et al. | a group exhibition

et al. | a group exhibition 28 APRIL – 08 MAY 2013

Maa i ke Bakke r | N i a l l B i n gham | B r e t t Mu r r a y | Ch r i s t i a n Ne r f | Tama ra O s s o | S ean S l emon C r a i g ( A c t ua l l y ) Sm i t h | MJ Tu rp i n | Ma r y Wa fe r | Qu i n t en Edwa rd Wi l l i ams

Curated by Neil Nieuwoudt and Brendan Copestake

From 28 April – 08 May NIROXprojects at Arts on Main, Johannesburg will be hosting a group exhibition of talented young to more established and well-known South African artists. The exhibition will play host to varying mediums from painting, lino cuts, photography and sculpture to installation based work. All of these combined to form an interesting juxtaposition of artistic styles and genres.

The exhibition opens on Sunday 28 April 2013 at 12pm.

et al. | a group exhibition | Installation view | NIROXprojects and Parts and Labour | 2013

M A A I K E B A K K E R

Maaike grew up in Pretoria. She obtained her BA in visual art at the University of South Africa. As a student she participated in art competitions such as Absa Atelier and has since also participated in various group shows. She is currently in the process of obtaining her MA in f ine art at the University of Johannesburg.

The way things are (2013) (mirror piece)

This artwork consists of an instruction manual exhibited alongside an installation. The manual features all the technical data (dimensions and placement) of the accompanying installation. The manuals are mass-produced and not editioned, thereby encouraging the audience to take one. The installation consists of various pieces of mirror, cut to pre-determined dimensions specified in the manual. The work serves the function of embodying the visitor and also aims to become a reflection of the space and exhibition context it’s exhibited in. The work is thus defined by its surroundings and presents a new experience each time it is exhibited. This rupture and displacement affects ones knowledge of the understanding of the art object itself, it pervades out actions, ideas and interpretation, which are thus constituted by the installation of the work itself, carefully instructed by the manual provided.

______ / ______ (2013)

This piece plays with the attempt to secure and conserve an artwork. It consists of various chains attached to door locks, al lowing the chain to be locked in multiple ways, trying to simultaneously contain the work. The piece is based on its variabil ity. It offers multiple alternatives that it can be exhibited. The sl iders can connect in various ways, al lowing the audience is encouraged to intervene and to change the manner in which the sl ides are connected by fixing the chain into different formations. The piece is accompanied by an instruction manual which shows some alternatives in terms of how the chains can be fixed.

The Way Things Are | Mirrors | Dimensions variable | Maaike Bakker | 2013

------/------ | Chains | Dimensions variable | Maaike Bakker | 2013

Now Museum | Dust on 300gsm Fabriano paper | A3 | Maaike Bakker | 2013

Installation view | Underdog by Niall Bingham | ____/____ by Maaike Bakker | et al. | 2013 (photo credit: Laetitia Lups)

Installation view | ____/____ by Maaike Bakker | Watchman and Reappropriated Field by Quinten Edward Williams | et al. | 2013 (photo credit: Laetitia Lups)

N I A L L B I N G H A M

Niall Bingham was born in Pietermaritzburg in 1981, where he studied Fine Art at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, completing his BAVA (Hons) in 2005. Whilst studying printmaking under Vulindlela Nyoni, he developed a passion for the medium. He spent his second year of studies at Kansai Gaidai University in Japan on an exchange program, learning the language and training in Sumi-e painting and Japanese ceramic techniques.His interest in printmaking led him to the David Krut Print Workshop (DKW) in Johannesburg, where he collaborated and printed for top South African artists including William Kentridge, Diane Victor, Paul Stopforth, Willem Boshoff, David Koloane and many others.

Underdog | Linocut | 131 x 222cm | Edition of 5 | Niall Bingham | 2013

Untitled | Linocut | 65,5 x 50,5cm | Edition 8/9 | 2011 | Niall Bingham (collaborative work with MJ Turpin)

B R E T T M U R R AY

Brett Murray studied at the University of Cape Town where he was awarded his Master’s of Fine Arts degree in 1988 with distinction. The tit le of his dissertation is ‘A Group of Satir ical Sculptures Examining Social and Polit ical Paradoxes in the South African Context’. As an undergraduate he won Irma Stern Scholarships in both 1981 and 1982. He won the Simon Garson Prize for the most Promising student in 1982 and was awarded the Michaelis Prize in 1983. As a postgradu-ate student he received a Human Sciences Research Council bursary, a University of Cape Town Research Scholarship, the Jules Kramer Grant and an Irma Stern Scholarship.

