Christopher  Møller Art BARRY JACKSON SOLO EXHIBITION 31 January - 21 February 2013
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Please join us for a glass of wine on 31 January at 6:30pm for the opening of Barry Jackson's solo exhibition. Parking available at Jan van Riebeek school. Barry Jackson is a sculptor. He was born in South Africa, educated in Zambia in the 60’s, and he has been living and working in Cape Town for the past 30 years. His work is represented at the Christopher Møller Art Gallery. Jackson began his career as an illustrator in the advertising industry but soon found the need to move into more challenging work, sculpture was the answer. The work is hard and long, as sculpture is a difficult medium, but for the artist it is also deeply fulfilling. Jackson’s work has a distinctly African flavor. His style is representational and he is from the old school of “I paint what I see.” Using photographs and sketches, to nail down the action and fine details of his subjects, aiming to capture the enthralling essence of his subjects. He wants the viewer to feel the wildlife and figures through his work.   "The human species cannot survive without the animals. Perhaps like the bushman we will one day learn to live alongside them instead of exploiting them until they are gone. Their extinction is ultimately ours too.”    Barry Jackson Forthcoming exhibitions:
Carla van Zyl, a solo exhibition. 28 March - 18 April. For more information, please click here
Jaco Roux, a solo exhibition. 17 - 31 October. For more information, please click here
Aldo Balding, a solo exhibition. 29 November - 23 December. For more information, please click here
7 Kloofnek Road, Gardens Cape Town | Cape Town, 8001 Phone: 021 422 1599 | www.christophermollerart.co.za Tues- Fri 10am-6pm; Sat 10am-1pm

New Arrivals - Aldo Balding 2013

 

Christopher Møller Art                               New Arrivals - January

'Philosophers at the Rialto', oil on canvas, 50x70cm, R65 000

This the latest work by Aldo Balding, not originally destined for South Africa. Balding often uses members of his family within his work. In this scene, it is his daughter and her boyfriend. His intention is to create an air of mystery within the scene. The figures are meant to be ambiguous, that you the viewer are on the outside looking in. You have caught the couple in a quite moment of conversation or reflection. Note: the little girl in the pink dress hiding behind the column in the background.

'Moments of indecision', oil on canvas, 41x33cm, R40 000 (Detail)

One gets a sense of timelessness with his work.  Balding creates a sense of nostalgia, how it is human nature to look back at the past with a certain sense of ease that life was simpler. It is these emotions expressed by ‘Romanticism’,one of the artists favourite periods, that articulates in his work creating a fascinating mood, through his use of movement, colour and drama.

'Agent Provocater', oil on canvas, 55x44cm, R48 000 (Detail)

Agent Provocateur, as the title suggests a moment before an interaction. The antagonist, a beautifully dressed woman walking up the stairwell with a bottle of wine. The artist cuts off her face, adding to the annominity of the figure and what lies at the top of the stairwell.

'Au Jardin', oil on canvas, 35x45cm, R46 000

When painting “Au Jardin”, Balding started with the two figures only deciding on the background at the end. The Venetian setting adds to the glamour of the smartly dressed figures. It could almost be a scene out of the Federico Fellini 1960’s film ‘Le Dolce Vita’ .

'Cafe Rouge', oil on canvas, 41x33cm, R40 000 (Detail)

The interaction of Balding’s figurative paintings as they engage with each other in a painted scenario, creates a narrative element. There is an unspoken dialogue, as their eyes meet creating tension.  Alfred Hitchcock once said: “If it's a good movie, the sound could go off and the audience would still have a perfectly clear idea of what was going on.” Balding, who is a great movie fan, uses the same technique within his work.

'Moments before decision', oil on canvas, 40x30cm,R40 000 (Detail)

This scene depicts Pierre, a reoccurring model, Balding uses in his paintings. Pierre is a waiter from the local village where the artist lives. He will often paint members of his family or reuses existing models those body profiles he is familiar with.

Forthcoming  Exhibitions: 'Barry Jackson' -   A solo exhibtion. 31 January - 21 February, 2013. 'Carla van Zyl' - A  solo exhibition. 28 March - 18 April, 2013. 'Jaco Roux'- a solo exhibition, 17 October - 31 October, 2013. 'Äldo Balding' - a solo exhibition, 29 November - 23 December, 2013.

 

Summer Exhibition. A group show. 29 November - 22 December, 2012.

Featured artists: Aldo Balding, Albert Coertse, Christiaan Diedericks, Ryan Hewett, MJ Lourens, Louis Nel, Nora Newton, Jaco Roux, Carla van Zyl.

Summer Exhibition. A group show. 29 November - 22 December, 2012.

Summer Exhibition 5 Megs

Ryan Hewett Awakening Series VII & VIII, 160 x 134cm

Ryan Hewett was born in Natal in 1979. He is largely self-taught in painting, apart from taking art as a subject in High school. At school he did little painting, but worked mainly in pencil, producing very tight realistic studies, which he soon grew bored of. It was only a few years out of school when he came across works of certain artists that he was inspired to paint. He was blown away by the way they moved paint around the canvas. In a sculptural process, loose brush work that still pulls together. Painting is something that has followed Hewett. He never gave it too much thought, he remembers his best friend saying: “if all else fails at least we got our art to fall back on.” For a long period, he did not think about being an artist.

“I was so wrapped up in being young and having fun, partying was a big part of my youth, and almost my downfall. I really did not have much direction at all, but now and again I would isolate myself, and once again find myself sketching. There was a period where I lived in a caravan for a few months on a river outside Hermanus, by myself where I fished and sketched, before that I hadn’t picked up a pencil in years. Family and friends saw the work I had produced and were amazed I wasn’t taking it seriously. Shortly after that I began to paint, from there I realized that this is my gift and i was going to be an artist.”

In Hewett’s latest body of work entitled: “Awakening Series”, he explores the moment of an idea or a thought that leads us to a point of profound realisation or understanding.  It is this rare ‘split second’ moment in our life that leads us to make big changes in our understanding of who we are and our relationship with the world around us.  There is a wonderful expressionist style to Hewett’s work. He accentuates certain features he wants to highlight to the viewer. He uses a palette knife, applying paint very thickly onto the canvas, creating texture in his work, which appeals to all the senses, a signature trademark in his style.   Ryan Hewett lives and works in the Natal midlands with his wife Shayleen and their young son Eli.

MJ Lourens "Mountain view from a little field", acrylic on panel, 140 x 180cm

Aldo Balding 2011 interview for All Access

Barry Jackson "Bow Hunter" Ed 9/15, Bronze

One of Barry Jackson's favourite subjects are the Bushmen people of Southern Africa.  They were the first people to inhabit Africa and they were the only African people that practiced art.  No one knows how long they have been here but rock paintings have been found that predated the pyramids of Giza by thousands of years, as far back as the Stone Age.  They are still here today, many living exactly the same lifestyle they did then.  They were prolific artists and their rock paintings, found all over Southern Africa are a record of their life style, culture, and deep spiritual beliefs and remain artistically significant even by today’s standards.  Some of their caves are decorated in a magnificent cathedral like way and some even liken them to the religious works of the European Renaissance.  The Bushmen are now however a displaced people and their numbers are declining.  The arrival of the white man in Southern Africa who considered the Bushmen thieves and vermin and slaughtered them at will, and the black man who migrated from the north and treated them just as mercilessly, together did all they could to wipe them out.  The peace loving and for the most part friendly Bushman who killed only to survive stood no chance.  He has been forced to the fringes of civilisation; most of his hunting land has disappeared, and his way of life has been outlawed thanks to civilisation and politics.