"Fine Arts students, who honed their skills in five different undergraduate disciplines, including glass, ceramics, printmaking, painting and sculpture, apply their know-how in the degree year. They independently conceptualise and give form to a body of work in these and other media, such as found materials, digital media and performance," says Runette Kruger, Acting Head of the Department of Fine and Applied Arts.
"The degree exhibition is a platform for young artists at the cusp of their careers in a multicultural, urban environment," Runette adds.
For the exhibition, Mary Jane Letsoalo created a painted woodland scenery expressive of loss, memory and poetic imagination, whilst the installation of almost a hundred small ceramic vessels, each with a small flaw or fault, by Phineas Makhwiting, embodies the artist's engagement with physical challenges.
Nalize Venter created humorous and contemporary human-animal ceramic figurines, while Daniel Höll's land-art/digital/installation hybrid artworks combine projected photographic images with glass objects in an installation. Kholofelo Mothle explored digital animation. Organically abstract glass objects by Thabang Monoa demonstrate the expressive potential of glass, while pastel coloured resin electric plugs and divination shells and bones (by Noko Mello) explore the interface between technology and tradition.
The exhibition is curated by part-time lecturer and alumna, Cathy Batchellier and B Tech student, Thabang Monoa.
The exhibition will be officially opened by Dr Paul Bayliss, curator of the ABSA Art Collection and Museum, at 12:00 on Saturday, 1 February. Gallery hours are from 09:00 to 15:00 on weekdays.
