2024 SASOL NEW SIGNATURES ART COMPETITION | WINNERS AND FINALISTS OVERALL WINNER: Mine Kleynhans, Meditations on Resentment, Cherrywood, brass and found objects Miné Kleynhans (34), a project manager at the University of the Free State Art Gallery, has been announced as the winner of the 2024 Sasol New Signatures Art Competition for her installation piece titled Meditations on Resentment. Kleynhans takes home a cash prize of R100 000 and an opportunity to hold a solo exhibition at the Pretoria Art Museum in 2025. Meditations on Resentment imagines an intimate personal ritual that sanctions the experience and expression of resentment. This interactive work invites viewers to engage in a ritual with this secret and suppressed emotion by imaginatively and temporarily lifting the constraints that typically govern how resentment is managed. When encountering the artwork, participants are presented with the shiny, indented surface of the work, a brush with a sharpened end and a bowl of sand. The ritual tasks participants to kneel in front of the work and pour the sand onto the indented surface. They are then to write their resentments in the sand with the sharpened end of the brush, before sweeping the sand away and out of the closest cavity until the sharp, hard kernel of a brass thorn is revealed.
RUNNER-UP: Tandabantu Matola, Ukuncikelela (to hold on/endure) Tandabantu Matola (28), a Fine Arts student at Walter Sisulu University in the Eastern Cape, was crowned runner-up and awarded R25 000 for his work titled Ukuncikelela (to hold on/endure). Black South African communities, especially in impoverished rural villages, are often forced to keep domestic items for longer than they wish. The idea for this artwork came when the artist noticed that the dishcloth at his home was in a bad state. As an artist, this prompted Matola to collect dishcloths from his village in exchange for new ones. Clay and underglaze are used to depict the homes Matola visited, combining these with the dishcloth he obtained from that home. The weaving of clay and cloth symbolises ukuncikelela, which means “to hold on” in isiXhosa. PVA glue is used to hold the cloths in shape while also reinforcing the ukungcola (dirtiness) from the overuse of the cloth.
MERIT AWARD WINNERS
Snelihle Maphumulo (Gqeberha), Umnikelo, mixed media
Themba Mkhangeli (Cape Town), Ubushushu Bekhaya (The warmth of home), ballpoint pen on paper
Bonginkosi Mkhatshwa (Johannesburg), Traditional innovation (Unity & Innovative water carrier), mixed media
Juandré van Eck (Gqeberha), Waters of life, ceramics
UKUNGALINGANI KWEZEMFUNDO (EDUCATIONAL INEQUALITY) – NOSIVIWE MATIKINCA
Nosiviwe Matikinca (23), winner of the 2023 Sasol New Signatures Art Competition and recent graduate from Gqeberha, is holding her first solo exhibition titled Ukungalingani Kwezemfundo (Educational Inequality) alongside the 2024 Sasol New Signatures Art Competition exhibition at the Pretoria Art Museum until Sunday, 3 November 2024. Her award-winning work in 2023 highlighted the challenges faced by learners from underprivileged backgrounds in public schools, particularly focusing on the disparities in basic necessities like school shoes. Matikinca said, “For my solo exhibition, I have decided to continue the narrative I began in 2023 and highlight and educate the public about the challenges faced by learners who come from underprivileged backgrounds. My artworks portray the overcrowding of classes and the lack of school tables, leaving learners to share with others or use broken tables. The carvings on these tables commemorate the presence of learners who were distracted due to the overcrowding and noise from their classmates.” In addition to her clay shoes, Matikinca is also adding prints as well as some bronze artwork.
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THREADS OF RESILIENCE BY ODIRILE KHUNE MOTSIRI | Until 29 September 2024 | East Gallery The eighth iteration of the Kopanong Art Studio Residency Programme Exhibition returns featuring the work of Oridirile Khune Motsiri. The Kopanong Art Studio Residency Programme challenges the participating artist to produce an entirely new body of work by exploring the frontiers of their current themes and art media. The artist is encouraged to experiment with new media and explore different formats of presenting their work to the public.
