#CULTURE #CITY #NOW

September 2024 and it’s the FNB Art fair in Jozi- that melting pot of art creativity culture food that is the cornerstone, the crucible, the powerhouse, of Southern Africa.

As a professional practicing artist, and as an art writer/poet, visiting art fairs gives me an in depth dive into other artists practices and affirms layers of synergies with our collective works, so inspiring! This is my very personal review of the FNB Art fair, interwoven with musings on how my experiences there relate to my own work……

As we arrive at the VIP preview night, Sandton City venue, one of the first powerful images we are stopped at, mesmerized by, is this by the esteemed Zimbabwean artist KUDZANAI CHIURAI..

Blending curatorial and commercial interventions, FNB Art Joburg is proud to have the following seven specialised sections: gallery HUB, gallery LAB, MAX, GIF, ETC, AUX, and ORG sections. 

In the Gallery HUB, the fair’s central section, we find BKhz, blank, Eclectica Contemporary, Everard Read, First Floor Gallery Harare, Gallery MOMO, Goodman Gallery, Kalashnikovv, SMAC, Stevenson Gallery and Suburbia Contemporary.

Travelling with my make-up and body artist daughter Kelli Barker, and stepdaughter Kimberly Barker with her partner Klaus Findt, we form a team of dedicated art lovers eager for new visions and experiences…

Thursday 5th is the vip premier of FNB…and we stop to chat with Valerie Kabov and Marcus Gora of Zimbabwe’s First Floor Gallery -where we find our friend Gresham Tapiwa Nyaude, winner of the FNB art prize 2024!!!

We spend a lot of time at this First Floor Gallery booth over the course of the art fair, unashamedly loving our Zimbabwean homies, our artists of whom we are so proud!!! So bear with me as I start the blog by listing those on this booth….

Gresham, born in 1988 in the vibrant high density suburb of Mbare, Harare, lives and works in Zimbabwe.

His work has dynamic, yet at the same time dreamlike energy, hovering between figuration and abstraction, telling stories, making sense of life…echoing traditional proverbs with harshly poignant visuals. Strong for me is the recurring motif of the chair which takes on a life and a mood of its own in so many of his paintings…..…

NB: some of these photos below of First Floor Gallery artists’ work, are from the First Floor Gallery website….

Also on First Floor booth are:

Amanda Mushate

Born and living in Harare, Zimbabwe, Amanda is just twenty-seven, with a powerfully growing art voice… After studying at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe Visual Arts Studio in 2016, she was mentored by Gresham, developing a vibrant and unique personal style. I always feel uplifted viewing her works, using as she does music and hope as inspiration. Mushate’s ribboned, exuberant tracks across her abstract canvases also embrace subtle figuration.. such as these receiving hands, in this delightful detail from her larger work, “Ndagamuchira – I received”, 2024, oil on canvas, 194 x 153 cm

Pebofatso Mokoena

Lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa

Mokoena is completing a Master of Arts in Fine Arts at Wits University. His intricate mark making creates a multi layered universe on his canvas, embracing politics, architecture and the environment.

Here below is a layered otherworldly detail from his larger work on show- which strongly reminds me of the ‘discworld ’ writings of Terry Pratchett – another master of reimagining the universe in unexpected ways…..
Detail from “Memorabilia”, 2023, oil on canvas, 200.00 x 150.00 cm

Troy Makaza

Born in, and working in Harare, embracing form and texture, Makaza employs his unusual medium, silicone, which can be drawn with, cast, painted, woven and tied.  Makaza’s works are unique, weaving and ‘stitching’ threads of silicone into contemporary creations. Silicone tapestries!! I first met him years ago at Mbare Art Space, that brewing pot of dynamic young art talents stirred and stewed by mentor and master artist Moffat Takadiwa. Even then I was taken by Troy’s innovative ‘embroidery’ with silicone….

Here is his installation at the fair, “This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased”, 2024, silicone infused with pigment, 128.00 x 54.00 x 3.00 cm… it seems to me that this reflects the holy trinity, three related strong figures in composition with smaller others…..

Winner of Tomorrows/Today prize at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair in 2019, Troy is also holding a solo exhibition in Harare in 2024.

Here is an up close look at the way he ‘embroiders’ with silicone ….!

Grace Nyahangare

Born and working in Harare, Zimbabwe, Grace Nyahangare is a young painter, who is building monotype printmaking, photography and oil into dreamlike canvases which are the result of passing through numerous metamorphoses. I feel a whimsical resonance with the work of Paul Klee when I look at this work, “Nhaka yehupenyu”, 2024, oil, printer’s ink and monotype on canvas, 150.00 x 120.00 cm….

Again Chokuwamba

Born and living in Harare, Chokuwamba graduated from the gallery residency programme, after finishing his studies with the National Gallery of Zimbabwe Visual Art Studio. He won the Best Emerging Artist prize at the Zimbabwe Visual Art Awards 2023, and had his first solo exhibition in 2024 titled ‘Drowning in my Senses.’

