GUEST ARTISTS April 2024
Sal Price (guest of Niel Jonker)
Born in Johannesburg and raised in the idyllic coastal town of Chintsa West, Sal's journey as an artist has been deeply influenced by the natural beauty and rich cultural tapestry of her surroundings.
After pursuing a degree in Fine Art at Rhodes University, where she majored in painting and art history, she embarked on a multifaceted career that led her back to her roots. As a self-employed artist and co-owner of Buccaneers on the Beach, her family lodge, she has embraced the opportunity to cultivate a space where art and hospitality intersect and at a neighboring venue, established the Chintsa Contemporary Gallery, a platform dedicated to showcasing not only her own paintings but also the talents of fellow Eastern Cape artists.
About Sal's work:
Amidst the challenges of the recent pandemic, she found solace and inspiration within the confines of her studio, rekindling her passion for printmaking and oil painting. Drawing from a diverse array of influences, including her penchant for satire and offbeat humor, she infuses her work with vibrant colors, intricate compositions, and a playful narrative that invites viewers into a whimsical world of possibility.
Through a combination of fast and loose marks, her creations emerge as a spontaneous dance between intention and serendipity. Each piece reflects the flux of global consciousness, while looking at her favorite artists for inspiration, inviting viewers to engage in a dialogue that transcends boundaries and sparks imagination, and offers a playful glimpse into a fantastical world where imagination knows no limits.
Sal is the guest artist of Neil Jonker, at 11 Granaat Laan.
Adèle Fouché (guest of Pam Sullivan)
Based in Hermanus, Western Cape, South Africa, she now uses a variety of media to express this message. Having studied Theatre Arts (BA Drama Honours - cum laude, HED PGD) at a young age, her adventurous spirit led her to exploring the joys of creating in a visual way. Her adult life has been a courageous foray into most of the visual media, expressing herself in a spiritual and thoughtful way in an endeavour to reach the viewer at soul level. Adèle has won awards for her work and has held numerous solo and group exhibitions.
Through her many exhibitions, workshops, and teaching experiences her work reflects her talented and passionate approach to life and art, and she continues to learn and grow as a fine artist in order to bring beauty and joy into the world.
"I believe that it is by connecting our passion to a higher purpose thatwe contribute positively to mankind as a whole."
About Adele's work:
Taking inspiration from nature and from her deep need to connect to the earth as well as to the creator who formed it, Adèle's work stems from a desire to absorb the viewer with this vital energy as well as to create ethereal works which will speak to the viewer in an intimate and sincere way. Her work is characterized bya subtle energy, delicate and ephemeral, suggesting a yearning to elevate herself and those who look thereon.
It is the relationship we have to each other in the deepest part of being human, regardless of race, gender, status or nationality and to the planet that we inhabit that inspires me to create work which will connect not only us to each other, but also to the deep and beautiful mystery that suffuses the life we experience. I experience a joy creating with skill, and despite hardship and suffering to still feel as a child in this world, small and in awe of the love, beauty and the power which is contained in nature and humanity.
I create with the hope that the love that God holds for us, for the all, reachesinto the viewers heart and stirs a memory of what life truly means - a Future Memory.
Janet Ranson (Giant Periwinkle)
Janet hosts nature art workshops and participates in Plett Land Art. Since moving to Wolvengat in 2022 she has established community art classes for children and adults.
She has participated in exhibitions,workshops and international residencies in South Africa, Kenya, Botswana, SouthKorea, Bulgaria and Taiwan, working as a painter and installation artist, oftenusing found materials.
Artists’ workshops inform her practice. She enjoys facilitating andparticipating in collaborations public projects and drawing circles. Sheco-founded Cape Land Art in order to promote Nature Art practices throughmonthly get togethers.
Since moving out of the city in 2019 she has gained a rural perspectiveon the rift between environmental issues and human desires. How to make artabout all this, when the garden is calling…?
About Janet's work:
Janet makes paintings responding to the seasons, the growth and wildlife around her.
She enjoys observing traditional attitudes and beliefs about land, plants and animals. Current work explores and imagines the cosmologies of local sheep, ducks, frogs, hoopoes and the vanished wildlife of the Aghulas Plain.
Hendricus (guest of Pam Sullivan)
Hendricus is a retired potter who creates sculptures in sand-resin, a modern material which is metal free and tremendiously resiliant. He also still uses fibre-re inforced concrete for smaller pieces.
With declining energy, his works are becoming fewer and further apart.
Yet he still hopes to be able to share some of the peace and enjoyment his work still gives him with whoever a piece may speak to.
