‘END GAME’, an exhibition by Michael MacGarry, runs at the Standard Bank Gallery in Johannesburg from 26 October – 3 December 2011. MacGarry is the winner of the 2010 Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Visual Art. His exhibition in Johannesburg, which closes on 3 December 2011, is the final leg of a tour that began at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown in June 2010.

‘END GAME’ comprises a series of works based MacGarry’s artist’s statement: “My work investigates the ongoing ramifications of imperialism on the African continent, coupled with the analysis and parody of the socio-political and economic role of political elites within this context as well as the increasingly complicated dynamics attendant on the extraction of natural resources – particularly oil – in African nation-states post-independence.”

MacGarry’s statement, deliberately vague, has remained unchanged for several years despite substantial shifts in his work.

In ‘END GAME’, MacGarry’s work is focused on Sub-Saharan Africa, and is principally concerned with investigating how existing and new exploitation of hydrocarbons is, in many ways, an extension of the colonial era legacy of mercantile capitalism. Within this context, MacGarry is particularly concerned with oil as a commodity in Angola, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea and South Africa.

MacGarry’s exhibition includes sculptures, installations, photography, film and video art.

Running concurrently in the downstairs exhibition space at the gallery will be Andries Gouws’ travelling exhibition ‘Pedestrian Paintings’. This exhibition features oil paintings of interiors and still-lifes, similar to those on Gouws’ previous shows, as well as the series of life-like paintings of feet on which he has been working since 2006.

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Standard Bank Gallery
Corner Simmonds and Frederick Street, Johannesburg
Tel: 011 631-4467 Gallery hours: Mon-Fri, 08:00-16:30; Saturday, 09:00-13:00
The gallery is closed on Sundays and public holidays.
Admission free

‘Water, the [Delicate] Thread of Life’, sets out to navigate a course through the many wonders and complexities of water and to challenge the way we think about and respond to one of the most precious substances on earth. Through the eyes, minds and creative endeavours of South African artists, it shows how integral and fundamental water is to life.

The exhibition comprises work by a host of artists, and through their collective artworks, the exhibition traces water’s role on earth, from sustaining life and fuelling economies to its presence in belief systems, religions and rituals.

A number of works have been commissioned specifically for this exhibition, including Willem Boshoff’s Walking on Water (2011) and a unique piece by Karel Nel. Boshoff’s Walking on Water plays off the multiple interpretations of the word ‘water’, as he ingeniously combines notions of the Christian religion with science and technology to summon a warning against the abuse of clean water resources. Nel’s site-specific installation, Reflective Field (2011), explores the space between knowing and not knowing, the inexplicable realm symbolised in his work by reflections of water against the gallery ceiling in what the artist describes as a “scientific exploration of divination”.

In general, the message of ‘Water, the [Delicate] Thread of Life’ is that it may not be too late to adopt a new approach towards water, a vital, fragile and miraculous substance. With creative interventions and a collective commitment to preserve and nurture our natural environment there can be a promise of new beginnings.

The exhibition is curated by Marion Dixon, a freelance art curator and author, and is accompanied by a catalogue.

Click here to download PDF(507Kb)

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Standard Bank Gallery
Corner Simmonds and Frederick Street, Johannesburg
Tel: 011 631-4467 Gallery hours: Mon-Fri, 08:00-16:30; Saturday, 09:00-13:00
The gallery is closed on Sundays and public holidays.
Admission free

'Listening to Distant Thunder: The art of Peter Clarke', runs at the Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg, from 4 May – 2 July 2011. The exhibition is aimed at honouring Clarke's life, work and contribution to art and cultural development in South Africa.

The exhibition is accompanied by a book of the same title, by curators Philippa Hobbs and Elizabeth Rankin. The culmination of seven years of extensive research, the book traces Clarke's evolution and is a comprehensive account of his art.

Born in Simon's Town in 1929, Clarke's career spans six decades. After working in the Simon's Town dockyard for a number of years, he embarked on his career as a full-time professional artist in 1956.

Clarke has recorded many aspects of South African life. Although he and his family were forcibly removed from their home in Simon's Town during the apartheid era, his art is without bitterness. Often humorous, it is rather a scrutiny and celebration of life in all its aspects, and an expression of his ongoing delight in ordinary, everyday experiences.

The exhibition, and the accompanying book of the same title, tells the story of Clarke's work over the decades. It includes his early pieces, made as a schoolboy: works that reflect the social disruption of the Cape Flats, as well as his prints, for which he is renowned. Also on the show are works from the late 1960s that refer to the trauma of forced removals from Simon's Town, and the ambitious paintings he began making during his trips to America, Norway and France in the 1970s. In addition, the exhibition highlights his late works that look back on the apartheid years and celebrate the new South Africa.

Clarke was awarded the Order of Ikhamanga (silver) by President Mbeki in 2005 and a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010. Through this exhibition and the accompanying book, authors and curators Philippa Hobbs and Elizabeth Rankin hope to show you why.

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Standard Bank Gallery
Corner Simmonds and Frederick Street, Johannesburg
Tel: 011 631-4467 Gallery hours: Mon-Fri, 08:00-16:30; Saturday, 09:00-13:00
The gallery is closed on Sundays and public holidays.
Admission free

The concept for Wayne Barker's exhibition, 'Super Boring', was born at the private showing before the opening of the 2009 Venice Biennale, given to recognising an older generation of conceptual artists, including the American John Baldessari. Barker was in Venice to show on a fringe exhibition, 'I Linguaggi del Mondo: Languages of the World', curated by Vincenzo Sanfo. On the Grand Canal hung a banner declaring Baldessari's words from a 1971 artwork: "I will not make any more boring art."

Barker is a colourful, provocative and rebellious persona and artist who lives a life of seemingly endless outrageous incidents. He and his work are anything but boring, lending an ironic twist to the exhibition's title. He firmly rejects the idea that art should be "idle navel-gazing", as it is said in his exhibition catalogue. What Barker presents instead is work that is arresting, incisive and a challenge to political perceptions and understandings, morality, authority and values.

Over the years, Barker has produced various bodies of rich, stimulating work which deal with both the old and new South Africa. He is renowned for his re-interpretations of paintings by the Afrikaner nationalist artist, JH Pierneef. For the exhibition, 'Super Boring', he has produced a new body of work that confronts and questions the new South African culture in all its diverse manifestations, while celebrating the underlying force and spirit of optimism that binds and drives our unique country.

'Super Boring', initially a curatorial collaboration between SMAC Art Gallery, Andrew Lamprecht and Barker, will now travel in an evolved form to the Standard Bank Gallery in Johannesburg as a retrospective exhibition curated by SMAC Art Gallery. It is accompanied by a catalogue contextualising his new work in relation to earlier bodies of work. It includes text by Lamprecht and contributions by Simon Njami, Carol Brown and Thembinkosi Goniwe.

Click here to download PDF(475Kb)

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Standard Bank Gallery
Corner Simmonds and Frederick Street, Johannesburg
Tel: 011 631-4467 Gallery hours: Mon-Fri, 08:00-16:30; Saturday, 09:00-13:00
The gallery is closed on Sundays and public holidays.
Admission free