Kelli is entranced by his lush painting “Floral Bath” on show, and states it as her absolute favourite painting of the fair….

Again Chokuwamba, “Floral Bath”, 2024, oil on canvas, 150.00 x 190.00 cm

Victor Nyakauru

Born and living in Harare, Zimbabwe, Victor Nyakauru is a skilled found object sculptor, recycling waste materials into art statements… his mission being “…to juxtapose materials such as stone, metal, wood, bone, plastic, leather and any other found objects to form part of a body of art,”. Reflecting on life, culture, he layers found objects into tsumo (proverbs), communication, conversation, #allthingsconnected

Nyakuru has spent many years teaching and mentoring at the National Gallery Visual Art Studio in Harare. He is currently representing Zimbabwe in its National Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale.

Proceeding through the fair I am impressed by the size and spaciousness of the art booths. Nothing feels cluttered, as can happen at various other fairs… this FNB fair feels well considered and thoughtful, an expansive yet welcoming space to browse and to absorb each artists offering….

Kelli is transfixed….absorbing layers of art with joy..

I am captured and enraptured by the use of earth pigment always – and so this visual feast of pigmented fabric hanging free as a huge triptych, stops me in my tracks…here is Kelli with this wonderful art assemblage by Moshekwa Langa – Drag paintings using soil on canvas-

This is powerful and so inspiring for me- an Elemental use of natural earth pigment, and presented similar to the way I work and display my own painted and earth pigmented canvases…

In playful mood, at the next booth Kelli and her sweet sister Kimberley get lips … tongue in cheek

By the way, Kelli and I are staying with art lovers and collectors, Kimmy Barker and Klaus Findt and I am loving revisiting my “Nike Victory” painting which graces the wall, taking flight in their open plan kitchen in their art-filled Westcliff home!

At their FNB booth, Julie Taylor of Guns & Rain gallery shows Raymond Fuyana- a talented young deaf artist from Zimbabwe. Here is his work titled ‘Sossusvlei’…surreal juxtapositions giving a sense of Raymond’s inner world, his images speaking volumes in the absence of him being able to hear the world around him…

At the Aux theatre, here is powerhouse collector and art advisor Karabo Morule (Capital Art).. talking in a session on Friday with Susie Goodman of Strauss & Co and Gail Bosch of iTOO Artinsure … This debate was deeply energizing and instructive to participate in and I look forward to a further lunch with Susie and Khetiwe at Strauss & Co next week……

“Porous” with artist Clive van den Berg – represented by the Goodman Gallery- whose booth filled with his work reflecting skin and land themed paintings resonate with me ….

Friday 6th September we do a Marianne Fassler /Leopard Frock Collection tour…. Where we meet the delightful Mandla Sibeko, managing director of FNB art fair.
Karabo and I have fun in the upstairs paper room- such layers of delicious texture and colour…

Here are Zimbabwean collector Peggy Mapondera (of Mapondera Collection) and Vongai (of African Born Art Movement) relaxing and absorbing the eclectic collection of art at Marianne’s home.

Marianne Fassler’s home is a multi-hued textural fantasy of fabric, fine art and charismatic crafts;

Marianne and her husband Charles avidly collect African art and craft, with no discrimination between the two, all equal heritage value in their sight….(an ethos I fully embrace), and she welcomes us into their space and presents her uniquely personal and uplifting view of their combined passion for African art…

This collection particularly resonates with me, loving the multiple layers of culture, much as I collect and use art pieces in my own home…such as these mutsvairo (traditional brooms) hanging on Marianne’s wall…

My own mutsvairo are my go to brushes -used for very satisfying mark making on my canvases

This Gresham painting glows in the dining room at Mariannes house…

next to such beaded glorys as this Mandela piece by Mayeye Makubele..

My passion for fashion and art with heart and story matches Marianne’s xibelani tsonga skirt, flying high! ..(for more on these Tsonga xibelani skirts please view my culture page https://wineandwilddogs.art/culture/ )

Mariannes traditional tsonga skirts (xibelani) mix with vintage fashion!

I am thrilled to see this affirmation of my home village culture- we live at our homestead, Kaya Nyala, in Chief Mahenye’s village south East Zimbabwe, and the xibelani are a revered tradition -hand beaded and stitched, each made of 16 gathered yards of striped woven Indian cotton- legacy of ancient dhow trade up and down the east coast of africa. This ‘salampore’ xibelani fabric is very much still in use by our ladies ..,

rest time between dances…,,

Friday 6th September 6.pm finds us at Circa Gallery (Everard Read), that Fibonacci marvel of art architecture ….like entering into a gigantic snail shell

At Circa Gallery, Robin Rhode presents a photography film installation and art on canvas. Born in Cape Town and inspired by street culture Rhode creates drawings, paintings, photography, and films. In Rhode’s work, urban walls become his canvases, static images are put into motion, and the artist becomes a performer and street interventionist – right up my street, excuse the pun…

Robin gives us a wonderful artist led walkabout at Circa Gallery, with sundowners on the rooftop at the book Everard Read Darwin Room…(where we met Kim Kandan, FNB fair manager)

Saturday 7th we visit the faded but grand old Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG) …this is where Gresham, as winner of the FNB art prize 2024, will have a solo exhibition next year …

earthen vessels continue to entrance me…and here are some beauties at JAG

In the same space as the vessels, a full wall of earth pigment that I look up to, dream into…

FNB art prize 2023 winner, Lindokuhle Sobekwa walkabout at JAG..maps, photographs and family history incarnated

Wow! I find a Norman Catherine artwork to admire- I used to co-create with him at Deadly Designs in Zimbabwe – we created art t shirts back in the day…. and here I am wearing an ART CLUB t shirt by Githan Naidoo!