Motsiri has spent a year in residency at the Pretoria Art Museum, conceptualising and executing artworks through denim and textiles. The results: A body of work that consists of two-dimensional fibre artworks and a modest foray into three-dimensional art pieces through a collaboration with one of the alumni of the residency, Theophelus Rikhotso. This exhibition, Threads of Resilience, endeavours to comment on labour and leisure through denim fabric as a main medium complemented by corduroy, a combination of synthetic and natural fibres as well as found materials, thus implicitly articulating the dynamic meaning of the denim fabric in our contemporary world through visual narratives.
Information and enquiries: Odirile Khune Motsiri: 079 096 6096 or odirilekhunemots@gmail.com
A STORY OF SOUTH AFRICAN ART | Ongoing | Albert Werth Hall This selection of artworks from the permanent collection of the Pretoria Art Museum briefly reviews South African art. It includes works by early twentieth-century painters, the Resistance artists of the 1980s and artists of the twenty-first century. The exhibition is based on the secondary school syllabus.
CERAMICS FROM THE PRETORIA ART MUSEUM AND COROBRIK COLLECTIONS | Ongoing | Ceramic Gallery View a selection of ceramic artworks from the Pretoria Art Museum’s collection, as well as ceramics from the Corobrik Ceramic Collection. Part of the Corobrik Collection, usually exhibited in the ceramic gallery, will be on loan to the University of Pretoria. The Corobrik Ceramic Collection came into being in 1977. With continued support, Corobrik has been able to continue keeping the collection relevant for the last 46 years.
SPECIAL REDUCED ENTRANCE FEE AT CITY OF TSHWANE MUSEUMS:
Visit the Pretoria Art Museum, Melrose House Museum or Fort Klapperkop Heritage Site on Wednesdays
FORTHCOMING EXHIBITIONS AND EVENTS MIRROR OF SOUL – SLOVAK ARTIST, MARTIN AUGUSTÍN Martin Augustín lives and works in Bratislava in the Slovak Republic. He is a painter, graphic artist, illustrator and graphic designer, but above all a solitary artist who chose his own path and pursues it with humility, compassion and love. Painting on paper is a medium that has long ago enchanted him and basically defines his creations. Handmade Japanese paper interwoven with thin capillaries enhances the fragility and delicacy of the final result, hinting at the interwoven threads of destiny. The Mirror of Soul exhibition came to light after the artist accepted the invitation by the Slovak Ambassador at the Embassy of the Slovak Republic in South Africa, HE Vladimír Crácz, to exhibit in South Africa. As a challenge and honour he seized the opportunity with enthusiasm, delving into timeless and all-human topics. The exhibition will open on Friday, 15 November 2024, at 13:00. Information and enquiries: Hannelie du Plessis (Pretoria Art Museum): 012 358 6748/6750 or hanneliedp@tshwane.gov.za FUN-FILLED MORNING WITH ACTIVITIES AT THE PRETORIA ART MUSEUM | OCTOBER 2024
Watch this space for fun and creative activities for parents and children aged 6 to 8 years at the Pretoria Art Museum. Invitations to be sent out soon. Mmutle A Kgokong (Pretoria Art Museum): 012 358 6750/6752 or mmutlekg@tshwane.gov.za SOUTH AFRICAN ART – Paintings from the Pretoria Art Museum Collection A selection of paintings from the permanent collection of the Pretoria Art Museum depicting the South African landscape of the twentieth century.
GUIDED TOURS No guided tours are available until further notice.
CENTURION ART GALLERY Centurion Art Gallery is a commercial art gallery where local artists can exhibit and sell their artworks. The gallery aims to show a variety of art forms, exhibit emerging talent and promote Tshwane artists in particular. For enquiries, contact the gallery on 083 328 6491 or 083 274 2221. Centurion Art Gallery is open on Mondays to Fridays from 09:00 to 16:00 and on Saturdays from 09:00 to 13:00. Centurion Art Gallery, cnr Cantonments Road and Union Avenue, Lyttelton, Centurion |
Henrico Paul Greyling (Pretoria), Through here a flower passed, steel
Denim Dreams, 2024, denim and textile collage on Umbhaco fabric
Martin Augustin, Whispering Wings, drawing, collage, gold patina foil
