Joburg Art Fair 2012

From September 7-9, the Sandton Convention Centre will host the 5th annual Joburg Art Fair. This year’s highlights include the second FNB Art Prize, good food, top wines and the Alfa Romeo Art Talks.

 

The fair has survived beyond the 2-year expected life span of large-scale art events in the harsh climate of the South African cultural landscape. The Joburg Art Fair has a clear focus on building a sustainable art-buying market by expanding beyond established art buyers and bringing the international and local crowd together.

 

Participating galleries include; Omenka Gallery, Galerie Baudoin Lebon, Ed Cross Fine Art, Jack Bell, ARTCO Gallery, Kijk Galerie, Bailey Seippel Gallery, Erdman Contemporary, David Krut Projects, Museum of Modern Art Equatorial Guinea, Everard Read Gallery, Fred Gallery, Brundyn+Gonsalves, Gallery Art on Paper, Gallery MOMO, Goodman Gallery, Rooke Gallery, Barnard Gallery, SMAC Art Gallery, Stevenson Gallery, Galerie Galea, Artspace and Whatiftheworld Gallery.

 

This year, Omenka Gallery will exhibit the works of three Nigerian artists: Gerry Nnubia, Kelani Abass, and Jefferson Jonahan.

 

Gerry Nnubia’s technique involves the skilful manipulation of his medium to a liquid, viscous flow, often assimilating accidental occurrences and temperature adjustments, depending on the effect sought. Here the artist offers critical possibilities for painting and explores the tensions between form and formlessness vital to the tenets of modernism.

 

Abass Kelani’s work increasingly probes the difficult relations of belonging and identity and in particular, the shared history of man and machines through a wide range of different media including sound. In addition to acrylics, oils, pastels and charcoal, he employs modelling paste, disused printing machine parts, and collages of magazine cut-outs and newsprint in his work.

 

Jefferson Jonahan draws on historical and mythological references in most of his work. He employs a limited palette and restricts many of his compositions to a single human figure or face, his sensitivity to light and shadow, and the fundamental characteristics of the medium assuming the focus.

 

Overall, the exhibition aims to create a platform to provoke discourse on the development of modern and contemporary African art.