Surrounding the fair with art + culture, Open City will take over Johannesburg as the continent’s culture capital from 29 August – 13 September 2024. And on Saturday night we enjoy the After party with BantuSpaceships – Ulenni Okanov and Thando Mlambo at Open City X Untitled Basement in vibrant Braamfontein …

Sunday, the last day at the art fair, and we take a last stroll through our favourite booths….

The vibrancy of a Penny Siopis painting welcomes us back to the art fair .. and sucks Kelli into its carmine, crimson and cerise splattered depths……

We enjoy a last chance in catching up with Marcus Gora and Gresham in front of Gresham’s powerful painting..,.

Kelli the make up artist is drawn to Steven Cohen’s surreal body art and make up, magically and gently preserved onto tape straight off his body after a show…. fragile resilience

Performer, choreographer and visual artist, Steven Cohen has always inspired me with his interventions in public places, in art galleries or on stages…

The patching, stitching and use of natural bark fibre and fabrics in these layered textured artworks by Christine Nyatho of Amasaka gallery (Uganda) are immediately satisfying to me…

Blessing Ngobeni rounds off my view of the art fair with a flourish- one of my favourite visual artists always… master of storytelling, ngano, Blessing perfects writing fables and reality with his paintbrush.

Lunch on Tuesday at Strauss offices with Susie Goodman, Khetiwe McClain, Arisha Alistair and many of the Strauss team is a treat. I am surrounded by amazingly diverse diners and varied artworks on the inspiring walls, and we are treated to a delicious lunch and wonderful levels of chat including art, the growing intersection between art and craft, ceramics and traditional pottery such as the magnificent clay pots of my Mahenye Village, art auctions and secondary markets, craft, family cookbooks (including a great bean soup recipe!) and more… plus I rediscover long lost friends!!!

Thinking about the magnificent clay pots I have seen at the Johannesburg Art Gallery, and those of my own Xangana home village of Mahenye, (seen after wood firing by an aged and talented Kokwane ‘grandmother’) … we discuss around the Strauss luncheon table the fact that there is such a growing place for this ‘craft’, now thankfully elevated to art, as seen by the powerful presence of ceramics and clay in most art fairs…..

this is a welcome development for me, given my interest in traditional crafts, soft sculpture, beading and clay…which I embrace in various art installations such as this one from my Burnt Offerings exhibition 2023….

I am embracing the use of real earth pigment, clay, in my painted canvases as well, as in a painting currently held by Strauss & Co. for auction, titled Red Earth Pangolin….

After a great luncheon at Strauss & Co. I head to “Home of Synergy” …a guesthouse owned by Marcelle Bosch with whom I have communicated for many years, both of us passionate in our love for cultural art, especially the beads, ceramics and fashions of the Venda and Tsonga communities with whom we have shared artistic visions.
My thumbs up for craft being recognized as true art!!!! …beading made by Blessing Runodada and Susan Sithole at Mahenye holds a high place in my heart…

Marcelle is planning to host art and cultural tours in and around Jozi – an exciting concept which I fully endorse, seeing the level of superb craft/art collections she has around the lovely spaces of her guesthouse- such as this superb beaded work by a Tsonga artist friend of hers called Ester- such vibrancy…note the very satisfying and meaningful use of dozens and dozens of safety pins …(follow a future blog for more on the traditional crafts of the tsonga communities in Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa, Limpopo province)

During the week we visit the Guns & Rain gallery to view Soft Power Too – a group exhibition by Princia Matungulu, Hedwig Barry, Bev Butkow, Hannah Macfarlane and Aneesah Girie artworks…the fascinating intersection between painting weaving textiles and soft sculpture……

Here below I am lost in admiration, with Zimbabwean homie, founder Julie Taylor, in front of my favourite soft sculpture by Bev Butkow… (follow a future blog for more on the iconic Guns & Rain Gallery…..)

Later in the week comes a true art treat at The Leonardo – dear friends Glenn and Caryl Stutchbury greet us under the immense multi-metalled Chandelier in the Port Cochere..gold, silver and copper repenting the mineral wealth of Africa….

And Glenn, Director of Operations, hosts us to view the awe inspiring local art collection at this iconic mile high hotel/apartment tower, filled with elemental art….(follow a future blog for more on the iconic art exhibited in The Leonardo….)

Please note: photographs in these blogs are copyright of Lin Barrie unless otherwise stated, thank you.