One month – one art fair, one design fair and an indaba. February celebrates the second Cape Town Art Fair.
Previewing an exhibition is tricky. One never quite knows whether actual experience will live up to the hype or even whether what’s presented gives a true feel of the overall ethos of the show. This is made marginally easier when it is preceded by previous successes as in last year’s first Cape Town Art Fair which pulled in 5000 visitors, both international and local and generated a whole lot of networking for buyers, collectors, artists and gallerists.
Situated across the road from the Guild Design Fair it’s the fine art counterpoint to design all in one precinct .
This year the Cape Town Art Fair will be show casing the artist of 34 commercial galleries, its a one stop whistle tour of a wide range of acclaimed artists as well as emerging local talent.
Fiera Milano Director, Africa and project director of the art fair Louise Cashmore believes that over the last 10 years, art has really taken off in Cape Town with local art attracting more and more attention from collectors here and abroad. Her intention for the art fair was to create a platform to support this and a space to allow people to view art work. Initially she said that some prospective players were suspicious questioning as to why she was doing this especially seeing she was not considered a citizen of the art world. But last year’s success has won over the doubters and 3 more top galleries; Stevenson, Goodman and Everard Read have joined.
Stevenson’s Joost Bosland is encouraged “ to see that the Cape Town art world is becoming a denser, more layered fabric of spaces and events.” According to Cashmore this year’s art fair will see greater refinement and a focus on quality. Curatorial committee member and UCT academic, Andrew Lamprecht believes that this year the fair building on last year’s success will “be more focused”.
This year’s independent curator is Ernestine White who has works in the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection and practices both as a curator and an artist. White will be curating the work of Lyndi Sales. Her choice was inspired by Sales’s “innovative use of traditional and non-traditional techniques” Sales will be exhibiting a selection of work from a body of work around the distorted vision associated with astigmatism, vision, perception and the imagination
Josh Ginsberg
The work of Josh Ginsburg falls under Special Projects Programme. Using works borrowed from galleries, private collections, friends, colleagues and the booths at the fair itself, Ginsburg will be assembling a series of micro exhibitions. He is “interested in seeking out combinations that resonate or that seem to make sense to me but for reasons I can’t identify or articulate.” The project aims to engage visitors in conversation.
Other highlights are works from our continent -Senegal, Benin and Sierra Leone showcased by the gallery Ebony.
In keeping with the ethos of the World Design Capital of outreach and sustainability through design the art fair is involved will be providing an interactive stand where children visiting the fair will be able to contribute to the graffiti wall and colour in their own ‘art viewing’ glasses and tote bags, all for a small donation that will go towards developing projects This stand is hosted by the new comer Sovereign Trust which has signed on with the art fair for the next three years. The trust runs the annual Sovereign Asian art prize to generate funds for the rehabilitation and therapy of compromised children.
Look out for the programme of performances, talks and artist dialogues on the CTAF website.
The Cape Town Art Fair. At the BMW Pavilion, V& A Waterfront. Opens 28 February till 2 March.
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This article first appeared in The Cape Times on 24 February 2014. Lucinda Jolly is a freelance arts writer and Head of Journalism at City Varsity.