He has exhibited extensively in South Africa and abroad. From 1991 to 1994 he established the sculpture department at the University of Stellenbosch, where he curated the show ‘Thirty Sculptors from the Western Cape’ in 1992. In 1995 he curated, with Kevin Brand, ‘Scurvy’, at the Castle of Good Hope in Cape Town. That year he co-curated ‘Junge Kunst Aus Zud Afrika’ for the Hänel Gallery in Frankfurt, Germany.

In 1999, Brett co-founded, with artists and cultural practit ioners Lisa Brice, Kevin Brand, Bruce Gordon, Andrew Putter, Sue Will iamson, Robert Weinek and Lizza Littlewort, ‘Public Eye’, a Section 27 company that manage and init iate art projects in the public arena with the aims to develop a greater profi le for public art in Cape Town. They have init iated projects on Robben Island, worked with the cit ies health officials on aids awareness campaigns and init iated outdoor sculpture projects including ‘The Spier Sculpture Biennale’. He curated ‘Homeport’ in 2001 which saw 15 artists create site specific text based works in Cape Town’s waterfront precinct. Public Eye have interfaced with cultural funding bod-ies as consultants and hosted multi-media events across the city.

His solo shows include: ‘White Boy Sings the Blues’ at the Rembrandt Gallery in Johannesburg in 1996, ‘ I love Africa’ at the Bell-Roberts Gallery in Cape Town in 2000, ‘Us and Them’ at the Axis Gallery in New York in 2003 and ‘Sleep Sleep’ at the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg in 2006. His solo show, ‘Crocodile Tears’, was held at both the Cape Town and Johannesburg branches of The Goodman Gallery in 2007 and 2009. His recent show, ‘Hail To The Thief’, was held at the Goodman Gallery in Cape Town in 2010. Murray was included on the Cuban Biennial of 1994, and subsequently his works where exhibited at the Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art in Germany. He was included on the group show, ‘Spring-time in Chile’ at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Santiago, Chile. He was also part of the travell ing show ‘Liberated Voices, Contemporary Art From South Africa’ which opened at the Museum for African Art in New York in 1998. His work formed part of the shows ‘Min(d)fields’ at the Kunsthaus in Baselland, Switzerland in 2004 and ‘The Geopolit ics of Ani-mation‘ at the Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporaneo in Sevil le in Spain in 2007. He won the Cape Town Urban Art com-petition in 1998 that resulted in the public work ‘Africa’, a 3.5 metre bronze sculpture, being erected in Cape Town’s city centre. He won, with Stefaans Samcuia, the commission to produce an 8 x 30 metre wall sculpture for the foyer of the Cape Town International Convention Centre in 2003. In 2007 he completed ‘Specimens’, a large wall sculpture for the University Of Cape Town’s medical school campus. He was nominated as the Standard Bank Young Artist of the year in 2002.

Brett works in Cape Town, South Africa, where he l ives with his wife Sanell Aggenbach, their daughter Lola and son Kai.

Praise Singer | Bronze | 68 x 42 x 44cm | Brett Murray | 2008

Installation view | et al. | a group exhibition | 2013 (photo credit: Laetitia Lups)


C H R I S T I A N N E R F

“The …working with… prints are the first in a series of editioned works in which I assess what learnings came from working with numerous individuals ov er the past 23 years. All of these people have been my teachers and without exception I have been taught a lesson. Not all of my cohorts have been artists let alone knowing what we were doing fell under what is known as art.

Many of my early collaborations with artists were fairly unsophisticated and constituted of hanging out together and being eager to activate some shared fantasies. As time past and partnerships were exhausted I became more enamoured with what can come from closeness, to not only think al ike but to merge and allow for a third voice to emerge; a fully f letched being with all the trimmings sans body. A voice, speaking its mind. We, the artists, doing what we are told by this other that is both al ien and famil iar.

With each relationship dismantled and all but the keywords discarded I attempt to strip the words away and what remains are these keystones. These are a shorthand of my relationships: individual complex adventures, investigations and experiments.

By reducing the complex projects down to a few words and allowing these to lead me to a symbol I am confronted with that which remains. It is this thing that is of value, perhaps even useful. Albeit heavily coded it functions not as beginning, middle or end but rather at a point in an already running tune with countless interchangeable directions. A win win scenario in which nothing is lost, everything counts. These symbols are instruments, multipurpose tools.

