‘Two eras’ to be experienced in exhibitions

Janet Solomon, Vital Signs, oil and ink on canvas, 150cm x 100cm, 2013.

Janet Solomon, Vital Signs, oil and ink on canvas, 150cm x 100cm, 2013.

Published May 22, 2015

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Latoya Newman

THE DURBAN Art Gallery will be treating fans of fine art to two top-notch exhibitions.

In a statement, the gallery’s curator, Thulani Makhaye, said Janet Solomon’s solo exhibition – comprising drawings, paintings and photographs that were executed from displays in Natural Science museums in Durban, Dublin, Pietermaritzburg and London – will be on display until May 28.

Thereafter an exhibition by Marianne Meijer – which he said explores the techniques and subject matter as presented in works by the Old Masters: Rembrandt van Rijn, Velasquez, Titian and Frans Hals – starts, running until the first week of July.

In an interview with Tonight, Makhaye said they were motivated by the achievements and work of each artist when they decided to exhibit their works.

“Marianne Meijer has been involved in the arts in Durban for a number of years. Among her involvements she has contributed as a member of the KwaZulu-Natal Association for the Arts (KZNSA), member and later chairperson of the Friends of the Durban Art Gallery and as an arts columnist in The Mercury newspaper, The Daily News and as sub-editor for DARTS Magazine. Her aim is not to paint what real things are like, but to paint intuitively what things are (to her) really like. Thus relying on abstractions and ideas in her mind, so that each new work is a challenge. She uses acrylics, oils and pastels on her works.”

On Solomon, he said her confrontational works “engage unflinchingly” with environmental issues and human cultural relations with animals. “The notion of the natural world interrupted and impacted is the eroded circumstance in which her subject finds itself. Her work orbits around ideas of alienation, reduction of relation and its destructive consequences, and the susceptibility of the subject to dissociative forces.”

The two exhibitions will be hosted at the Durban Art Gallery institutions, the exhibition hall on the second floor of City Hall and the contemporary exhibition hall at 102 to 120 Florence Nzama Street.

“Janet Solomon’s exhibition will be at City Hall and Marianne Miejer will be at the Rivertown Precinct’s Old Beer Hall Gallery. The viewers will experience two eras presented by the exhibitions. Marianne Meijer has selected works that dominate the European art museums and galleries – the common artists collected across Europe. This will give the viewer an understanding of the ‘high taste’ that laid the foundations of artistic appreciation, philosophy that formulated the background to art knowledge and the study thereof.

“Janet Solomon presents the transcending/transience of time: the present, the past and the future as portrayed in films. The use of the green screen allows the actor to perform the actions that will be transferred to the movie character. This technique shifts the artist’s location from the made-up environ-ment where the colour green is blended with the location/ landscape where the character does the action.”

Makhaye said viewers will get the opportunity to see how both artists look at the past, the history behind their inspiration.

l Solomon’s Green Scene, DAG until Thurs. Meijer’s exhibition at the Old Beer Hall (Rivertown), Florence Nzama Street from Thurs. Info: 031 311 2268

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