‘Alexis Preller: Africa, the Sun and Shadows’ runs at the Standard Bank Gallery from 13 October to 5 December 2009. A retrospective exhibition, it showcases the work of Alexis Preller (1911-1975).

Preller was a major South African artist, whose unconventional form of expression was impossible to classify in terms of the mainstream art movements of his time. He studied in London and Paris in the 1930s, where he absorbed the language of Western modernism to the extent that a critic, who had seen his work on a 1937 group exhibition in Johannesburg, called him ‘South Africa’s Gauguin’. He was also influenced by Van Gogh and later by the frescoes of Piero della Francesca.

In search of an aesthetic “rooted in the Africa soil”, as he put it, Preller drew his initial inspiration from the Ndebele people, who lived in the Pretoria vicinity, where he spent most of his life. To realise his goal to become an African modernist, he travelled to other parts of Africa, visiting Swaziland, the Seychelles, Zanzibar, Egypt and the Congo. While in Paris, he also sought inspiration from the African sculptures in the Trocadero Museum.

As an avant-garde artist, Preller’s contribution to South African art lies in his synthesis of the language of modernism and a distinctly African frame of reference. By incorporating African influences, he broke away from the European tradition and developed a new form of artistic expression. “As a form of modernist vernacular”, writes Clive Kellner, “Preller’s artistic practice is distinguishable from European modernism. As Picasso was to Europe, so Preller is to Africa!”

In his art, Preller created a world of signs and symbols, shaping a private cosmology in which the myths of humankind are interconnected and interwoven – those from Greece, Egypt and African cultures, for example. Kellner comments: “Ultimately, the synthesis of Preller’s cosmological world is constructed in the mind of the viewer. Here the intersection of Greek mythology, Mapogga [Ndebele] culture, hieratic emblematic signs such as maize cobs, shells and African masks, and Egyptian motifs begin to represent another world – an ancient African universe.”

During the course of his 40-year career, Preller concentrated solely on his art, working daily in his studio and producing a vast number of exuberantly coloured imaginative compositions. ‘Alexis Preller: Africa, the Sun and Shadows’ showcases a wide selection of the artist’s work, as well as a number of artefacts, documents and photographs relevant to his life. A contribution to understanding Preller as one of South Africa’s pre-eminent artists, and as a pioneer who defined an African style in the 20th century, the exhibition follows the last major exhibition of the artist’s oeuvre – the Retrospective Exhibition at the Pretoria Art Museum in 1972.

The exhibition is accompanied by Alexis Preller, art historian Esmé Berman and artist Karel Nel’s comprehensive monograph on the artist, which consists of two volumes: an extensive biography of Preller and a collection of his works.

‘Standard Bank Young Artists: 25 (SBYA 25)’, arriving fresh from the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, opens at the Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg, on 6 August 2009, running until 19 September. The exhibition celebrates the 25th anniversary of the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for the visual arts.

The award is inextricably linked to the National Arts Festival (NAF) in Grahamstown, which has run since 1974. It is granted to emerging, relatively young South African artists who have demonstrated exceptional ability in their chosen field. Five Roses initially sponsored the award, but when Standard Bank acquired the naming rights to the NAF in 1984, it automatically became the title sponsor of the award as well. The bank stepped down as title sponsor of the Festival in 2002 but retained the award due to the significant role they play in developing and promoting South African arts, culture and heritage.

The list of Young Artist Award winners from the past 25 years includes many of South Africa’s most famous and astute creative individuals in the visual arts. Generally, the awards have greatly advanced the careers of the winning artists, and many are not only renowned, but also crucial for understanding our cultural history and heritage. Years after winning the award they continue to add value to culture in South Africa through works that mark South Africa’s creative intelligence.

The awards also played a vital role in promoting democracy and egalitarian values in the field of culture during apartheid. When Helen Mmakgoba Sebidi won the award in 1989, for example, black artists were still mostly unacknowledged in mainstream art history. That recognition and acknowledgement through the award helped to lift Sebidi from obscurity and the apartheid morass, says much about its role as an agency for change and political advancement.

