New Arrivals - APRIL 2013

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Christopher Møller Art	NEWSLETTER APRIL 2013
Carla van Zyl
The painting above is by the artist Carla Van Zyl, entitled: ‘Damara Dreamer’, oil on canvas, 190 x 150cm. A total of 280 hours was spent creating this painting. Please see the high speed video below where 500 photographs were used capturing each stage. This painting will form part of her solo exhibition running later this year at the Christopher Møller Art gallery.  Carla van Zyl was born in Somerset West in 1987.  Her family is originally from Namibia, but moved down to South Africa, where they have a farm. Carla has no tertiary education in art, and is largely self taught. She first arrived at the gallery in 2009, at the age of 21. In most of her portraits, Carla uses natural lighting, which is reminiscent of the Dutch master, Jan Vermeer, where works include: "The Girl With The Pearl Earring" and "The Music Lesson", like Vermeer, she uses a natural light source. The lighting creates a cool blue/white colour hue, which enhances the details of the face, such as the worry lines beneath his eyes, or the detail of his beanie. In most of her portraits, the lighting originates from the right hand quadrant of the painting.  If you look closely at her portraits, you can often see the reflection of a window or landscape in the subject’s eyes. This creates the feeling of a 'painting within a painting' The method adds depth, by showing us what we don't see, in an otherwise static scene. Hyper-realism distorts or highlights certain features, which sets it apart from Photo-realism or a photograph. Though the image is visually unrealistic, it portrays a heightened sense of reality. The artist uses dark backgrounds, which contributes greatly to the expressive effects in her work. The effects would be less immediate since the elaborate backgrounds inevitably distracts some of the viewer's attention away from the sitters' face. Click here to view more works.
Video

				Something can be said about viewing a portrait, how we can compare it to our daily lives. When we first meet people, whether it be in business or in a social situation, part of this interaction is our need to read people, to judge their emotions and their intentions.  To paraphrase that idiom, ‘don’t judge a book by it’s cover’.  Whether we like it or not, it is instinctive for us to judge people. By freezing the image of the sitter, we the viewer are given the time to scrutinize the detail before them, from the worry lines beneath the eyes to the sensuous interplay of primary colour against the black background.  Carla takes a moment in time, just a fraction of a second, with a look , something that is anticipated but not fully perceived or understood. By stopping short, she requires the viewer’s eye and imagination to supply what it most desires to see and feel.
				CLICK HERE TO VIEW CLIP OF CARLA AT WORK
ART NEWS
Andrew Salgado
			Andrew Salgado originally Canadian, based in the UK at this time, has a style that explores the correlation between the concept of masculinity and the properties of the medium; generally based in paint. Andrew is interested in how his paintings might operate independently from their literal figurative foundation and engage with an exploration of color, reduction of forms, and triumph of substance as imbued with meaning and metaphor, overt, and suggestive. Andrew Salgado recently exhibited a series of works in Harvey Nichol's storefront windows. All the works were sold out within a few hours. Exhibition dates at Christopher Møller Art gallery : A solo exhibition 20 January - 20 February 2014.  CLICK HERE TO VIEW MORE WORKS
MJ Lourens
			New Arrival MJ Lourens, Cape Town based artist presents a magnificent new work. "Headway I", acrylic on panel, 140 x 180 cm. Exhibition dates at Christopher Møller Art gallery: A solo exhibition 6 March - 27 March 2014.  CLICK HERE TO VIEW MORE WORKS
VIDEO
Barry Jackson
			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’s work has a distinctly African flavour. His style is representational and he is from the old school of “I paint what I see.” Barry recently held a solo exhibition at the Christopher Møller Art gallery. The video to the left presents Barry's work as it appeared on the recent TV show Bravo. CLICK HERE TO VIEW CLIP OF BARRY"S EXHIBITION AT CHRISTOPHER MOLLER ART GALLERY.
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