David Griessel’s Postcards from Duskland exhibition at Rust-en-Vrede Gallery in affiliation with Art@Africa Gallery

David Griessel’s otherworldly, yet highly personal illustrative work walks the tightrope between playfulness and solemnity, whimsy and pensiveness.

Cathedral. 2019. Gouache and Ink on Paper. 36X52cm

Griessel’s art practice is an act of building a parallel world – one drawing at a time. He refers to this imaginary world as ‘Duskland’, and it functions as a space where he gets to play around with ideas, characters and narratives. It is not a concrete world that is extensively mapped and coded like Tolkien’s ‘Middle Earth’ or Herbert’s ‘Dune’, but is rather more nebulous and psychological in nature. It shares kinship with Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and occupies a space in the artist’s head that evokes the feeling of a half-remembered dream (and the occasional nightmare).

“Postcards from Duskland” is a spontaneous act of playful creation. Viewers are invited to explore the interesting narrative constellations created by Griessel from 18 February (at 19h00) until 25 March 2020 at Rust-en-Vrede Gallery in Durbanville.

Conversations with the Witch Tree. 2019. Ink on Paper. 47X34cm

David was born (1990) and raised in Bloemfontein. He completed his BA in Fine Arts at the University of The Free State in 2012. He has since then been a full time artists and picture book illustrator. In 2015 he relocated to Cape Town, where he currently lives a free-lance lifestyle and regularly exhibits. He has exhibited at many galleries in South Africa and also in France during an art residency at Draw International in Caylus.

Art@Africa in Affiliation with Rust-en-Vrede Gallery
10 Wellington Rd, Durbanville – Cape Town
021 976 4691 / rustenvrede@telkomsa.net

“Postcards from Duskland” – Opening 18 Feb 2020 at 19h00

Art@Africa website

Rust-en-Vrede website