and I am delighted to see the @kim_williams_design @Decorex Africa stand featuring it as #abstract #wallpaper called #Creation in large scale with @robinsprongwallpapers #impressionistart #wallart
Past incarnations of Creation have been such as this bedscape:
This child of mine, Kelli Barker, has always been my best collaborator, muse and inspiration…
2024 started with us being creatively inspired by the launch of Design Life Magazine..
Kelli, Milly (magazine muse) and Lin in the photo…
Make up artist, canvas and body artist and hairstylist, plus health and fitness trainer, Kelli is fearless in reinventing herself, renewing herself, and in uplifting and embracing those around her …
After stopping to spend precious time with her sisters en route, Kelli has been travelling for the first part of 2024..
Off to LA she has gone, to fulfil a long held dream …
Creating amazing hairstyles..
Dreaming up body art and make ups for film shoots…
And finding her own ‘fro wig to fall in love with!!!
She’s an African child after all – and of course created a conservation biased pangolin theme make up for a film shoot-
She continues Making her mark…unafraid to face social issues
Los Angeles has been her home for a few months, Hollywood high on the list, with shoots at the likes of Beverley Hills Hotel, but this world is not all glitz and has brought her awareness of social issues such as homelessness as well ..
Kelli has worn many hats …
Such as this silver glitter cowboy hat, the real thing worn by Beyoncé..!!!
But truly, talking of wearing many hats.. Kelli has immersed herself in the world of fashion shoots, music videos, hairstyling, make up and body art at the Michael Vincent Academy (MVA) and has volunteered as a model herself, gaining deeper insight into the world behind the camera as well as the world in front of the camera…
Reality tv show, behind the scenes..
Kelli and friends on set at MVA…time to work..
time to play..
Kelli never goes anywhere without her proudly zimbabwean Nespresso pod recycled earrings by Amanda Le Breton…
Many special times spent with friends Valerie, Brad and their dear family.. including pup of course..
Touring the Getty Villa with Valerie, who in her turn, has joined us on safari in Zimbabwe with her family – all things connected…….
Visiting the Getty Museum with Laura and experiencing the lovely walks in the streets of LA
Kelli’s walks around LA are extensive, (Ubers an expensive luxury), experience the sublime plus the grit and grime!
Her video of the inspiring street art, the graffitti of LA..
My latest painting is inspired by the indigenous, hardy Phoenix reclinata palms, (false date palms), that grow in abundance naturally in Zimbabwe, found framing the sky along the great Zambezi, Limpopo and Save Rivers and smaller riverways and springs. Cultivated in gardens such as mine and at Chilo Gorge Safari Lodge, and fringing road verges as trusty and decorative landscape accents that require minimal water and care. Beloved of birds and bats, they bear ‘dates” for animal consumption, and their deep green fronds provide nesting material for the multitudes of weaver birds that strip them almost bare when building their woven palm abodes; abodes that last many seasons, firstly filled with squwking weaver chicks and visited by eager arboreal snakes, and thereafter fading to old gold and providing safe haven for the likes of tiny blue waxbills who take them over to roost in, communally and cosily, at night.
‘Phoenix’ is the Greek word for date palm; an old name used by Theophrastus indicating that the tree was introduced to the Greeks by the Phoenicians. The specific name, ‘reclinata’, means ‘bent backwards’, referring to the leaves.
Here is my photo of Phoenix fronds in the garden of a new gallery, Art@84 in Harare,
Opening shortly…..there are 24 Zimbabwean artists showing work, a strong and uplifting collaboration which is most exciting…..
Using actual palm fronds from my garden, I stencil and print directly onto my canvas, nature is my muse….,……
And here is the final large painting…..
Lin Barrie, Palm Passion, acrylic on stretched canvas, 4 x 3 feet 2024
The very name Phoenix suggests what attracts me to this palm, a resilient survivor against all odds, withstanding dark adversity …. and refers perhaps as well to the deep red dye associated with the Phoenicians, and so, inspires my poem, Palm Passion…
Palm Passion
Palm prints
bleed joyful colour
into my canvas,
backlit and hopeful
against the dusky
menacing gloom
of dark silhouettes
which threaten
to overwhelm
my early morning,
anxious, inward vision.