@hendricus.sculpture
About Hendricus' work:
Hendricus believes that it is impossible for anybody to remain healthy and sane in our topsy-turvy world unless he or she plants a garden, or lives with animals like horses or dogs, or creates something by hand, or expresses himself in art, be it music, sculpture or fine art of some form.
Sue Vingerhoets (guest of Jan Vingerhoets)
Sue has a background in architecture and design. She is now an organic farmer and heirloom seed grower.
Following on from the "endangered human traits" series, I have been delving into what is important in human relationships.
Kindness.
Kindness to self.
Kindness to family, friends, community, planet.
Kindness in words and deeds, but may our actions speak louder than our words. For the planet, communities, friends, families, and ultimately, ourselves as passengers of time. For what can be more important than to start with kindness?
Let good things manifest from the kindness with which we begin.
In keeping with Foxglove Farm's ethos of zero waste, I have used reclaimed paint, inks, boards, canvases, fabrics and threads, all destined for landfill. Carving stamps, cutting paper, printing, sewing, embroidering, painting- mark making in many forms allows for varied ways to express the theme of kindness.
About Sue's work:
Still windwork, still kindness and other endangered human traits. I am not done with these thoughts yet. Still learning.
These works are informed by interactions with other humans. Sometimes through an exemplification, and sometimes through a complete lack of the trait.
In keeping with my use of waste, I continue to explore the wind as a partner in creating these works using discarded paints, fabric, threads and other materials.
Creatures of dreams/ Creatures of nightmares
The crashing together of creatures found in the subconscious.
Stylised hybrids.
Reminders to stay grounded.
Be in the present.
Relish each day.
Fouché Hough (Guest of Eva Gilliam)
Fouché grew up a surfer in East London, and even though his journey began with a formal art education, majoring in painting, with a diploma from the Border Technikon, he was "filled with adventure and a need for life reference."
A trip on a sail boat from Mauritius almost turned south, but eventually turned into a two-decades odyssey at sea as a blue water sailor, engineer, diver and kitesurfer. He's explored remote off-the-beaten-track destinations with his chef wife in search of diving and ocean adventure.
Etched with his own flow lines and now living on the wild coastline of Pearly Beach with his wife and two Rhodesian Ridgeback companions, he still finds himself inspired by the ever-changing coastal environment.
About Fouché's work:
"I aim to share my deep affinity for the ocean by capturing some of the dynamic ocean movements I have witnessed firsthand. These experiences infuse my sculpture and flowing lines, textured surfaces, and metallic patinas - and all contribute to my minimalist aesthetic and my desire to reflect the beauty of ocean flows and the grace of marine life.
I believe that by taking time to observe the ocean's flow, we can cultivate a deeper connection to it, fostering an awareness of the threats it faces. This message is embodied in works like "Ghost Tide," a sculpture that confronts the dark side of ocean flow in terms of pollution.
Wishing you Wind & Waves
Tracy Algar (Guest of Pamela Sullivan)
Tracy was born in Cape Town in 1971, and currently lives and works in Stanford. Her work can be found in private collections in the U.S., U.K., Europe, Middle East, Australia and Southern Africa.
Tracy works in oil paint and cold wax.
About Tracy's work:
Tracy Algar makes small paintings of big landscapes. She looks to her immediate
surroundings for inspiration, and finds that painting outdoors connects her to the landscape and gives her a sense of place.
Juhléne Möller (Guest of Nikki Miles)
Juhléne Möller (née Wagner) grew up on farms and Bospoort small holdings in the Waterberg in the north of South Africa. A young life of tending the family’s wilderness farm and herd of cattle, of being deeply immersed in nature – both wild and rural – instilled in her a profound ecological intelligence, sensory, sensual and social awareness, and a love of poetry. She now lives in the Overberg, making
art, writing, daily planting and growing a small forest. She varyingly chases and invites the light with her camera lens. She works at reviving and presenting poetry in an array of playful, profound, and sensorial formats.
Juhléne will also be reading poetry:
FORAGED: An in person reading of favourite and potent poems by Juhléne Wagner-Möller at FORAGE STUDIO AND GALLERY. Sunday 21 April at 10h00 – 40 Minutes. Entrance Free and by Donation. Mini Prêt-a-porter Poetry Anthologies as well as Coffee and Treats for Sale.
Poet Juhléne Wagner-Möller handpicked poems from her wanderings through the metaphoric fields of language, love, and legend. Sharing Artist Nikki Miles’s interest in discovering, filtering and alchemising colour from nature, Juhléne revels in the pleasures that our senses can offer.
Rentia Retief (The Giant Periwinkle)
Rentia Retief (b.1992, Caledon, South Africa) is a Cape Town-based visual artist, recognised for her exploration of landscapes.
