The 2019 Creative Block exhibition at the GFI Art Gallery in Park Drive is a fabulous collection which highlights the portraiture talents of SA artists in particular, with many from the Eastern Cape.
The Spier Arts Trust administers the Creative Block as an ongoing career development opportunity, inviting professional artists from all over the country to take part.
The trust holds regular hand-in days in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Port Elizabeth when it gives artists blank blocks which they go off and work on before returning them at the next hand-in day.
When the artists present their work they also have the chance to receive the curator’s critique – similar to a master class feedback – which can be invaluable for their development.
As well as providing the original blocks, Spier also buys selected completed blocks back from the artists.
The Creative Block exhibition is a treasure hunt for the visitor as very few blocks are signed on the front, meaning that each artwork must therefore speak for itself with no signature to sway you.
This “blind tasting” effectively places them all on an even platform, although art lovers in the know will recognise who is who.
Although there are several landscape and abstract works, portraits are clearly a strength of the artists selected for this year’s the 2019 collection.
Many artists have more than one block on display: Mthatha-born artist Ludumo Maqabuka, for example, has numerous blocks of different sizes with a focus on striking photo-realistic portraits.
University of Fort Hare fine art graduate Qhama Maswana is another who keenly captures the lived experiences of his subjects and he was rewarded by red “sold” stickers well before Christmas.
The human scale of the blocks – not much bigger or smaller than the human face – do of course lend themselves to the genre of portraiture.
Interestingly, there are not many still life paintings on the Creative Block – but then, let’s remember that life in South Africa is anything but still!
The beauty of the format is that as there are no restrictions placed on how artists fill their “canvases”, the end results make use of a myriad media.
Acrylics and oils predominate, but you will also find pencil works - Jennifer Ord's subtle and gorgeous work - fabric and thread art, metal - Banele Njadayi for example - papier mache, wire on plaster, bead mosaic (a surprisingly effective display by Khanyiswa Edith Skiet) and more.
In this way the exhibition is also a visual workshop on the diverse ways of covering a flat surface.
The format of the exhibition, where there is a fixed price for a set shape, is also budget-friendly because, as GFI manager Hayley Grinstead notes, most of these artists would be selling pieces for two or three times the “block” rate.
“It works well because the price is reasonable and so a lot of people buy three or four. It gives you a chance to start a collection,” Grinstead said, adding that as blocks were bought, the gallery restocked the walls with new pieces sent by Spier.
Block prices start at R1,500 for 18cm x 18cm and go up to R3,600 for one measuring 30cm x 30cm.
Really want to know the artist? You may (if you are careful and have clean hands) pick the block off its hook on the wall at GFI and turn it over to look at the short artist biography on the back.
What a refreshing change from the conventional “do not touch” attitude!
The format of the Spier Creative Block means that although each item is unique, when placed together they add up to more than the sum of their parts.
As the curators write in the exhibition notes, “we invite you to see how a collection of Creative Blocks displayed together becomes a newly created, single ‘work’ that honestly and sometimes brutally expresses contemporary South African society”.
The result is an extremely appealing exhibition likely to be enjoyed by visitors ranging from the art aficionado to the person who says, “I don’t know anything about art, but I know what I like”.
The Creative Block reopens on Wednesday January 2 and remains on show until January 26.
The gallery, at 30 Park Drive in St George’s Park, is open from 10am to 4pm on weekdays, and from 10am to 1pm on Saturdays and public holidays. Further information on 041-586-3973.