USA: Claire Watson

"Claire Watson received a BFA from the University of Texas at Austin, and an MFA from Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Rome and Philadelphia.

With Kid Gloves (2001-2007)This series was created from a collection of ladies gloves. The gloves suggest to me the body (its fragility); preoccupations with revealing or containing it; and escape through role-playing and costume. They are altered, hand-sewn, fitted with skeletal wire armatures, and stuffed with sawdust to become discrete objects. Some incorporate doll parts or doll making techniques. In un-making them, I think of women's traditions of handwork, particularly in long hours of sewing, but they are also reminiscent of doll-things or toys.

Familiars (2008)In this series, I've combined wooden kitchen implements and sewing tools with a translucent "flesh-colored" doll maker's clay. I'm interested in manifestations of the human form in everyday objects that are designed to be grasped or touched. The objects are given clay features that are modeled and then scarred or partially erased. They have been aged, but they have also been diverted from their forgotten intended necessity to the more sensual realm of play. Part tools, part playthings of domesticity, they are the familiars and the relics of a scarcely remembered feminine past."

Source: http://www.clairewatsonart.com/

Great Britain: Damien Hirst: Life and Death

Damien Hirst

The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living

1991Tiger shark, glass, steel, 5% formaldehyde solution213 x 518 x 213 cm

Damien Steven Hirst[1] (born 7 June 1965) is an English artist and the most prominent member of the group known as "Young British Artists" (or YBAs). Hirst dominated the art scene in Britain during the 1990s and is internationally renowned. Wikipedia Dec. 2008

"The impulses driving Damien Hirst's work stem from dilemmas inherent in human life: 'I am aware of mental contradictions in everything, like: I am going to die and I want to live for ever. I can't escape the fact and I can't let go of the desire'. The materials he uses often shock, but he says he 'uses shock almost as a formal element . not so much to thrust his work in the public eye . but rather to make aspects of life and death visible'."

http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/turnerprize/history/hirst.htm

Qauqaua Book: San/ Bushmen Kuru Art Project: ARTPRINTSA

"Qauqaua is a unique book, published by The Artists' Press and The Kuru Art Project.Lying on a pan of fragmented rock, close to the Botswana border in Namibia, is a small boulder, which looks so different from the surrounding jagged landscape that it appears as if it must have somehow been placed there. The Bushmen or San living in the nearby village of D'kar talk of this rock as being the body of Qauqaua. The artists of the Kuru Art Project have grown up with the story of Qauqaua, which has been told by parents and grandparents. With their traditional way of life changing so rapidly around them, they have decided to preserve this story in book form. "

"Until recently Naro was a spoken language only. Linguist's Cobi and Hessel Visser from the Netherlands have been transcribing the language. "

"The orthography that they have developed is understood by the San in D'kar, as well as by Setswana speaking people in Botswana. The Qauqaua story was written down in Naro by Hessel and Cobi and translated in English by the staff of the Kuru Cultural Centre."

http://www.artprintsa.com/qauqaua.html

SA: Mark Kannemeyer (Lorcan White) Solo

Another one of my past lecturers. He looks a lot like his brother Anton! "His drawing is a generative space of thought in which concepts are positioned in conflict and coercion to one another. Nature and natural forces are posited in opposition to hand-built and machine-made elements and environments such as boxes and box-like cityscapes. The creative clash between these is what makes Kannemeyer’s landscapes truly iconoclastic in contemporary drawing."

