New Arrivals May 2013

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Christopher Møller Art	NEWSLETTER MAY 2013
Michelle Davidson Objects of enlightenment
Still life painting is, quite simply, the depiction of an object. The intriguing ingredient of Michelle Davidson's still life paintings in “Objects of Enlightenment” is that we are shown a new way of looking at the ordinary every day object around us. Traditionally, objects in a still life were selected for their symbolic meaning.  Some were chosen for there aesthetic value; Cezanne for instance used apples in his still lives for their colour and shape.  The objects in this exhibition were intentionally chosen for their insipid quality and simplicity as it is the artists’ intention for the viewer to acknowledge the space around the object as well as the object itself. Light plays a pivotal role in these works.  The use of light and shadow creates an ambiance that domineers the object depicted.  Ones eyes are indulged as they widen to take in the whole painting: the play of light, the fading shadows and the chiaroscuro-ed object.  The background becoming just as important as the object itself. The simplicity of the objects and their monochromatic colouring also creates a mystical atmosphere. The paintings are transformed onto an ethereal platue, iconifying the object.  One feels that the works should be hung in a cathedral as they are personified with a life beyond the ordinary. Each painting is 450mm wide and 390 mm high. Oil on canvas board, framed in a simple white box frame.  Click here to view more works.

ART NEWS
New Arrivals
Albert Coertse
Picnic with Aleitha V, Oil,  130x 130cm, SOLD		Picnic with Aleitha VI, Oil, 130x130cm
Albert Coertse's style has a wonderful feeling of simplicity in his work; using vertical and horizontal lines, he breaks his landscapes up into their most basic form. The use of interlocking lines is cubist in nature, which builds rhythm and movement giving the viewer a sense of harmony. Coertse who himself is very shy, lives outside of Knysna, away from the cities. He  tries to create a sense of order and understanding in his landscapes- the world through his eyes. Coertse also deconstructs the colour used in his paintings.  You can count the colours that are placed into the quadrants which is a strong contrast to nature where millions of different colours are incorporated. His work is about simplifying his environment- quantifying it.  CLICK HERE TO VIEW MORE WORKS
Hugh Mbayiwa
		New Arrival Hugh Mbayiwa, a bold Zimbabwean artist. "Rock Trip", mixed media on canvas,123 x 162 cm. Hugh likes to use bright bold colours, which is reminiscent of the early impressionists. The intensity of his colour draws a lot of attention to itself and away from more conservative work.  He distorts colour and form to portray inner feelings.  His work is about celebrating life, and his use of colour is meant to express our vivacity for living. He paints ordinary every day scenes, capturing moments that we would normally take for granted. CLICK HERE TO VIEW MORE WORKS
Andre Stead
		New Arrival Andre Stead's Illumination sculpture in sexy red! "Red Illumination", Resin M/6,200 x 50 x 80  cm. SOLD The Illumination sculpture depicts a dancing figure suspended in a pirouette, poised on the edge of her balance. Her upper body pulls into a directional distortion of form that emphasizes her apparent movement. As with most of the illumination series, light plays an important part in the physical and symbolic attributes of the artwork. Illumination has an internal and external light source that creates a soft glow that highlights the flowing features of the piece. On the figure’s back is a jagged line that forms a continuous edge around the internal and external surface of the artwork. This line represents the boundary between the conscious and subconscious mind, each dependent on the other for balance, and continuously influencing one another. CLICK HERE TO VIEW MORE WORKS
Naada Art Fair
		Johannesburg National Antiques & Decorative Arts Faire We are proud to be part of the National Art Fair which is on this year 19-21st July in Johannesburg at the Sandton Convention Centre Sandton. READ MORE
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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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Andre Stead - Elemental Man Series

Christopher Møller Art NEWSLETTER March 2013 Link3 | The Seed Man, resin, M/12, 26x42x24cm Andre Stead Elemental Series Andre Stead is chiefly a figurative sculptor and he has focused primarily on figurative sculpture throughout his career. He works in modern materials such as resin, plexiglass, aluminium and bronze . Born in Evander, he now works and lives in cape town. Andre is represented by the Christopher Moller Art gallery. Andre's newest body of work The Elemental Man series is derived from an in-depth study of the human male. The development of the series started with a number of nude photographic shoots documenting the physical attributes of the male form performing everyday actions and movements. The photographic reference was used to create a series of realistic figurative oil paintings that illustrate the movement of the male figure. The paintings allowed the artist to explore the reference material in-depth and to transcribe it at an intellectual level. It is during this phase of the creative process that the conceptual value of a body of work is defined and the series forms its own identity. as this series is part of an ongoing study of the human condition, it is not only the physical attributes of the male form that is studied but rather the male as a whole, mind, body and soul. Aerial Man, Resin M/12, 76x20x27cm Fire Man, Resin M/12, 75x24x2 The Aerial man is based on an earlier piece titled “Star gazer”, a carved wooden female figure gazing at the stars, hands clasped behind her head. The Aerial man, although quit different, it also focused at the heavens supporting his head with his hands. It is in the head that fleeting thoughts reside and human thought have long been associated with the air. A person with an expressive and social temperament is as free flowing and interactive as the wind and that is perhaps why this association has been so widely used throughout the ages. The Aerial man represents the thoughts of man and it is through thinking at a social level that man will grow and mature in the future. The Fire man is inspired by the 14th century sculpture of David by Michaelangelo, a piece that depicts David, a young man who conquered Goliath the giant. Fire is often associated with a choleric or driving personality, a temperament coherent with leaders and heroes. The Fire man represents the strength and courage of men and the power and energy of conviction. The figure’s forearm and head is fused together indicating the synthesis of coherent thought and action. The man’s subtle masculine features are testament to the underlying power of this seemingly calm and collected figure. Aquatic Man, Resin M/12, 74x27.5x21cm Earth Man, Resin M/12, 54x20x35cm The Aquatic man portrays a man walking forward whilst looking sideways, as if his body is going one direction and his thoughts and focus in another. This is often the nature of emotion, flowing in a direction as if by a force of its own. Water is also associated with a phlegmatic personality or someone who is calm, supportive and understanding, and has an emotional connection with the world. Similar to the currents and cross currents of the oceans that are in a constant state of flux the sea of emotions in a man are ever changing. The Aquatic man portrays this constant movement through the fluid forward motion of the figure’s flowing form. The Earth man sculpture portrays a man bending over forward with his arms hanging down and his feet firmly on the ground. The man's posture emulates a melancholic gesture as he looks downward and inward towards himself, his face shielded from the viewer. The concept of caves representing the solemn, solitary sanctuaries of the earth is evident in the negative space created by the bending figure. Although the figure itself is devoid of negative space, the man’s bent back and hanging arms create what appears to be an arched doorway. This imagery is very reminiscent of the Dolmen of Northern Ireland (standing stones that resemble Pi, the most recognized mathematical constant in the world), that are called giants graves. This was also used as the symbol for earth in some ancient cultures. Video Andre Stead, The Seed of Man, Christopher Møller Art Gallery Art news Lionel Smit. February 2013 Auction at Stephan Weltz Fragmented # 3 signed oil on canvas , 80 x 80cm R12 000 - R16 000 Sold for R145 000 Carla van Zyl. Solo exhibition. Revised exhibition dates 31 Oct - 21 Nov 2013 www.christophermollerart.co.za 7 Kloofnek Road, Gardens Cape Town | Cape Town, 8001 Phone: 021 422 1599 | www.christophermollerart.co.za Tues- Fri 10am-6pm; Sat 10am-1pm