Two solo exhibitions by South African artists are now on at the Gallery @ Glen Carlou.
Free-State born painter and multimedia artist Pauline Gutter’s exhibition, Primordial, opened on Saturday May 7. Since its inception in 2021, this body of work continues to demonstrate Ms Gutter’s ability to bring a vibrant energy to her monumental paintings.
Ashraf Jamal describes her painting style in his latest book Strange Cargo: Essays on Art as “a charged and highly volatile energy field”.
This year, Primordial expands on the theme of the earliest life, to include paintings of the Baviaanskloof. This UNESCO World Heritage Site is rich in artefacts and rock art that indicate that prehistoric humans were living there from the Middle Stone Age 100 000 years ago.
Another addition to the current exhibition, includes several portraits in charcoal and oil. These works are not just figurative representations of the subject, they speak of primal human nature and intuition.
The Road Was Full of Branches, a solo by Ydi Coetsee Carstens, also opened at the Gallery on Saturday May 7 and this exhibition comprises a series of gouache and oil paintings. Ms Carstens completed an MA in Fine Arts at Stellenbosch University with an exchange component in Kampala, East Africa.
The complexity of Christianity, history, and art in Sub-Saharan Africa continues to interest her since her father’s work in the Uniting Reformed Church (URC), played a big role in her upbringing and her thoughts on poverty, politics, and faith.
Her exhibition is inspired by her journey to the Equator and back in 2021. It is customary in parts of South and East Africa to place branches in the road when there is an obstruction ahead, like a stationary truck.
While travelling overland last year, she saw many such partial images. With this exhibition she hopes the works might act as branches laid in the road, pointing the viewer to a larger reality not yet perceived.
Art enthusiasts had the opportunity to dine with the artists at a dinner on Saturday May 7, which formed part of the launch celebrations.
Both solo exhibitions run until Sunday June 19. The gallery, located in Simondium Road, Klapmuts, is open to visitors seven days a week from 10am to 5pm. For more information, visit https://glencarlou.com/ or send emails to, hello@glencarlou.com
