Norval Foundation opens two new exhibitions on February 8th 2020, namely Accomplice: Michael Armitage and the 5th instalment of our Collector’s Focus series of exhibitions, Courage is as Contagious as Fear: Selected works from the Hoosein Mahomed Collection.
Accomplice: Michael Armitage
Gallery 1, Norval Foundation
Accomplice: Michael Armitage, includes eight paintings and a series of preparatory ink drawings that have been created over the past two years following the 2017 Kenyan elections.
Through this body of work, Armitage explores representations of the body politic, connecting images of contemporary East Africa to traditions of Western figurative painting. Instead of canvas or linen, the paintings included in the exhibition at Norval Foundation are completed on Lubugo cloth, which is crafted from the bark of the mutuba tree in southern Uganda. A textile developed by the Baganda people, and designated a piece of oral and intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO.
Accomplice will be accompanied by a fully illustrated publication, edited by Sandra Dodson and Owen
Martin and designed by Daniel Rautenbach. The publication will feature colour plates of all artworks in
the exhibition, visual research materials prepared by the artist and an essay by Owen Martin.
Courage is as Contagious as Fear: Selected works from the Hoosein Mahomed Collection
Gallery 9, Norval Foundation
Courage is as Contagious as Fear: Selected Works from the Hoosein Mahomed Collection is part of Norval Foundation’s ongoing Collector’s Focus series of exhibitions.
Initiated by the Foundation’s Founding CEO, Elana Brundyn, this series draws upon a broad range of local, national and international collections, owned by private individuals, corporate entities and public institutions, to consider the impact of these collections on the practice of collecting and, more broadly, in shaping culture. Courage is as Contagious as Fear presents a selection of works from the collection of entrepreneur and attorney Hoosein Mahomed.
Beginning with his first acquisition in 2007, Mahomed has established himself as a collector by acquiring works by prominent mid-career and established contemporary South African artists, as well as supporting younger artists at the beginning of their careers. Mahomed finds the acquisition process to be an acutely personal exercise, noting, “I think it’s not so much about collecting objects. It’s really about collecting memories. And it starts as one delves very deeply within the individual self, in order to begin the process of relearning and unlearning oneself through images”.
WHERE: Norval Foundation, 4 Steenberg Road, Tokai, Cape Town 7945
WHEN: The exhibitions open to Norval Foundation members on February 8th from 10:00AM.
- The exhibition opens to the public at 11:00AM, with a talk between artist Michael Armitage and Chief Curator Owen Martin at 11:30AM in the atrium.
- There will also be a talk with Hoosein Mahomed, in conversation with exhibition curator Daniel Rautenbach, in the atrium.
PHOTOS: Michael Armitage, The Fourth Estate, 2017. © Michael Armitage. Photo © White Cube (George Darrell).
Steven Cohen,
put your heart under your feet … and walk!, 2013-2017. Courtesy of the artist and Stevenson, Cape Town and Johannesburg.
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