Cape Town-based ceramic artist Githan Coopoo is in the throes of art directing a fashion show for his friend and collaborator, the LVMH prize winning designer Sindiso Khumalo. He has much to say about the experience. “People like to think that Cape Town is beautiful because of the mountains and the landscape, but it’s what the land has been through that matters,” he exclaims, leaping from his seat to gesture towards the panorama.  

Read the full article here: https://www.ft.com/content/4fc684c4-93a7-4937-b918-32cab4b8d80d 

Wilma Cruise is this year's Festival Artist for Woordfees 2023 and will be honoured with a large exhibition in the SU Museum. Cruise explores the connection between humans and animals in her work. Some of her large, sought-after sculptures in clay and bronze will be on display alongside a selection of her paintings, drawings, and sound installations.

Lady Skollie debuts at the National Arts Festival in Makhanada as 2022’s Standard Bank Young Artists Award Winner for Visual Arts

AMAKA speaks with the exhibitors and curators of the Tomorrows/Today section of the fair. 

Everard Read are delighted to invite you to view ‘Natural Habitat’ at 16 on Lerotholi in Langa, Cape Town.

We are thrilled to announce our partnership with 16 on Lerotholi, who share our vision of a gallery as an oasis for the communities it serves. At the core of the Everard Read ethos is a belief that participation in and enjoyment of the arts are a crucial part of a holistic existence.

As the creator of a space which uses art as an essential tool to foster understanding, empathy and solidarity within the Langa community, 16 on Lerotholi director and co-owner Mpilo Ngcukana explains that his vision for the gallery is to redefine the African Dream by empowering African artists with a platform that is invested in their artistic development.

Langa, the oldest township in the Western Cape, is celebrating a centenary since its establishment. 16 on Lerotholi contributes to this dynamic 21^st century hub, which spins on its own axis as it interacts with the rest of the city on its own terms. Adjoining a coffee shop and restaurant, the gallery’s involvement with the established community garden next door shows promise in integrating local produce into the farm-to-table economy, adding another layer to their already ambitious vision.

Everard Read has embarked on an exchange of skills, ideas and artworks, committing to four collaborative exhibitions over the course of this year, ‘Natural Habitat’ being the first. Ngcukana has curated the exhibition, drawing from our artists who have offered unerring support of the project. Included in ‘Natural Habitat’ are Blessing Ngobeni, Daniel ‘Kgomo’ Morolong, Ignatius Mokone, Boemo Diale, Nandipha Mntambo, Phillemon Hlungwani, Setlamorago Mashilo, Speelman Mahlangu and Vusi Khumalo.

Natural Habitat

‘Natural Habitat’ is a group exhibition presented at 16 on Lerotholi in collaboration with Everard Read, featuring the works of 10 artists: Blessing Ngobeni, Boemo Diale, Daniel ‘Kgomo’ Morolong, Ignatius Mokone, Mongezi Gum, Nandipha Mntambo, Phillemon Hlungwani, Setlamorago Mashilo, Speelman Mahlangu and Vusi Khumalo.

‘Natural Habitat’ serves to explore the theme of life as African people, as well as the land and spaces we occupy.

Through the individual lens of each artist, the artworks in the exhibition draw inspiration from surroundings that are familiar to the artists, such as Langa Township. The exhibition also seeks to assert that Langa is as natural a habitat as any to view contemporary expressions of African life, and asks whether or not this adds value and a deeper contextual understanding for the viewer.

The creative process of each of the artworks is deeply rooted in its geography and, in some instances, locations similar to Langa Township. The ambitions of making the exhibition space in Langa a ‘natural habitat’ for the artworks suggests a broader consciousness of art, from idea to creation to consumption – a visually striking exploration of the relationship between art, the artist and the surrounding environment.

‘Natural Habitat’ invites the viewer to consider the role of immediate context in the appreciation and understanding of art.

Gallery Blurb | 16 on Lerotholi 

16 on Lerotholi is a space that uses art as an essential tool to foster understanding, empathy and solidarity within the Langa community, in South Africa at large, within the African continent and beyond. Additionally, the space showcases the brilliant powerhouses of creativity that the continent gives rise to. The vision of the gallery is to redefine the African Dream by empowering African artists with a platform that is invested in their artistic development and commercialisation. 

Visual artists across the globe, and specifically in Africa, have over the years reimagined their African identity, creating narratives that include all facets of life. Historically, sexuality, queerness, and gender expression were seen as 'un-African'. While it is still illegal to be LGBTQ+ in many African countries, there is a growing visibility of LGBTQ+ identities in the creative arts, pushing conversations that in the past were seen as taboo, but for self-taught jewellery designer and sculptor Githan Coopoo, he describes his art as obnoxious, queer and necessary.

Read the full article here: https://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/484/235446.html 

 Summer holidays present lazy days by the pool. South African artists have been depicting this scene and others that offer an escape from reality. 

Read the full article here: https://editorial.latitudes.online/blog/posts/the-great-escape-can-art-offer-a-respite-from-reality/ 

ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE 2022 STANDARD BANK YOUNG ARTIST AWARD WINNERS

Receiving a Standard Bank Young Artist Award is a pinnacle point: this is one of the most prestigious prizes offered to South African artists under the age of 35. This year’s winners join the ranks of a stellar collective that have become household names over the last four decades. Standard Bank Young Artist Award winners are cherished as national treasures, and many have gone on to find new audiences on the African continent and achieve international acclaim.

