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The NWU Gallery
The NWU Gallery, as part of the North-West University, consists of two gallery spaces. In 2002 the NWU Gallery, as it is known today, came into existence. It has seen over a hundred exhibitions since its launch, from esteemed local and international artists alike. The desire to develop an art gallery and sculpture park in the NWU Botanical Garden saw light in 2007. Funds were secured for the renovation of an old unused laboratory into a designated gallery space in the botanical garden. The NWU Botanical Garden Gallery was opened in 2008.
Current exhibition at NWU Gallery:
29 September – 29 October 2021
Art Language of My Forefathers
Ahead of his exhibition, artist Malose Pete says, ‘The artworks are made from the soil that my grandmother used to create wall decorations and mix with cow dung to polish floors with when I was way younger. I took some of the techniques they used back then and fused them with the techniques I learned in my 10-year art career to create new and exciting presentations. Their art was mainly used to preserve the look and feel of homes while my art has been about interrogating identity issues and belonging. I believe the two themes come together very well especially in the current society where new blended communities emerge in urban spaces and identities are challenged; where belonging is also a broader term since connectivity has made the community a broader space.’
VIEW EXHIBITION AT THE 3D GALLERY
Current exhibition at NWU Botanical Gardens Gallery:
29 September – 29 October 2021
Untold Stories
The North-West University Art Gallery is proud to present an exhibition of works by art students from the former University of Bophuthatswana (UNIBO). In 2019, more than 50 artworks were found in a storeroom on the Mahikeng campus, where the paintings and sculptures had been relegated for over three decades. The works date from the 1980s to the early 1990s, when the UNIBO (later renamed the University of the North-West), offered a degree in Fine Art.
VIEW EXHIBITION AT THE 3D GALLERY
The Melrose Gallery
Dubbed ‘The Gallery of the People’, The Melrose Gallery is a leading Pan African Contemporary space located in Johannesburg and Cape Town. Passionate about African culture and traditions, the gallery has become a home in which artists, collectors and the public gather as a community to present and celebrate their stories, lives and creative practices in contemporary ways.
The Rupert Museum
The Rupert Museum houses the private art collection of well-known South African industrialist, the late Dr Anton Rupert and his wife Huberte. Officially opened in February 2005, the Rupert Museum now shows the best of South African artists such as Maggie Laubser, Irma Stern, Alexis Preller, Walter Battiss, Elza Dziomba, Jean Welz, JH Pierneef, Lippy Lipshitz, Moses Kotler, Anton van Wouw, and Coert Steynberg. In addition, there are also major European works by leading sculptors such as Auguste Rodin and Käthe Kollwitz, as well as French tapestries by Jean Lurçat.
Local products
Ardmore Design
Ardmore has given local artists the opportunity they needed to create artworks based on meanings within the context of their culture, and which have become much sought-after ‘modern collectibles’. Each Ardmore creation could only have come from this unique setting: the villages of the Natal Midlands, where traditions run deep but innovation is prized as people seek new ways to express their identities, hopes and dreams.
Product highlight
Limited edition sofas
Ardmore designers have given us two signature limited edition sofas with the launch of the Sabie fabric collection 2020, both in a rich and sensual velvet. The sofa’s border base and arms are framed with Zulu beaded striped-like pattern, so often seen in the bases of Ardmore Ceramic works. These sofas transport us into a magical animal and botanical fantasy.
View the entire Sabie Collection
Marigold Beads
Marigold is the name of a co-operative specialising in loomed beadwork, based in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Established in 1992, Marigold produced items such as headbands, chokers, purses and belts for local and overseas markets. Since 2011 they have collaborated with Bulawayo-born, Johannesburg-based artist Joni Brenner to make hand-loomed necklaces.
© Joni Brenner | Marigold Beadwork co-operative, Bulawayo
© Photography: Liz Whitter
Product highlight
Marigold necklace
The signature Marigold necklace is a pure continuous loop of loomed beadwork. Whilst the basic structure or format remains unchanged there is an explorative creativity that unfolds within this established parameter – to date more than 65 shifts to the design have evolved. The technical skill has a flawless quality not always associated with handwork and combines with constant design variation within the maintained form of the endless loop. Both these qualities define the product. Marigold necklaces are made in a range of lengths and widths, each taking anything from a full day to a full week to complete. The extra-length variety gives options for wearing them wrapped twice around the neck.
Marigold necklaces are available directly from Joni Brenner, by appointment through the Marigold Beads website, and in select stores:
Kim Sacks African Art and Design, Johannesburg
Cinda Hunter Beloved Things, Midrand
Craft and Design Institute
The Craft and Design Institute (CDI) has made it even easier to find beautiful South African craft and design products with the upgrade of the South African product showcase platform, PEEK. Since its launch in 2017, CDI’s online platform has grown significantly as hundreds of craft and design businesses across the South Africa have uploaded their products. The CDI has launched a major upgrade of the platform to make it even easier for buyers to find products – there are currently over 600 local businesses registered on the platform showcasing over 4 400 products, with many more businesses joining daily.
Craft & Design Platform
PEEK
PEEK is dedicated to showcasing beautiful craft and design products made in South Africa. It is a free platform for creative businesses anywhere in South Africa to showcase directly to local and international consumers and buyers. This has been made possible thanks to funding by South Africa’s Department of Small Business Development. Since the arrival of COVID-19, and the many business challenges the pandemic has brought, the Craft and Design Institute has ramped up online support for the thousands of small businesses in the local craft and design sector. CDI’s services help these businesses develop the right product/service for the right market using appropriate business and production systems; and facilitates national and international market opportunities to help them grow. Make PEEK your go-to to find South African products!
Visit PEEK website
Handmade products
Imbali Visual Literacy Project
Founded in 1988, the Imbali Visual Literacy Project is a non-profit organisation that provides crafts training and skills development to youth and women from disadvantaged backgrounds. This leads to job creation and economic empowerment for these individuals. In addition, we facilitate the ongoing development of creative arts teachers, particularly in disadvantaged communities.
Spotlight:
The Imbali shop
The Imbali shop, inside Museum Africa, is a permanent showcase of the handmade products created by students, graduates and facilitators of Imbali. The range is ever-changing, as Imbali adapts and innovates with the changing times and seasons. The unexpectedness, beauty and charm of the products result from a combination of the unique vision of each individual crafter, their inventiveness in the use of colours and patterns and their ability to re-think conventions in design – all combined with a rigorous insistence on quality craftsmanship.
Find out more
Keiskamma Art Project
The Keiskamma Art Project is known for communicating the realities of life with HIV/AIDS, the effects of poverty, but also the effects of hope, in our communities. We have succeeded in this through our monumental embroidered artworks like the Keiskamma Altarpiece and Keiskamma Guernica, priceless pieces in the South African art canon, archiving Eastern Cape rural collective memory and preserving oral history. Now, in this, our twentieth year, our voice must rise again.
Photographs © Keiskamma Trust
Latest project:
COVID-19 resilience fundraiser
The Keiskamma Art Project has started a COVID-19 resilience fundraiser to create a 7.5 metre-long tapestry with the aim of providing 55 families with an income through work over six months. Woven through the months of the year, beginning in February 2020, will be the symbolism of birds of Keiskamma, changing seasons and poetic Xhosa imagery shared with us by Marguerite Poland. Two ‘prophets’, old and new, Nongqawuse and Ramaphosa stand at its beginning, bringing change through their visions to the health of the region. Now our branches must spread to reach embroiderers in nearby villages as the designs on the hessian take shape.
Support the project