Art For Action is pleased to announce its debut exhibition titled Art on The Walls – a group exhibition showcasing the work of some of the artists who have supported Art For Action since its inception during the first covid-19 lockdown in South Africa. As an organisation, Art For Action raises awareness through fundraising initiatives that spotlight our community heroes. The artists involved in our initiatives have donated works which are auctioned off to raise funds for the communities and organisations affected by this covid humanitarian crisis.
Creative workers have formed an integral part in our communities by providing us with a language to better understand and articulate our experience of the world around us— contributing to culture, history, and knowledge production. Art on The Walls aims to honour and celebrate those artists who have supported our initiatives, albeit, challenging for many working within the arts and culture industry. Themes of the work on show range from self perception, the body, space specificity, intimacy, gender, trauma, isolation, vulnerability, fantasy, existentialism, nature and spirituality.
Sounds of a bustling city shape the gestural marks seen on the surface of Paul Wallington’s painting. Aspects of gender, care and nature during this time of the pandemic, foregrounds the work of Nina Turok Shapiro. Here, the artist wears a crown, which emanates the threatening nature of the CoronaVirus, in an act to reclaim power. Notions of self, in relation to land and justice is negotiated through a photographic print featuring a figure, cloaked in white, traversing through heaps of manure. Here, Lesego Seoketsa materialises and contributes towards the discourse around the ascension of the Black body.
Through various material manifestations, artists grapple with the nuanced aspects of social, political, cultural and environmental conditions.
– Kirstie Pietersen
Participating Artists: Amanda Rybicka, Amy Rusch, Elbie Visser, Elle Reid, Fanie Buys, Frances Van Zyl, Kelly Johnson,Kaylin Moonsamy, Lianca Heemro, Lisa Herring, Lesego Seoketsa, Nina Turok Shapiro, Nondumiso Godlo, Paul Wallington, Penelope Jack, Swain Hoogervorst, Talya Stein, Themba Mkhangeli,Tracy Payne, Nina Holmes, Jayshal Gajjar.