ARTFLUX Exhibition 4 June - 3 July 2016

This past weekend I attended the ARTFLUX Opening Exhibition.

Poster by Pretoria Art Museum 

 

 

The exhibition curated by Capital Arts Revolution and hosted by the Pretoria Art Museum is currently showing works of three artist; Reatile Maolusi, Gert Potgieter and Stompie Selibe.

The exhibition will run for a month with a seminar planned for 25 June 2016. I managed to speak to two of the artists about their beautiful work.

 

Reatile Maolusi:

Reatile’s inspiration came from the accidents on our roads and the increasing number of roadside memorials.  Having lost a relative in a car accident also contributed to his series of "Roadside Memorials".  This is four years of his work but he started working on this particular series last year. Already he is working on the next series concentrating on mementos, things that loved ones leave behind,  like watches, shoes, even body parts left behind after clearing of accidents. Reatile has exhibited in many collective exhibitions and he currently has body of work showing in France.

The Pretoria Street Photography co-founder from West Rand is a Photography student at the Tshwane University of Technology.

 

Gert Potgieter:

Gert’s art has always concentrated around contemporary South Africa, he looks at day to day problems faced by ordinary South Africans. Matters concerning the poor, inequality, generally social issues. His current body of work deals with South Africa's poor who still find themselves at the same place they were 20 years ago.

This interesting piece is a tree made out of human limbs, Gert explained that this work is a follow-up on the work he did on the Marikana incident, he went on to explain that after the Marikana experience he was left feeling morbid as one would after such a sad situation. To lift up his spirits he started working on this tree symbolising rebirth. He also wanted to depict how close life and death are.

 

     

I was interested in the bottom piece, Gert  explained this piece as addressing the disillusioned in the community.

  

 

Gert  a sculptor with a studio in Pretoria, studied Art at the University of South Africa in the late 80s and specialises in welded metal.

I didn't get a chance to speak to the third artist, Stompie. Below is his work, I love how he  played with  the splash of colour complementing the distorted part of this piece.

 

Stompie who works from his studio in Johannesburg is described as a visual artist and a musician who is very involved with outreach programmes.

 

I found all three works intriguing and challenging.  I moved from Reatile's photos to Stompies paintings and worked the gallery to the middle where Gert's sculptures are.  Three set of emotions can be evoked as you recognise loss of life from the roadside memorials to three pieces with a splash of colour that will immediately colour your mood without even understanding the intended meaning of the collection to abstruse sculptures.

 

If you have time,  do visit the Pretoria Art Museum in support of the three artists but more especially in support of the young artists.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

* All photos are mine unless otherwise stated*