One vital aspect of the award, which makes it different from others in the country, is that Standard Bank, where possible, endeavours to provide artists with a platform after winning the award. In the visual arts, winning artists are supported through a sponsored travelling exhibition to all the main centres in the country. Launched on the main programme at the NAF, this exhibition affords them national exposure. The bank also purchases an artwork from this exhibition for display at its corporate head office and other provincial offices around the country.

In sponsoring, unearthing and contributing to the development of young artists over the past 25 years, Standard Bank has made an enormous contribution to South Africa’s cultural wealth. Not only has it nurtured creative talent and propelled the careers of artists; it has also created role models for other aspiring artists and forged a rich cultural legacy.

Curated by the late Alan Crump, who was associated with the award as Chairperson of the National Arts Festival Committee (1990-1999), and Barbara Freemantle, curator at Standard Bank Gallery, the exhibition includes two works by each of the award winners to date. The works were selected from various public and private collections in South Africa.

Opening on 10 June 2009 at the Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg, Nontsikelelo Veleko’s ‘Wonderland’. The show runs until 18 July.

Veleko was the 2008 Standard Bank Young Artist for Visual Art, and only the second photographer to win the award. These awards acknowledge emerging, relatively young South African artists who have displayed outstanding talent in their artistic endeavours. She achieved worldwide recognition with an early project entitled www.notblackenough.lolo, which explored perceptions in South Africa of mixed heritage. Here she used clothes as critical props deliberately to challenge assumptions of identity based on appearance and historical background.

Veleko is interested in her urban environment and the people inhabiting it, and named one of her ongoing projects Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder. Here she captures young fashionistas on the streets of Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town, foregrounding their innate sense of style and individuality. "I look at fashion and how it creates identity, because fashion plays with identity," she explains.

On accepting the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Visual Art, Veleko said, "It's an affirmation to me that when I self doubt the work I do, I AM NOT ALONE! This award means that someone in my own country has noticed and acknowledged my ideas that I would like to convey to the world about Africa and Africans. Therefore I am looking forward to collaborating with many Africans to tell our side of the story.”

In ‘Wonderland’, Veleko’s Young Artist Award travelling exhibition, she pursues familiar themes – people on the streets, fashion, graffiti and personal spaces.

‘Past/Present’, Andrew Verster’s exhibition covering the past 14 years of his work opens at the Standard Bank Gallery in Johannesburg on 16 April 2009, and runs until 23 May.

Verster is one of the country’s most prolific artists, due to his remarkable impatience and insatiable enthusiasm for exploring and discovering new techniques. ‘Past/Present’ is Verster’s third retrospective exhibition. The works in this exhibition are made from a variety of media, from the traditional oil on canvas, to drawing, etching and mixed media. Says Verster, “I love the danger of ink. You cannot rub it out. You can only go forward.”

The title of the exhibition is indicative of its concern with how our past affects our present, and the timeframe of the show, 1994-2008, is important in that the first works were made at the time of the birth of our democracy. For Verster, the advent of our Constitution in 1996 marked his ‘becoming legal’ as a gay man. The exhibition is thus a personal account of one man’s journey during a time of great change. As such, many of the works reveal a preoccupation with the male form, which is treated with blunt matter-of-factness in series such as Rude Boys (1994) and Bodyworks (2006). Clive van den Berg, who was taught by Verster at the University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg in the 1980s, remembers him as “the first artist that made his life, his lovers and his sex the subject of his work”.

Verster’s representation of the human form in ‘Past/Present’ is also characterised by a proliferation of signs, symbols and icons. His time spent in India inspired a series of works dealing with Indian religious and cultural symbolism. The Indianesque series and others explore this idea in different ways.

Another of Verster’s preoccupations, which ties in with his interest in ritual, is tattooing and body art. A vast component of ‘Past/Present’ is the various pieces concerned with body art in various contexts. The Bodyworks series features larger-than-life male figures adorned with motifs which range in origin from Greece, to Rome, to India. The Skin Markings installation (2007), which consists of tissue paper, wax, ink, pigments and pins, was chosen for the final of the Sasol Wax Competition in 2007.

