Artist BILLY MANDINDI, The Cape Gallery

BILLY MANDINDI
Born 24th Februry 1967 in Cape Town

The following is an extract from “Resistance Art” by Sue Williamson Asked if he thinks art can change the way people look at things, Mandindi replies: “If people would try to understand what the artist is trying to say, they can be like kids who are trying to grow.” Mandindi is a student at the Michaelis School of Fine Art in Cape Town, a young artist with a deep commitment to his work. “I’ll only do art in my life, nothing but art,” he says “work about people, and what’s happening. At first, when I was thinking about art, I thought it was about drawing and all those things…. Then I suddenly became aware of what was happening around me and tried to capture that. In our art, I think there was something missing. It’s still missing. Some of the things that happened years ago, the results are still coming now, so in my work, I am trying to go far back and mix it with what is happening now.” Mandindi not only depicts contemporary issues, but frequently makes work, which gives a fresh perspective to an historical event. SCHOOLING 1979 -1994 (Standard 3-9) King Williams Town, Ciskei ART EDUCATION 1990 Hard Ground Printmakers member: exhibitions: collaboration 1989 Thupelo Workshop Johannesburg 1988-1989 Visual Arts Group workshops: exhibitions: mural painting 1987-1988 Michaelis School of Fine Art; University of Cape Town 1985-1986 Community Arts Project Woodstock Cape Town CAP EXHIBITIONS 2005 Participated in the Group Show “Encompass” at the Cape Gallery 1994 Picturing our World (Western Cape) S A National Gallery Black and White, a relief print exhibition at The British Council, Athlone Relief in Black and White, group print exhibition, Brighton University, UK Fresh Cream, group exhibition of Print Making at the Chelsea Gallery, Wynberg Exhibition of Linocuts S A Arts, Cape Town (September) Participated in the Urban Arts Foundation Sculpture Workshop Invited to participate in the Africus Biennale, Johannesburg Commissioned by Caltex to produce two linocuts 1990 Participated in the MOMA Exhibition, London 1989 Visual Arts Group Exhibition, UCT Centre for African Studies The above exhibition was taken to the University of the Western Cape 1988 Images of the Western Cape – S A National Gallery Palette of Oppression – group exhibition with Rodger Meintjies and Fuad Adams 1987 Peep Show S A National Gallery, Cape Town Eye of the Artist – Gugulethu Township: Cape Town Foreshore 1986 Student work C A P Works on paper, S A Association of ARTS Durban Young Blood, S A Association of ARTS Cape Town Tin and Wire, S A National Gallery, Cape Town. PUBLIC COLLECTIONS UNISA Art Collection S A A A Durban S A National Gallery Thupelo Workshop Art Collection Caltex Art Collection PUBLICATIONS Youth Express, Grass Roots Art of the South African Township, G Young Resistance Art, Sue Williamson Book of Hope, David Phillips Publishers New Art, Jane Taylor, David Bunn North Western University America. Art in South Africa , the future present, written by Sue Williamson Ashraf Jamal , Published by David Philip Cape Town.				Artist: BILLY MANDINDI Title: Untitled Size: 56 x 56 cm Media: Oil pastel Price: R4 000 (framed) SOLD BELOW ARE excerpts FROM “SOUTH AFRICA THE FUTURE PRESENT” BY SUE WILLIAMSON AND ASHRAF JAMAL: These are comments on Mandindi's artwork done on the theme of South Africa’s struggle for liberation: “It was Mandindi’s use of primary colours and the makeshift execution that were striking. In spite of the grimness of the theme, Mandindi’s piece was not sombre or funereal. “I didn’t want to do something that was very serious. That’s why I used bright colours. So it’s not that scary. So people can still look at the work.” Mandindi’s rationale serves as a vital corrective. It opens up a much-needed realm of healing. Mandindi’s art exists in the realm of imagination and not in the realm of the pictorial and strait-laced narrative,” says the artist Gavin Younge. “There is something ‘fantastical’ about him” It is this transformative and alchemical quality that distinguishes the artist and his painting, constructions and prints. Mandindi is a jester for whom nothing is to serious – and yet concerning the life of the South African Artist, he reminds us that “things are still the same”. He continues to regard himself as “a tool for the liberation”, but believes this tool need not be that of a sad militancy. After all “one does not kill by anger but by laughter” says Zarathustra. “Come, let us kill the spirit of Gravity”

On Show I Where to find us I The Gallery I On Exhibition I ArtistsI Payment details

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Gallery hours: Mon to Fri: 9h30 to 17h00, Sat: 10h00 to 14h00
American express, Mastercard, Visa and Diner cards are accepted.
Reliable arrangements can be made to freight purchases to foreign destinations.

60 CHURCH STREET CAPE TOWN 8001, TEL: +27 21 4235309, FAX: +27 21 4249063

copyright © 2009. The Cape Gallery. All rights reserved