Southern Guild will be taking a curated selection of South African design to Design Miami 2017, taking place from 6 – 10 December.

The gallery will be taking the work of Madoda Fani, Justine Mahoney, Adam Birch, Paco Pakdoust, Andile Dyalvane, Trevor Potter, Charles Haupt, David Krynauw, Otto du Plessis, Dokter and Misses, Jan Bekker, Porky Hefer, Meyer von Wielligh, Jesse Ede and John Vogel.

In this Q&A with Trevyn McGowan, co-founder of The GUILD Group, she talks to us about the feverish international interest in local art and design and what it means to be at Design Miami.

How do you think the voice of the African continent is currently being received and perceived in the international design world?

In the 15 years that we have been working with African design in a global context, I have been aware that the focus on Africa has steadily intensified. Interest in our product and inspiration drawn from our aesthetic, stories and cultures appear across many industries and an African sensibility permeates countless trends. Our exports of design pieces has also grown steadily with a significant number of new private and commercial clients each year. I think that the opening of Zeitz MOCAA, and the establishment of the Silo District by the V&A Waterfront, is one of the most important developments in bringing international attention to the continent.

In your opinion, why is the work of artist-designers and their free expression so important to the authenticity of creativity in the art and design industries?

Designers have to be groundbreaking, they have to have a unique viewpoint and a distinct voice and they have to have their own, specific narrative. As Africans, we can’t emulate design from other parts of the world, it isn’t at all interesting. We have such a unique and authentic starting point that this is what we need to draw on. One of our biggest focuses as curators is encouraging designers to forge their own paths, to study what the rest of the world is producing, and in doing so ensure that their perspective is fresh.

Since the founding of Southern Guild in 2008 how far would you say you and Julian are in accomplishing the vision you set out achieve?

No matter how much ground you cover there is always so much more to achieve, but I can say we are immensely proud of how far our industry has come. The quality of the production, the vision of the work and the confidence of both our established design heroes and younger, emerging stars is incredibly gratifying. We provided a platform and a framework and the designers rose magnificently to the challenge and opportunity. You only have to look at how far the work has come in the 10 years since we started and how our customer base is now split 50/50 local and international as South Africans begin to understand the category and the value of investment purchasing. We still have a huge amount that we want to do and you have to keep pushing in new directions. The plans for next year include participating at several new fairs, gallery partnership projects and developing new designers from different disciplines. We are also so happy in our new GUILD gallery space, which allows for so many more projects than before.

Do any of the pieces in the curated collection that you’re taking to Design Miami 2017 tell a particular story that resonates with you personally?

We are very connected with all of the work for Miami and of course finishing the year with what, for us, is the best fair in the world gives us a great opportunity to select the most important work from the year. A highlight is always what Porky Hefer produces – this year it is a sublime leather Toucan hanging seat (a collaborative piece with Woodheads) – we have sold his pieces to some of the most important collectors around the world from the fair, including the National Gallery of Victoria, a leading design museum. We are also extremely excited about showing seven of Andile Dyalvane’s works from his recent solo at GUILD Silo, Indladla. Andile has a very strong collector base in the US, including a top gallery we collaborate with, Friedman Benda. Meyer von Wielligh has produced an extraordinary large-scale, carved timber table and sideboard inspired by lightning strikes. In all, we will show over 30 pieces in our biggest selection to date.

5. What do you hope to take away from the Design Miami 2017 experience and bring back to SA and Southern Guild specifically?

Miami, during the art and design fairs, is the absolute highlight of our year. The city is so stimulating over this time with dozens of art fairs, performances, pop-ups and events, that you can’t look in any direction without being assaulted with stimulation and inspiration. We connect with our colleagues in the industry, including other global galleries, designers we have developed close friendships with [sic] like the Haas Brothers and Misha Khan, and we work with our partner galleries like R and Company on our collaborations for the coming year.

