Rare art to prick the imagination
Guns & Rain gallery set to dominate fair
The Investec Cape Town Art Fair is back again this year showcasing a diverse range of contemporary art works.
The gathering that runs from today until Sunday at the Cape Town International Convention Centre will attract independent artists and those represented by galleries.
Among the galleries showing off collections will be Guns & Rain Gallery.
Known for an eye of spotting fresh and exciting talent, the Johannesburg-based gallery will display art works by Bevan de Wet, Nelly Guambe, Asanda Kupa, Letso Leipego and Chris Soal. The works tackle different issues from identity, culture, gender and struggle for change.
In the gallery’s main contemporary section, Botswanaborn photographer Leipego will present a series of photographs looking at a sociopolitical landscape.
His display will include images of Zionist church members, in which he used colour, light and shade to emphasise the church’s rituals against the religion itself.
Leipego works slowly, investigating his surroundings and taking time to build connections with the people he depicts.
Guambe, an artist from Mozambique, will exhibit paintings which explore and reflect upon women’s circumstances and emotions. Finding her inspiration in women who she encounters in everyday life, as well as in her own life’s circumstances, Guambe’s art responds to a powerful urge to document and record women’s unknown state of being.
Guns & Rain introduces Soal as the most promising and emerging artist. He is concerned with materiality of objects which are utilised daily by millions of people globally before being disposed of.
Conceptually, Soal’s works refer to the political context of their making, highlighting the histories embedded in the materials, and using them in a way that challenges society’s assumptions about value.
Kupa’s work focuses on the lives of those forced to the periphery of society. He draws largely from his experiences growing up and working in Molteno, Eastern Cape.
Kupa focuses on hard labour and his work is inspired by the Marikana massacre.