Ominous spikes
turn to bright tipped
golden spears
on the sunrise
of my horizon
as I stitch nature,
culturing wellness
into a laced basketry
of creative fronds
framing the frayed,
the edges, of me.
Reverent landscapes,
biblical emotion,
grow as the dawn
breaks in my mind,
lapped by fronds
of fragrant hue;
acid lemon yellow
tempered by cool
celestial blue
and the rich red
of real earth.
Lin Barrie
the interiors at Art@84 are bright and inviting…
Colours of logos and furnishing are elemental and satisfying…
and large board displays by each individual artist resonate, (here’s mine….) a masterful concept by Rich who installed and built the whole concept from steel girders and second hand shipping containers…
Some more wonderful displays,
Honde Valley scenes
such as this powerful portrait from the stable of Village Unhu…
and this Zambezi elephant painting by Rich Conlon, set against the egg yellow repurposed container walls that form the backbone of the innovative gallery space conceived by Rich…
Speaking of elephants, I test a cappuccino from the resident barista, and he creates an elephant in my foam, which I drink slowly until only eyeballs remain……
The Brush and Bean Coffeshop within the gallery will be a welcome stopover for Harare art goers., mums from school and .general meeting place…homemade cakes, elephant coffees and art, what could be better than that!?…..
From artist John Kotze, here is a collage that is not a collage but is a meticulously painted masterpiece…
I love this portrait with axe; Fabuopus new style by an old hand…guess who…?!……..
Abstract palms, acrylic on stretched canvas, 40 x 40 cm was created by me during an abstract workshop with Mike White, most satisfying…
Lin Barrie, Abstract palms, acrylic on stretched canvas, 40 x 40 cm
and it lives, glows and breathes in this lovely gallery space …..
Happily, the white display boards suit everybody’s work,
The weekend of the opening is a great success
with many Zimbabweans and visitors flowing through …
Friend Yvonne Kuimba with her favourite palm painting… Pai and Lin
A smaller palm painting of mine, not yet on the opening show, waits in the wings…….ready to take flight….
Gorgeous locks are the best trend I know – embracing the vital natural health of our hair, be it brown black or blonde, thick thin or coarse- it’s all beautiful!
From Zimbabwe to Los Angeles, the trend of LOCKS is growing … Read this great blog by Alex GWAZE of #mudjournal …
Usher gathered a team of creatives – Usher directing the concept; Tino Chimuka doing the videography / photography; Kuda Chikwanda focused on the photography; and Tatenda Gora and Riyan Chindowa modelling. With everything in place they set off into the streets of Harare to put their locks to work in a format setting, suits and all.
Tatenda and models , suits and locks!!!
From suits and locks to fashion and bald heads…. It’s all in Alex’s great blog !
The shaving and shaping of hair for men and women alike is becoming more embraced… here’s Kelli with her Zimbabwean barbered hair style, heading off on her travels to Los Angeles to increase her knowledge and skill in make up and hairstyling …
Kelli Barker make up artist and hair stylist
And here Kelli Barker, Zimbabwean make up artist, studying at Michael Vincent Academy in Los Angeles, happily taking flight with a gorgeous full wig, all set off with a pair of amazing recycled nespresso pod earrings made in Zimbabwe by Amanda le Breton
Stunning photos and facts on a a great adventure blog by – I love painting these gorgeous #Nudibranchs /aka #seaslugs, such as these ones I painted in #Mauritius, hence the name sega sea slug, as it ‘dances’ through the water with a swirl of skirts much like the mauritian #segadance….
Just look at this swirl and colour from our trip to Mauritius a few years ago…
and here are my paintings…
Lin Barrie, Sega Sea Slug 2, Acrylic on brown craft paper, 32.5 x 45.5 cm, 2022:
more colorful than the brightest fabric…
Lin Barrie, Sega Sea Slug 2, Acrylic on brown craft paper, 32.5 x 45.5 cm, 2022:
Friend, James Swanepoel Photography, shines a light on these fabulous underwater flamenco dancers with rasping radulas!!…and here is his photo….
And another fabulous blog on these entrancing creatures is at the same Original Diving travel blog by Charlotte Dunn and fellow adventurers…
Lionfish are another favourite, after I discovered my own lion fish hiding under a rock as I snorkeled in Mauritius….read on for fascinating facts from Charlotte, such as during the mating season, male lionfish perform an intricate courtship dance to attract females. This involves synchronised swimming and fancy fin work
Hundreds of years of trade by Indian and Arab dhow, up and down the east coast of Africa and generally across the Indian ocean, are reflected in the love of glass seed beads, traded from Kenya to Mozambique, inland to Zimbabwe and onwards to South Africa, Zululand….
I, in my turn, embrace that love of beadwork, as our Hlengwe, Xangana, culture here in the south east of Zimbabwe, embraces storytelling, (karengano), dance, and craft such as beading.
Lin Barrie, “Creative Re-imagining”, Mixed media; acrylic and beadwork on canvas, 61 x 61 cm, 2019
Shown at the Zimbabwe National Gallery, “Balance for Better” woman’s exhibition. 2019.
some detail from the artwork…
… inspired by Chief Chitsa and other hut paintings, such as this one below. created, finger painted, on mud walls with earth pigments locally gathered…
(note the gorgeous hand coiled and wood fired clay pot…)
Always I am inspired by the shapes of baobab flowers, and here are some of these magnificent ‘fallen ballerinas” collected from the ground below the young baobab tree at Chilo Gorge Safari Lodge,
From Chief Chitsa’s wives designs, I created oil paintings….using my fingers to apply the paint much as the ladies would do in painting their huts with earth pigments….
At their request, from this beaded painting, I created a Ntumbuluko print T shirt design for our local cultural group to wear at cultural festivals, printed beautifully by Paul Howard
My artwork reflects the importance of cultural inheritance, skills and crafts which are traditionally “woman’s work“, such as hut painting and beading- it does not elevate these roles over modern progressive roles for women, but honours the cultural inheritance which in turn enables and empowers women to unleash creative energy, to think “outside their traditional space” and to splinter their traditional roles as housekeepers/carers into redesigning a new space. Bright endeavours cleverly build on traditional roles, using lessons learnt from experience to help women to compete and rise in the new world…
2.
Lin Barrie, “Dancing with my sisters, Dancing with my cellphone…”, acrylic and beadwork on stretched canvas, 3 x 4 feet
“Dancing with my sisters, Dancing with my cellphone…”, acrylic and beadwork on stretched canvas, 3 x 4 feet detail ……..
“Dancing with my sisters, Dancing with my cellphone…”by Lin Barrie …
In this painting/beading artwork, I choose to see the positive side of the influence of technology on family relations and culture.…..
Even as she dances, this woman clutches her cellphone, and most often the dancers carry their cellphones in secret pouches looped about their waists below their skirts, holders of their valuables…
I see the separation, yet also the connectedness, between our Zimbabwean Mahenye community and their Mozambique relatives, their sisters, separated by a man-made border, yet connected by technology, by mobile phones, by internet.
This dance group come from a remote area in Mozambique, crossing the border to join their Zimbabwean relatives to hold dance festivals.
Technology enables cultures in remote areas to connect, to communicate and to gather for festivals of dance, family functions and weddings.. and most of all during a world lockdown such as that experienced during the Covid pandemic, technology enabled communities and families to remain connected beyond a physical level.
Traditional beadwork is an integral part of the culture yet in this painting it also symbolizes the grid, the network, that connects us all…be it a human cultural network or be it a technological, internet or mobile phone network...note the mobile phone in the hand of the dancer on the left…
My focus on culture, communities and conservation embraces the natural world, #allthingsconnected is my mantra.
Here is an abstract impression of quills, a feeling of porcupine, loops of beads…….
Lin Barrie, “Porcupine Quills”, mixed media and beading on canvas, 80 x 90 cm, (private collection, Seattle)
As the art world converges in Venice to celebrate under the theme “Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere,” (conceived by Brazil’s Adriano Pedrosa), Zimbabwe is well represented at the Zimbabwe Pavilion facilitated by the Zimbabwe National Art Gallery at the Venice Biennale. More to come in further blogs on our Zimbabwean artists Sekai Machache, Troy Makaza, Moffat Takadiwa, Gillian Rosselli, Kombo Chapfika, and Victor Nyakauru.
Blogs such as this one on artweb by Richard Mudariki of ArtHarare:
And as I eagerly follow from a distance, so many other art cultural influences from other countries exhibiting begin to resonate with me – beads and boundaries have synergy and I am drawn to this article :
Glass beads at the Biennale- an exciting article as I find this Canadian offering by Kiwanga absolutely fascinating, given my interest in glass beads used for centuries in our Mahenye (hlengwe) area, for trade and for weighting and decorating the fully gathered traditional dancing skirts, Chibabela. The East coast of Africa was a route for Chinese glass beads and Indian salampore fabric to travel to Mozambique, then Zimbabwe, Africa by dhow, there at the mouth of the great Save River and inland to be exchanged for gold, and other commodities. Kapwani is interested in pursuing “how one material is exchanged for another and how we made our architectures out of that.”
My painting “Dancing with my sisters, Dancing with my cellphone…”, acrylic and beadwork on stretched canvas, 3 x 4 feet, reflects my love of these beads in the celebrations of our Hlengwe dancers at Mahenye and my reflections on how traditional beadwork, as seen on their gorgeous Chibabela dancing skirts, melds with modernity as one dancer, in the very act of dancing out her culture, clutches a cellphone….
Lin Barrie “Dancing with my sisters, Dancing with my cellphone…”, acrylic and beadwork on stretched canvas, 3 x 4 feet
And a detail of the beading –
Lin Barrie – glass beads and canvas -stitched detail
At Investec, my first up close view of an Esther Mahlangu artwork was a fiberglass pot painted in her studio, albeit signed by her.
Esther Mahlangu, Glass fibre painted pot at Investec Art Fair
Used to the wonderful hand-built heavy clay pots of Gwayi and the finer earth- fired pots of talented hlengwe/xangana ladies in our south East lowveld of Zimbabwe, I was prepared to find that the ‘commercialism’ of these fiberglass pots disturbed me ….
But there certainly was a resonance to them which intrigued me and made me want to dig deeper…
Karabo Morule, entrepreneur/business leader, also obviously felt this same pull, stopping during her guided walkabout at the Investec Art fair to note these creations .. more about that walkabout in the next blog …
After viewing the offerings at Investec art Fair, I delved into Esther’s exhibition at Iziko Museums of South Africa “Then I Knew I Was Good at Painting”: Esther Mahlangu, A Retrospective.
Curated by Nontobeko Ntombela, the exhibition highlights Dr Esther Mahlangu’s over 50-year long career and her meteoric rise as a contemporary artist, earning her global acclaim.
Esther Mahlangu artworks Esther’s home…
I realised immediately there here was a truly committed art journey by one woman…
“Painting has always been a part of me. I cannot separate it from myself, and neither would I want to. I look forward to sharing my practice and long and colourful story with you ….” Says Dr Esther Mahlangu.
Earth pigment in her older work
Recounting how her artistic journey began, Esther Mahlangu often tells the story of being trained by her grandmother and mother in the early 1940s, saying: “I would continue to paint on the house when they left for a break. When they came back, they would say: ‘What have you done, child? Never do that again!’ After that, I started drawing on the back of the house, and slowly my drawings got better and better until they finally asked me to come back to the front of the house. Then I knew I was good at painting.”
Esther learnt her art from a tender age, at the feet of her older women relatives…
The retrospective exhibition draws its inspiration from Esther Mahlangu’s remarkable story of how she discovered her extraordinary artistic talent as a young girl of just 10 years old.
From her beginnings of hand dug earth pigments painted and smeared as paste onto hut walls,
Through the language of colour and form,
Early work
the exhibition charts octogenarian Mahlangu’s contribution to contemporary art close to seven decades.
Then I knew I was good at painting…
The earth pigments of her older works draw me strongly – collecting as I am the wonderful earth pigments of my own rural area in Zimbabwe….
Natural earth
Elemental, simple powerful… these colours and forms are resonant of man’s relationship with Mother Earth, with nature linked to the human spirit –
Earth forms , earth tones
More than 100 artworks have been loaned from international collections, carefully curated alongside historic photographs and a short film.
Esther’s early works are what truly entrance me
And although her early works are what truly entrance me, I realised the genuiness, the reality of her move to bright pigments, acrylics, so that she could share and move with her craft….
From the likes of this characterful earth fired clay pot,
Painted Clay pot
….To the likes of this, for me less satisfying, studio painted fibreglass pot …
Fibre glass acrylic painted pot..
Mahlangu’s BMW 525i Art Car makes its historic return to South Africa, created in 1991.
BMW car and Esther Mahlanga artwork
This diverse collection in “Esther Mahlangu, A Retrospective”, offers a comprehensive asks engaging insight into a monumental art career
Esther Mahlangu art tributes to Mandela
To Mandela from Esther
History in the making..
History…
I strongly identify with the fact that she is never shy to step out of her comfort zone and paint on anything, (having painted on all sorts of things myself, from canvas and paper to walls, human bodies and even a full flying aeroplane…)
Torso!
Anything at all is paintable … Ndebele beadwork included..
Skull painting and beads
Beadwork….
Ndebele beadwork
“Mahlangu’s journey is a testament to passion, innovation, and resilience,” Curator Nontobeko Ntombela remarks. “The retrospective pays homage to Esther Mahlangu’s unique approach to art, which intersects African cultures with modernity and the contemporary. The exhibition celebrates Mahlangu’s voice, agency, and pioneering spirit, symbolizing her self-enunciation, selfdetermination and creativity.,”.
Of the exhibition, Dr Bongani Ndhlovu, Acting CEO, Iziko Museums of South Africa, says: “Iziko Museums is honored to celebrate the living legend, Dr Esther Mahlangu, and to host this colossal showcase where creativity, culture, and aesthetics are fused.”
Old sign board
He continues, “Dr. Mahlangu is a living symbol of triumph against adversity. Her approach to art has inspired generations and is a reaffirmation of calls for Africa-centred innovations.”
Beaded weapon by EM !
Truly, after viewing this retrospective exhibition, I have respect and admiration for Dr Esther Mahlangu’s adventurous spirit and her remarkable contribution to the world of art.
Our Director of Zimbabwe National Art Gallery, Raphael Chikukwa, meets Esther Mahlangu…
Raphael Chikukwa meets Esther Mahlangu
Transcending the boundaries of canvas and mural, Mahlangu’s work displays an inimitable fluency across diverse mediums, from small, treasured keepsakes to vast public installations and murals. With its main point of departure in traditional Ndebele practices of wall paintings and beadwork, her artistry finds expression in the most unlikely places, extending to novel surfaces such as sculptures and ceramics. Mahlangu’s participation in the exhibition Magiciens de la Terre (1989) in Paris, shot her to fame, marking the launch of her transition from a communal practice into her own agency as a contemporary artist. Shortly thereafter, in 1991, she became the first woman artist and African to paint a BMW Art Car. Mahlangu has exhibited in over 20 countries, sometimes with multiple solo shows in at least seventeen different cities. She has painted murals across eight different countries and participated in residency programs with institutions like Project Row Houses (2005), L’Associazione Culturale Colonos (2009) & Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (2014). Some of her more significant engagements include Documenta IX (1992), the 5th Biennale of Contemporary Art (2000), the 1st Malindi Biennale (2006), the 3rd Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art (2009) and Art Basel (2023) through her collaborations with BMW Group on the 1991 BMW 525i Art Car and the Electric AI canvas respectively. Esther Mahlangu has also worked on projects with fashion brands like Comme des Garçons (1991), shoe companies Melissa (2009) and EYTYS (2015). In 2016, she created the Belvedere (RED) bottle design, which helped fund a campaign against HIV/AIDS. Mahlangu’s works are represented in over 27 public institutions’ collections, and she has been collected by private individuals worldwide. She continues her artistic career to this day. Esther Mahlangu is the recipient of numerous honorary doctorates for her contribution to art.
Note: all photographs are my own, unless otherwise stated.
Heading to the art fair Thursday 15th February- my handpainted Muslin scarf and my Design/ /Life tote bag ready for action!
My handpainted Muslin scarf and my Design/ /Life tote bag…
I had painted marks onto a piece of fabric with my trusty mutsvairo to create a scarf – a good luck comfort wrap to empower me in my travels, I guess … and my Design//Life Tote at the ready for collecting catalogues and business cards
En route I dropped into Africa Nova gallery, owned by Margie Murgatoyd – what delights to view there, what an eclectic, immaculately curated collection of African craft and art. My eye was taken with this banner of emerald green handmade paper, embellished with a gold ore seam!
The Thursday attendances at Investec art fair were considerable but manageable – (my own preference being to begin my journey into the art on display in an uncrowded atmosphere, I who am used to the far vista of a wilderness landscape of trees with an occasional giraffe or elephant in view, or the gentle buzz of the Harare National Art Gallery and Afrotopia Cafe on a quiet day …!)
Investec zebra stripes at the entrance to the show – a graphic welcome
First astounding work to delight my senses is Tiemar Tegene, from Ethiopia, with Circle Gallery..
Detail of Tiemar Tegene’s marks…
– monoprint processes taken to creative extremes, such mark making….
Whew!
Art School Africa facilitated various walkabouts during the fair- here is Karabo Morule discussing Tiemar Tegene’s works… (read more in the following blog.. Highlights and Walkabouts at the Investec art fair)
Karabo Morule – walkabout
Then I was drawn to powerful photographic creations from Mario Macilau, Mozambique/Portugal, (with MOVART Gallery, Luanda and Lisbon) and, wonderful always, Zanele Muholi, South African.
Here are close ups from the works ..
Texture, drawing and more texture abounded – a feast for my senses …
Texture, drawing and more texture …!!
Patrick Tagoe-Turkson, multidisciplinary artist, loving nature- with his studio based in Takoradi in Ghana. I found his work with recycled rubber very alluring … as did the buyers ! – this red piece came off the wall as sold very quickly and was replaced by a vibrant turquoise artwork…
Patrick Tagoe-Turkson, up close textures and detail
Southern Guild showed a monumental Kamyar Bineshtarigh at their SOLO booth-
More delicious textures and surfaces to entrance my eye – drawing, printing ink, bleach, enamel paint, cold glue….
Textures
Wonderful use of art on limited edition t-shirts from Julia Buchanan, Art School Africa and “ Artclub and Friends”- of course, I had to buy one!…. celebrating the clay sculpture and art of jeweler/artist Githan Coopoo, Cape Town:
Art print (Githan Coopoo inspired)Githan Coopoo Everard Read Gallery – (photo from Githans social media)
Guns & Rain showed Adrian Fortuin in the SOLO section, with a site-specific drawing intervention created specially for the fair.
Adrian Fortuin site-specific drawing intervention created specially for the fair.
Zimbabwean born, Julie Taylor of Guns & Rain works with contemporary visual artists from seven African countries, including South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia, Botswana, Eswatini and Nigeria.
Delicious textures at Guns & Rain stand – from molasses painting to fabric and glue sculpture
Hedwig Barry is one of my favourites- I was thrilled to meet her at Julie’s booth-
Hedwig Barry
Anico Mostert – Ebony/Curated SOLO booth – created intriguing collage on and off the canvas!