19 – 29 November 2008Opening of the exhibition and launch of 'Zombie' on Wednesday 19 November at 18:00 GALLERY AOP: http://artonpaper.co.za/

SA: Wim Botha Solo in Berlin

"The visual language of Botha´ s two- and three- dimensional objects assembles a world of references and symbols into a narrative, architectural concept, fed by sophisticated drawings and large-scale prints, mirrored and sculptural ensembles. They are installed likewise opposing positions into an encompassing space of subjectivism and objectivism, spirit and nature, the correlation of the aesthetic ideal and human fallibilities. The exhibition space is coloured, also metaphorically, in black and white- could be seen as references to the underlying motif of duality, of ambiguity and contradictions- thesis and antithesis. By typical ceiling suspensions of Botha´ s objects via steel cables the provoked meanings lose ostansible their traction combined with their respective assignments. Meanwhile formal recourses to the South African architecture and furnishing, also Calvinist coined church interior are made; hovering pillars made from black coloured wood are partially mirrored, a coffin-like bathtub, frames with golden edges, naturalistic drawings of animal skull studies, the paper busts carved from bibles representing the black, white and cardinals red. Like the coordinates of the space the whole installation becomes an epic narration by adding x plus y plus z: iconic and heraldic symbols, animal fables and depictions of stereotypic men, even the matter of the works deals with the question of power, religion, ideology and caducity as well as a scene-graphic mirror of societies and communities and the role of the individuals in-between.Botha´ s drawings are arranged to show human characteristics, all-in they give us some hints about the ambiguities in their different cultural using- they sing a canonical sinister music piece, addressed and answered by one of the busts, presented with wide open mouths.E.g. the python as a symbol for the Evil in Christian language, but also as the symbol for lore in Asian mythology; the Zulus (a South African ethno group) believes in the python as an ancestor, and even in ritual dances lay the depiction of man and woman, the obedience of woman to the man. It is a magical animal and killing a python during the rainy season would result to the end of nourishment and the end of the clan - it is the archaic symbol for men´ s sexuality." http://www.artfacts.net/index.php/pageType/exhibitionInfo/exhibition/119455/lang/1
Galerie Jette Rudolph GmbHZimmerstrasse 90-9110117 BerlinGermany
Wim Botha28. November 2008 - 10. Januar 2009

South Africa: Elizabeth Gunter

SHEEP II, Charcoal on Paper, 59.5" x 32", 2005.

One of my lecturers I had at Stellenbosch, I love her work. "The dead embryos, floating in their weightless medium of formaldehyde, represent both the miraculous beginnnings of life and the sinister fascination of death. The miniature limbs, perfect to the last fold and hair, uncannily mimic those of their adult progenitors - but the promise they hold as a blueprint of their species is false. The ambivalence of birth - as the joyful acceptance of a precious new life and the simultaneous rejecton of that same life by the maternal body - is evocatively captured in the theme of these drawings." http://www.amaridianusa.com/

South Africa: Michael MacGarry

"Michael MacGarry is a visual artist based in Johannesburg, South Africa. He holds a Masters Degree in Fine Arts from theUniversity of the Witwatersrand. His work investigates the ongoing ramifications of Western imperialism within the Africancontinent. Of particular concern are the mechanics of control and vested interest that inform the journey of culturally symbolic languages and products from the so-called ‘centre’ tothe ‘periphery’ (and vice-versa) via established global trade routes that define and manipulate the peripheral context through an insidious process of inclusion and exclusion." via http://www.artextra.co.za/michael.html

Born Durban, South Africa. 1978. Lives and works inJohannesburg.

South Africa: Wim Botha solo exhibition

"In the two-dimensional works, skeletal studies of human and animal figures in animated poses subjects the assumed finality of death as end of time to a longer time-frame. However, in ignorance of possible spiritual dimensions, these works remain in the material realm, hinting at another form of continuity. " http://www.artextra.co.za/index.htm

South Africa: Impossible Monsters

"Impossible Monsters’ explores contemporary interpretations and visualisations of who or what the monsters of today are. From the monstrosity of beastial bodies, to the monstrosity of transgressive identities, what conceptions of ‘the monster’ have in common is an understanding that the monster is perpetually understood as being something that does not fit comfortably within the normative behaviours or codes of society – an aberration and an object of fearful adoration all at once. "

http://www.artextra.co.za/monster.html

USA: Zach Stein

http://www.myartspace.com/viewer/gallery/?subscriberid=b7eva8ol29qlz0b1&gallery_id=3r3rr41509zuzaf1

googleacecddb8f88decc4.html

USA: Jeff Eisenberg

Jeff Eisenberg "By choosing automatic writing as the ground for my work, my intention is not to comment on the inner workings of the mind as much as it's a strategy to use this tool of analysis as an intimate corollary, a model, for the inside/outside exchanges of the world around us."
Found via http://blog.littlepaperplanes.com/
http://jeffeisenberg.net/

