Nigel Mullins’ painterly exploration makes use of sumptuous impasto, veering between figuration and abstraction without restraint. The artist applies his material as libations covering a sacred artefact or an amulet: fetishistically. The paint, dense in meaning and referential value, thickly covers the support as it alters and constructs. This explicitly references the painting as a thing; a support to which meaning (as material) is applied often in layers and over an expanse of time.
Working in chalk pastel, watercolour and his signature folded paper technique, Johannesburg-based artist Gary Stephens presents two small portraits which are part of a larger body of work that celebrates the many young, gay men in South Africa living their lives with courage and dignity. The heroic treatment of his subjects pays homage to those who are helping to transform social rules by bravely proclaiming their gay pride. Stephens explains further: “I am grateful for the new voices that expand society’s acceptance of being gay… and for the freedoms they earn for all gay people by courageously living open lives.”
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‘I believe I can be better than the machine.’ The street runs deeply in his Andrzej Urbanski blood. The artist left his days of full-time train ‘bombing’ back in Berlin where he started writing in his teens and now creates large, shimmering, optically bending artworks composed from the architectural squares, triangles and hexagons of today’s contemporary built environment.
Specialists in contemporary art from South Africa. Established in 1913. South African artists are part of the global conversation. We seek to make their voices heard.