Anico Mostert – Ebony/Curated
First Floor Gallery SOLO space featured Helen Teede’s monumental red artworks…
an intimate studio preview, from Helen, with paintings in work..
And here are close details that I photographed from those powerful paintings..
Zimbabwean master artist, Helen Teede
Everard Read Gallery SOLO featured these delicious textures and layers of threads and paint, memories and emotions, by nomThunzi Mashalaba.
Marcus Gora and Valerie Kabov established the groundbreaking First Floor Gallery in Harare years ago and I was thrilled to find Marcus available for a wonderful chat at their main group art booth at the fair- what art insights he had.
So here are some real close ups, snippets and details from their amazing Zimbabwean and South African artists’ paintings on show –
Gorgeous brushstrokes from the brush of Amanda Shingirai Mushate:
Amanda Shingirai Mushate-detail from painting
Here is Gresham Tapiwa Nyaude’s fantastic work, the whole (in which I see a face!)!.. and a detail of the bananas (the nose?)..…
Gresham Tapiwa Nyaude
Pebofatso Mokoena creates otherworldly universes with his distinctive mark making – here are close ups from two paintings:
Pebofatso Mokoena painting details
Wycliffe Mundopa (detail) and Anne Zanele Mutema:
Wycliffe Mundopa (a detail) and Anne Zanele Mutema:
Troy Makaza “soft” sculpture/painting – silicone infused with pigment- strangely tactile and full of storytelling – here are close ups from his larger work:
Troy Makaza details
Goodman Gallery showed a magnificent large painting by Misheck Masamvu
Misheck Masamvu at the Goodman Gallery
Osart Gallery showed a large Franklyn Dzingai, cardprint and collage on canvas – here is a close up :
Franklyn Dzingai
Wallen Mapondera always satisfies my eye for texture, such storytelling in the collages and stitched detail
Wallen Mapondera
In the Generations section, the MarthaFrancis exhibition (named after her two grandmothers) by Sedireng Mothibatsela of Ora Loapi Gallery rendered the force of fire into clay and canvas expressions of emotion, grief, remembrance ….
Viewed here by Karabo Morule, Sedireng Mothibatsela rendered the force of fire into clay and canvas expressions of emotion, grief, remembrance ….
Sedireng Mothibatsela created her own versions of traditional fire kilns with bricks and even used a metal dustbin – harnessing fire and smoke to re-create culture, clay pots, smoke paintings
Sedireng Mothibatsela “flower” pots of remembrance
The ArtHARARE main section stand (with founder artist Richard Mudariki) was extremely innovative, featuring Zimbabwean photographic artists
Nothando Chiwanga
Wonai Haruperi
Lennox Makurumidze
Kudakwashe Chikwada
Martina Gruber
Tinotenda Chimuka
whose photographic works were mounted behind automotive glass windscreens, windows and accessory mirrors!!
Beware what you spot in your side mirror …!
Art Harare booth
Richard and Lin with Kuda’s image..
Richard, Lin and commuter Kombi by Kuda!
Martina Gruber had a powerful piece on show
Martina and artist Gillian Roselli
More to come as I work through the multitude of impressions and memories .
Cape Town Conference Centre -focus on Investec art fair and so much more to add to the bigger picture, the culture of Africa…
Off the plane from Harare and to the waterfront to browse the crowds.. too much for me to queue in bustling restaurants and so I viewed the palm and moon sunset from the breakwater which holds back the icy Atlantic Ocean – and headed hotelwards to bed!
Valentines Day dawned … 14th February 2024
(My hotel Onomo Lux Foreshore is vibrant in decor- handpainted murals and tropical wall covering delight the morning senses ..)
