Art shows an early taste of festival
[caption id="attachment_36135" align="alignright" width="620"] TRAVELLING EXHIBITION: Natalie Kerr admires a painting by her husband Greg at ART Gallery's '4:40', an exhibition which moves to Grahamstown next month[/caption]
THE 40th anniversary of the National Arts Festival next month has already begun with four Port Elizabeth artists giving the Friendly City a preview of Grahamstown's fine art banquet.
The festival is from Thursday July 3 to Sunday July 13, but 4:40 is on display at ART Gallery in Cuyler Street until this weekend, before moving to Trinity Hall in Hill Street for its Grahamstown run. Next week ART gallery will host Xpressions 2014, another exhibition which is part of the festival.
Four acclaimed painters – Estelle Marais, Gregory Kerr, Dolla Sapeta and Anthony Harris – have produced 40 works, all in the format of 40cm x 40cm, hence the exhibition title 4:40.
The artists describe Sapeta and Kerr's work as exploring the human condition, while Marais and Harris use the South African landscape as a point of reference, yielding four extremely diverse artistic perspectives.
Harris, one of the prime movers to broaden the festival canvas to Nelson Mandela Bay, has an additional exhibition at the festival: landscape paintings of the Karoo and Richtersveld which also will be on show at Trinity Hall.
Marais describes her passion for arid landscapes as arising "from having spent much of my youth in or close to the Karoo. My roots go back to generations of Karoo sheep farmers who left me a heritage of respect, love, sometimes fear and sometimes hatred for this unrelenting and harsh yet captivating land".
Harris uses the same geography to explore the concept of "Deep Time" – geologic time – saying: "The complexities of the terrain challenge the viewers' own boundaries and conventions of romanticising a landscape. These landscapes hold within them aspects other than pure nature."
Kerr has spent much of his working life as a teacher and academic while pursuing a career as an artist. "I go at my paintings with joy and chutzpah but pretty soon that canvas will bring me down to size. Maybe all paintings are ultimately acts of desperation," says the articulate artist.
Sapeta's figurative work explores the artist's preoccupations with social, political and personal issues using bold colour, expressionist handling of forms and an easily identifiable iconography.
"My work is in constant change like a vehicle that never stops," he says. - Gillian McAinsh
Further information on 4:40 from Anthony Harris, 072-379-5933, e-mail:
