Tel: +27 11 834 9181
Fax: +27 86 552 8465
Email: info@bagfactoryart.org.za
Postal address: 10 Mahlatini Street · Fordsburg · Johannesburg · 2001
Physical address: 10 Mahlatini Street · Fordsburg · Johannesburg · 2001
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Archives
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Turbine Art Fair – 17 to 20 July
The Bag Factory Artists look forward to meeting you at stand A6 at the Turbine Art Fair from 17 to 20 July 2014. At the stand you will see a variety of works by artists Diana Hyslop, Jaco Van Den Heever, Tshepo Mosopa, Benon Lutaaya, Gail Berhmann, Danny Myburgh, Thonton Kabeya, Asanda Kupa.
This is the second annual Turbine Art Fair (TAF) to be held at the award winning venue the forum | turbine hall in the Newtown Cultural Precinct.
The TAF is a perfect starting point for those who wish to start their own art collection. At the Fair you will find a broad range of excellent artworks. From traditional to contemporary, famous names to undiscovered talents, you are bound to find something to your taste there. While enjoying great art you will be able to enjoy good food, wine and coffee at the venue. The fair also includes talks and seminars. All in all it will be a wonderful aesthetic experience not to be missed.
When:Opening Preview Evening: – Special Invitation or pre-booking only – Thursday 17th July, 18h00 – 22h00
Friday 18th July: 10:00 – 20:00
Saturday 19th July: 10:00 – 18:00
Sunday 20th July: 10:00 – 17:00
Where: Turbine Hall – 65 Ntemi Piliso Street, Newtown, Johannesburg
How: Buy tickets by clicking here
THANK YOU FOR JOINING US AT THE 2014 PICNIC BLANKET FUNDRAISER
A big THANK YOU!! to all who attended our Picnic Blanket Fundraiser at Shepstone Gardens on Sunday 8 June. We all had a wonderful afternoon, enjoyed the music of Billy Monoma’s quintet and sipped at the wonderful wine provided by Bovlei (Mont du Toit Kelder).
If you missed this years event, don’t despair, we will have another next year!!
THATO NHLAPO: Winner of the 2014 Reinhold Cassirer Award
Congratulations to Thato Nhlapo who is the winner of the 2014 Reinhold Cassirer Award. The Reinhold Cassirer Award, supported by Nadine Gordimer and Strauss & Co auction house, is aimed at talented young painters and drawers whose work shows great potential, but who have had limited access to artistic opportunities. The award aims to give the winner an opportunity to professionalise their practise. They are expected to stretch their creative boundaries through the informal mentorship they receive from the artists at the Bag Factory.
Thato comes from a creative family. His maternal uncle, Tebogo Mahlatsi, was an informal artist in his community in Qua-Qua. Thato’s mother loved the arts too but, as often happens, her need to support her family prevented her from practicing on a full time basis. She presently teaches art and culture to high school pupils at a school in Balfour, Johannesburg.
Like most young South Africans Thato had little opportunity to take art as a subject at school. This did not hold back from him developing his technique (and the chagrin of his teachers) by doodling in his school books.
Thato has worked in a variety of mediums, focusing on life in South African townships, and his recent interest has been graffiti. His images provide a contemporary and yet impermanent view on township culture.
Thato’s recent work has focused on his hometown, Ratanda, when he discovered how few of the local residents knew the history of the township. Ratanda was created in the 1950′s when many communities were forcefully moved from their homes to other areas as the Apartheid government enforced the “group areas act”. Some of these peoples forcefully removed from their homes were deposited in an old farmland just South of Heidelberg in 1955. These people chose Ratanda as the name for their home which is merging of the SeSotho and Zulu words for love; ‘Rata’ and ‘Thanda’ respectively.
In the past years Thato Nhlapo has pieced together a verbal history of Ratanda and using his art he is taking its story to the community. Thato selects run down or abandoned spaces in the township, making very conscious decisions around the image versus its ‘canvas’. Like the impermanence of informal settlements, and the feeling of loss the forced removals created, the impermanence of Thato’s graffitis’ adds poignantly to the history of the township.
In his work Thato prefers to focus on the fond memories, capturing the “ghosts” of Ratanda and celebrating their lives, especially those moments of community, family, laughter and fun.
Thato presently lives and works from Ratanda, and has completed his first year of his BTech Fine Art at Vaal University. He will be taking up a studio at the Bag Factory for the next two months, taking to learn from and network with the professional artists at the space.
We would like to thank the sponsors of this award. Nadine Gordimer and Strauss & Co auction house. Without their support this award would not be possible.
Works for sale
The Bag Factory was privileged to be a provided a stand at the 2012 Joburg Art Fair with supported from the Gauteng Province. This year artists at the Bag Factory produced a series of 50cm x 50cm works on high quality canvas.We still have a number of works available for sale.
These works are viewable on the slide show on the top right of this page.The commission for the sale of these works will contribute towards our efforts to purchase and renovate our building.
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Reproduction prints and original Artworks available from our shop
