Abalone Gallery
Art in Hermanus

The Abalone Gallery is situated in Hermanus, a bustling holiday resort on the Western Cape Whale Coast.

With past solo shows of Judith Mason, Patrick Mautloa and Nel Erasmus, Abalone Art Gallery has contributed to the attractive mix of high quality visual and performing arts that continues to draw an art-appreciating public to the FynArts Festival. The exhibition is inspired by a composition dedicated to the artist as a tribute to Louis' outstanding role as a promotor of performing arts in the Overberg region. Intensely emotive, the works capture and convey a spiritual sense of nature, going beyond the merely descriptive. with the concept of power and its effects, its destructive force as well as its constructive capacity, or as in the present exhibition: the concept of 'PLACE'. She uses, just as conceptual artists do, materials from so-called 'everyday life' and of industrial provenance (paper, micropore plaster, linen and silk thread, sanding paper, charcoal, activated charcoal, etc.). She further employs repetitive activities in the transformation process, which the paper has to undergo. In her art making, she chooses to mostly use different kinds of paper and activated charcoal as her primary materials. Paper is being used as both surface and support for her work. The notion of filtering is the concept from which she is actually developing her art. Whilst she thus seems to fit well into the conceptual and minimalist art categories, Alta's self-imposed limited range of materials has quite a different reason for application: Alta follows Anna Chave's interpretation of minimalist art being a male and dominant art, with 'cool displays of power'. She transforms the paper into an open and tactile surface, which is extremely vulnerable and fragile. But then Alta tries to achieve what she calls a 'fragile equilibrium', by sewing yarn or strands to mend broken pieces and to stitch up and repair separate elements. The paintings incorporate embedded text from Smith's archives at Oxford University and include the very minerals that Smith described in his pioneering strata map. Ironic challenges have furnished Unite with insights into the legal systems and records that divide, rule and regulate ownership of land. Geo-spatial diagrams and legal text are embedded and layered, along with mine slag, minerals, metals and oxides, into an installation of paintings that reference a geological seam resonant of the mineral revolution. The exhibition features works by nationally and internationally renowned artist Judith Mason, who lives and works in White River. Her works are represented in major South African and international public art collections as well as in numerous local and overseas private art collections. Louis van Heerden, who lives and works in Betty’s Bay, is presenting his most recent narrative, landscape-inspired oil paintings, which invite onlookers to appreciate their surroundings from a new perspective. In conjunction with his captivating works on the Hermanus cliff path, Herman van Nazareth, well-known Belgian-born artist, is showing a selection of bronze sculptures at the Abalone Art Gallery. Selected works from this show, described by Amanda Botha, author and art critic, as a highlight in Lien Botha’s artistic career, will be on show during the group exhibition. André Naudé (paintings), a well-known artist and art educator (Pretoria University and Unisa), is a true colourist and shows fresh, strong works during the Kalfiefees. The exhibition presents works by Pretoria-based sculptor Susanna Swart, who produces her art work in her own foundry. In celebration of marine life, we are also delighted to show two magnificent contemplative works by Durban-based artist Kristin Yang. The artist will open the exhibition with a visual presentation of her research work and her artistic caree of thirty years.