We learn so much as we spend seven days viewing the most important design in the world from the other 33 galleries that participate. Most importantly, we re-establish our own confidence in our work and our path, as the sales at the fair for South African design are always so strong. Starting every day in a warm turquoise sea and finishing it at a super hot party doesn’t hurt either.

For more information about GUILD, visit theguildgroup.co.za.

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An exciting new exhibition has just opened at Southern Guild in Cape Town’s Woodstock.

The exhibition features works from almost 40 talented local designers under the age of 40, a group that was shortlisted after the gallery put out a call for new work earlier this year.

A selection of the designers from left to right: Chuma Maweni, Mishal Adam Weston, Ashlee Ainsley Lloyd, Nehanda Magan, Denny Mo and Faatimah Mohamed-Luke.

The result? A beautifully curated collection of limited-edition designs by some of the most exciting names in the industry.

@kurtpio’s “Beautiful Coward” is one of many breathtaking artworks on show at @southernguildgallery’s new exhibition, #anewwave. It’s made from plywood and 10 500 brass thumb tacks. #art #artist #design #exhibition #creativity #gallery #artwork #southernguild #capetown #southafrica

A photo posted by VISI Magazine (@visi_mag) on Aug 16, 2016 at 12:38am PDT

#anewwave is the latest exhibition to open at @southernguildgallery. Visit from tomorrow until 27 September. Exciting! #art #design #southernguild #exhibition #gallery #capetown

A photo posted by VISI Magazine (@visi_mag) on Aug 11, 2016 at 9:24am PDT

Watch our video above as we visit the gallery and give you a sneak peek of the pieces on show, as well as chat to Southern Guild co-founder Trevyn McGowan about the exhibition.

A New Wave runs until 23 September 2016 at Southern Guild, which is located at Unit 1, 10–16 Lewin Street, Woodstock, Cape Town. The gallery is open Monday to Friday from 10am – 5pm. Please note, the show will be closed on 23 and 24 August 2016. For more information, visit southernguild.co.za.

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Cape Town design gallery, Southern Guild, will present Graphica, its latest exhibition on 8 April 2016, following its current and highly successful Monster Deliciosa exhibition by Porky Hefer.

The group exhibition promises to introduce attendees to local and collectible design work. Although the pieces that make up Graphica have been exhibited by the gallery at renowned international fairs such as Design Miami and Design Days Dubai, this will be the first time they will be exhibited locally.

“Graphica is a visual feast of dynamic silhouettes and exquisite surface detailing,” says Southern Guild founder Trevyn McGowan. Some of the artists you can expect to see are Brett Murray, Daniella Mooney, Dokter and Misses, Gregor Jenkin, Laurie Wiid van Heerden with Ceramic Matters, Madoda Fani, Rodan Kane Hart and Xandre Kriel.

“Southern Guild is forging ahead with repositioning design work as investment pieces in this country,” adds Trevyn. “In the same way that art is collected by top buyers and museums, our South African designers are beginning to make waves, with collectors understanding the global significance of Africa and its designer-makers.”

Graphica opens to the public from 8 April until 1 July at the Southern Guild gallery, located at 10 Lewin Street, Woodstock, Cape Town. The gallery is open Monday to Friday from 10am to 5pm and on Saturdays by appointment only.

For more information, visit southernguild.co.za.

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Come 23 June 2016, Andile Dyalvane, award-winning ceramicist and co-founder of Imiso Ceramics, will present Camagu, his first international solo exhibition at New York’s prestigious Friedman Benda gallery.

Since founding Imiso Ceramics together with Zizipho Poswa in 2005, Andile’s unique creations have gained him attention locally and abroad, and in the process they have become collector’s items. Most recently, he won the Southern Guild Design Foundation Icon Award.

“Andile’s is a completely unique voice in the global design world,” says Trevyn McGowan of Southern Guild, the Cape Town-based collectible design gallery that represents Andile. “The extraordinary techniques he has developed, both at home and through residencies in Denmark, France, California and Taipei, and his ability to work in such an oversized scale, something extremely rare in ceramics, offers an exceptional complexity seldom witnessed in this medium, while still forming a narrative that remains true to his African identity.”

