Stevenson Cape Town presents two solo exhibitions – Peter Clarke, the acclaimed South African artist and poet, and painter Deborah Poynton.
Peter Clarke (born 1929) lived in Simon’s Town until the Group Areas Act moved him to Ocean View where he has lived and worked since the late 1960s. He is best known for his paintings and prints of the daily life of Cape communities, yet in the last three decades he has also quietly produced handcrafted concertina books. Just Paper and Glue presents this rarely exhibited aspect of Clarke’s life-long practice. Using paint, pencil and scraps found in his post, these abstract collages are playful and whimsical.
Clarke says of his books: “You can’t fold up a Monet or a Cezanne or any precious work of art. But with one like this, you can fold it up and carry it in a little box. You can sit next to somebody in a waiting room and say: ‘I’ve got something to show you’, and lift it out of its box.”
A catalogue will be published to commemorate this exhibition, which will include an interview with the artist conducted by Hans Ulrich Obrist on the occasion of Clarke’s Iniva show.
The public is invited to meet Peter Clarke, and to don white gloves and peruse his books, on Thursdays 12 September (all welcome) and 10 October (Friends of the South African National Gallery only), at 11am. Booking is necessary as numbers are limited.
Deborah Poynton’s sixth solo show with the gallery,titled Pictures, comprises 12 large-scale figurative and landscape paintings, continuing her ongoing contemplation of the interplay between our perceptions of reality and of the painted surface.
Poynton purposefully describes these new works as pictures rather than paintings to emphasise the constructs of perception and imagery. In so doing, she reminds us of the act of seeing, and the devices and pictorial references which have invariably been consciously assembled within the image to create a desired meaning and effect.
This exhibition will be accompanied by a new publication on her paintings of the past few years.
Poynton will give a walkabout of her exhibition in support of the Friends of the National Gallery on Friday 13 September at 11am. Cost is R20 (members and non-members); all are welcome.
WHEN: opening Thursday 5 September until 12 October, from 6 to 8pm – open from Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, and Saturday from 10am to 1pm.
WHERE: Stevenson Cape Town, Buchanan Building, 160 Sir Lowry Road, Woodstock, Cape Town.
INFO: Tel 021 462 1500 or visit
