Anyway they were our February choice of suburbs for Martie and me to explore some new Art Galleries. Such a treat to head out on a Monday morning when Johannesburg is gearing up for a busy work week while we take in peaceful gallery spaces.
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| Leaning into a Jonathon Freemantle painting at MOMO. |
NUMBER 6: Part 2.
Seeing my city through its Art Galleries: Parktown North and Parkhurst.
The first thing that totally captured our imagination at Gallery MOMO, our first stop in Parktown North, was the lyrical Nan Shephard prose from her book 'The Living Mountain'. She writes of the Cairngorms in Scotland - 'However often I walk on them, these hills hold astonishment for me. There is no getting accustomed to them.'
The prose sets the scene for SA artist Jonathan Freemantle's 'The Oldest Mountain' exhibition, which is a personal expression of his depth of appreciation for the Magaliesberg. Gallery MOMO, which is a contemporary art space founded in 2002, was a stark and paired down setting for these paintings. The Operations Manager, Odysseus Shirindza, stepped away from his Monday admin and spent time with us, taking us into a finer appreciation of Freemantle's work, as well as his unusual techniques, the artist grounds up Magalies rock to create his paints!
My initial response to this body of work was lukewarm. I then started to lean into the paintings, started to appreciate the luminosity of the oil and pigments, noticed the textures, started to see the depth of shading, and only then did the true talent and skill become evident to me.
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| People, places, conversation and enjoyment of creativity around us. |
After the linear, cool, spacial clarity of Gallery MOMO we found ourselves at The Henry George Gallery in Parkhurst, a warm, convivial renovated home, bursting with colour and made welcoming by Darryl Gray.
This Gallery shows what passion it takes to bring fresh, new talent to market, Darryl engaged us completely with his insight about the artists and the work on display. 'The Ghost of Manchester Hotel', a downtown Jo'burg scene done in oil on newspaper by Andrew Ntshabele was impactful and fascinating in its detail.