Retief graduated with a BA in Fine Arts in 2014 and an Honours in Illustration in 2016, both at the University of Stellenbosch. She is currently working as a fine art professional and illustrator.
The longing for solitude and the untouched outdoors are major themes in Retief’s work.
Instagram: @rentiaretief
Webstite: https://www.rentiaretief.com/
About Rentia's work:
These scenic renderings are derived from places visited or environments that Retief is well familiar with, though the setting of the terrain is not the main theme of her work. Rather, Retief focuses on the stillness of the location, and what she refers to as 'quiet spaces’, where the emotional and physical landscape meet each other. By reducing the portrayal of the topography to loose, gestural brush strokes, Retief aims to instill the viewer with a sense of loss over a place that once was - or perhaps never was in the first place.
The resulting compositions emerge from layering and working on both sides of the canvas. This act of the reverse of the canvas informing the front references the artist's reliance on memory and the subconscious for these landscapes to take shape.
Zbys Kaczmarek (The Giant Periwinkle)
Zbys is a South African basedartist, educator, ceramicist and designer.
Since graduating from Michaelis School of art in 1984 he has developed his own range of high-tech kites in the UK, produced the medécor for restaurants and worked as a photographer and cameraman, and participated in Kite Festivals and Land-Art events in Namibia , France, UK, USA, Malaysia,Bulgaria and Turkey.
He also participated in Western Cape LandArt public events, Afrikaburn and large-scale land art initiatives such as theKaroo Geoglyphs in Matjiesfontein, Loxton, South Africa, and Aus in Namibia and was has been a featured artist at Plett Land Art Festival in 2021, 2022 and 2023
He currently resides in Wolvengat where he has a ceramic studio continuing his craft in clay and fire.
About Zbys work:
Since 2016, Zbys has devoted himself full-time to ceramics and collaborative projects exhibiting at various galleries, and at Cape Town and Franschoek’s Potter’s Markets.
His mediums he works in include mostly ceramics, mixed media and the immediate site specific natural materials available, with the aim to create beautiful works that pay tribute to the natural world to remind us to slow down and reconnect with nature. His goal is to inspire, to look more carefully at the world around us and to discover beauty in unusual ways and places.
Gabriele Jacobs (The Giant Periwinkle)
Gabriele Jacobs was born in 1997 in Johannesburg, South Africa. They are a non-binary artist living in Cape Town. In 2022 they completed an MFA from Michaelis school of fine art in Cape Town. In 2020 Gabriele was featured in the Investec Cape town art fair, as part of a presentation by Tatjana Pieters gallery.
In 2021, 2 sculptural pieces of his were included in the New Breed
Art competition exhibition at the Oliewenhuis art museum in Bloemfontein, for which he received 2nd place in the competition. At the end of 2023, they will be taking part in a residency at the Nirox foundation in
Gauteng.
Instagram: @guanciale_
About Gabriele's work:
Jacobs makes use of animal imagery to discuss contemporary concerns- both environmental and societal. These creatures become avatars with which to explore themes of otherness and care as an anti-capitalist strategy.
Working predominantly in ceramic and wood, materiality plays
an important conceptual role. the inherent fragility of earthenware ceramic highlights notions of vulnerability and precariousness which characterise life in the Anthropocene. Jacobs often utilises the technique of slip-casting to create multiples. However, instead of using moulds to create identical replicas, the still-malleable clay is allowed to sag and bulge before firing, emphasising the idiosyncrasies of each sculpture. in a sense, this process suggests a queering of the uniform matrix of the mould.
The other significant material in Jacobs’s work is repurposed wood (from second-hand furniture or construction timber). On one hand, this is an exercise in bricolage in the spirit of recycling-an attempt at avoiding contributing to further deforestation.
However, it also serves a more conceptual function. These household props are markers of domestic space. They can be
viewed as representative of human society and activity. Therefore, the process of deconstructing and reshaping them into more organic, fluid forms ties into the aspirational project of dismantling hegemonic systems.
Through their sculptural pieces they aim to celebrate and honour
the act of self-acceptance and queer love.
Jay Liebenberg (guest of Nikki Miles)
Jay started travelling in 1991, since visiting almost 50 countries. Seduced by the colours, textures and traditional designs used by local artisans she steadily accumulated a curiosity cabinet of
handmade artifacts, objets and collectables, focusing on coloured gemstones, and crystals, fossils and the natural organic materials used as personal adornment across cultures, to denote status and wealth and as amulets for protection from illness and harm.
Buying gems in the markets of India, Sri Lanka, Burma and Thailand, working with master goldsmiths in Jaipur, with further education in silversmithing and gemology (GIA 1999) she started Sethru Jamjah fine gems in 1996, supplying semi precious beads and gemstones to the jewelry trade.
