Stevenson Cape Town presents an exhibition of new paintings by Zander Blom, opening on 28 August.
The way I paint is heavily informed by finding new tools and developing new techniques, writes Blom. Currently my techniques rely heavily on palette knifes and the paint tube itself. When working with oil straight from the tube you are limited to the available premixed colours. So I have had to develop home-made devices that mimic the factory tubes in the form of altered medical syringes. Now I can mix any colour and make it look like it came straight from the factory out of a tube and onto the canvas! I find the drawings of many painters to be more interesting than their paintings. In order to resolve a composition spontaneity is often sacrificed. I’ve drawn on canvas before to try and avoid this but it never really worked. I’ve used other techniques to try and make work that is loose, alive and still crisp, but now the modified syringes have given me the ability to control the nozzle size. This allows me to do things that are impossible with a brush or an oil stick.
There is also a new palette knife that I’m enjoying. It has tiny teeth and makes these shell/scallop type marks. It gives me contour lines and a gradient in a single scoop. I’m following it down its own rabbit hole. I’ve also started producing my own palette knives to sculpt with, and I’ve started bleaching some canvases with household bleach.
“This makes no sense,” whispers the press release.
“Of course it does you stupid animal” I hiss back.
Zander Blom was born in 1982 in Pretoria, and lives in Johannesburg. His first major body of work, The Drain of Progress, showed in Johannesburg (2007), Cape Town (2008) and London (2009). The Travels of Bad followed, showing in Johannesburg and Cape Town in 2009. Subsequent solo shows have taken place at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah and Atlanta, Georgia, USA (2011-12); Galerie van der Mieden in Antwerp; and 5x6x9, Berlin (2010), in addition to Stevenson. Group shows include The Evolution of Art 1830-2140, Kuckei + Kuckei, Berlin (2013); The Global Contemporary: Art worlds after 1989, ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Germany (2011); Ampersand, Daimler Contemporary, Berlin (2010); and .ZA: Young art from South Africa, Palazzo Delle Papesse, Siena, Italy (2008). Blom is the winner of the 2014 Jean-François Prat Prize, Paris.
WHEN: opens on Thursday 28 August 2014, from 6 to 8pm. Ends 4 October 2014
WALK ABOUT: Blom will give a walkabout in support of the Friends of the National Gallery on Friday 29 August at 11am. Cost is R20 (members and non-members); all are welcome.
WHERE: Stevenson Cape Town, Buchanan Building, 160 Sir Lowry Road, Woodstock, Cape Town 7925
INFO: visit T 021 462 1500