The Miracle Filter

http://themiraclefilter.com/

South Africa: Anton Kannemeyer

via: http://www.warreneditions.com/?page_id=155

South Africa: Nicholas Hlobo

via Michael Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town: "Nicholas Hlobo was born in Cape Town in 1975, and has a B Tech degree from the Wits Technikon (2002). He has an affinity for non-traditional materials, with rubber inner tubes, leather, ribbons, soap and found objects making frequent appearances in works which explore Xhosa traditions, homosexuality and 'anything that people find embarrassing in society'."

FatMan Eating

My etchings photographed and edited in IMovie. Since this movie, (etchings which I have done over the past 2 weeks) FatMan has picked up his burger. Hopefully very soon he will begin eating and stop talking all his nonsense talk. I still have no idea what he will say, probably grunt and sigh for the most part.

So the second movie is the most recent, it has sound added to it. I am showing the full projection at fiftyfity in Victoria at the end of the month, opening Friday, March 27th 2009.

Norway: Håvard Homstvedt

http://www.perryrubenstein.com/artists/havard-homstvedt/

South Africa: Andries Botha: Dromedaris, Donder en Ander Dinge

http://www.andriesbotha.net via
http://www.bankgallery.co.za

South Africa: Robin Rhode (residing in Berlin)

http://www.perryrubenstein.com/artists/robin-rhode/

Fat Man Eating Series (Group 2)

Canada: Brendan Tang

Not a very good shot at all. I went to Brendan Tang's talk at Camosun on Tues. Evening. He speaks so well - He works in ceramics and he takes inspiration from his very varied background (Parents are Chinese and Indian who were raised in Trinidad. He was born in Dublin and is a Naturalized Canadian - spending what seems to be part of his childhood in Nanaimo - 1.5 hr. north of Victoria on Vancouver Island. He pieces seem to reflect and almost fuse his background with contemporary issues such as consumerism, electrical gadgets, sexual references found in video gaming images,etc. Everything is drawn and then made by himself, although parts of the work actually look like they were used from actual found plastic ware. Very interesting indeed. http://www.brendantang.com/

Canada: Jackson 2Bears

Kaie:ri Nikawera:ke (four directions) Jackson 2bears
My friend Tanya Doody's partner, Jackson 2Bears, had his opening at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. I went to the opening and his piece was amazing. A drum in the middle of the room invites the viewer to interact with it. As one taps the drum the hollow sound beckons and fills the room with sounds and images of Jackson walking in 4 directions from the Gallery. The images are projected onto the drum and the faster you tap, the louder the sounds become and similiarly die down as the viewer stops interacting with the piece.

"Jackson 2bears creates an interactive and performable project that reflects on traditional Indigenous spirituality and its deep connection to the land and the natural environment. Drawing on Gregory Cajete’s Theory of Interconnectedness, in which the land is considered to be an extension of the body, 2bears explores the intertwining of consciousness and nature. Kaie:ri Nikawera:ke (four directions) takes orientation as its central theme, reflecting on the struggles of Indigenous communities to maintain their spiritual connection to Mother Earth in contemporary life." source: http://www.aggv.bc.ca/exhibitions+archive.aspx?year=-1&id=2117&decade=2000

Tanya, Anne Marie and I at Bean Around the World coffee shop in China Town. What fun!

