Monday 16 April 2012

Mbhekeni Derek Mbili and Caroline Birch and Art 21 Season 6 Episode 1


From Corner to Corner
Mbhekeni Derek Mbili




















Born 1975 in Umlazi, Durban.  Mbili had artistic ability from a young age, as he drew figures with a stick in the sand as a child. His teachers would complain that he was ignoring his studies, preferring to sketch his teachers rather than pay attention to the lesson, but one primary school teacher did recognize his ability and encourage him in his art.
In 2005 he participated in a 1 year art programme at the Bat Centre ‘to improve myself.’
In 2006 he entered the Absa L’Atelier Art Award competition and his work was chosen as a finalist.
In 2007 he was a finalist in the Niva Start Art Awards.
In 2008 he had a show at KZNSA Gallery titled “Soccer Vibe”.
In 2010 another solo show at KZNSA Gallery titled  “All Eyes In African” is a mosaic on the theme of the 2010 Football World Cup. It is not solely about the sport itself, but about the lifestyle of South Africans, life in the township, HIV, and about where our society will be at that time, and where we are going in the future.

This is his first solo show at artSPACE durban.

Our Space
an exhibition of painted drawings by Caroline Birch



This body of work grew out of the strong need to keep the initial drawing intact; not to loose it during the painting process. Hence the use of oil pastel overlaid with watercolour; and the figure itself remaining untouched by paint. The realization of space grew with the method. Usually one considers the human body as solid matter; here it is approached as space and left as such, while the surrounding space is painted in oil paint. The use of oils allows great translucence; so for me the whole process is shot through with light and space. The whole process is exposed to the viewer. Nothing is hidden or covered over; it is all transparent. It is also a return to simplicity, in the use of materials, and in the drawing simply from the model, leaving aside all the accumulated clutter of life. As solid matter is shot through with space, the space around us becomes a shared arena: our space and our responsibility.










Season 6 of the Peabody Award-winning series, Art in the Twenty-First Century





Season 6 of the Peabody Award-winning series, Art in the Twenty-First Century, premieres April 13.
We will be showing the first episode of the season, Change, features artists Catherine Opie, El Anatsui, and Ai Weiwei.

How do artists respond to a world in flux? In what ways do artists act as agents of change, and what kinds of aesthetic choices do they make to express it? This episode features artists who bear witness, through their work, to transformation--cultural, material, and aesthetic--and actively engage communities as collaborators and subjects.

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