Arthouse
Arthouse explores connections in different forms — among others, the relationship between art, nature, and the built environment. Seven South African artists are introduced to Spanish audiences through a cultural exchange between FEDE, the South African nomadic gallery working at the intersection of art, design, and architecture, and 200CENT — a creative space in Barcelona operating as a juncture for connections with artists from around the world.
Taking the form of a traveling exhibition, it’s first set in the Can Pep Rey finca in Ibiza, Spain, where the home is reimagined as a gallery space through simple gestures of care. The intimate and welcoming space of a house is imbued with the spirit of art objects and each object brings a unique energy to the home. The exhibition further explores links between place and space by referencing FEDE’s first exhibition, which was set in a quaint house in Woodstock, Cape Town.
All that you touch you change. All that you change changes you — Octavia Butler.
Through their works, the artists touch the Spanish context with energy pulsating of different ways of knowing. Touch in the simplistic yet very real way of making contact with the storied walls of the home, and now of the walls of the gallery, but also touch in the haptic sense of affectation and reflection — that is to say, have an effect on, alter or shape. In this sense, each artwork is not mere ornamentation but rather conveys intricate narratives that encourage an exploration of links between locales (Spain and South Africa), spaces (gallery and home) and logics (exhibition making and homemaking).
Through a textured approach to painting, Tymbios visualises the hilly parts of Cape Town’s landscape rendered rich through the rushing sound of water flowing underneath rivers. Kekana fragments his figures and leaves them hovering in a sea of blue as an exploration of the psychological effects of space through play. Maluleke and Khoza subtly gesture at the thin veil between the interior and exterior with the representation of nature through flora. Lee introduces an element of abstraction with mark-making inspired by Chinese folk art while Solanki offers a delicate sense of intimacy with sensual figures moving through space.
Read together, the works bring to the fore the fragility, strangeness and beauty of connections between people, nature, spaces and objects.
Text by Nkgopoleng Moloi
150 x 100 cm
2023
80 x 160 cm
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45 x 32 x 3 cm
2023
33 x 27 x 3 cm
2023
33 x 27 x 3 cm
2023
110 x 110 cm
2023
117 x 110 cm
2021
21 x 29,7 cm
2021