CUBICLE Series January 2020

Cubicle is an ongoing platform at CIRCA Cape Town, giving artists scope to exhibit smaller bodies of artworks and site-specific installations for a two week period.

Featuring:
MANDY JOHNSTON | BACK TO BACK THEY FACED EACH OTHER  

COW MASH | BACK TO BACK THEY FACED EACH OTHER 

ANDREW KAYSER | A SWIMMING POOL A LAWN A LIFE

NOBUKHO NQABA | UNTITLED

SKUBALISTO | ITHEMBA ALIBULALI (HOPE WILL NOT KILL YOU)

A walkabout will be held on Saturday 25th January at 10:30am.

Email us here for a full portfolio

MANDY JOHNSTON

“Things are often defined by their antithesis and that the formation of a value is often around the threat of absence or the obvious presence of it. There is pain or fear associated with absence, with a thing that once filled space both literally or figuratively, now open and vulnerable to be absorbed, used, ignored or quoted.”

Mandy Johnston is a practising visual artist based in Cape Town. She is formally interested in the use of alternative materials in art making because of the contextual values, definitions and symbolisms attributed to them.

COW MASH

Cow Mash’s current work is inspired by her artist moniker ‘Cow’ and the cultures and symbols of the cow within Sepedi traditions, as well as globally. Through bovine metaphors, she tries to situate herself between tradition and the contemporary world. Cow Mash (Kgaogelo Mashilo) was born in Limpopo and raised in Pretoria where she is currently based. Mash was winner of the PPC Imaginarium fashion category in 2019. She has just completed her Master’s degree at TUT.

NOBUKHO NQABA

Nqaba’s work explores the precariousness of home and opportunity. Using found objects, such as checkered plastic bags (commonly known as China bags), plain grey blankets, worn overalls and milk crates, she points to the fragility, impermanence and inner resolve necessitated by circumstance. Nqaba’s work reflects on personal memories of growing up in an informal settlement in Grabouw and the complexities of migration and labour. For Cubicle Nqaba is showing work from 2019 as well as new ideas and media, which will be developed further through this year.

Nobukho Nqaba was born in Butterworth located in the Eastern Cape. She is a graduate of the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town (UCT) where she majored in photography and was mentored by Svea Josephy and Jean Brundrit (2012). In 2012, she was awarded the Tierney Fellowship and was the recipient of reGeneration3, a photography focused initiative by the Musée de l’Elysee.

SKUBALISTO

“I am not a writer; painting is my weapon of choice. The makings of a true artist lie in the fact that an individual can create no matter what medium they use.”   

Skumbuzo Vabaza, known as ‘Skubalisto’, is a visual artist based in Cape Town, South Africa. Skubalisto was born in Harare, Zimbabwe (1987), where his parents had spent their twenties in political exile. Stemming from a background in street art, Skubalisto primarily creates portraits in a contemporary expressionist style, both as murals and canvas paintings. His mediums range from spray paint, acrylic, oil pastel, charcoal to ink. His works, punctuated with social consciousness, are a collection of ideas and stories, serving as visual diaries for the state of the world at the time of their creation. 

ANDREW KAYSER

"Painting has lost symbolic force and function in a culture of promiscuous knowledge and glutting information. This is the dilemma faced, and all I can do is try to create an absurd, ambivalent, darkly hilarious reality where, while you may lose your footing, you have no choice but to abandon yourself to the pleasures of the surface."

Born in East London, Andrew Kayser is a contemporary artist living and working in Johannesburg. He graduated from Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten (Royal Academy of Art), Den Haag, Netherlands in 2001. He is represented by THK gallery.