A huge part of the appeal of his work lies in the way he seamlessly blends cultural heritage with a contemporary urban energy, resulting in completely unique, handmade pieces. A particularly favoured technique by ceramic enthusiasts is the way he references African scarification, more specifically the style of scarification practiced in Xhosa tradition. For this upcoming two-month New York show, he will present more than 20 pieces, which include ceramic screens, lighting, shelving and over-scaled vessels, with surface designs that will continue to explore the scarification technique.

“I’ve always wanted to do a solo show, creating works I’d only ever dreamed of producing, and this show is it,” explains Andile. “It’s been my chance to realise designs that would otherwise have remained in my sketchbooks. So Camagu references my gratitude.”

Andile joins an exclusive list of 15 celebrated artists at Friedman Benda, which represents some of the top names in global design, from Marcel Wanders and Wendell Castle to the Campana Brothers. “It is undisputedly one of the most important galleries in the world and the recognition that this solo exhibition is affording Andile is remarkably significant for him as an artist, and for the South African design industry as a whole,” says Trevyn.

Camagu runs from 23 June to 19 August 2016. Follow #camagu to see Andile Dyalvane’s progress for this solo show.

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The Business of Design Conference is back for its third instalment in Cape Town and Johannesburg this spring.

The two-day conference is set to inspire with talks from a variety of industry experts and professionals, including international speaker Jim Brett, president of US homeware retail firm, West Elm (in Cape Town).

The conference will be in Cape Town from 7 to 8 October 2015 at Inner City Ideas Cartel at 71 Waterkant Street. The Johannesburg conference will run on 21 and 22 October 2015 with the venue still to be confirmed.

‘Business of Design appeals to all industries,’ explains co-founder Trevyn McGowan of Source, Southern Guild and GUILD. ‘We’ve not only had designers and architects attend, but people from retail, accounting and marketing. Because the programme is geared towards both business skills and design thinking, it bridges the divide between the two, encouraging new ways of going about one’s work.’

The 2015 lineup of speakers includes:

Trends to Track in 2016: Chris Reid, International Trend Institute

The Secrets to Developing a Brand: Mike Schalit, Net#Work BBDO (CT)

The Art of Curation: Cathy O’Clery, 100% Design South Africa and Platform Creative Agency

Funding – How to Tap into Resources: Kgosi Monametsi, African Century Ventures

Feeding Creativity: Lianne Burton, Creative Consultant

Case Study – Keys to Success: Kirsten Goss, Kirsten Goss; Di Marshall, Wonki Ware in conversation with Julian McGowan, Source, Southern Guild, GUILD

Africa – Growth of a Continent: Terry Behan, Social Entrepreneur and Brand Builder

Designing a Customer Experience: Laurence Brick, 100% Design South Africa and Platform Creative Agency

Right Product, Right Price, Right Market: Trevyn McGowan, Source, Southern Guild and GUILD

Stand 47 – A Study in Lifestyle Innovation: Gavin Rooke, The New Order in conversation with Malibongwe Tyilo from VISI

Don’t Go Into Food – A Cautionary Tale About Food Packaging Design : Paul Raphaely, NOMU (JHB)

Top 10 Tips to Running a Creative Studio: Adrienne Sparks, Mr Price Home

Special International Guest Speaker: Jim Brett, President of West Elm (CT)

Want to see what went down last year? Watch the video below.

Expect more talks to be added to the programme. Visit businessofdesign.co.za to keep up to date and to book your tickets.

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Trevyn and Julian McGowan, the dynamic couple behind SOURCE, the Southern Guild Gallery in Woodstock, GUILD international design festival and the V&A Waterfront’s Watershed, are going to lend their curatorial expertise to WORK | SHOP | NEW | TOWN, a new retail design concept set to open this coming November in Johannesburg’s CBD.