Later setting up a lapidary workshop and jewelry studio at home in the Bo Kaap, cutting and carving gems to clients spec.
An active member of the Cape Town gem and mineral club in Bothasig since 1995 she has self-collected specimens and rough material on field trips led by geologists to remote locations around
Southern Africa. The larger size and scale of finds from these trips recently encouraged her to do a marble sculpting course near Carrrara, Italy.
About Jay’s work:
I have spent hours gazing at priceless collections in museums of antiquities worldwide and the best of contemporary gems and jewelry design at international gem and jewelry trade shows . The unusual natural and rare gemstones and crystals I have acquired first-hand ensures knowledge of their provenance -the story of their journey from the dusty earth to sparkling jewel.
Being mostly self taught I am involved in every step of the long and often repetitive process of the design and finish of each stone, and have great respect for and still mostly use the ancient techniques for the cutting , carving and polishing of hard gem materials.
As a lapidary artist I want to share these gems in their naked state and invite you to look at them up close before they are transformed by the unique jewelry design they will inspire. To reveal the purity of their natural colours and the play of light their inclusions create.
Each carries a unique fingerprint that identifies it's species, family and precise place of origin, each one a microcosm of our universe.
Heinrich Joemath (The Giant Periwinkle)
Based in Cape Town, Heinrich Joemath (1988 -) is a professionally trained mosaic artisan collaborating with emerging and established Southern African artists over the last 10 years, transforming their artistic concepts into successful mosaic translations.
With artworks exhibited and installed internationally as well as locally, Joemath has continued to develop this unique perspective for avid collectors and purveyors. His work is made using traditional tools while creatively interpreting classical styles and techniques to best express his own experiences as an artisan into each artwork.
Instagram: @heinrich.joemath
About Heinrich's work:
Heinrich uses traditional tools while creatively interpreting classical styles and techniques to best express his own experiences as an artisan into each artwork.
Yoko Reijn (Giant Periwinkle)
Yoko was born and raised in The Netherlands.
Since 2012, she has exhibited in South African art galleries, at selected curated group exhibitions, and at various art events in South Africa.
"What excites me tremendously is being human in our unique individual experience of nature, spirituality and emotion.’ Yoko’ s interests revolve around expression of inner processes. Nature as well as spirituality are her twin inspirations - as an artist she responds to her environment, thoughts and inner motions with the need to articulate, express and communicate her being."
About Yoko's work:
"I seek wholeness in surrounding energies which manifest in events and earthy solidities.
The focus is on the freedom of positive abundance and endless possibilities which, depending on the quality of the energy, can be overflowing, fertile, and prolific."
Colour is her medium because it is very personal and individual; loaded with feelings, triggering memories, sensations. Organic shapes in her work refer to the oneness of all aspects of life.
Ulriche Jantjes (The Giant Periwinkle, curator and artist)
Ulriche was born in 1997 in Cape Town, South Africa. In 2019, she completed her Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art at the Michaelis School of Fine Art (University of Cape Town) where oral histories formed the essence of her research. Thereafter, she continued to explore her heritage, and graduated with her Masters in Fine Art at the University of Cape Town in 2022.
Ulriche has participated in numerous exhibitions. Most recently, she participated in the 2024 Investec Cape Town Art Fair with a solo booth titled “In the Midst”, hosted by Untitled Art.
She is currently based in Cape Town where she works as a full-time artist.
Instagram: @fieldandstudio_
About Ulriche's work:
My work embodies a personal exchange with the landscape within which my heritage unfolds. Nestled in the Overberg region of the Western Cape, you will find Elim, a Moravian mission settlement established by German missionaries in 1824. This landscape and old village, traditionally characterised by whitewashed thatched houses, carry the origins of my ancestral lineage.
As part of my practice, I piece-together and visualise narratives
gathered in Elim. These stories, which include histories of walking, working, and living in this landscape are drawn together with my personal connection to the mission settlement, and
in turn, my heritage. My oil paintings and monotypes depict outdoor scenes such as the indigenous landscape, agricultural fields, waterbodies, and mountain ranges, as features in
conversation with domestic scenes. Despite the juxtaposition, both interior and outside scenes emerge from a point of contemplation. Simultaneously, the artworks evoke a sense of anticipation by suggesting an act of looking out from within.
Philip John (Giant Periwinkle)
Philip likes to think of himself as a retired reluctant tender carnivore trying to find the border between figure and ground. He has a background in Afrikaans literature but is now focused on gardening and pursuing fleeting moments of grace by making marks on paper.
About Philip's work:
Philip's creative practice usually includes a conceptual element, a leftover from his academic past.