Bonolo Kavula, Gabrielle Kruger, Georgina Gratrix, Kate Gottgens,Marlene Steyn, Mary Sibande, Michaela Younge, Mongezi
Ncaphayi and Wallen Mapondera

09 June – 27 August 2022

Bloom Galerie is pleased to present Inner Landscape, a group exhibition showcasing works by Bonolo Kavula , Gabrielle Kruger, Georgina Gratrix, Kate Gottgens, Marlene Steyn, Mary Sibande, Michaela Younge, Mongezi Ncaphayi and Wallen Mappondera. The selection of works on display has been made in collaboration with SMAC Gallery to introduce a fine selection of established, as much as emerging artists of the South African scene. Focusing on the work of many of the women artists in this selection, the exhibition is primarily concerned with the question of the treatment of materials. Each of the artists presented here, from the figurative to the most abstract, has chosen a specific method of treatment and process that has allowed them to depict the distinctive intellectual landscapes and ecosystems of South Africa.

Georgina Gratrix (b.1982). Gratix grew up in Durban, South Africa. She studied at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, and graduated in 2005. Gratix has been interested in the properties of paint to translate the energy of human faces and bodies. Her particular technique, marked by a rich impasto, brings a new texture to traditional portraiture. Gratrix’s painting embraces the energy of the Cubist painters, sometimes even recalling Otto Dix, while infusing each portrait with a psychedelic spirit. In her work Becky (Thinking about Garfield), Gratrix restructures the face of her subject, keeping only the most important features of her face. The thickness of the material and the choice of colors confront us with sometimes contradictory emotions, between contemplation and disturbance. It is this very contradiction that appears in a smaller format with Matthew with Bubbles.

Marlene Steyn (b.1989) born in Cape Town, South Africa, where she currently lives and works. She obtained her Master of Fine Art degree in 2014 from the Royal College of Art in London, UK. Steyn’s work can be seen as an oscillation between the body and what surrounds us. The faces and the floating bodies are nourished by their environment and reciprocally the environment by what the bodies generate. The Synchronized Eye Twitch Hers and Her Almost 30-Love Hers epitomize this generative art where the body becomes a portal leading to different planes and the title is a part of the work as introduced by René Magritte. Each part of the painting merges into another: an eye becomes a face; a mouth becomes an object carried in the hands.

Kate Gottgens (b.1965) bridge from vibrant figuration to a deeper level of abstraction. Gottgens currently lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa. She was selected in 2019 for the prestigious Thames & Hudson publication, 100 Painters of Tomorrow. Inspired by David Hockney’s scenes and Frank Bowling’s aesthetic, the landscapes and scenes she depicts are interplaying with water. The Last Resort plunges us into an ideal and modern landscape, and yet how distressing. On the contrary, The Shrilling of Cicadas reflects the state of nature, undisturbed by humans and idealized. Gottgens manages to immerse us in an atmosphere: a watery air, the song of the cicadas, a motionless lake choked by the surrounding foliage.

Bonolo Kavula (b.1992) is an artist interested in the materiality of fabric and its physical presence. Kavula has been awarded the The Norval Sovereign African Art Prize 2022 for her insight on printmaking and textile. Since then, her meticulous artistic practice has focused on expressing the dynamics between the inner space (the artist’s mind) and the exterior space (the imprint that the textile takes on the gallery space) through minimalism.

Michaela Younge (b. 1993) Latest: Bitcoin Mine Discovered Under Local Church work offers a sarcastic, pop counterpoint. Michaela Younge graduated from the Michaelis School of Fine Art in 2015 and has been showcased at the 2019 edition of 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair in London. She produces vivid paintings on highly textured materials. The scene on display in this exhibition unfolds like a fable through each piece of fabric. Mixing popular culture and childish imagination with the anxiety and drifts of consumer society, the artist manages to pursue the reflection of artists like Duane Hanson or Richard Hamilton.

Wallen Mapondera’s (b. 1985) the interest in the object and its detour is at the heart of his practice. Born in Zimbabwe, Mapondera lives and works in Grahamstown, South Africa. In 2005, Robert Mugabe, the former liberator of Zimbabwe, launched a vast operation called Murambatsvina, to clean up the slums. Mapondera’s art captured this experience of the disappearance of objects that were part of his daily life. His work Imwe Mbeu Yakadonhera Paruware uses one of the most common materials: egg cartons. The artist deconstructs both the material itself, but also the value that our society gives it. Mapondera’s work is currently exhibited at the 54th Venice Biennale among the artists selected to represent Zimbabwe.

Mongezi Nicophayi (b.1983) has established himself as an experimenter. Nicophayi was born in Benoni in Eastern Gauteng, South Africa, and currently lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa. Ncaphayi was the recipient of the prestigious Absa L’Atelier Gerard Sekoto Award in 2013, earning him a three-month residency at the Cite Des Arts in Paris, France. Each of his works incorporates a deep reflection on the medium of paper and the technique of printmaking that he has been striving to develop for many years. In Astral Blues II, we find the same minimalist sensibility and the mix between abstraction and figuration that give life to the paper in a large format.

Gabrielle Kruger (b.1993) lives and works in Cape Town. She was awarded her Masters in Fine Arts from Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town in 2018. Her compelling three-dimensional wall works invites the viewer to observe her from all angles. Moving beyond the strict code of painting, Kruger has chosen to focus on new painting’s dynamics. Waving Crowd presented here testify to this off-frame characteristic of the technical artist. The painting seems to leave the canvas and to want to invade the space around it, like a process of perpetual mutation.

Selected works

Installation views