The 1 200 square metre design destination in the award-winning Newtown Junction development will be open seven days a week, and will play host to over 45 stalls, with an in-depth focus on cutting-edge local fashion, as well as product design. There will also be a tailor, a barbershop and a tattoo parlour on the premises.

The development is located in a heritage building built in 1911 that was primarily used to store vegetables and livestock. Drawing on Julian’s own experience with spatial development, in consultation with urban strategist Alice Cabaret, WORK | SHOP | NEW | TOWN and the greater Newtown Junction will ensure that this legendary neighbourhood takes its place amongst other rejuvenated inner-city centres like Braamfontein and Maboneng.

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Work by some of our best artists and designers has found a new home: the Southern Guild Gallery in Woodstock.

No one who knew the Cape Town suburb of Woodstock a decade ago would deny the changes that have taken place in the area in the 10 years since. Streets in which businesses feared to trade have turned into hubs of creative activity, attracting a wide range of retailers, restaurants, designers, artists and art galleries.

During this decade, husband-and-wife team Julian and Trevyn McGowan built a business that has grown to be the authority on local original design. In November 2014, their business opened its first permanent home, the Southern Guild Gallery, in Lewin Street, Woodstock.

“We moved to Cape Town after living in Wilderness for 11 years,” says Trevyn. “We were looking for an office when Julian spotted this space. All that was here was a warehouse with cracked concrete. We thought, okay, maybe we can put the office in; then one thing led to another and, just like that, we were opening a permanent gallery. It’s something we’ve talked about for ages, obviously, but we always thought it would be in Joburg.”

For the gallery opening, the McGowans hosted Home-coming, an exhibition of limited-edition works by top designers and artists. At the gallery’s front window, guests were greeted by a tableau of Justine Mahoney sculptures. A little further in, across from a Koop Design Linen-fold table, David Krynauw’s Haywire black ash chandelier lit up artist Michael MacGarry’s human bone chopsticks (Amicus Curiae). All around, design and art lived in harmony.

Looking at the works in the gallery’s 280 m² space with the white walls and high ceilings, it’s easy to forget what it looked like just a few months before. In fact, one might even forget that South African design lacked representation at the world’s top design fairs before Trevyn and Julian started Southern Guild.

“I’m from Johannesburg originally,” says Trevyn, “and I went to live in London in the early ’80s. I spent 22 years there, and that’s where Julian and I met. I’d started a design consultancy, and it was through buying South African products for clients that I saw the need for people internationally to have access to South African work.”

It was after they moved back to South Africa in 2003 that the pair founded their first company, Source, which connected South African suppliers to international clients, including The Conran Shop. “The person who worked with me at The Conran Shop introduced me to American retailer Anthropologie, and within five years we were supplying them, Restoration Hardware, Bergdorf Goodman, Jamie Oliver and others. It really exploded.

“We soon had a database of about 500 suppliers, and it was through working at that retail commercial level that we realised a platform was needed for limited-edition collectible design. So, in 2008, we launched Southern Guild for designers who are producing pieces too big, too expensive or too limited to fit into a retail kind of model .”

Southern Guild now shows South African design at five of the most important design fairs around the world. Last year, the pair also launched GUILD, Africa’s first international design fair in Cape Town, to which they invited some of the world’s best collectible-design galleries. February 2015 will see them host it for the second time, where together with the designers they will continue to write the story of South African design.

“We’re interested in the idea of openness and sharing; through sharing far richer things come,” says Trevyn. “We view what we do as collaboration – with our designers and with the retailers we work with. Collaboration is about ultimate openness and allowing yourself to be challenged.”

Find out how you can book your spot at the VISI Great Spaces tour of this fantastic space.

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Southern Guild is synonymous with South African design, but they’ve never actually had their own permanent exhibition space, until now.

On the industrial Lewin Street in Woodstock, you’ll find the newest addition to Cape Town’s list of beautiful galleries.

