“There are a lot of things along the road that fascinate me and I kept record. My artworks are my journal.”
Lizamore & Associates in association with Worldart presents My Journal, a solo exhibition by Zolile Phetshane. This exhibition will take place at the Worldart Gallery in Cape Town during February 2016.
Phetsane uses colour and the abstract to create his own, intimate language, scratching and painting on surfaces to create textures. The artist works with many layers of solid colours in pastel – creating colourful abstract landscapes. He then ads smaller texts and imagery – creating interesting and intricate patterns and details. The artist juxtaposes objects such as chairs, bread pulls, boxes, road signs, water-marking and painted stairs as metaphors. Along with the use of various objects, the artist’s work mainly consists of abstract colour fields.
My Journal features the abstract oil and pastel works of Zolile Phetshane. Reminiscent of great abstract masters like Pollock and Miro’s intuitive technique, these works give the viewer an intimate glimpse of life through Phetshane’s eyes. “A journal reflects an individual’s most personal thoughts and emotion – whether you are happy, sad or angry. In my case my visual journal tells a story of my thoughts and emotions. Each work is basically a reflection of my thoughts and opinions, some political, some religious. I am also intrigued by numbers and the way everything in our contemporary society is calculated. From the time frame we spent traveling to the pull used on bread packaging is calculated. We even use numbers [in the form of identity numbers] to identify ourselves as human beings. These are all the things I write about through my art” explains the artist.
Born in 1973, Phetshane obtained an Advanced Diploma in fine arts the University of Witwatersrand under the supervision of Karl Nel and later joined the Artist Proof Studios in Johannesburg. Originally a printmaker, Phetshane turned to the abstract after losing a great number of art prints in a fire at Artist Proof in 2003. Stepping away from printmaking, Phetshane allowed himself to be immersed into abstract coulour fields and forms. The artist is in a number of well-known public collections, including Rand Merchant Bank, Johannesburg Art Gallery, The Development Bank of South Africa, Vodacom and the William Humphrey Gallery. Phetshane has been actively participating in various exhibitions since 2001 and had a critically acclaimed two-man exhibition, Indigenous Calculous, alongside Samson Mnisi at Lizamore & Associates gallery in 2014. The artist’s work sold-out the 2015 Cape Town Art Fair and was Lizamore’s featured artist at the Turbine Art Fair 2015. On both occasions he was praised by both buyers and critics. Phetshane is currently preparing for his largest solo exhibition to date at Lizamore & Associates gallery in November 2016.
My Journal opens on Thursday 4 February 2016 and ends on 26 February 2016 at the Worldart Gallery in Cape Town.
