not Modernist: Martin Kippenberger, Steven Parrino, Mike Kelley.

View more of Zander’s work at stevenson.info.

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VISI caught up with this Cape Town-born, Berlin-based artist to find out more about his work.

How does living in Europe (specifically Berlin) influence your work?

Living in Europe has a paramount effect on the creative experience. Having access to cutting-edge museums, cultural venues, the latest trends in fashion and architecture, let alone the history of these various cultural discourses, begins to impact one’s perception of our place in the 21^st century quite drastically. However, it could also pose as a massive challenge, especially in wanting to break into the already established European markets, which is in complete contrast to the ever-emerging market scene of South Africa. In this instance, when living in Europe one has to exist outside of one’s cultural zone of comfort and embrace the competitive edge of a global modernity.

Creating visuals through movement is important in your work. Are your movements improvised or are they meticulously practiced? 

The physical movements that accompany my work are in part improvisational and created intuitively as a reaction to both line, drawing and narrative. However, the drawing/painting element is meticulously rehearsed within the confined atmosphere of my studio. Here mark-making, drawing and painting function as rehearsals before becoming re-contextualised within an urban context, this being a wall somewhere, that calls my name.

What is your favourite thing about collaboration?

The benefits of collaborative projects are that it enables a new understanding of the initial idea. Through dialogue and exchange, an idea is able to manifest itself into further possibilities. The culture of art has always been about social engagement, therefore collaboration injects multiple viewpoints into an already set framework, which could therefore lead to interesting and even unintended results.

Is there a difference in the reception of your work in Europe compared to South Africa?

I think there is a slight difference in terms of reception. I would say Europe is far more muted, compared to the United States. Where as in South Africa, the audience is of a much younger generation that is engaging, energetic and open to new exhibition possibilities. The reception is also based on the fact that SA has a blossoming emerging scene compared to both Europe and the US. Also, reception is quite relative in terms of critical acclaim. Sometimes success is rated by the acclaim, sometimes by the commercial success, but this is all relative depending on the creative output of the artist over a given time. Both criticality and commerce shouldn’t influence the artistic practice. The work has to remain resistant against both factors in order to remain true to the artist’s vision.

Robin Rhode’s Paths and Fields exhibition runs until 4 March 2017 at The Stevenson Gallery, Buchanan Building, 160 Sir Lowry Road, Woodstock, Cape Town. The gallery is open from Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm and Saturdays from 10am to 1pm.

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The Carnegie recognised the brave young Mzansi artist for her Faces and Phases project, which she began in 2006 to give visibility to the various faces of black LGBTI communities around the world. The series is currently showing on the South African pavilion at the Venice Biennale, and was previously shown on Documenta 13 in 2012 and on the 29th São Paulo Biennale in 2010. 

The 48 portraits on view in the exhibition “feature subjects in elegant yet assured postures, and announce a collective front of incredible magnitude”, said Carnegie Museum director and jury member Lynn Zelevansky. “Zanele Muholi’s rich and beautiful portraits portraying members of the LGBTI community in South Africa and around the world are both moving and brave. We are honoured to award her the Fine Prize,” Lynn continued. 

The Carnegie International is North America’s pre-eminent survey of contemporary art from around the world, presented by Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh since 1896 and held every three to five years. The Fine Prize, created in 2008 to honour an emerging artist in the survey, carries a $10 000 award, funded by The Fine Foundation.

The 2013 Carnegie International, curated by Daniel Baumann, Dan Byers and Tina Kukielski, “presents new voices rooted in history, a sense of place and play. The exhibition is guided by a shared passion for the individual and the exceptional; for art that celebrates dissonance and beauty; and for artworks that stay in touch with the everyday.” 

Blazing a trail this year, Zanele was also recently made Honorary Professor of the University of the Arts/Hochschule für Künste Bremen, in March won the Index on Censorship: Freedom of Expression art award in London, and in August she received South Africa’s Mbokodo Award for Creative Photography.

The Durban-born artist studied at the Market Photo Workshop before completing a Masters in fine art from Ryerson University, Toronto.

Congrats Zanele!

www.stevenson.info/artists/muholi

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Along with his fellow award-winner, Jenni Tischer of Germany, Kemang has won a whopping 30 000 Swiss francs (approximately R325 000). His work has also been acquired by Baloise, a Swiss insurance holding company, and donated to two key European museums: the Hamburger Kunsthalle and the Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig (MUMOK) in Vienna.

Kemang and Jenni’s work is on show in the Statements sector of Art Basel, which comprises exciting new solo projects by young, emerging artists. Put forward by South Africa’s Stevenson gallery, Kemang also appears to be the only African participating. 

Entailing a room-sized blackboard installation, his exhibition statement reads: “In his work Kemang explores questions of collective memory and seeks to uncover the traces of South African history. To this end, he not only uses the devices of revealing and writing down but also of wiping out text and pictures. His wall-sized drawings, installations, performances and photographs establish a link between the trauma and myths of South Africa’s past and contemporary social issues. Kemang‘s works may be read as an archive, which demonstrates the process of forgetting and, like a collage, simultaneously opens avenues to new narratives that encourage multiple interpretations.” 

Born in Cape Town in 1984, this is not Kemang’s first foray into the global art world, having shown at Lombard-Freid Projects in New York earlier this year, the New Museum in New York in 2012, and the 11th Lyon Biennale in 2011. South Africans will recognize him as a co-founder of the Gugulective based in Cape Town, and a founding member of the Centre for Historical Reenactments in Johannesburg. He won the inaugural Spier Contemporary Award in 2007, and the MTN New Contemporaries Award in 2010.

Congratulations Kemang, you do us proud!

Read about the Southern Guild exhibition of South African design also showing in Basel.

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