In the same vein, Notes on a Crucifixation – Black (2007), the Arm and Leg series (both 2008) and Hands/Feet/Stars (2007) all consist of brightly-coloured disembodied body parts embellished with intricate designs inspired by other cultures. The subject is again confronted with playful irreverence in Classical Graffiti (2008), a series of digital transfers to canvas, in which classical sculptures of nudes are defaced by detailed patterns, incongruous modern symbols, like the airplane, or equally inappropriate Eastern motifs, such as characters from the Japanese alphabet or drawings of geishas.

Also noteworthy in ‘Past/Present’ is Verster’s foray into set and costume design. The miniature models of his designs for the opera, La Traviata, and a reconstruction of one of the costumes form part of this exhibition.

It is the mark of a dynamic and adaptable artist that ‘Past/Present’ comprises such a broad range of media and techniques.

‘Edoardo Villa: Moving Voices’, which runs at the Standard Bank Gallery in Johannesburg from 17 April to 23 May 2009, is one of few indoor exhibitions by the highly acclaimed sculptor, Edoardo Villa. At the age of 93, Villa (1915- ) is probably the oldest working artist in the country. His work spans nearly seven decades and comprises thousands of pieces dealing with sexuality, aggression, political unease and confrontation.

‘Edoardo Villa: Moving Voices’ reflects an alternative Villa sensibility, often overlooked by the public. It pays homage to the tradition of small sculpture. The show comprises three to four years’ work, which reflects how the artist, in his maturity, has adopted a more painterly approach to colour and form, in contrast with his better known large-scale, stark, mechanical and industrial derivative works.

Villa’s miniatures, like their enormous ‘cousins’, may appear non-figurative (abstract) at first, but all are characterised by a playful approach to the human form. Even the most abstract pieces make some reference to human relationships, circumstances, attitudes and postures.

The exhibition highlights the developmental process from studio to gallery, from raw materials to the riot of shape and colour that celebrates Villa’s passion for life. The majority of Villa’s pieces have been created using spot welding, best likened to “gluing”, as opposed to the more traditional reductive carving technique of sculpture.

After his release from a prisoner-of-war camp at Zonderwater in South Africa (he was captured during World War II, and imprisoned for four years), Villa came under the influence of radical shifts away from the tradition of replicating, or describing, appearances in European art. He absorbed the lessons of modernism, as evident in the work of sculptors such as Pablo Picasso, Henry Moore and David Smith, and rose to become arguably the foremost abstract sculptor in South Africa.

The recognition by European artists of the value of traditional, or classical, African objects as art was a vital influence on the development of European modernism. This led to a new formal language based, to a large extent, on the geometric-style surfaces of African sculpture. This language combined with imagination, expression, intuition and emotion as the new impulses in art to make for an entirely new artistic vision, evident in Villa’s work.

One European art movement that was greatly influenced by traditional African art was Cubism, the formal language of which can be seen in Villa’s use of intersecting planes in many of his sculptures. Another crucial modernist influence on Villa was the development of constructivist sculpture in Europe, where the work is assembled from various components, rather than shaped, as per tradition, through the modelling, or carving, of form.

Villa was first exposed to modernist avant-garde developments in European art through his friendship with two immigrants – Egon Guenther and Vittorini Meneghelli. They both collected traditional African art, and were involved with the modern art scene in Europe before arriving in South Africa. Through his association with them in the Johannesburg of the 1960s and 1970s, Villa was exposed to traditional African art, which was to have such a profound impact on his work. Guenther’s fascination with Africa and its spirit led to the establishment of the Amadlozi group, of which Villa became a leading member. Other members of the group included Cecil Skotnes, Cecily Sash, Sydney Kumalo, Giuseppe Cattaneo and later Ezrom Legae. They were dedicated to creating an African identity in art.

Villa initially developed an African presence in his work by including elements from the highveld landscape into his work, particularly plant forms, and his sculptures from the 1950s featured jagged contours and intersecting flat and curved planes. As Esmé Berman puts it, his work now began to speak “convincingly, not of the appearance, but of the experience of Africa”.

