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Vusi Beauchamp / Jaco Bouwer / Tegan Bristow / The Brother Moves On / Cuss Group / The Frown & Vintage Cru / Haroon Gunn-Salie in collaboration with Dereleen James / Murray Kruger / Gerald Machona / Misheck Masamvu / Tiffany Mentoor / Thenjiwe Nkosi / Johan Thom / MJ Turpin / Jessica Webster / Nelisiwe Xaba & Mocke van Veuren

In July this year Goodman Gallery Johannesburg will present the group exhibition [Working Title] 2013. This is the second installment of the annual group exhibition of the same name, the first of which premiered at Goodman Gallery Cape Town in 2012 and was curated by Federico Freschi. The [Working Title] exhibitions are part of a new initiative by the Goodman Gallery aimed at supporting young artists, curators, independent projects and major installations and performances. In the past Goodman Gallery has collaborated with independent curators such as Simon Njami and Bettina Malcomess, who curated the US exhibition, part of which was shown at Goodman Gallery Projects at Arts on Main in 2009. In 2010 independent curator and academic Nontobeko Ntombela curated the exhibition Layers at Goodman Gallery Projects as part of her ongoing research into the creative strategies of women artists, in particular those that aim to contextualise socio-political issues. In 2011 Goodman Gallery curators Tony East and Claire van Blerck produced The Night Show, a 3-part exhibition staged at Goodman Gallery Cape Town, which sought to destabilise the notion of the white cube and to engage with contemporary art practice on its own terms, courting the spontaneous and embracing the ephemeral. Previous projects also include the site specific street performance Cut / Cute by Joel Andrianomearisoa, which premiered in Johannesburg as part of SA Fashion Week, and Nelisiwe Xaba and Mocke van Veuren’s performance Uncles and Angels, which was presented at Goodman Gallery Projects as part of the Dance Umbrella. Goodman Gallery continues to collaborate with academics and theorists, and has hosted lectures by Jane Taylor, Federico Freschi and Alfredo Jaar – whose lecture coincided with his 2012 exhibition at the Goodman Gallery Gold in the Morning – and panel discussions with David Goldblatt, Ivan Vladislavic and Marlene van Niekerk.

While Goodman Gallery Projects closed at Arts on Main in 2012, the [Working Title] exhibition series exists as a resolution to the Goodman Gallery’s continued interest in independent and collaborative projects and allows for the continuation of previous projects and relationships, as well as the introduction of new artists, theorists and creatives into the Goodman Gallery. Each year the [Working Title] exhibition will have a new curator, either from the Goodman Gallery or through collaboration with an invited external curator. This year’s [Working Title] is curated by Emma Laurence and includes artists who are pushing the limits of the contemporary South African art scene and who have produced work that is at the cutting edge of current art production. The exhibition is concerned with works that are born out of dynamic and independent practice. Included in the exhibition are artists who work across disciplines and who bring into the perceived elite gallery space sub-cultural aesthetics and standpoints. The show incorporates artists working in various and perhaps unconventional media such as 3-D cinema, interactive gaming, short stories and punk inspired performance, as well as artists who begin to interrogate modes of representation and viewing in painting and photography. During the run of the show, a series of scheduled events will take place as part of [Working Title] and will include an off-site project by Cuss Group called Video Party, a performance after the opening by The Frown and The Brother Moves On and an opening address and lecture by distinguished theorist Achille Mbembe, who will speak on “The Postcolony Revisited”. Professor Mbembe’s lecture is co-sponsored by WISER (Wits Institute for Economic Research).

