Barnard Gallery is presenting a solo exhibition of work by Ndikhumbule Ngqinambi entitled Window Part II.
Since the publishing of Leon Battista Alberti’s treatise De Pictura in 1435, the metaphor of painting as an “open window” onto the world has been a central motif in the history of art. Codified in the rules of single point perspective, this metaphor was honoured from the Renaissance until the 20th century Avant-Gardes began to question it, shattering the window, deconstructing and repositioning it.
In Window Part II, Ngqinambi aligns himself with these modernist concerns by using the concept and image of the window as a way to question painting – its processes and purpose; as well as the locus and origin of the artistic inspiration from which it generates.
A continuation of the themes explored in Window Part I, presented by the AVA Gallery in 2008, Ngqinambi posits the window as a threshold, both a barrier and portal. It is something which simultaneously affirms the borders of a space and illuminates the world beyond these borders; a medium of confinement as well as an invitation for exploration.
A mostly self-taught painter, Ngqinambi studied at the Community Arts Project in Cape Town from 2000 to 2001. He has since participated in various exhibitions both locally and abroad and is the recipient of a number of international residency fellowship awards. In 2012 he was selected to represent South Africa at the Dakar Biennale where he was the winner of the Foundation Blachere Award and subsequently completed a residency fellowship at the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Germany. More recently his work has been featured in the group exhibitions Future / Present (Barnard Gallery, 2016); Then and Now: Conversations in Time (Barnard Gallery, 2015); Surface: Emerging Painters (Barnard Gallery, 2015), as well as the Cape Town Art Fair (2013, 2015 & 2016) and the Joburg Art Fair (2014). Ngqinambi’s work features in several prestigious local collections, including amongst others the Iziko South African National Gallery, Sanlam, and the University of Cape Town.
WHAT: Ndikhumbule Ngqinambi – Window Part II
WHEN: until 5 July 2016
WHERE: Barnard Gallery, Main St, Newlands, Cape Town 7700
