Northern KwaZulu-Natal Craft

• Main Exhibition Room
• Opens: Thursday 3 December at 18h00
• Closes: Sunday 24 January 2010 at 17h00

For the past five years Judy Jordan, Curator of the Carnegie Art Gallery in Newcastle, has been assembling craft items for this exhibition. The display consists of works from that Gallery's permanent collection, and others purchased by The Natal Arts Trust.

Judy and others have been concerned that, due to the tourist and curio trade, many craft items readily available today lack tradition and/or originality. Authentic, indigenous crafts remain hidden, as many fine crafters live deep in rural areas. Sourcing the artworks meant travelling to remote areas such as the Northern Drakensberg, the Mona Market outside Nongoma, and the Msinga region around Tugela Ferry.

The aim of this exhibition is to give visibility and inspiration to contemporary crafters who are producing works in the Northern KwaZulu-Natal region.

• Schreiner Gallery
• Opens: Tues 27 October at 10h00
• Closes: Sunday 07 February 2010 at 17h00

The Recent Acquisitions Exhibition showcases works that have recently been accessioned to theGallery's permanent collection. In growing the permanent collection a number of issues are considered, such as: how a particular work will enhance the present collection of artworks; whether it fills a gap identified in the overall collecting scheme; and whether it is a fine representation of the artist's work.

The bulk of this exhibition is composed of works that were identified for acquisition in recent exhibitions such as Contemporary Reflections, where artists gave us contemporary interpretations of our collection. The intention of this exhibition is to provide some insight into the Gallery's acquisition policy.

Funds for purchases come from various sources: the Msunduzi Municipality, the Friends of the Tatham Art Gallery and the Natal Arts Trust. One aspect of the Gallery's acquisitions policy is supporting work by local artists and crafters, some of which is identified through temporary exhibitions held in the Schreiner Gallery. Recent acquisitions from this source include a linoprint by Vuli Nyoni, and a rolling ball sculpture by Zotha Shange.

Works by Terrence Patrick, Corina Lemmer, Estelle Liebenberg-Barkhuizen, Terence Kingand John Söderlund were identified from the Contemporary Reflections exhibition. Beaded necklaces by Eunice Cele based on designs by Andrew Verster were originally produced as prototypes for the Gallery Shop. It was felt important to retain these contemporary beaded pieces as examples of Ms Cele's excellent beading skills and to expand the Gallery's collection of her more traditional pieces. But not all work is purchased for the collection.

Lallitha Jawahirilal recently paid us an unexpected visit from India. It was an opportunity to return a work we had been looking after for many years. Her immediate response was to give it to the Gallery as a gift. A small oil painting by Carola Brotherton and a watercolour by Jane Heath were sent out as gifts from Edinburgh by the artist and her husband.

All works considered for acquisition, whether by purchase or gift, are approved by the Acquisitions Committee and recommended to the Board of Trustees for acquisition.

FOTAG Fabulous Picture Show & Auction

• Main Exhibition Room
• Opens: Tuesday 10 November at 18h00
• Auction: Thursday 19 November from 18h00

This is a FOTAG fund raising initiative, and many artists from all over KwaZulu-Natal and even further afield have responded to the call for donations of small works to be exhibited and auctioned.

The exhibition will open on Tuesday 10 November at 18h00 and will be on view for nine days, during which time people can make preliminary offers to purchase.

Another evening function on Thursday 19 November at 18h00 will see people frantically outbidding one another. The highest bidder wins the opportunity to own an original work by one of the sought after artists. The proceeds will go towards acquiring works for the Gallery's permanent collection.

For more information, please contact Kobie at 033 392 2801, Jinny at 033 342 3354 or Anne Raubenheimer at 033 345 5474

UKZN Alumni Ceramics

• Main Exhibition Room
• Opens: Friday 18 September at 18h00
• Closes: Sunday 18 October at 17h00

This exhibition was brought together by Professor Juliet Armstrong as part of the African Ceramics Conference being held at the University of KwaZulu-Natal from Friday 18 to Sunday 27 September. The Tatham exhibition will close on Sunday 18 October at 17h00.

On display will be a wide range of ceramics from all over South Africa by alumni of the Fine Art Department such as Hilda Ditchburn (1917-1986), who built the first studio pottery stoneware kiln in South Africa and was responsible for setting up the University's ceramic studio; Bryan Hayden, a student of Hilda's, who made stoneware in the 60's and sold it in Johannesburg through Helen de Leeuw; John Wilhelm, functional potter; David Walters, who is displaying an award winning dinner service; Fée Halsted-Berning, who is the mastermind behind Ardmore Ceramics; Ian Garrett with his burnishing techniques and Clive Sithole as the artist in residence for 2009. Other exhibitors include Bea Jaffray, Katherine Glenday, Ian Calder and many others. Works from the Tatham Collection include sculptures by Davydd Myburg (1953-1992).

