"Re(viewed)" by Terence King 16 February - 7 March 2015

Opening talk by Louise Hall

Rooted in observation, the works aim to engage three long-established genres in painting and drawing; the figure, the physical environment and the still-life, with a view to marrying the concrete subject and the subject imagined.

Still-life, traditionally associated with displays of material possession, can also represent a world of work – the tools of trade in domestic and manufacturing settings – which are here presented on surfaces reminiscent of the tablelands of the inland landscape.

The landscape works, in turn, are based on the ways in which natural markers, such as these hills around Harrismith, tend to punctuate the geometry of agriculture. Familiar markers of routes travelled, with a deceptive sense of constancy, these landforms are in actuality fragile and impermanent.

The compression of space is a feature too of the figurative works, in which flat planes are intended to create uncomplicated settings in which to observe the sitter. The notions of watching and of exposure, typically critical elements in rendering the nude figure, constitute a major part of the content of the drawings.

Terence King is a retired Professor in Fine Art and Art History at the University KwaZulu Natal, Pietermaritzburg, where he had been since the mid-1980s, having previously taught at the Universities of the Witwatersrand and South Africa, and Technikon Natal.

Walkabout on Saturday, 28 February at 11a.m.