The first Southern Guild Gallery exhibition is entitled HOMECOMING and features works from acclaimed designers and artists such as Brett Murray, Gregor Jenkin, Porky Hefer, Justine Mahoney, Laurie Wiid van Heerden, Bronze Age, Ceramic Matters, Dokter + Misses, Sibusiso Mthembu, John Vogel and Nic Bladen.

The gallery is situated at Unit 1, 10 – 16 Lewin Street, Woodstock, Cape Town. Gallery hours are from Tuesday until Friday from 10am to 5pm and on Saturdays from 10am until 1pm. Monday viewings by appointment only.

For more information, visit southernguild.co.za. 

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Cape Town may be World Design Capital this year, but there’s no denying that the local design scene is flourishing in SA as a whole.

As the design industry grows and new players come onto the scene, it becomes evident that there is still a lack of training, which often leads to failed businesses. Enter Business of Design, a two day seminar facilitated by four design industry experts: Trevyn and Julian McGowan of Source, Southern Guild and Guild, and Laurence Brick and Cathy O’Clery, both of whom are creative partners behind 100% Design South Africa.

In addition to Trevyn, Julian, Laurence and Cathy, some of the speakers you can look forward to hearing from include South African Fashion Week founder Lucilla Booyzen, Business and Arts South Africa’s Michelle Constant, clothing label Fabiani’s Arie Fabian, designer Marianne Fassler, Frazer Parfum’s Tammy Frazer and Marie Claire editor Aspasia Karras.

They will cover a range of subjects, from time management and brand strategy, to practical issues like cash flow and accounting systems through to marketing, exports and dealing with international orders.

The Cape Town leg of the seminar is sold out, however, tickets are still available for the Johannesburg seminar, which will be held on the 22^nd and 23^rd of October 2014 at Sage Technology Park.

To register for the seminar, visit businessofdesign.co.za.

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White needn’t be cold or boring. Here are 7 spaces that use white with dark wood, black or neutrals to create inviting spaces.

1. All White Now

The McGowan’s farmhouse just outside Calitzdorp in the Western Cape got the white treatment. Walls, old furniture, the bath, an old coal stove… nothing was spared. It was an ugly-ish house, and white is very forgiving, hence the colour overload, explains owner, Trevyn.

trevyn@source-sa.com

2. Blank Canvas

The Nirox residency, 40km outside Johannesburg, offers local and international artists a space to create, connect and exchange ideas and experiences. It’s a space for artists to relax, unwind, muse. The only distraction: a crackling fire and views over landscaped gardens, lawns and wetlands.

niroxarts.com

3. Bird’s Nest

Ostrich-egg lights take centre stage in the McGowan’s mostly white bedroom in their mostly white farmhouse, Pear Tree Farm, outside Calitzdorp. White sheepskin rugs on the off-white tiled floor provide subtle warmth underfoot.

trevyn@source-sa.com

4. White on White

A variety of textures in this all-white playroom provides subtle nuances and breaks the one-dimensional look. A bookcase and a collection of old chairs provide an eclectic mix of shapes and forms jotted around the table.

trevyn@source-sa.com

5. Simply Sorted

While enjoying views across the majestic Maluti mountains from their Ladybrand home in the Eastern Fee State, Werner and Philippa du Toit run their handmade ceramics business, Mud Studio. Stacked here in a wooden rack is a collection of their work and, in front, on the old sandstone fireplace, perch bowls and jugs of distinction.

mudstudio.net

6. White Wash

Inspired by an American barn, a corrugated Free State home in Clarens has a midwestern antique theme running through all its spaces, even the bathroom. The chrome was stripped off the taps and spout for an authentic-looking, old-world appearance. The custom-built basin completes the look.

Carlo di Mezza 082 373 1428

7. Daydreaming

The uncomplicated hand of Californian architect Jim Jennings is evident in this space, where air and light take precedence over clutter. For this simple, corrugated home in the Napa Valley between the towns Calistoga and Santa Rosa, Jim drew from the surrounding landscape for design and materials inspiration.

jimjenningsarchitecture.com

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