The emphasis of this conference will be on education, ranging from school teachers to artists, archeologists, ethnologists, community workers and the general public. Workshops will include demonstrations on indigenous ceramics, burnishing techniques and glaze applications, how to use clay without the advantage of expensive equipment, and a wood firing. The Workshops are to be held in the Ceramics Section of the Centre for Visual Art and the academic papers will be presented in the John Oxley Lecture Theatre.

Enquiries: Marilyn at 033 260 5170 or ceramics2009@ukzn.ac.za

The Heath Family
Retrospective Exhibition

• Lorna Ferguson Room, Upstairs passage and Prints Room
• Opens: Thursday 9 July 2009 at 18h00
• Extended: until Sunday 21 February 2010 at 17h00 
• Final evening walkabout by Jinny Heath: Tuesday 09 February, 18h00 - 19h30

The driving force behind this family exhibition, which has kindled wide interest, has been Jinny Heath, the only living artist of the three. Jack, Jane and their daughter Jinny Heath had a combined teaching life of more than 70 years, most of it at the Fine Art Department of the University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg.

1808/96
Jane Heath (1913-1995)
Pink Still Life
Oil on canvas
546 x 503mm (sight)

They trained and practiced in a wide range of genres and brought to their teaching a particularly British modernist aesthetic. The influence of the Heaths on hundreds of students, many of whom have made careers in the art world, has disseminated throughout the country.

This exhibition, which takes up extensive space upstairs, has kindled wide interest and has been extended to late February 2010.

2860/08
Bronwen (Jinny) Heath (b.1944)
Still Life
2000
Oil on board
648 x 500mm

The exhibition provides an overview of their lives and work, from early training in Birmingham and the Royal School of Art in London to Grahamstown, Port Elizabeth and Pietermaritzburg. The works on display range widely in media and genre, emphasizing the Heaths' diverse art making practices.

Jane Heath (1913-1995)
Still Life with Knitting
Oil on canvas

Some works belong to private owners, some to institutions and some have been in isolated storage for many years, with their future exposure to be negotiated. Many of Jane and Jinny's works have not been exhibited before and the bulk of Jack's large works have not been seen for over forty years. Hours of huge effort and careful cleaning by Jinny and much work behind the scenes by others have brought this exhibition to life.

A Heath DVD with text by Dr Juliette Leeb du Toit and others, as well as images of works, is available in the Tatham Shop, which can be contacted at 033 392 2828.

KwaZulu-Natal Women Artists

• Schreiner Gallery
• Opens: Thursday 25 June 2009 at 18h00
• Extended: until Sunday 18 October at 17h00

Between January and March 2009, the Gallery held an exhibition of artworks by selected women artists of KwaZulu-Natal in the Schreiner Gallery, titled Into the Light. This display included some of the women, black and white, who worked in the province during the early and middle years of the 20th Century.

The present exhibition is a further display of works by selected women artists of KwaZulu-Natal, dating from the late 20th Century to the present. They are also from different cultural groups, but their works, which are often experimental, are better known to the public and more often exhibited than the previous group.

Collectively these images contribute to a rich experience of cross-cultural art in KwaZulu- Natal.

Contemporary Reflections:
New Art from Old

• Main Gallery
• Opens: Thursday 14 May 2009 at 18h00
• Closes Sunday 28 June 2009 at 17h00

Art and image-making have always had the function of shaping the way we see the world and our places in it. In addition to aesthetic satisfaction, the signs and symbols of an image speak with the voices of those committed to retaining a particular social and economic order. Artists have often been at the forefront of challenging the status of these images and in this way have functioned as important facilitators of ideological transformation.

When art is more than decorative, it can be a powerful documentary and agent of social change, transforming the maker and the viewer in an ongoing dialogue of possibilities. In South Africa, art has come to reflect the challenges of a young democracy with a rich and diversified capacity for debate.

The Tatham Art Gallery, which has been part of the dynamic of South African history, has invited artists to respond to and reinterpret artworks chosen from its collection. Selection was based on proven, ongoing art making by artists of the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands region.

A number of works were chosen and selected artists working in various media were invited to respond to a particular work or works in a way that reinterpreted those works from their own context. To facilitate this process a number of workshops were held. The programme offered artists direction and support in an atmosphere of dialogue with other artists.

