How do you completely win over my heart? Buy me donuts and take me to an art gallery. It seems my family truly understands the way to my heart as last weekend we went “Art Gallery Hopping” where we basically just visit exhibitions and feed our souls with art.

There is something magical about an art gallery, it’s my happy place where everything in me tingles and I just want to be surrounded by the visual thoughts of the artists. It’s like coming up for air after holding your breath under water; simply it’s living. There’s a profound beauty in the most disturbing of pieces and that’s what I appreciate the most; the feeling. When I look at a piece I want to feel something, anything really, all I want is a reaction. I want an artist to make me think, awestruck me and dazzle me all at the same time. I fall in love in an art gallery, fall in love with strokes, patterns, sketches, charcoal, every little detail that has lead me to the artwork before me.

It’s Home

We visited 3 galleries last weekend:

1. KZNSA Art Gallery
2. Artspace
3. African Art Centre

(Please note unfortunately I don’t have any pictures, since photos are not allowed in art galleries but I do recommend you visit these galleries and experience their beauty for yourselves.)

The KZNSA Art Gallery has a gorgeous exhibition that really fascinated me, 5 Degrees of Realism looks at 5 exhibiting artists as they reflect on each other’s work. I really liked this because there was such a lovely cohesive thread among the works with interesting perceptions and interpretations. “The artists’ work is related in the first instance by the orthodoxy and immediacy of communicating via marks on a canvas.” Each artwork is so different from the next but I loved how each piece was like a new chapter to a beautiful story. The exhibiting artists were Louise Hall, Ian Calder, Terence King, Terri Broll and Heather Gourlay-Conyngham.

And then there was the detailed and stunning works of Sthenjwa Luthuli with his exhibition Longing to Grasp. He depicts these gorgeous abstract silhouettes filled with bright colours and details. They are a series of woodcut prints with an ink was and are simply a sight. He looks at dance as a form of expression and freedom. I could honestly just stare at them forever taking in every detail and form of each figure.

We also did a little shopping, The Shop has a variety of trinkets and little masterpieces and my mom and I found ourselves gravitating to the soft and bright printed scarves (guys they are an absolute bargain they were R55 each and they are beautiful)

Our second stop is my favourite art gallery in Durban, Artspace there’s this cool, trendy atmosphere and their coffee shop is like coffee and Typo got married. This exhibition was absolutely just wow, I loved it. There was such an amazing dynamic and diversity between the different artworks. The exhibition is titled Together Apart, “Together Apart is about two connected people with the same intense interest in art and creativity, but whose works might be different and, therefore, ‘cannot be put under one roof’, except during this exhibition!” I beg for you to check this exhibition out, it’s inspiring and moving and intriguing and it took my breath away. The exhibiting artists are Chris de Beer and Marlene de Beer, Heather Pattenden and Mhairi Pattenden, Miranda Crooks and Nicholas Crooks, Karla Nixon and Dane Stops, Pascale Chandler and Claude Chandler, Grace Kotze and Melody French, Ian Calder and Nina Calder.

And our last stop was at the African Art Centre, if you’ve never visited them you really should it’s great to see raw African work and it’s a lovely way to promote our tourism. From traditional pottery to detailed beadwork, my eyes indulged in such beauty. There was a specific artist that caught my eye however; Sabastian Pillay depicts fine elements in a black pen and they are quite delightful. I felt so proud to see a young artist in a gallery especially one as talented as him. Check out his Instagram page Hidden.Detail and while you’re at it check out my Instagram page and give me a follow @tashalm28