The National Arts Festival this week launched the Festival Gallery with a celebration of good coffee and colourful art.
The National Arts Festival this week launched the Festival Gallery with a celebration of good coffee and colourful art.
The venue, on the corner of Somerset and High Streets, will be home to a year-round commercial art gallery in Grahamstown, focusing on artists from the city and province.
The launch also served as the opening of its first exhibition, a showcase of new and established Eastern Cape exhibitors on the National Arts Festival Fringe Art programme.
Curator Carmen Ford said, "While there is no conceptual theme unifying the body of work that is ‘Exhibition 1’, it comprises a selection from the artists‘ most recent exhibitions staged during the 2015 festival.
"We felt this was a fitting way to launch Festival Gallery – a new and unique space and initiative to support the growth and promotion of visual art in Grahamstown."
The Festival Gallery is part of The Creative City initiative.
The participating artists are Anelisa Nyongo (Hamburg), Anthony Harris (Nelson Mandela Bay), Antoinette Pienaar (Grahamstown),
Bolekwa Ntamo (Hamburg), Bruce Little Originals (Grahamstown), Chanelle Staude (Grahamstown), Donve Branch (Nelson Mandela Bay), Lisa Nettleton (Port Alfred), Monique Wiffen Rorke (Nelson Mandela Bay), Ndileka Mapuma (Hamburg),
Nomathemba Tana (Grahamstown), Nombuyiselo Malumbeso (Hamburg), Nomfusi Nkani (Hamburg), Noncebo Deliwe (Hamburg), Nosithembela Ngcayi (Hamburg), Peter Midlane (Grahamstown),
Raymond John Westraadt (Nelson Mandela Bay), Regina Gongqa (Grahamstown), Sanela Maxengana (Hamburg), Sue Hoppe (Nelson Mandela Bay), Taryn King (Grahamstown), Tori Stowe (Bathurst), Uyanda Tom (Grahamstown), Violet Booi (Grahamstown), and Vukile Teyise (Grahamstown).