Artworks

Nelisiwe Xaba: Choreography and performance Mocke J van Veuren: Video, cinematography and sound design With music by João Orecchia Costume by Strangelove Filmed at the Soweto Theatre, 2013 Special thanks to UJ Multimedia and ASE Screen Arts
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digital print in pigment inks on photo fibre paper
A2
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Photographic print
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Towl, towel rack, red underpants
Dimensions variable
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in collaboration with Dereleen James Site-specific installation
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Silkscreen and acrylic on board
122 x 80cm
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Silkscreen and acrylic on board
80.5 x 80.5
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Triptych; pigment prints on cotton paper, Di-Bonded
Each panel : 110 x 112 cm
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Digital print in pigment inks on photo fibre paper
A2
Unavailable
Ink-jet print on photo fibre paper
Image size: 47 x 32 cm
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Ink-jet on photo fibre paper
Image size: 47 x 32 cm
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Decommissioned Currency ( Zimbabwean Ten billion dollar note, Ghanaian Five hundred Cedi note, South African One Pound note, Angolan Fifty Escudos note, Mozambican One Hundred Escudos note ), Velvet pouch, Pleather Executive Attaché briefcase
Dimensions variable
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Installation, Video projection on salt, mounted unpolished half-round glass shelves
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Ink-jet print on photo fibre paper
Image size: 47 x 32 cm
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Ink-jet print on photo fibre paper
Image size: 47 x 32 cm
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Modified found object. Used smoking pipes and pipe rack, 23ct gold leaf and embossed with text inscriptions
Dimensions variable
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Decommissioned Zimbabwean Five billion dollar notes, Triplex, Double sided tape, Velvet pillow, Pleather Executive Attaché briefcase
Dimensions variable
Unavailable
digital print in pigment inks on photo fibre paper
A2
Unavailable
Silkcreen and acrylic on masonite
80.5 x 80.5cm
Unavailable
Car Sound, Speaker boxes (superwood, fiberglass, body filler, automotive paint)
Dimensions Variable
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One US dollar note ( Used in Zimbabwe as legal tender), Pleather Executive Attaché briefcase.
Dimensions variable
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Oil on canvas
90cm x 105cm
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Ink-jet print on photo fibre paper
Image size: 47 x 71.5 cm
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Mixed media installation
Dimensions variable
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Oil on canvas
30 x 35cm
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dressing table, mirror, pigment prints, LED lights, pink curtains and found objects with soundtrack from MOTH
variable
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Oil on canvas
30 x 35cm
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Silkscreen and acrylic on board
122 x 80cm
Unavailable
Ink-jet print on photo fibre paper
Image size: 47 x 32 cm
Unavailable
Silkscreen and acrylic on masonite
80.5 x 80.5cm
Unavailable
Mixed media on canvas
155 x 159cm
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150 printed cards on steel shelving
Dimensions variable
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digital print in pigment inks on photo fibre paper
A2
Unavailable
Photograph and magnets
Dimensions variable
Unavailable
Silkscreen and acrylic on masonite
80.5 x 80.5cm
Unavailable
Ink-jet print on photo fibre paper
Image size: 47 x 32 cm
Unavailable
Silkscreen and acrylic on board
80.5 x 80.5cm
Unavailable
Photograph, spray-paint and glitter
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About

Misheck Masamvu image

Misheck Masamvu

Misheck Masamvu (b. 1980, Penhalonga, Zimbabwe) explores and comments on the socio-political setting of post-independence Zimbabwe, and draws attention to the impact of economic policies that sustain political mayhem. Masamvu raises questions and ideas around the state of ‘being’ and the preservation of dignity. His practice encompasses drawing, painting and sculpture.

Masamvu studied at Atelier Delta and Kunste Akademie in Munich, where he initially specialised in the realist style, and later developed a more avant-garde expressionist mode of representation with dramatic and graphic brushstrokes. His work deliberately uses this expressionist depiction, in conjunction with controversial subject matter, to push his audience to levels of visceral discomfort with the purpose of accurately capturing the plight, political turmoil and concerns of his Zimbabwean subjects and their experiences. His works serve as a reminder that the artist is constantly socially-engaged and is tasked with being a voice to give shape and form to a humane sociological topography. In 2020, Masamvu took part in the 22nd Biennale of Sydney.

Masamvu’s work has been well-received and exhibited in numerous shows including Armory Show 2018, Art Basel 2018, Basel Miami Beach 2017, 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair New York 2016, São Paulo Biennale 2016, and the Venice Biennale, Zimbabwe Pavillion 2011.

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Gerald Machona image

Gerald Machona

Gerald Machona is a Zimbabwean born Visual artist with a Master’s Degree in Fine Art from Rhodes University and a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Cape Town, completed at the Michaelis School of fine art. Machona’s work has been included on several prominent international exhibitions, which include the South African Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale in Italy, All the World’s Futures and at the 20th Biennale of Sydney, The future is already here – it’s just not evenly distributed. Machona’s work has also appearedin exhibitions at the Brooklyn Museum in New York and at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town.

Machona works with sculpture, performance, new media, photography and film. The most notable aspect of his work is his innovative use of currency—particularly decommissioned Zimbabwean dollars—as an aesthetic material. Machona’s current work engages with issues of migration, transnationalism, social interaction and xenophobia in Africa.

In 2013, Machona featured in Mail and Guardian’s 200 Young South African’s supplemental and was selected by Business Day and the Johannesburg Art Fair in 2011 as one of the top ten young African artists practicing in South Africa. In 2019 Machona was included on the group exhibition Still Here Tomorrow to High Five You Yesterday at Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town.

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