R50 000 in prizes
An art competition to catch the attention of all has just been announced. Corporate Art Hermanus (Susan Karalis and Aileen Rolfe) are co-ordinating this and the rules and entry forms are available at corporatearthermanus@gmail.com . Entry fee is R100, this is an open competition and all mediums are acceptable. Closing date is 30 April and the final round of judging will be at the Civic Auditorium in Hermanus on 29 May 2010 at an invitation-only gala evening. If you are an artist and you don’t find out about this one right away, you will kick yourself. A great start for the art year!
Spier Contemporary 2010
On the national scene, there is more competition. Imagine one hundred of South Africa’s cutting-edge artists, one hundred and thirty works, displayed in the Edwardian grandeur of Cape Town’s City Hall. Chosen from over 2700 entries, the nation-wide curatorial team has assembled its view of where SA art is to-day. It opens on 14 March and I shall be asking local gallerists for their comment once the show is on view. Not to be missed.
Steven Cohen
South Africa’s own shocker, now well-established in Paris since 2003, was “at home” on 22nd January at the Michael Stevenson Gallery on the Main Road in Woodstock, Cape Town. Friends of the National Gallery were privileged to attend a walk-about with this SA-born artist whose latest work Golgotha was shown at the Pompidou Centre in November. He will be back there in 2011. The piece shows the artist, suited and starkly made-up, walking on elevated skull shoes in busy downtown New York. People ignore his laborious progress. Just another film, they may be thinking. But he is an international figure and his performance works evoke horror, pity, introspection, strong emotions.
Cohen in person is articulate, low-key and totally credible when he says he is not turned on by his bizarre, semi-nude, often transvestite rôles. His costumes are his work and he is “not an exhibitionist, just an ordinary, shy, hung-up guy.” Still athletic at close to fifty, he uses a gymnast’s ability and a dancer’s projection. The mimed sequences of his performance piece in Berlin’s Pariser Platz, which he swept with a giant toothbrush while wearing a tutu and a Star of David, were hugely moving. The piece was shown at the last Spier Biennial. Schoolchildren saw it. They did not giggle.
Not represented in our National Gallery except, appropriately, in the “Dada South?” show currently on till 28th February, Cohen has two rooms at Michael Stevenson for various “props’ such as his iconic high-heeled footwear, some collaged wall hangings, collected objects in vitrines and of course selected videos of his performance pieces. “The bits that didn’t sell,” he jokes. But even these bits flesh out the videos and encapsulate the essential, confrontational art of Steven Cohen.
Beaumont Open Days
Art and wine, marimbas and a water mill, altogether a glorious weekend at the Compagnes Drift home of Beaumont Wines at Bot River. My picture shows Geta Finlayson, herself an artist in precious metals in Harbour Road, against Jayne Beaumont’s triptych in oils of the sweeping Overberg canola and wheat fields. Raku pots and celadon glazed tableware by John the Potter and Ariane Beaumont’s bijou pendants added to the enjoyment. If you couldn’t make it, at least you can savour the wines.
Shelley at Bellini
Coming soon to a gallery near you, Shelley Adams… opening 19th February at Bellini in the Main Road. Expect something substantial from this accomplished artist, teacher and well-known Hermanus art figure.
As always, I welcome your news and views at niblos@telkomsa.net.
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