Tusani Mngomezulu

Artist: Tusani Mngomezulu

Title: The Green Stripe Portrait Influence

Year: 2014

Media: Oil Pastels on el Toro paper

Size: 65 x 43 cm

Provenance:  Artists Collection

Artist Statement

My self- portrait artwork, The Green Stripe Portrait Influence is about the use of expressive and vibrant colours. I was experimenting with colours. I am fascinated by the combination of different colours in my portrait. The process of drawing with oil pastels and adding layers makes this artwork interesting and convincing.

This self- portrait is influenced by Henri Matisse’s painting The Green Stripe, a portrait of an Asian woman.  I chose this artwork because of the distinctive style of painting has been creatively executed.

Mlungisi Myeni

Artist           : Mlungisi Myeni

Title             : My father

Year             : 2014

Size              : 420 x 594mm

Medium      : Black ink on litho paper

Location      : Artist collection

BIOGRAPHY

I was born at Mkuze (Obonjeni Hospital), in 1994, into a big family. In 1996 my mother left Mkuze for good to settle in Cinci area because she was extremely ill. In 2000 when I was six years old my mother died. I was raised in Cinci area by my grandmother (Nester Zondo, Shabalala).

Memorial Mnguni, who taught me Visual Art at Ekupheleni High School for three years, influence my artistic career. After completing my National Senior Certificate I move to settle in Durban, where presently I am doing my National Diploma in Fine art (DUT).

ARTIST STATEMENT

This artwork, titled My Father, is a journey about my family members that I have lost. I am doing this concept because I feel like it is the best way for me to make a connection with my ancestors through art. I always try to make my artworks based on what I received from my ancestors through visions and dreams. 

I like to work using caving tools in the process of printing. I also like to express myself by using symbolic objects as I have shown in my still-life. Each object in the artwork has a different symbolic meaning that contributes to the overall message. In the process of my art making, I have learnt to take problems as they came and try not to fight against them.

 

Leevi Arrikum

Artist: Leevi Arrikum

Artwork: Self Portrait Print

Medium: Black print ink on white paper.

Size: 27.7 x 21 cm

Year: 2014

Provenance: Artists collection

Artist Statement

I decided to submit a self-portrait. I love to simplify complicated pictures into shapes. I see my world simplified and I believe anything can be broken up into shapes. Sharp shapes show tension while rounded smooth ones show more calmness and relaxation on features.

Carla Foo

Artist: Carla Foo

Title: A Pond in the woods

Year: 2014

Size: 42 x 30 cm

Medium: Water colour on paper

Location: Artists collection

Artist Statement
I chose this painting A pond in the woods.  It is a copy of a work by Albrecht Durer. I used water colour to render the painting.  I enjoy the medium of water colour so it was very satisfying. This painting was done during the week we were looking at landscapes and I felt that the painting of Durer captured nature in a soft gentle manner.  I like the paint running into each other and creating a mixture of whorls.  I used ink pen to create my outline to define the landscape.  I am satisfied with this piece of work.

Shezi Bongumusa

Artist: Shezi Bongumusa

Title: Deco in Glass

Year: 2014

Size: 420 x 594 mm

Medium/technique: Black ink on Litho Paper, Marley tile carving

Location: Artists collection

Artist Statement

In my artwork I try to examine the popularity of fruit bowls used as table decoration. This decoration is popular in western culture and seems to be adopted by some African people. I have chosen to print using the progressive method. Furthermore I have used various drawing techniques to achieve aesthetically pleasing artwork, with texture. Those techniques are cross-hatching, line and stippling. The printing process takes time. I started by carving less to get the dark first print and I had to kept carving until I achieve the eighth print which is lighter than all the others. I have used different tools to carve the Marley tile, the V-shaped, U-shaped chisel. I copied Still Life with Fruit Compote and Pocket Knife painting by Emma Cady and change it to into a print.

Artist: Cady E.

Title: Still Life with Fruit Compote and Pocket Knife

Year: 1895

Size: Unknown

Medium: Stencil and/or Theorem, Pochoir Painting Watercolour

Location: Abby A Rockefeller Folk Art Museum

Sisonke L Ndabambi

Artist: Sisonke L Ndabambi

Title: Night Lights

Year: 2014

Medium: Colour Print

Size: 31 x 26 cm

Provenance: Artist’s Collection

Artist Statement

In Night Lights I concentrated on classical architecture. This is to show how beautiful old buildings are, and they should be appreciated because they carry so much history with them.

I have used three colours of ink, which I mixed to produce other colours to give an impression of Yale University, United States of America at night. I have used the colour purple and black for the building, yellow to show the lights through the windows and doors. I have used red for the floor, blue and black for the sky. I used the stippling technique to fade the blue to black, to give an impression of a dark sky.

I am currently working and exploring other concept at the moment, like cityscapes and self-portraits. It is my first time working with prints, paint, clay and other mediums, I am very impressed with the outcomes.

Mfundo Gumede

Artist: Mfundo Gumede

Title: Untitled

Date: 2014

Medium: Acrylic on paper

Provenance: Artists collection

Artist Statement

My concept is about me finding myself as a young artist. It is important to know myself as young boy who is born in a traditional family. I feel that it important to know my origins because if I don’t know where I come from I’m like a tree without roots. The images is free and relaxed. In this painting I used expressive lines to show the flowing of the water without any direction, which is how I feel sometimes.  Most of the colours I us are cold colours, this shows that I’m down to earth and a free spirited person. I was inspired by Vincent Van Gough use of expressive lines .

