ECLECTICA CONTEMPORARY – Feb 2021
Collaborative design group exhibition
www.eclecticacontemporary.co.za
11:11
As a new beginning is offered with the start of a new year, we remain impacted and influenced by the challenges and triumphs of the year just past. At Eclectica Contemporary, we are proud to present a new exhibition format that marries contemporary art alongside notable contemporary African designers, ceramicists and creatives in conversation with the gallery’s collection of iconic mid-century modern and vintage furniture pieces. Titled 11:11, we present a group exhibition that is an open-ended experimentation with design aesthetics, local creators and collaborators, the exhibition will continue for an extended period, with new pieces being included and rotated in the space continuously. The artworks shown alongside iconic furniture pieces and contemporary local design artefacts all draw inspiration from nature with an emphasis on sustainability.
Ibrahim Khatab, Untitled (4), 2020, mixed media on board, 101.5 x 101.5 cm
The artists exhibiting in 11:11 offer insight into expression through organic shapes, investigated through colour palettes and offers new avenues of exploration along the surfaces and textures of their canvases. The work of Natasha Barnes compliments design pieces through its gentle abstraction of form and dynamic use of colour, while Ben Coutouvidis’s paintings remind us to think carefully around histories and nostalgia through their hazy depictions of familiar sights. Similarly, Georgia Lane’s pieces hint at vistas and environments that seem recognisable but are constructed through automative strokes and imagined sites. Aimee Lindeque’s circular illustrations map out how inextricably intwined our realities are, where individual actions impact our habitats and one little nudge could shift things out of balance. In creating these works, the artists investigate ideas in new ways and through their curation across the gallery spaces, the artworks are given new contexts and interpretations alongside select design pieces.
Key contemporary African designers have been selected to exhibit in the gallery space alongside the artworks demonstrating the curatorial stance of art and design seen on the same platform. 11:11 signals a return to the gallery’s roots – embedded in a passion for design and art understood as intwined and intermixed. Bofred’s design origins of refurbishing iconic design pieces and then moving onto sustainably sourced and produced new objects aligns with the exhibitions intentions of acknowledging synchronicity and celebrating considered and beautiful stories alongside the designs. Haldane Martin’s pieces accentuate playfulness and nostalgia in design through sleek and intricate pieces that pair colour and texture, while WIID Designs offers an elevated approach to upcycled and reintegrated materials.
In collaboration with Imiso Ceramics, Eclectica Contemporary presents a selection of up and coming ceramic designers who are pioneering new approaches to ceramics and sculpture. Showcasing ceramic pieces alongside paintings, furniture and design objects, the exhibition highlights the blurring of creative engagement across mediums and approaches.
The exhibition theme explores synchronicity as a way to make sense and let go of expectations and coincidence. Embracing the twists and turns of tumultuous years, uncertainties and innovative new ideas. It is an investigation into the spaces we curate, make precious, and also query the needs of functionality and beauty as we seek pleasure in our environments. The exhibition forefronts finding inspiration in
beauty, being challenged by design and allows for viewers to be fed by aesthetic explosions of creativity.
Ibrahim Khatab, Untitled (III), 2020, mixed media on board, 120 x 120 cm
Unusual Realities, Serge Diakota, Mixed media drawing, 30x40cm framed