VISUAL ARTS

MBATHA LINOCUTS



At the African Art Centre until October 10 is a marvellous exhibition of linocuts by Azaria Mbatha.

Azaria is the first South African artist to be accepted onto the New York Museum of Modern Art's permanent collection and he has dedicated his exhibition to his mentor, the late Jo Thorpe, popular and respected co- ordinator of the African Art Centre for many years.

Shown alongside these distinctive mono-chromatic prints are sculptures by Philemon Sangweni and Zazi Nkosi, head-dresses from the Msinga area and beaded marriage capes from Bergville. Sculpture by Obed Zulu is also included with new Rorkes Drift pottery and out-standing silk-screened fabrics and rugs and tapestries.

The African Art Centre, which is in Guildhall Arcade in Gardiner Street, also has an excellent new range of beadwork.

CLAY EXPO 1996



The Association of Potters of Southern Africa, Natal Region, is holding its annual regional exhibition sponsored by Edgeware Ceramics from November 5 to 16 at the Alliance Fran‡aise at 22 Sutton Crescent.

Well-known artist Fiona Kirkwood will open the exhibition on November 5. She will also serve on the judging panel alongside Natal potter Garth Hoets and visiting judge Elisabeth Burghalter who conducts a workshop on November 3.



LUKAS VAN VUUREN



An exhibition of work by Lukas van Vuuren at the Technikon Natal Art Gallery from October 8 to 24 comprises paintings and mixed media works.
[van vuuren pic]
All the works were executed since 1995 when Lukas was invited to be artist-in-residence at Technikon Natal. On gra-duating in 1962 from the Pretoria Tech-nical School of Art, he was later awarded a scholarship to the Royal College in London where he obtained his ARCA diploma in 1965. Formative and enduring influences in his work were the works of C‚zanne and the British "pop" artists of the 60's, many of whom were associated with the Royal College as lecturers or fellow students.

CALIFORNIA

After lecturing in art for two years at the American College at Leysin in Switzer-land, he worked as artist and lecturer in California for eight years from 1967.

Three years spent as artist-in-residence at the California Institute of Technology reflect a major creative period. Here he was responsible for organising an art programme to enable artists to work closely with technology.

On his return to South Africa in 1975, Lukas lectured in sculpture at the University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg and was also director of the Cape Town Institute of Arts.

Andrew Verster will open the exhibition at 18h00 on October 7. Music will be provided by Nishlyn Ramanna (piano) and Stacy van Schalkwyk (flute).

ART ALFRESCO

Art Alfresco will be held at the Old Pavilion site on the Snell Parade on October 13 and 27. Proceeds go to the National Cancer Association.

Phone John Whiting on 86-5615.



MEDIATEK



A new competition and exhibition, All Things Digital, at the NSA Gallery has been launched by Media Tek, a DTP, Computer Graphics and Multimedia training institute.

A challenge has gone out to DTP operators, graphic designers, photo-graphers and artists to prove that computer-generated art is a true art form which needs to be taken more seriously.

This is said to be in line with overseas trends where digital art in the form of one-off and limited edition prints has been on the art scene for several years.

In order to assist artists who have limited access to computers, Media Tek sponsored a class of four artists to attend a three-week course on Fractal Design Painter 4 with a further two weeks to use their Apple Power Pc's to complete work for submission to the exhibition.

The artists are Brendon Bussy, Virginia MacKenny, Tsietsie Matubalo and first-year fine art student Bongi Dube who is the only non-established artist.

The best entry will be submitted to the Fractal Design Art Expo, Los Angeles, during May 1997 which attracts art from internationally acclaimed artists.

Media Tek: All Things Digital

opens at the NSA Gallery on October 6.

DEMOCRATIC GALLERY



Until October 17, the Democratic Gallery at the BAT Centre hosts the Alusaf Aluminium in Art Exhibition presented by the Empangeni Art and Cultural History Museum. This features a variety of art made from wire, foil, cans, aluminium sheeting and other products as well as environmentally-friendly waste material. This will be followed by the Wentworth Community Art Exhibition which runs from October 19 to November 13.