Lizamore celebrates the opening of their new Gallery at 142 Jan Smuts Avenue with an exhibition by Mandy Johnston and Cow Mash Hindsight titled ‘Hindsight’.
Guests are invited to join the Lizamore team for a glass of sparkling wine and cake to celebrate their new home, and to meet the artists. The evening will kick off with a welcoming by Les Cohn and thereafter guest speaker Lucia Boer.
Mandy Johnston
Mandy Johnston is a multi-disciplinary artist who lives in Fish hoek, South Africa. She holds a master’s degree in fine arts from the University of the Witwatersrand. Johnston’s passion for sharing knowledge led her to be involved in many inner city initiatives while based in Johannesburg and now in Cape Town, she mentors artists within her practice. Johnston has presented 5 solo exhibitions, the most recent at the KKNK 2019.
‘These works are the product of my thoughts around the topic of tradition and object making as ritual. I consider reasons for what has been kept and what has been passed on. Passed on meaning both overlooked or swept aside and in antitheses, collected and given showing within recent generations. The humour is subtle and intentional. The fetishized, sentimentalise and distorted forms mirror the attribution of value to both materials and aesthetics I observe practiced in much of contemporary visual art today.’
“Distant regards” is a portrait for and of a good friend, Benon Lutaaya. The work directly references two of his paintings. Namely “Distant Regards” and “State of being”.
“Thank you Benon for our many conversations and for your gentle, contagiously passionate state of being. You are remembered and dearly missed.”
Cow Mash
Cow Mash (Kgaogelo Mashilo) was born in Limpopo and raised in Pretoria where she is. She graduated from Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) with a degree in Fine Art, majoring in sculpture. In 2016, Cow created her first life size public figure, representing Francis Baard and forming part of the National Heritage Monument. In 2017, Cow was one of three artists to create a statue of Oliver Tambo, which stands at the O.R Tambo international airport. Cow was winner of the PPC Imaginarium fashion category in 2019. She is currently completing her master’s degree at TUT.
Cow Mash’s current work is inspired by her artist moniker “Cow” and the cultures and symbols of the cow within the Sepedi traditions, as well as globally. Through cow metaphors, she tries to situate herself between tradition and the contemporary world. Cow creates drawings on synthetic leather and sculptural works using synthetic wools, combining various fabrics. She reflects on the transformation and evolution of culture by using synthetic leather rather than actual cowhide. Her doodle-like repetitive lines in her drawings and meditative methods in sculpting are a means of self-contemplation and healing and finding a sense of belonging.
In the “holy kgomo” series, cow explores global ways that she has been exposed to prayer through media representation in comparison to ways traditionally taught to her growing up. She figuratively explores positions of prayer through drawing and sculptures in a way that combines spiritual teachings of the past and contemporary to create fantastical spiritual hybrids.