Uitstalling Art Gallery in Belgium is currently exhibiting Pendulum, an exploration of duality through portraiture by Lionel Smit.

The portraits showcase the artist embracing opposing forces. The exhibition, which runs until 2nd October, is an ode to contradictions, primarily comprising a series of dialogic diptychs reminiscent of photo negatives and their printed inverse.

Mark Rautenbach is one of 2 international artists invited to participate in a 6-week residency on Björkö, Sweden, starting in August. 

Run by non-profit BKN, Magnitude: Where the Sea Meets the Forest is a process-based residency, where the participating artists are encouraged to dwell in each other's knowledges and things they encounter on the island. Fieldwork, curatorial sessions and seminars will allow the artists to re-synthesise the contested expression 'nature versus nurture'.

Mark's latest solo will open at Everard Read in Cape Town in December.

Liza Grobler has just been announced as the South African winner of the 3rd edition of the Video Art Awards at Centre Luigi di Sarro (Rome) for her short film Voices from a Divided Fountain. The Award is given to 1 South African and 1 Italian artist in this international project run by the ARP. 

On exhibition until 31st July at Knysna Fine Arts is Liza's solo Wagging Tales and Modern Myths, which captures the spirit (and Spirits) of the Karoo in mixed media drawings, which are like windows onto the landscape, small portals that provide glimpses of other worlds. The photographic and hand drawn elements blend fact and fiction. They combines folklore, personal impressions and geographical location.

Artists Teresa Kutala Firmino and Blessing Ngobeni draw on their personal experiences to create powerful political work.

Read the full article here

For Brett Charles Seiler’s latest offering, Everard Read’s walls were painted black to host the frames and chalked afterthoughts, which along with the dimension-defining wooden sculptures, complete the collection that is ‘Timber’.

There’s a certainty to the introspective musings which hyphenate the works; they read like epiphanies, or tail-ends of conversations, or journal entries. These short stories such as, “after making love to a man he asked me if I believed in god” and “a homosexual with bad teeth” are part of what makes Seiler the dynamic artist he is. These intimate anecdotes seem both symptomatic of our symbiosis with social media, while feeling like a distinct, narrating voice emerging to guide the audience through the experience of the exhibition. More specifically, the experience of Seiler’s perspectives. From his bold linework, both in the ‘text’ and in the formation of his subjects, to his choice of canvas size and accompanying materials, to his use of space – Seiler is steadily extruding moments, and memories, and meanings to fulfil his vision as he enhances his style with each new work. ‘Timber’ is made up of building materials such as roof paint, bitumen, screws, and wood all accented by a familiar school-board shade of green to create room in which to ponder the institutionalisation of masculinity as you navigate Seiler’s themes and thinking.

Everard Read Cape Town is delighted to be part of the ARCO Lisboa and Madrid online E-XHIBITIONS for 2021. We are featuring a selection of new works by Blessing Ngobeni and Teresa Kutala Firmino.

Click here to view the full E-XHIBITION

We speak to Mark Read, chairman of the Everard Read group of galleries and also a passionate botanist and conservationist.

When poet and scholar Gabeba Baderoon was a graduate assistant at the University of Cape Town in 1988, there was a conference on Joseph Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness. As she looked at the programme, her gaze paused, fixing its attention on the cover image. It was something “meant to be glanced at briefly before one went into the substance of the programme”. But she looked intently, instead, and saw that it was a “picturesque image of an enslaved figure”, caught in a “play of visibility and invisibility”. 

Acclaimed South African artist Lionel Smit takes Stellenbosch Visio editor France Beyers through his studio, sharing his inspirations and the creative process behind some of his most distinctive works. 

Known for his contemporary portraiture, large canvases and sculptures, Smit has carved out an international career through his distinctive art. Smit’s work has been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in London and was selected as the ‘face’ of the BP Portrait Award. Over the past 10 years, he has established a substantial international following with collectors ranging from the Standard Chartered Bank to Laurence Graff Art Collection at Delaire Graff wine estate.

We meet the artist in his studio ahead of his exhibitions at Everard Read and the KUNST art fair in October 2020.

Watch the video interview here.

Johannesburg - Blessing Ngobeni uses art to express his opinion.

“It is the best way for me to influence or engage in global matters that affect me and the world I live in.”

His solo exhibition, “Chaotic Pleasure”, is now showing at the Standard Bank Gallery.

“Art enables me to narrate stories of the past, historical events that affect the present life of a black child. I am able to visualise the future life of the black child through art.”

Deborah Bell, one of South Africa’s most eminent and critically acclaimed artists, returns to London with an exhibition at Everard Read. Sentinels is a major exhibition of monumental sculptures and more than 30 new paintings created over the past two years. At the heart of the exhibition are eight towering, 2.5-metre-high sculptures, Sentinels (2020). Cast in bronze, their origins trace back to the series of nine sentinels the artist made in 2003.

DECADE, an exhibition of sculpture by Talitha Deetlefs

It is our pleasure to invite you to the opening Saturday 24 February 2018 at 12:00

Meet the artist, Sunday 25 February 2018 at 11:00

20 Huguenot road, Franschhoek

Everard Read Franschhoek in partnership with The Leeu Collection presents recent works by Deborah Bell. 

On view July 15 - August 15, 2017

For more information contact karla@everard.co.za