Onomo Lux Foreshore
Inspiring me to post a Valentines greeting…
My painting using earth pigments and acrylic
On my way to view galleries, we passed the Iziko Musuem where Esther Mahlangu will soon be featured in a dedicated exhibition- meanwhile a homeless man sitting below the statue outside the Iziko Museum caught my eye- as we drove past he lifted a black plastic packet and drank from the bottle within -while a bird perched triumphantly on the head of the statue…
I had to catch up with my favourite store in Cape Town- The Book Lounge…carrying my abstract art tote bag by Jista Print Zimbabwe, of course! That bag filled up fast with bookish purchases…
The Book Lounge never fails to captivate me …
Then onwards to the Waterfront- where Art Harare presented Gungano (a gathering) -10 Zimbabwean and South African artists, at the Silo Hotel Vault ..
An intimate seductively subterranean space ..
The Silo Vault
This exhibtion was a truly fitting start to my immersion, my journey towards the art fair and related events…
Met the delightful Barbara Voss and Lionel Davis…who were also viewing the exhibition.
(Lionel Davis features prominently in the history of the Community Arts Project, Vakalisa Art Associates, Thupelo Workshop and Greatmore Artists Studios. Davis works in visual modes that range from the realist to the abstract, which include everyday scenes snd reflections on African identity.)
Barbara Voss and Lionel Davis
What a show! here are some details from the Gungano artworks, (with artist Lionel Mbayiwa)..
Snippets from the paintings of the Gungano Collection
Gungano was vibrant, Thought provoking ….Violence is for the weak..
Sindiso Nyoni – Violence is for the weak
Gungano glowed in every sense of the word (!) and here’s one of the “gold mafia” from Richard Mudariki (founder of Art Harare)…
Richard Mudariki – created a series of gold and glowing mafioso…!
The chapel like atrium of the Silo Hotel always intrigues, celebrating the working history of the space as an integral part of the Cape Town docks..
After the inspiring art, hunger set in .. I ascended from the depths of the Vault towards the bar, and ate fresh fish, (of course). I was privileged to access the private rooftop with views to the docks, moored fishing boats and a gigantic Norwegian luxury liner beached quayside which disgorged hundreds (thousand) of travellers – some of whom had probably added to the crush at the waterfront which put me off dinner the night before…
What a view
Up to the delightful bar of the silo hotel and a line fish lunch with views ..
THK Gallery was my next stop to view a solo exhibition- the truly mesmerising steel creations and paintings by Jake Michael Singer..
His paintings – landscape/ocean or planets? Otherworldly but also powerfully of this earth….
His flights of wings, fluid undulations of floating steel captured me fully. I could hear the rustling of the feathers in flight – the ‘murmuration’ of fabulous life forms ..
Heading towards Woodstock, nestled at the foot of Table Mountain, to a gathering of hundreds at Straus and Co
Towards Woodstock, the three towers against that awesome mountain where Kelli lived..
Curatorial Voices, African Landscapes, Past and Present…
Mercedes, faded valentines rose and Strauss Curatorial Voices !
A stellar evening – so energizing to see the past and the present in painting juxtaposed – poignant really…
Culminating in a groundbreaking auction of the old and the new together – making art history,
Here are Pierneef and Samson side by side…the old and the new juxtaposed
Pierneef and Samson side by side…
Details and impressions of “Curatorial Voices….
Snippets of artworks…
Mercedes Benz was a sponsor…
Lin with Mercedes Benz!
After the Strauss & Co event, headed back towards the hotel, under a Van Gogh sky, Uber driver Kayaden told me how he fosters a Zimbabwean child who was found at three years old wandering a Cape Town freeway… she is now seven and happily at school…
Uber Cape Town
Homeless shelters abound along the roadside – art and graffiti seems alive and well. Handpainted tarpaulin roofs register the unrest and displacement of the have nots, even as gigantic cruiser ships disgorge moneyed wealth into the smart stores of the V and A Waterfront – and statuesque flying woman monuments remember the fallen Korean soldiers of a world war….
Homeless shelters and public art – graffiti and statues!
End of a long interesting and artly satisfying day !
View from my room. As the sun sets and silhouettes Signal Hill
www.instagram.com/reel/C76nYPMKCY2/ 
Off to LA she has gone, to fulfil a long held dream …