Belgium: Philippe Vandenberg: Etching

"Philippe Vandenberg was born in Ghent in 1952. It is in the Museum of Fine Arts of his native city that his encounter with work by Bosch and Gustave Van de Woestijne sparks off his fascination with painting." http://www.philippevandenberg.be/english/biography.htm

My Fat Man Etchings

So this is the beginning of my "Fat Man" etching/drawing/engraving with "history" series. I left work a little earlier yesterday to meet my friend Mariesa who is doing an independent animation course at Camosun. She showed me her wonderful story board about the interaction of a little boy and a girls shadow. The story evolves around the shadow which I thought was such an interesting concept. We took photos of my etchings and played them on the computer at 30 frames per second, then at 15f/s. It was so cool, my first animation, but it went a little fast, and then too slow, so then tried it at 6 frames per drawing (.6 of a sec.) instead of 2 (1/4 of a sec) and it worked much better. I still have lots and lots of etching to do - It is exciting. On the 25th October Camosun showcases some exciting animation and Gregory Ball, the etching lecturer from Nanaimo will be there too. Last year there was representation from Mexico and South America as well. Then Mariesa and I went for a cup of coffee in celebration of her birthday -Happy Birthday for today Mariesa and thanks so much for your time in the animation studio!

Kiki Smith: Photogravure and Etching

"Life is this ferocious force that keeps propelling us. At the same time, ... you can just pierce it and it dies. I'm always playing between these two extremes." Kiki Smith, 1991

"I found this anthropomorphizing of animals interesting. the human attributes we give to animals, and the animal attributes we take on as humans to construct our identity" Kiki Smith, 1998

"I decided I wanted to make images that would be useful and positive in daily life. I thought of female images that I liked, female superheroes." Kiki Smith, 1998 Source:

A wonderful website: http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2003/kikismith/

David Krutt Publishing http://davidkrutpublishing.com/artbase/abf-artwork.php?artist=63&artwork=439

South Africa: Colbert Mashile: Drypoint

Colbert Mashile was born in 1972 in Bushbuckridge in the Mpumalanga Province of South Africa. Mashile says, 'I come from a place that is shrouded by powerful cultural norms and customs.' These customs, such as the ritual of circumcision (which both he and his wife have undergone), informed his earliest work, and he sought refuge and healing through art. "This artist has an uncanny ability to "tune into" universal psychological archetypes in his work. These images are completely based in his African identity and yet they link up with the universal. His horned figures that loom over men, coffin-like vehicles and vast landscapes fill his prints." Source: http://www.artprintsa.com/colbert-mashile.html
http://davidkrutpublishing.com/artbase/abf-artwork.php?artist=28&artwork=901

South Africa: Nandipha Mntambo: attraction & repulsion

The Fighters
Nandipha Mntambo: Born in Swaziland in 1982
"She purchases the hide as raw as possible in order to engage fully with the material - its smell and textures causing revulsion but also provoking a consciousness of the corporeal. The hairy skin, cast in female form, is used, Mntambo says, to "challenge and subvert preconceptions regarding representation of the female body", and to "disrupt perceptions of attraction and repulsion". Source: http://www.michaelstevenson.com/contemporary/exhibitions/mntambo/index2007.htm

London: Jamie Shovlin

"Shovlin weaves fictional stories that upset the natural order of things"
Source: http://www.riflemaker.org/s-Jamie%20Shovlin

London: Kirk Palmer

Kirk Palmer. Born in Northhampton, 1971. Lives and works in London.

"The skillful manipulation of still photography and the moving image operated alongside an intuitive understanding of the nuances, character and richness of black and white photography. At times the surface of the image was extremely flat and two-dimensional, at other times it became highly sculptural and three-dimensional which heightened the visual complexity of the work." Brett Rogers, 2006 Source: http://www.paradiserow.com/aolpublic/paradiserow/docs/cvs/7/kirk_palmer_axis_graduate_artist_nominated_by_brett_rogers_06.pdf

Gabriel Klasmer

Born in 1950, Jerusalem. Lives and works in London. Source:http://www.alexiagoethegallery.com/x/artists.html?atid=59