Villa’s works vary in mood and can be lighthearted, elegant or humorous. It is, however, in his more serious reflections on life that his search for an African presence for his work shines through. An example here is Confrontation (1978), an enormous work installed outside the Rand Merchant Bank in Sandton, Johannesburg. Made in the aftermath of the 1976 Soweto uprising, it expresses Villa’s concern with the political conflict in apartheid South Africa.

Today Villa’s easily recognisable public sculptures dot the urban landscape of Johannesburg, complementing the modernist buildings that partly give the city its particular character. He has more public sculpture on show in Johannesburg than any other artist.

The decades-long span of Villa’s career has seen his work evolve from relatively conservative busts and reliefs to bare, modernist shapes and figurines, to the exuberant and colourful works which typify the latter part of his oeuvre. While some of the sculptures are twisted interpretations of the human form, others are sometimes startlingly phallocentric. It is a testament to an active, creative and open mind that Villa, even after 90, still conceives and produces works which reflect sexual energy and youthful vitality. This is what informs ‘Edoardo Villa: Moving Voices’.

I like my neighbours at the Standard Bank gallery, Johannesburg is an exhibition by the internationally acclaimed Soweto-born artist, Johannes Phokela. Following on Phokela’s other successful solo shows in South Africa, it features a body of new work, as well as recent works from a number of private and public collections. The exhibition runs from 3 February to 21 March 2009.

While Phokela’s work is, at first glance, an irreverent representation of Western art history, it is the cultural and political consumption of pictures that interests him most. He is himself a voracious consumer of imagery, drawing not only on the iconic works of the European Masters – Rubens, Van Dyck and Caravaggio, for example – but also on newspapers, magazines and the Internet. His is an ambitious exploration of the import of received art history on one hand and the seemingly endless proliferation of images in popular culture on the other.

Phokela’s art – including oil paintings, oil sketches and sculptures – is animated by a wicked sense of humour, technical virtuosity and an ability to draw together a number of associations in the frame of a single work. He is fascinated by our capacity to connect images to meaning, and his new work in particular makes reference to the myriad visual representations of current events. He walks a tightrope between a fascination with aesthetics and an instinct for satire and social commentary, and the results are both visually stirring and intellectually satisfying.

More particularly, Phokela is renowned for his large, dramatic works in oil, re-working the images of European old masters by adding references to their works, so that their meanings are changed. The results are telling statements on morality, history, politics, culture, decadence, and colonialism and its legacy, often with a sharp, biting sense of humour.

About his art, Phokela says, “There are hidden things about society that no one acknowledges, and for me, the only place for making this plain is through painting” (Haines, 2002). What concerns him especially are the narratives that are left out of European art. “Dutch genre painting,” he explains, “ … portrayed a certain European lifestyle coinciding with a period in history that saw the arrival of the Europeans in South Africa. This was the only visual reference available, utopian in many ways, the harsh realities of war and famine left out. The subsequent cultural collusion is significant and becomes an essential source for my ideas” (Haines, 2002).

An artist of great depth and intellect, and concerned with beauty, ideas and subversion, Phokela is the epitomy of sharply honed skill combined with creative intelligence and insightfulness. Today we still talk about “decolonising the mind.” Phokela’s powerful critiques of colonialism and its vestiges add considerable punch, flavour and wit to the decolonisation project.

About Johannes Phokela

Johannes Phokela was born in Soweto in 1966. He studied in London, at the Royal College of Art (1991-93); Camberwell College of Art (1988-91); and St. Martin’s College of Art (1987-88). He is the recipient of a number of awards, including the John Moores Painting Prize through the Walker Art Gallery (Liverpool, UK), the BP National Gallery Portrait Award, (London) and the highly prestigious Decibel Artist’s Award (UK).

Phokela is represented in major public collections, such as the National Museum of African Art at the Smithsonian in Washington; Standard Bank Corporate Collection, Johannesburg; MTN art collection, Johannesburg; Gasworks Art Studios, London; Delfino Studio Trust, London; Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town; UNISA art collection, Pretoria; BHP Billiton, Johannesburg; and gordonschachatcollection, South Africa. He is also represented in the collection of the South African High Commission in London.

Primarily known as a painter, Phokela’s artistic practice also includes printmaking, sculpture and drawing. He lives in London and Johannesburg.