Cape Town-based musician and artist Zander Blom is once again showing at Cape Town's Stevenson Gallery. A new show, simply entitled 'New Paintings', will be his sixth solo show with the gallery. For this exhibition, his most divulging, he 'followed the medium instead of trying to make it follow me'.
Known for his expression of modernism through the eyes of a young person living in a politically and socially interesting Johannesburg at the inception of the 21st century, Blom’s new work is an extension of exactly that. 'I have believed in the idea of perpetual change as a vehicle for innovation and discovery in painting for a long time,' confesses Blom. 'Even though the overarching themes in my work have much remained the same over the last decade, my style and techniques have gone through many transformations.'
Blom characteristically creates modular forms in paint or printmaking that are then constructed and deconstructed whilst being documented at all stages. The documentation, in the form of photography, is mostly staged in his home. 'My current home studio is more or less the shape of a shoebox. One-third of the shoebox is the safe side, a painting-free zone with a couch, coffee table and two working tables. The other two-thirds is full of canvas and paint,' he says.
By his own declaration he decided early on in his career to be a 'productive, prolific and non-suicidal artist' following his own whims and impulses. His new expression collects this awareness and reveals some of his inner workings – including what he calls 'cabin fever' in his studio.
Despite the deceptively simple title 'New Paintings', Blom's new show is his most divulging yet. Pictured left: Untitled [1.767], 2016. Right: Untitled [1.763], 2016
Blom's art is conceived through the eyes of a young person living in a politically and socially interesting Johannesburg. Pictured: Untitled [1.760], 2016
Blom explains, 'I have believed in the idea of perpetual change as a vehicle for innovation and discovery in painting for a long time.' Pictured: Untitled [1.761], 2016
By his own declaration, he decided early on in his career to be a 'productive, prolific and non-suicidal artist' that follows his own whims and impulses. Pictured: Untitled [1.765], 2016
INFORMATION
'Zander Blom: New Paintings' is on view until 9 April. For more information, visit the Stevenson Gallery's website
Photography courtesy the artist and Stevenson Gallery
ADDRESS
Stevenson Gallery
Buchanan Building
160 Sir Lowry Road
Woodstock 7925
Cape Town
-
Sculptor Woody De Othello paints a Miami museum red for a show that ‘almost hugs you’The Miami-born, California-based artist opens his first museum exhibition in his hometown as an experiential journey through life and lifeless objects
-
Alpine A390 GT: French, fast and fun. A sporting EV with a real sense of occasionAlpine doubles down on its fast electric credentials with the A390 GT, the French performance brand’s largest car to date
-
Forget smart homes, Doma's 'intelligent' doors open at the sight of a familiar faceYves Béhar and Jason Johnson have founded Doma, a tech start-up dedicated to seamlessly integrating tech into your daily life
-
This Gustav Klimt painting just became the second most expensive artwork ever sold – it has an incredible backstorySold by Sotheby’s for a staggering $236.4 million, ‘Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer’ survived Nazi looting and became the key to its subject’s survival
-
Meet Eva Helene Pade, the emerging artist redefining figurative paintingPade’s dreamlike figures in a crowd are currently on show at Thaddaeus Ropac London; she tells us about her need ‘to capture movements especially’
-
Maggi Hambling at 80: what next?To mark a significant year, artist Maggi Hambling is unveiling both a joint London exhibition with friend Sarah Lucas and a new Rizzoli monograph. We visit her in the studio
-
Out of office: The Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the weekThis week, the Wallpaper* editors curated a diverse mix of experiences, from meeting diamond entrepreneurs and exploring perfume exhibitions to indulging in the the spectacle of a Middle Eastern Christmas
-
Artist Shaqúelle Whyte is a master of storytelling at Pippy Houldsworth GalleryIn his London exhibition ‘Winter Remembers April’, rising artist Whyte offers a glimpse into his interior world
-
David Goldblatt captures intimate portraits of Johannesburg during apartheidBetween 1948 and 2016, David Goldblatt returned periodically to Fietas, a suburb in the west of Johannesburg’s city centre, to photograph the impact of apartheid legislation on its residents and landscape. The resulting photographs have now been collected and published for the first time
-
‘Sit, linger, take a nap’: Peter Doig welcomes visitors to his Serpentine exhibitionThe artist’s ‘House of Music’ exhibition, at Serpentine Galleries, rethinks the traditional gallery space, bringing in furniture and a vintage sound system
-
Classic figurative painting is given a glamorous and ghostly aura by Polish artist Łukasz StokłosaThe gothic meets the glamorous in Stokłosa’s works, currently on show at London’s Rose Easton gallery
