Escape the noise
BLANK SPACES: EXPLORE THE BEST KKNK VISUAL ART
Absa Art Gallery brings thrilling exhibition to Joburg.
The Absa Art Gallery is a bit of an anomaly. It’s not the first gallery to take advantage of its prime positioning in the heart of Johannesburg to pioneer art, yet it has been consistent in bringing booming voices from established and up-and-coming artists to the city.
It’s easy to claim that the financial backing of Absa and the gallery’s prime position in the Barkley’s Towers in Marshalltown helps entice the art community
to show up here. But the gallery doesn’t follow the same principles as other galleries. It is only open during business hours from Monday to Friday, so it doesn’t rely on the Arts on Main crowd on weekends for support.
It’s the quintessential home of the Barclays L’Atelier competition, one of Africa’s most prestigious art competitions. It gives young visual artists between the age of 21 and 35 an opportunity to develop their talents abroad.
That dedication is the reason
the gallery has an important role in the art world – and its latest exhibition again brings together visual artists countrywide to the city.
Art lovers who couldn’t make
it to this year’s KKNK festival in Oudtshoorn can catch some of the best art from the festival.
Empty Spaces: An overview of KKNK 2016, opens on Saturday. The exhibition features work from Absa Gallery’s 2016 KKNK exhibition and pieces from other KKNK curated exhibitions.
The theme for visual arts at KKNK 2016 was Blank Spaces: The poetry of the unfinished or the beginning of the new.
“The design brief explored the idea of blank spaces: that we
embrace the concept that there is more space than can be seen; that there are void spaces; or, as it were, that there is a vaster horizon,” says Stephan Erasmus, curator of Absa Gallery’s Empty Spaces exhibit.
“The brief also embraced the idea of opportunities created through these spaces. Blank spaces allow for the new; a fresh start.”