The result is this exhibition, Contemporary Reflections: New Art from Old. We invite you to engage with the works by reflecting on how each artist has chosen to interpret his or her selected work/s. In this way you will contribute to an ongoing discussion about the interpretive function of art in our society.

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Vulindlela Nyoni : Settling In

Vulindlela Nyoni, who was born in Chilimanzi, Zimbabwe, in 1976, studied Fine Art at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Pietermaritzburg. He now lectures in Printmaking, Drawing and Photography at the same institution.

Vuli's main interests in art-making lie in the politics of representation and self-representation as exploration of personal narrative through print media. He continues to make his own work at any opportunity that he has.

The prints in this exhibition explore the relationship between 'periphery' and 'centre' in terms of Human interaction, but more importantly, highlight Vuli's deep love for combination-print techniques.

Into the Light

Works by KwaZulu-Natal Women Artists

Introduction

Into the Light is a selection of work from the Gallery's permanent collection by women artists of KwaZulu-Natal. The works are largely from the first sixty-odd years of the Twentieth century.

We have included work by white women artists in the western tradition and work by black women artists in the traditional Zulu tradition.

In the past, works by these two groups would seldom, if ever, have been exhibited together. The work of the white women would have been considered "art", that of the black women, "craft".

Most of the white women represented here had some formal training in the visual arts. The black women would most likely have gained their skills from mothers and mothers-in-law. The white women would have worked with a viewing audience in mind. The black women would have worked to make utilitarian objects for domestic use or for traditional costumes.

Some of the white women artists had an interest in depicting "native" subjects, something the Natal Society of Artists tried to promote in the earlier years of the Twentieth century. In its annual exhibitions there was a special "Native studies" category with a prize sponsored by the businessman, Karl Gundelfinger.

Most of the white artists lived and worked in urban areas. Some of them undertook painting trips in rural areas. It is very likely that all the black artists lived and worked in rural areas.

There is quite a lot of information about the white artists but very little about the black artists. All the white artists are named; many of the black artists are not. This small exhibition shows that a lot more research needs to be done in order to correct the imbalance.

It is very seldom that space and time allow for indulgence of this kind: a display of works by women artists of KwaZulu-Natal which hardly ever see the light. Reasons for this vary: works on paper are very susceptible to fading when exposed for any length to strong light; it is often only major works which interest students and learners; space constraints make it impossible to display more than a fraction of the collection.

This selection shows work by women, black and white, who worked in the province during the early and middle years of the twentieth century. It features some well-known names: Allerly Glossop, Jane Heath, and Perla Siedle-Gibson, perhaps better known as the "Lady in White" who sang to troops as they entered or departed Durban Harbour during the Second World War. Others are not as well-known: Constance Greaves, Mary Elizabeth Butler and Edith Currie.

The work of black women artists such as Mamgoma Ndlovu, Malizipho Dlamini and Ulaline Langa has only ever been acknowledged as "part of the traditional Zulu beadwork collection". All these women deserve more attention than they have received to date, so come in and see the light!

Into the Light: works by KwaZulu-Natal women artists

Schreiner Gallery
Thursday 22 January to Sunday 1 March 2009

Zotha Shange: Rolling Ball Sculpture Exhibition

Schreiner Gallery
Thursday 12 March to Sunday 3 May 2009

Zotha Shange, a young artist from Edendale, will be exhibiting his fascinating rolling ball sculptures in the Schreiner Gallery. Zotha first started making these kinetic sculptures (sculptures that have movement) after seeing the film Fracture, in which an engineer designs and builds rolling ball sculptures for relaxation.

Zotha's particular interest is exploring the physical mechanics of motion through kinetic sculptures, to both intrigue and educate the viewer. He designs the sculptures to exhibit the slow release of energy of a guided ball along metal tracks. He uses track switching mechanisms, loops, spirals, drop-trough and other devices to demonstrate various aspects of this energy release. Zotha will be in the Gallery during the exhibition, showing members of the public how his sculptures work. Watch the press for details.

KZN Matric Art 2009

Main Exhibition Room
Thursday 19 March to Sunday 10 May 2009

The KZN Matric Art Exhibition is always a popular event on the Gallery's calendar. The core of the exhibition is made up of works selected for this purpose by the KZN Department of Education from the previous year's Matric Examination. In this Gallery we add works from all the local independent schools.

The exhibition is an opportunity for teachers and learners to compare new and old techniques and ideas. Besides conventional landscapes, portraits, still lives, prints and sculptures, there are usually experiments with found objects, installations, electronic media and some other surprises. Part of the requirements for each artist is a journal showing the process of art-making.