Canada: David Blackwood: Etching & Storyteller

An Amazing storyteller. http://www.davidblackwood.com/

South Africa: Diane Victor: Mezzotint

'Practicing Posture' 2004 Zinc Etching, mezzotint and embossing

'Smoke portraits' 2006 Smoke on paper 58 x 41cm

Diane Victor: Born in Witbank, South Africa in 1964. Holds a BA(Fine Arts) from the University of the Witwatersrand Source: http://www.goodman-gallery.com/victor.html

Canada: Marc Sequin

Marc Séguin was born in Ottawa on March 20, 1970. He obtained his Bachelor of Fine Arts at Concordia University and now lives and works in Montreal and New York City. His first solo exhibition in 1996 presented large-scale works with amazing visual effects. This exhibition attracted favourable attention from critics and collectors, and his career was launched. A talented printmaker as well as a prolific painter, Marc Séguin was recognized by the curators of the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal in 1997 through his work in the now-famous group exhibit De fougue et de passion. They then invited him to hold a personal exhibition in 2000 (at only 29 years of age), which consisted of a series of large paintings on the theme of medieval rose windows. This exhibition was also held at the Canadian Cultural Centre in Paris during the summer of 2001, and toured Canada in 2003-2004. source: http://www.galeriesimonblais.com/en/artisteBio.php?id=25

Canada: Max Wyse: Etching

Born in British Columbia in 1974, Max Wyse lives and works in Montreal. He has participated in many different group shows at venues such as the Envoy Gallery, New York (2007); Centre d’art et de diffusion Clark, Montreal (2007); Lehmann & Leskiw Fine Art, Toronto (2004, 2005, 2006); Musée Régional de Rimouski, (2006); Toronto International Art Fair (2003, 2005); Maison de la culture Côte-des-Neiges, Montreal (2005); Bjornson-Kajiwara Gallery, Vancouver (2004); and the MontmArt Foundation, Paris (2003). His work has also been presented at solo shows in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver and Paris. source: http://www.galeriesimonblais.com/en/artisteBio.php?id=63 (Sept. 2008)

South Africa: Dumile Feni

Dumile Feni was born in the same town as I (Worcester, Western Cape, South Africa) in 1942. In his mid 20's (1965) he began working at the politically active Gallery 101 in Johannesburg and in 1967 exhibited at the Sao Paulo-Biennale, a year later he emigrated first to Great Britain, then to America where he died in New York in 1991. sources: http://www.culturebase.net/artist.php?886 http://www.artthrob.co.za/06feb/listings_kzn.html
http://www.dumile.org.za/gallery/gallery.htm

Nederlandse Kunstenaars Zoektog: koper ets

Noor van der Brugge. Vandag is ek lus om in Afrikaans te skryf, net sommer omdat ek selde kans kry. Gelukkig kan ek ook so bietjie bykom om Nederlands te verstaan. Hier is 'n link wat ek graag nog wil "explore". http://www.kunstenaars.nu/ http://www.noorvanderbrugge.nl/

South Africa: Michael Taylor

Michael Taylor studied with me at Stellenbosch. He has an absolute zest for drawing and has created a series of "Immediate Nonsense" drawings. His website: http://www.michaeltaylor.co.za/

Canada: Marcel Dzama

Marcel Dzama: born in 1974 in Winnipeg. Represented by the Richard Heller Gallery: www.richardhellergallery.com

Saatchi: Gallery Guides

http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/gallery_guide/?cnt=Canada

Pieter Hugo and the Hyena Men

A fellow South African: http://www.pieterhugo.com/

Portugal: Joao Drumond

http://flickr.com/photos/joaodrumond/ http://portoporponto.blogspot.com/

Broken hearts and love lost

My lovely friend from Stellenbosch has an excellent way with words, here is a beautiful piece of writing about lost love. art germinate: Good night

Luc Tymans

Love the softness and melancholy of this painting. Taken from http://www.davidzwirner.com/artists/9/ This image reminds me a little of these pics from an Ethiopian/Kenyan tribal who decorate themselves with the most wonderful imagery, definiately worth looking at: http://www.slideshare.net/alainbayod/tribus-de-l-omo-presentation?src=embed