Barnard Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
15 Sep 2015 - 20 Oct 2015
Jaco van Schalkwyk, RTM 2014/05/24 20:05, 2015, Oil on canvas (detail)
Barnard Gallery presents Jaco van Schalkwyk’s exhibition Eden. Van Schalkwyk holds a BA degree in Historical studies from the University of Pretoria and his knowledge and appreciation of art history provides ongoing content for his creative dialogue with past and contemporary art forms. In her recent text, In Search of an Inner Eden, Indra Wussow – literary scholar, curator and artistic director of the Sylt Foundation, Germany – writes, “Jaco van Scalkwyk’s landscapes are real landscapes that become symbolical and allegorical manifestations of our dreams and illusions. They play with our ideas of nature: forest as resonance-space of our soul, forest as place of danger and threat, forest as place of piousness and salvation.”Van Schalkwyk was a finalist in the 2011 Absa L’Atelier Award and in 2013 won a Merit Award in this prestigious national competition. Residency awards include The Art Students League of New York (2008) and Kunst: Raum, Sylt Quelle, Germany (2014). The artist’s work is represented in the collections of the South African Reserve Bank, Absa Bank, Ellerman House and RMB Corporate Collection. In addition to his two solo exhibitions at Barnard Gallery, selected group exhibitions include The SevenDeadly Virtues, KKNK, Oudsthoorn (2013); Paint Matters, Barnard Gallery, Cape Town (2014); Performing Wo/man, University of Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg (2014); 20 Years of Democracy: Contemporary Art from South Africa, Turchin Centre, Appalachian State University, North Carolina, USA (2014); Surface: Emerging Painters, Barnard Gallery, Cape Town (2015); 100 Years: Die Burger, Artscape, Cape Town (2015); Then & Now: Conversations in Time, Barnard Gallery, Cape Town (2015);Art in a Time of Democracy, Pretoria Art Museum / University of Johannesburg (2015) and the 6th Beijing Biennale, Beijing, China (2015). Opening reception: Tuesday September 15 at 18h00 Guest speaker: Dr Paul Bayliss