I look forward to sharing kernels from time spent working with Justice and with Sebastian, with Zharne and Moshekwa, Kathryn, Barend (again), Waddy, Ed, Wil lem, Crispian, Abdulrazaque, Sebastian and others and as always working with You…”

…working with Douglas… | Two colour Polymer Photogravure on Zerkall Intaglio 250gsm | Edition of 20 | 52,5 x 38,3cm (paper dimension)Christian Nerf | 2012

Greenhouse | Wooden sculpture (work in progress | Dimensions variable | Christian Nerf | 2012 - present

TA M A R A O S S O

Tamara Osso worked as a professional ballet and contemporary dancer before pursuing a career in f ine art as a painter. She danced with numerous companies, most notably; Free Fl ight Contemporary Dance Company, Ballet Theatre Afrikan and The Really Useful Group. She completed her BA Fine Art degree and is currently completing her MA degree at WITS University. Her work and research involves experimenting with how characteristics of performance and painting become conflated. Working with two traditionally distinct languages engages the idea of translation; the communication of the meaning of a source language (performance) by means of an equivalent target language (painting). Attempting to translate elements of one language into the other always risks inappropriate spil l-over of source language idiom and usage into the target language translation. On the other hand, spil l-over’s have imported useful source language calques that have enriched the target languages. Consistently working between elements distinct to either discipl ine produces errors or misunderstand-ings which require negotiation and an element of invention which tends to obscure analysis of the nature of relationships which are emphasized by contrasts, complications and intimate exchanges. Tamara’s exhibition credits include; WITS Martinessen Prize f inalist 2007, 2008, 2009. She showed in a group exhibition tit led Beyond the Line at The Goethe Institute in 2008. She had her graduate exhibition, Virtually Real at the Substation at Wits in 2009 and was a f inalist in The Sasol Young Signatures Competition 2009. In 2011 she has been part of independent exhibitions; Process this/ at the Michaelis Gallery in Cape Town, Satell ite Spaces at Main Street Life in Johannesburg and The Art of Assemblage Exhibition: A group show of emerging artists at the Joburg Fringe - 21-25 September. In 2012 she exhibited once again at the Michaelis Gallery in an exhibition tit led SEE/SAW 25 July – 8 August.

Artist vs Artist (performance piece) | Vinyl print on glass |90 x 120cm | Tamara Osso | 2013

S E A N S L E M O N

Sean Slemon, is a South African artist who l ives and works in Brooklyn, NY. His drawing, sculpture and installation is drawn from the debate around social equality through an emphasis on natural resources as a scapegoat in urban spaces and how they are distributed polit ically. A winner of the Sasol New Signatures award in 2005 after solo shows at the Premises, and subsequently moved to the US to obtain an MFA from Pratt Institute, he received funding toward the degree from the National Arts Council of South Africa. He attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2007 and held a solo show at MagnanMetz Gallery in 2008. At this t ime he was participating in a Chashama Studio residency. He has exhibited on numerous group exhibitions, both in the USA, South Africa and Siena, Italy. He received a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Art for his recent show at BrodieStevenson gallery in Johannesburg in South Africa. He recently held his second solo exhibition at MagnanMetz gallery entitled The Sun Stands Sti l l, accompanied by a catalog and funded through USA Artists.In 2012 he attended a residency at the Nirox Foundation outside Johannesburg, South Africa and produced new prints, drawings and artwork for a solo in July of 2012 at NIROXprojects, Arts on Main, Johannesburg.

The Premises | Lazer cut mild steel | Edition 5/7 | 60 x 45 x 15cm | Sean Slemon | 2005

The Premises | Etching | Edition 2/7 | | Sean Slemon | 2005

C R A I G ( A C T U A L LY ) S M I T H

Born in 1961, Smith graduated from art school at age 18, majoring in Painting and Art History. After 2 years in the Navy, he started a career in photography, working as an assistant photographer for 5 years at Louis in photography/ Fashion and Frank Gross in portraiture/ commercials.

In 1987 Smith moved to the medium of painting and started working as a scenic artist in Europe and South Africa. During these years he also exhibited in Johannesburg, South Africa.

During 1990-1997 he moved, from scenic art to set design and eventually Production Design. In 1998 he moved to Cape Town where he started a set building company called Upset. Design and building sets brought the two passions of painting and photography together, and he has always regarded them as large installations where he gets to create history and character out of nothing.

Smith currently resides in Johannesburg, South Africa where he is focussing on his painting and exhibiting his work on various group exhibitions l ike the Joburg Fringe 2011 and 2012 and more recently at the Kalishnikovv Gallery in Braamfontein, Johannesburg.


