Andile Dyalvane, Madoda Fani to enlighten visitors on artworks at GFI Ceramics Fair
Illustrious ceramists Andile Dyalvane and Madoda Fani will hold a walkabout of their artworks displayed at the first GFI Ceramic Fair currently under way at the Park Drive gallery on Saturday April 27.
The two artists return just weeks after holding a ceramic workshop at Art on Target as part of the ceramic fair.
The workshop served as one of a series of events held over three days that smoothly paved the way to the month-long fair, symbolised by an array of artworks by highly talented ceramists on display at the gallery until Saturday May 4.
Presently the GFI Art Gallery is a ceramic art lover’s playground where the public can view some of the South Africa’s best ceramists’ creations over the next week.
The GFI Ceramic Fair kicked off with a preview evening on Thursday April 4 followed by a regional awards ceremony for ceramists from around the province. The public opening of the fair was on April 5 and the workshop by Dyalvane and Fani at Art on Target on April 6.
The workshop was a homecoming for now world-renowned Dyalvane who hails from the Eastern Cape village of Ngobozana in Lusikisiki, where he grew up playing with clay and drawing as a hobby.
In addition to co-facilitating the workshop, Dyalvane was a guest judge for the Ceramics SA regional exhibition under which 16 Eastern Cape ceramists are showcasing their work.
Dyalvane also delivered an impromptu speech at the preview evening, and gave exhibition curator Hayley Grinstead a pot worth R150,000 from his Iindonga Once Off III collection.
Grinstead said she would auction the piece and donate the proceeds either to an arts or cancer foundation, both of which were close to her heart.
“The aim of the GFI Ceramic Fair is to create a platform in order to showcase ceramics from the Eastern Cape and SA under one umbrella.
“We hope it will become an annual event on the arts calendar,” Grinstead said.
Some 20 SA ceramists are exhibiting in the Ceramic Fair Exhibition downstairs, while the 16 Eastern Cape ceramists are showcasing their work in the Ceramics SA Regional Awards Exhibition upstairs.
After Imiso Ceramics co-founder Dyalvane delivered the opening address at the public opening of the fair, artists Lydia Holmes received an award for excellence, Nico Liebenberg and Richard Pullen received merit awards and Lelani Souverijn received the Judge’s choice award.
The awards were judged by Ceramics SA Eastern Cape chair Lisa Walker and Dyalvane.
“Work is selected and judged taking various factors into consideration – execution of technique, knowledge of materials, overall aesthetics and finish such as glazing and the decorative medium used,” Grinstead said.
Over the course of April, the regional exhibitors held demonstrations on Saturdays at the gallery.
Grinstead said the ceramic fair was a means to provide a platform solely for ceramic arts.
“There have been a lot of platforms for collective arts but rarely any that are exclusively dedicated to ceramics and we are opening that platform with this fair,” she said.
Holmes, who won the excellence award for her Man’s March of Folly Series ii, held a demonstration on printing on clay at the gallery on April 13.
The artist uses her work to play a part – however big or small – in the fight against pollution.“My work leans heavily toward conservation issues and the effect colonisation, industrialisation and greed has on the environment and especially vulnerable species and the effect climate change has on us and the rest of the world,” Holmes says.“As an artist, I feel that, despite how tiny my individual voice may be, through my work I can make a difference that is infinitely more resonant than just an earnestly held opinion.“I use whimsy, humour, irony and pastiche to seduce and delight. But beneath any apparent levity, there lies the hard and dolorous intention. “We are dicing with our own future,” she says.Kate Malan, Lookout Sibanda, Billie Mc Naughton and Lynnley Watson held their demonstrations on April 20.Malan demonstrated slip-casting, followed by Sibanda on decorating, Mc Naughton on sgraffitto technique and Watson on decorating porcelain vessels.Margie Higgs will demonstrate carving porcelain after Dyalvane and Fani’s walkabout on April 27.The GFI art gallery is open from 10am until 4pm on weekdays, 10am to 1pm on Saturdays and closed on Sundays and public holidays.
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