Dead & Dreaming
An exhibition of contemporary painting
2 – 30 November 2017
142 Jan Smuts Avenue, Rosebank, JHB
For the final exhibition of 2017 Priest invites you to Dead & Dreaming bringing together a curious group of artists working in the most traditional of artistic materials, paint. Not all are painters, not all have presented paintings,but all are contributing to the continuous rejuvenation of the medium as a material of significance and relevance.
Like the god Pan, painting has frequently been proclaimed dead. First, the photograph killed it and then Duchamp with the ready-made. His criticism of retinal art removed technical virtuosity as painting’s primary virtue. However, in the panic of its own demise, the medium found a way out of potential redundancy to redefine itself as infinitely flexible.
The assimilatory capacity of painting is where its true virtue lies; consuming whatever seems to pose a threat to its relevance. It seems that this very crisis is what allows the artists who employ this sensual, gestural medium to continually reformulate its scope and character. Through its fluidity, the material responds to the pressures placed on it.
Participating artists.