Fractural Distraction | Oil on canvas | 130,5 x 110cm | Craig (Actually) Smith | 2012

Untitled Girl (Untitled) | Oil and enamel on canvas | 46 x 46cm | Craig (Actually) Smith | 2011

Blinded by Her Opinion | Oil on canvas | 61 x 61,5cm | Craig (Actually) Smith | 2013

Can’t see the Wood for the... | Oil on canvas | 60 x 80,5cm | Craig (Actually) Smith | 2010

M J T U R P I N

Murray Turpin (M18J92T)

Born: Johannesburg,South Africa 1982

Education: Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours), University of the Witwatersrand. South Africa.

locality: Lived and worked in South Africa,Netherlands, Belgium. Currently works and l ives in Johannesburg.

Current concepts and thematic exploration include: identity/geometry(Diaspora), socio-polit ics, geography, blk holes, the cosmos and violence.

Gallery Founder and Director: The kalashnikovv Gallery and Consultancy AND Satell ite Spaces//The untitled Gallery - Exhibition Series.

Artists statement:

body of work in process(research and production developments on going) - no statement made as of yet.

void neo 7 | Dimensions variable | Kiaat, laser cut steel and spray paint | Edition of 1 | MJ Turpin | 2013

I see the future, hopefully one day you will too | Serigraph | A2 | Edition of 7 | MJ Turpin | 2012

M A RY WA F E R

“One of the recurring threads in my work is the notion of vis ibi l ity and invisibi l ity, concrete and conceptual vis ibi l ity, evidence of cit izenship, ways of belonging to and possessing the physical and imagined spaces we occupy. The overwhelmingly challenging material ity of these spaces demands a constant navigation, attention and vigi lance, a perpetual re-negotiation and re-interpretation of the particular imagined and real spaces we occupy. For me painting is a conceptual practice that operates as a platform for investigating social and urban realit ies. Painting offers the possibi l ity of both building up complex layers of meaning and signif ication, and at the same time the possibi l ity of subtraction and disti l lation, enabling suggestions of real and imaged absences and presences. I use my own photographs as preliminary sketches for my paintings: the init ial photograph and my subsequent abstraction represent a layered approach to inducing visibi l ity, and reveals the multiple levels of mediation that frame the experience of an urban ‘reality’. By this I mean that I attempt, through my paintings to reveal that which is not vis ible through a purely representational image. The images are init ial ly captured by the camera and then re-thought, re-invested by the paintbrush. Because of this possibi l ity of multiple layers of s ignif ication, and the processes of disti l lation and layering of information, I believe that painting can function as a theoretical and polit ical practice in which the act of making visible is a polit ical act against invisibi l ity.”


Die | Acrylic on Canvas | 120 x 160cm | Mary Wafer | 2011

Q U I N T E N E D WA R D W I L L I A M S

“I was born in Vryburg in the Northern Cape, and l ive and work in Johannesburg. An National School of the Arts kid, I fol lowed on to attended the University of the Witwatersrand. Here I completed a Bachelors of Art in Fine Art in 2005. Currently I am at the final stages of a Masters Degree of Fine Art at this institution. The tit le of this current project isSome Combinations: Praxis, Multimodal Art Research and Complex Environments. This project looks at praxis, the mutation between relationships of bodies, as a way to situate artistic work simulatiously as research of environments, and interventions into environments. My fascination with the formation of environments has led to an interest in the philosophy of complexity, and in art-making, as activit ies which may contribute to thinking through and guiding movement through the unpredictabil ity and uncertainty of l ife. Art-making may be thought of as a process which intersects with other bodies and becomes complicit in the formation of environments. When that thought is entertained, for me at least, seemingly arbitary details of interaction in the world become profound intersections. This has led to an interest in installation and performance, as ways to cope with, or participate in the complexity of the world. Often, however, an interaction may be something different than a work of art, and may have a different set of potentials in the world. These ways of working may incorporate many other modalit ies, for instance, paintings, drawings, videos, conversations, objects, lectures, walks and so forth. Throughout the website, a website which only captures aspects of my work, there are anecdotes and descriptions of works or processes.”

Watchman | Acrylic and Charcoal on Canvas | 2 x 2m | Quinten Edward Williams | 2013

Reappropriated Field | Acrylic and Charcoal on Canvas | 2 x 2m | Quinten Edward Williams | 2013

Panoramic installation view | et al. | NIROXprojects and Parts and Labour | 2013

click on image to gain access to actual panoramic view on the web

http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=26e9a2a5-0e11-438f-89a8-1d4d7b1519d1

For further information please contact: Neil Nieuwoudt T: +27 72 350 4326 E: [email protected]

Brendan Copestake T: +27 84 455 0255 E: [email protected]

NIROXprojects | ARTS ON MAIN | MABONENG PRECINCT | JOHANNESBURG249 Fox Street, cnr Main Rd, Arts On Main +27 72 350 4326 www.niroxarts.com

www.partsandlabour.co.za

www.niroxarts.com

Documents

et al. | a group exhibition