HOME

ARTISTS
Wendy Anziska
Philip Barlow
Dominic Benhura
Kudzanai Chiurai
Mpumelelo Dube
Guy du Toit
Charles Kamangwana
Speelman Mahlangu
Fiona Manicom
Rhett Martyn
Eddie Masaya
Bernard Matemera
Nicholas Mukomberanwa
Agnes Nyanhongo
Gedion Nyanhongo
Penelope Stutterheim
Henry Symonds
Derric van Rensburg
Andre van Vuuren
Hannes van Zyl
Artist Proof Studio

EXHIBITIONS
Current
Scheduled
Past

GALLERIES
Staff
Contact
Directions

Currently showing at Zuva are works by renowned SA painter Andre van Vuuren

Zuva Gallery, in the exclusive Melrose Arch shopping and restaurant precinct, exhibits some of the most important up-and-coming - as well as established - African and international artists in an elegant and modern environment.

The gallery is the only in South Africa to have a sister gallery in America: many of the shows open here before moving to the award-winning Zuva Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona.

The exhibition space, one of the most elegantly designed contemporary spaces in the country, provides a platform for artists but allows them to maintain their individuality.

"My galleries in Johannesburg and Scottsdale are devoted to highlighting world-class contemporary work for the true individual and not the mass market", says Michael Obert, the Yale-educated curator and owner of the Zuva galleries.

On at the moment is 'Abstracts on Paper', a collection by Andre van Vuuren, a renowned South African painter. Van Vuuren - best known for his landscape work, which has been exhibited since the 1970s - has been on show at major venues here and abroad.

The exhibition, fluid and beautifully executed, reveals a side of Van Vuuren that is rarely seen, says Obert.

Visitors can browse Zuva Gallery in between mingling with Johannesburg's finest in Melrose Arch.

'Abstracts on Paper' is on from 17 June until 6 July at Zuva Gallery, 14 The High Street, Melrose Arch. It is open from 10am to 6pm daily.

For more information contact Michael on 011 684 1214, email him at johannesburg@zuvagallery.com, or go to the Zuva Gallery website.

(From Business Day newspaper, 28 June 2004)

ART
By Ashley Johnson

ABSTRACT expressionism as a way of making art bears much similarity to minimalism. Both styles seem to demand that the artist should retreat from active artifice and allow the intrinsic qualities of the medium to communicate. André van Vuuren, in his exhibition ABSTRACTS, has done this and produced an exemplary display of non-representational, expressionistic work.

The self-conscious decision to reduce rational control and allow the marks to speak for themselves is derived from popular psychoanalytical ideas emanating from people such as Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud. Jung's concept of the archetype referred to important primal shapes that have meaning within the universal consciousness.

One excavated this deeper communal meaning by reaching into the subconscious. Freud based his theories on the division of the brain within an individual, positing a system of layers.

Given an art context this sometimes means the less the artist interferes with the mark-making process the better.

It is intended that the viewer should confront the abstract configuration and appreciate it on a purely formal level. However, this discipline escapes most people and it is very human to try and see into works fragments of figuration. In another sense, the artist is imprinting a notion of his body on to the surface anyway so each work becomes a record of that artist's parameters.

For instance, vertical format echoes human stance and the different types of marks hint at energies that might be made by fingers or wrist.

Van Vuuren's abstracts on paper are soft, beautifully poised paintings that are meant to be taken at face value.

The artist excludes symbolism for the most part except when unintentionally the viewer assimilates meaning through marks that bear resemblance to letters or icons like crosses.

His colours are muted earth tones and limited to two or three while short black brush strokes assert their presence over these and charcoal lines strip across the surface in more or less straight lines. Once the surface has been activated by a mark, the next stroke towards completing the composition is compelled into view.

Thus the artist becomes a medium through which the painting becomes manifest. The implication is that making a relatively straight line denies artifice, but there is an inherent contradiction because that line is propelled and hence the work is stylistic. It will depend on the viewer to discern deeper meaning in these paintings.

The human propensity to see depth causes one to view these works as floating ethereally in space. Most of them inhabit the central area of the paper, reinforcing the impression.

The artist has been quite frugal in these compositions and contrasts a limited number of pastel strokes with broad areas of oil paint. In some cases the paint seems to have been applied with a rag, adding an interesting textural effect. In addition there is a strange sense of number at work, which incidentally is also a human characteristic.

The exhibition is quite puritanical in its pursuit of abstraction but is very well executed and worth visiting. Framed works cost R12000 while unframed are R10000. The exhibition at the Zuva Gallery (0116841214) concludes on July 6.

Zuva Gallery * Melrose Arch * The 14 High St. * Johannesburg 2076  
tel 011-684-1214 * johannesburg@zuvagallery.com

© 2004 Zuva Gallery. All rights reserved.