www.nelart.co.za
An exhibition of portraits and figures
John-Michael Metelerkamp is considered an outsider artist who is self-taught, starting his practice long after school in Knysna, and has recently moved to Cape Town. This artist has been catching the attention of many painters, gallerists, and art writers for several years. He is considered a ‘painter’s painter’ and much admired for his refusal to be neatly boxed and placed within the art biosphere.
John-Michael Meterlerkamp | portrait 2
He dares to paint in several styles, this challenges his audiences repeatedly as they reconcile his current work with work from another time in his oeuvre. He has painted photographs from his family’s colonial past, shown at Nel last year, but he is equally at home doing abstraction and landscape. This dexterity is laudable and indicates a sincere effort to always keep challenging himself.
A defining element in John-Michael Metelerkamp’s practice is his lack of complacency. His is a practice always curious, and often we find a subjective exploration of the world around him, the context that he finds himself embedded in and the people he encounters, or the ones he thinks of. It is at times observational and at other times simply imagined constructions. There is freedom and honest curiosity in this series of portraits that invites us to look closer and sense the person being portrayed or inferred.
Opening 7 April from 5 pm
The exhibition closes on 29 April
John-Michael Meterlerkamp | portrait 1