Andile Dlamini

Artist: Andile Dlamini

Title: Untitled

Date:2014

Medium: Acrylic on paper

Size: 25 x 17 cm

Provenance:  Artists collection

ARTIST STATEMENT

This artwork explores culture in the Modern day. I chose to work with a ‘isagila’ because I want to talk about the issue of the South African youth. The youth are losing interest within their culture and traditions. The choice of colour, blue and green, shows that culture is a cool and natural thing. I work in a planned manner, I always know what I want to achieve at the end. The technique I use is influenced by both impressionistic and realistic styles of painting. I am influenced by artists such as Van Gogh and Da Vinci just to name a few.

Amy Waller

Artist:  Amy Waller

Artwork:  Empty Ruins

Year:  2014

Medium:  Collage and Acrylic

Provenience:  Artsist Collection

During a painting module we looked into a theme of cityscapes. As a group we took a walk through the city of Durban. I took many photos and notes for reference. Above is the artwork  Empty Ruins, it is my own interpretation of the city. The expierence of the walk influenced how I painted  this artwork, as it effected my mood towards my subject matter. In the middle of the artwork is a black and white photocopy of a photo I took on the walk. I then used mixed media of acrylic and paper to expand the cityscape. The photocopied image represents the present while the painted cityscape portrays what the city will look like in the future, a city in ruins.

Below is the original photo taken on my city walk.:

Carla Foo

Carla Foo

I chose the vase as it was most challenging.  I worked with the leaves to spill out of the pot and the roots to surround the pot.  I created textured areas to give life to the pot.

(Foo 2014)

Sisonke Ndabambi

My concept is about death and how people treat and react to death. This is to make people aware of how they go about the death situation with the bureals, ceremonies. This is also to make people aware of what they do to avoid death and live longer. My work is looking at how different tribes treat and react to death.
I use the clay to creat the impression of skeletal hand as a pattern around the bowl. It is two skeletal hands that look like they are holding the bowl in a circular motion. I have worked with clay, bowl, table knife, spoons and folks to actually shape this bowl. I have used a sponge to smoothen the inside and to shape it to look like it can carry fruits. It is still under construction at the moment but toward the end of this term it will be done.
I am currently working on sculpture and ceramics work, working on a researchto look at what inspires me. Since this my first time working with clay, I want to explore what more can I do and what new and undiscovered techniques I can do. So far, this has been an awesome experience and I am keen to doing more.



Thokozani Khumalo

Artist: Thokozani Khumalo

Title: Half man Half human

Size: 38 x 25.5 cm

Media: Paint

Year: 2014

Provenance: Artist’s Collection

Artist Statement

This artist statement is a representation of the work I recently did in painting which is called Half Human Half Animal. This is a portrait of me where I am half human and half ram. As an artist I worked hard to develop paintings that convey a message about me and in this case I have tried to represent myself in two different personalities. The first personality is of an ordinary human and the other is of my alter ego which is represented by the aggressive ram .The ram is the inner me which one can recognise the aggression of it within me. The brush strokes of the two personalities are different as the one of the ordinary human has a smoother texture and the one of my alter ego has expressive brush strokes to show the true anger and aggression of the ram.

Siyanda Zincume

Artist: Siyanda Zincume

Title: Staring at the World

Date: 2014

Media: Thinners Transfer

Size: 29,7 x 42 cm

Provenience: Artist’s collection

Artist Statement

In this artwork, I sought to use photography, drawing and magazine cut-outs to produce a transfer print.

I was inspired by a photograph by Zultan Huszti. It resembled an ink drawing I made two years ago. The similarities and differences  of the two images made for a good collage. This idea made me think of the different people in the world, so different yet so similar.

When you read the newspaper or watch the news, you’ll know the terrible things people are capable of. These terrible things transcends race, age, culture or time. Love and evil swirl in the souls of all human beings and when you look at the world, today, evil is dominating love. The eyes in my print are sheilded by glasses alluding to eyes being windows to the soul, we hide our eyes. Are we hiding our eyes from the world or are we hiding the world from our eyes?

Nokuphila Gwala

Artist: Nokuphila Gwala 

Title: Architectural structures 

Medium: Ink on paper 

Size: 26cm x 32,5cm

Year: 2014 

Provenance: Artists collection

Artist Statement 

My interest in architectural structure began at a very young age. Fusing my interest in architecture with Fine art was very exciting for me. Through my work in printmaking I was able to enjoy, understand and feel as though I was actually apart of the structure I was printing. I chose the interior of the of an Italian villa to work with because it shows off both the delicate side of the building with its smooth arches and long balustrades, yet roughness with all the sharp corners and dark lines. I have learnt that there is no limit with what one can do with printing through layering of colours  

Njabulo Ngcobo

Artist: Njabulo Ngcobo

Title: Man in Sorrow

Size: 29,5cm x 26,5cm

Year: 2014

Medium: oil pastels on brown paper

Location: artist collection

Artist Statement 

 
In my work I used self-portraiture as a driving vehicle to express my ideas. The title of my work is Man in Sorrow. This work talks about the pain I went through last year,as well as the journey I have travelled.

I used melancholy colours such as blue. I also used dark colours in the background to express feelings of depression

Mthobeleni Doncabe

Artist : Mthobeleni Doncabe

Title   : Foreign Streets

Year   : 2014-08-07

Size    : 42 x 30cm

Medium: Bone, plastic pipes, acrylic, copper on super wood

Provenience: Artist’s collection

Artist Statement

Foreign Streets talks about homeless imigrants. Some of the people from other countries come to South Africa expecting to live more sustainable lives, but due to different circumstances they end up sleeping on the streets.

I have used an animal skull to symbolise their cultures and identities they bring. The abstract curved symbols and different colour smears on a board symbolises their dreams that are ruined. The rough red pipes and a piece of metal with a gun symbolises the violence and pain brought by wars in their countries.