Cure

Paul Emmanuel's artwork, entitled Carbon Dad 2017, takes a look at how he grapples with the intricacies of traditional masculine roles and how his own father played a part in his outlook on gender. Emmanuel’s father, a traditionally masculine force, struggled with his son’s “acting out” and tried to model his own culture and ways of being a man on Emmanuel in ways which he could not resonate with.

Eric Duplan's artwork, titled Domi Adsum (Wave Length), takes a look at the rapidly changing climate of society and reality in the midst of the current global angst.

Jaco van Schalkwyk's artwork nemeto-, is inspired by the University of Johannesburg Choir’s rendition of John Dowland’s (1563 – 1626) Come again, sweet days taken from their 2015 album Sweet days.

In his artwork, entitled Pressure of Pleasure, award-winning visual artist Blessing Ngobeni delves into the political regime, offering a deep critique informed by his unique art style. The artwork is executed in the signature style that awarded Ngobeni with the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for the Visual Arts in 2019.

Jan Tshikhuthula explores issues around climate change and the devastating effect of droughts in his artwork, entitled My Journey.

Tshikhuthula uses his art as a means to communicate and arouse interest in the issues of the world which he feels are most important. Tshikhuthula states “I want to draw attention to the changing beauty of our landscapes and inspire people to take personal responsibility in this climate change we are experiencing.” 

Senzeni Marasela's artwork, Waiting for Gebane – Josephine Baker, furthers Marasela’s alter ego embodiment of Theodorah. This artwork in progress, features still images of the artist alongside images of Josephine Baker while Marasela explains her process of conceptualization.

Visual artist Donna Kukama’s practice engages performance art as a tool for creative research, often resulting in manipulations of simple visual and sensory experiences, in order to blur distinctions between that which is conceived as reality with fiction.

Jake Singer’s work is a continuation of explorations into the possibilities of contemporary materials, the varied readings they can generate, and how a time-intensive production process can effectively set the scene for an evolving simulacrum of emergent behaviour.

Kagiso Pat Mautloa is considered as one of the stalwarts on the South African visual art landscape. As a multimedia visual artist, often integrating found objects with painting, drawing, print and sculpture, he works both figuratively and abstractly.

In this artwork, visual artist Zolile Phetshane uses layering of colour fields in various media, bricolage, with spontaneous line-making and adding of shapes and forms, allude to his intense relationship with time as an abstract concept.  

Visual artist Songezile Madikida showcases the video,” Blood on my hands”, which was part of an exhibition titled Liminal States in 2004. Liminality, "being on a threshold," is the condition that occurs during the inner phase of rites of passage, in relation to the rituals performed in many societies to transfer a person from one stage of life to another. How appropriate is such a phrase in the context of the current pandemic, where everything that we take for granted has been suspended. A state in which we are not sure whether we are here or there, sick or well, dead or alive.

Nhlanhla Nhlapo plays with the politics of the self in an exploration of his personal history within the African and global context. The artist draws inspiration from 17th-century Dutch landscape paintings and portraits as well as photographs from his family photo albums and the immediate surroundings of his hometown, Frankfort, in the Free State.

Kieron Jina says, "My artwork takes a critical view of social, political and cultural issues. Often referencing South African history, my work explores the varying relationships between popular culture and mixed media art. Having engaged subjects as diverse as the queer rights movement, public art and architecture, my work reproduces familiar visual and aural signs, arranging them into new conceptually layered performances."

Lwandiso Njara's new drawing entitled The Scientist at Work explores or reflects on the COVID-19 situation in South Africa. It depicts the scientist at work producing a new vaccine and the cure for the coronavirus. The aim is to ensure the survival of the human race.

Regarding this artwork, Hentie van der Merwe says, “Over the last eighteen months, I have become increasingly interested in the kind of images people take of themselves in a mirror, ranging from clothed to completely naked, to be found posted anonymously on online sites that caters for such images. What triggers my curiosity about these images is the intimate interaction people display when looking at their own image and the ambivalence one often detection their faces - of a tender embrace of their own image and simultaneously a sense of unease, insecurity and even a certain violence”.

Regarding her artwork Finis Tenebris, Minnette Vári states, “On my mind when I started this drawing, was a recurring dream I had as a child:

I am staring at a field of pure white; it extends beyond my peripheral vision. It feels safe and serene. Suddenly, one little black dot appears. Then, there are two more. Soon, seven, no, twelve more, scattering at random. More follow, their numbers increase exponentially and before long the entire space is vibrating with countless dots: the closest visual equivalent would be televisual noise. It is incredibly disquieting, a point of crisis. My task now is to harness all my mental capacity into making the dots disappear, one at a time until eventually, it is all quiet again, back to calm whitespace. But then, a new dot appears… a new turning point looms."

Visual artist Hannelie Coetzee says, “In Michelangelo Pistelettos Third Paradise Manifesto, he suggests we cure the world with a regenerative loop: the artificial paradise we should build to get close to nature. Incorporate nature in our everyday problem solving of what we have created. He uses the infinity sign and reconfigures it with a third loop, like three eyes. The extra middle loop is our artificial paradise which can help us to build healthier futures. 

UJ Arts & Culture, a division of the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) proudly presents CURE, a digital exhibition featuring work by seventeen South African artists, curated by Annali Dempsey, curator of the UJ Gallery, and guest curator Johan Myburg.

UJ Arts & Culture, a division of the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) proudly presents CURE, a digital exhibition featuring work by seventeen South African artists, curated by Annali Dempsey, curator of the UJ Gallery, and guest curator Johan Myburg. The aspect of art as restorative endeavour, serves as the main tenet of CURE, focusing on our passage through the world, on reflection and reconciliation between the natural and the artificial.

UJ Arts & Culture, a division of the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) proudly presents CURE, a digital exhibition featuring work by seventeen South African artists, curated by Annali Dempsey, curator of the UJ Gallery, and guest curator Johan Myburg.