THE CABINET
A SELECTION OF EXCEPTIONAL ARTWORKS
21ST APRIL – 8TH MAY
EBONY/curated
Welcome to our first Cabinet.
During the Covid-19 crisis, artists are still producing exceptional works and the creative community needs as much support as possible. Our role as a gallery is to continue to enable original talent to be viewed – even in the most challenging of times.
Whilst our physical doors are closed, we invite you to view online a curated selection of new works from our artists and some favourite pieces from our storerooms. You may not be able to visit our galleries in person at the moment but we hope that this virtual gallery will provide interest.
ANDREW BARLOW
Born in Harare, Zimbabwe in 1970 and currently living in the Western Cape, South Africa, Barlow studies both the animal and human form by working in paint and charcoal. Barlow is fascinated by light, and in so doing invites the viewer to experience an emotion and reaction to the subject. His classic but contemporary works have been exhibited extensively, with notable exhibitions in South Africa and the USA.
Brahman I | Charcoal on Archival Mount Board | 2020
Brahman II | Charcoal on Archival Mount Board | 2020
LISA RINGWOOD
One of South Africa’s best loved ceramicists, Lisa Ringwood born in Durban, South Africa in 1968 but now lives and works from her studio in Kommetjie, Western Cape. Over the years, she has developed her style of hand building and slab moulding with scraffito, coloured slips, oxides and underglaze colours.
She draws her inspiration from daily life and nature. Tiles and functional ware, drawn and painted with local bird life, carp, blossoms and indigenous plants can all trace an organic tie back to the earth from which it was shaped, and every piece speaks of unhurried observation and care. She achieves this without subscribing to symmetry or commercial uniformity giving each piece their unique personality.
“When I work with clay I am reminded of the rich history and tradition that has gone before me. I delight in taking this history, bringing it into the present and combining it with the serene and whimsical moments that I observe on my daily excursions into nature”
Karoo Plates | Ceramic | 2020
BRETT SMITH
“My goal as an artist is to distil that which has been observed into a simple mark or gesture so that each dot and each line will possess a life of its own. I tend to filter the botanical world through my conscious and sub-conscious mind, meditating on the various forms and images, finally drafting a new reality through a process of automatic drawing and painting. Experimentation, invention and accident play a pivotal role in my quest to achieve visual poetry.”
Self-taught artist Brett Smith aims, in his work, to refine the world into a simple mark or gesture. For Smith, each line and dot possesses a life of its own. Born in 1972 in Durban, South Africa, Smith’s childhood was surrounded by nature: trees, flowers, and leaves were an endless fascination. These influential experiences led him create his work through automatic drawing and painting. In this state, experimentations, inventions, and accidents were pivotal in the work. The finished product examines the line between beauty and destruction. Smith currently paints from his studio in Atlanta, USA.
Scaffold To Thicket (-33.9173,18.4174) Hudson | Oil on Wax on Canvas | 2017
DEBORAH BELL
Born in Johannesburg in 1957, Bell is one of South Africa’s most acclaimed contemporary artists who has developed a unique visual language. Her first solo exhibition was held in 1982 at the Market gallery, Johannesburg. With works in over 20 major international and local museums including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA, Bell draws on inspiration from a range of cultures and philosophies.
‘In the Shadow of the Lion’, a unique hand coloured etching from 2008, examines the intermediary figures that reside between the physical and spiritual worlds.
n The Shadow of the Lion | Unique Etching and Aquatint with Hand Colouring | 2008
ZEMBA LUZAMBA
Zemba Luzamba’s powerful paintings interrogate and satirise social and political power structures in Africa. Born in the DRC in 1973, Luzamba currently resides and paints in South Africa.
Situating his subjects in bold fields of colour which disassociate them from concrete spaces and times allows Luzamba to portray certain situations as universal ideas, giving the viewer the freedom to interpret these scenes within a way that is relevant to their own contexts. This combined with his skilful observation of body language emphasizes the immediacy and proximity occupied by the viewer to his work.
Cafouillage | Oil on Canvas | 2019
FRANCK KEMKENG NOAH
Born in 1992 in Yaoundé, Cameroon and currently living in France, Franck Kemkeng Noah studied at the Institut des Beaux Arts of Foumban, Cameroon and the University of Picardy in Amiens, France.
Noah’s paintings and textiles are characterised by an experimental approach to the notion of interculturalism. Fusing his own culture with others, he confronts us with imagined experiences, highlighting globalization and migration imagined in Palaces of Memory inspired by the Anthropophagic Manifesto by the Brazilian poet and polemecist, Oswald De Andrade.
Purification – Fo Vatican I | Acrylic on Canvas | 2020
Purification – Plaza de Espana at the rhythm of Juju Dance Acrylic on Canvas | 2020
JH PIERNEEF
Considered one of South Africa’s most important and widely recognised old masters, the work of JH Pierneef (1886 – 1957) was greatly influenced by the South African landscape.
‘Huis by Wonderboom’, painted in 1944, is a compelling work from one of the artists most important and creative periods and encapsulates many of the artist’s formal and stylistic concerns. First exhibited in 1949 this painting remained in the artists personal collection until his death and resurfaced again in 1957 in the auction catalogue of his estate. This is the first time in over 60 years that this historic painting has been offered for sale.
Huis By Wonderboom |Oil on Board | 1944
RICHARD SMITH
Born in Scotland in 1947, Richard Smith spent over 60 years living and working in South Africa. In 2019 he moved to County Wicklow, Ireland where he continues to paint.
A politically important cartoonist of the 1970’s, Smith studied painting in Paris and has subsequently held over 20 solo exhibitions in South Africa and internationally to date. Working on paper and canvas the artist looks to investigate our senses, both the conscious and unconscious, where his subjects are revisited many times over.
Ancestral Jargon | Mixed Media on Paper | 2008
JEAN-CLAUDE MOSCHETTI
Born in France in 1967, Jean-Claude Moschetti’s work as an independent press photographer allowed him to travel extensively and sparked his interest in Africa. He now lives and works between France and West Africa.
The African continent is steeped in a rich and complex history of mysticism and in many traditional societies magic is accepted as an integral part of life. But unlike the Western interpretation of magic as a series of smoke and mirrors, magic in the African sense is part of the physical realm, a physical reality that manifests during rituals often through the wearing of masks. By donning a mask the wearer straddles the both the physical and mystical realm, and becomes a conduit between the living world and the supernatural world of the dead, the ancestors and other mysterious entities.
As a Vodun initiate of the Egungun cult in Benin, Moschetti has a unique insight into this world of shadows. With works exhibited and collected by major institutions, Moschetti is represented by EBONY/CURATED and also by the Marianne Ibrahim Gallery in Chicago, USA
Chasseurs D’Ombres (Shadow Hunters) | C-Print, Ed. 12 | 2019
SAÏDOU DICKO
Through painting, photography, video or installations, Saïdou Dicko transforms the representation of forms giving life to visual phenomena, to physical and psychological events of light, uniting the two extreme values that are at the heart of black and white contrast. He finds pleasure in bringing together the opposites to talk to us about equality, union, maternal love, freedom, humanity.
Dicko was born in Burkina Faso in 1979 and currently lives and works in Paris, France. He has been widely exhibited internationally, with presentations at the Dakar Biennale, Africa Now and the Fondation Blanchere to name a few.
La Bouteille | Pigment Print on Baryta, Ed. 5 | 2014
