Rethinking Boundaries Catalogue PRIEST 2018
“Rethinking Boundaries” is a group exhibition curated by Nompomezu Gbevu for the ArtEC gallery and community art centre situated in Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape.
The exhibition predominantly features work by local students, recent graduates and a few more established practitioners.
“Rethinking Boundaries” presents us with a glimpse into the cultural capital that exists in this peripheral and neglected province where there are few opportunities for artists and even fewer contemporary galleries that showcase works of national/international import. Often spaces like the Eastern Cape, with minimal public interest or institutional support, have an enormous effect on the artists that operate there.
At once, creating a divergence from the work produced in the major centres of artistic activity, unique perspectives and approaches forging ahead of the trends that hold sway in the major cities whilst, conversely, at times also resulting in a kind of provincialism and anachronism teetering on the edge of irrelevance.
Through this exhibition Priest and ArtEC hopes to provide a small selection of the artists from the Eastern Cape an opportunity to exhibit in what is arguably the locus of South African artistic activity whilst also presenting their works with more established peers.
As can be expected, the works are diverse in approaches, featuring oil paintings, video and mixed media works. The participating artists individually and collectively present us with a broad stroke, an impression if you like, of the creative individual’s tussle with identity in all its guises.