South African kings and queens

The Grahamstown Art Studio in Market Street is open throughout the year, but owner Carol Garbutt said she gets special new art works in time for festival. This year the gallery contains a variety of work from South African artists, with a strong Grahamstown flavour.

Garbutt, a painter in her own right, has a number of her own works on display. She points to the works of Anton Brink, Darren James Aiken and Ann Gadd as highlights of this year’s exhibition.

A striking piece by Aiken, The Illustrated History of South African Politics, comprises a chess set caricaturing figures from the old and new leadership regimes in South Africa. On the old side, we have the king, FW de Klerk, the queen, Evita Bezuidenhout and the bishop, Pik Botha. Nelson Mandela and Winnie Mandela are the king and queen on the new South African side.

Anton Brink, a regular exhibitor at the festival, has a series of twelve skyscapes entitled Fragile on display. This eye-catching series explores the fragility of environment and self and was first exhibited at last year’s festival. Individual works in the series speak to issues of commercialism, war and ecological irresponsibility.

Sheep art
The work of Cape Town artist Ann Gadd is a humorous series involving a lot of sheep. The series is entitled The Life of Ewe and draws a parallel between conformity in sheep and similar traits in the human condition.

In all, the gallery is jam-packed with a wide variety of work including bronze sculpture by Robert Leggat, photography and oil landscapes.