Art Exhibition - Fairview Hotel
Opening event : Friday 8 April 2011 at 18h00 for 18h30
Venue : Fairview Hotel, Old Gravelotte rd, Tzaneen
Artists : Painter – Dandheni Andrew Nhlangwini
Theme : ” A retrospective celebration of Tata Mandela’s life “
You are invited to view the impressive work of one of South Africa’s very talented local artists – Andrew Nhlangwini
“ To place an artwork in the public space-rather than to hang it on somebody’s wall, will make people feel that they own it, that it belongs to everyone...
Dandheni Andrew Nhlangwini sees himself as an “ African traditional artist” , working in a traditional Western style of narrative painting.
Nhlangwini reinterprets and recasts stories of the African past as personal experiences- and his work is a reminder of the forgotten place of individuals in the objective portrayal of human history.
Nhlangwini’s 2004 exhibition, The prophecy of the Cattle Killing of 1856/7, known as the Ibali lika Nongqawuse, propelled him into the spotlight as a painter.
Andrew married the synergy of the taught South African history with the arts and culture of their everyday life and with the skills that he have learned through his training at a typical Western art school and the twenty years of lecturing at university level, he was able to produce his very individualistic style of painting.
He has been taught how to use a range of mediums, e.g. oil paint, water colour, pencils , acrylic etc, and how to express himself through the vehicle of a predominantly Westernized form of communication. At the Ford Hare , school of art , Andrew were taught a great awareness of new techniques for expressing himself. According to Nhlangwini, he developed his own symbols and images which he used to communicate with. He also mentioned that many personal discoveries have already influenced his work, and what he have learnt influenced his work even further...
Andrew Nhlangwini was involved in numerous projects and exhibitions on national as well as international levels.
*In 1995 he held an exhibition at the King George VI Art Gallery,
*Solo exhibition in 2004 at the NSA Gallery,
*Solo exhibition at the MOMO Gallery in Johannesburg,
*MTN Resistance, Reconciliation and Reconstruction art exhibition in 2004,
*Exhibiting in Mexico city at Tlaxcala University,
*He painted a mural with other international artists in Argentina,
*Mural painting ,”Man and Myth 2001” Target Kloof Valley in collaboration with the *Danish Centre for culture and Development.
*The “ Conviction “ art project ( Trust by Thabo Mbeki for the Rivonia Political Heroes).
Nhlangwini was also always a great supporter of the celebrated painter George Pemba, and leaped at the opportunity when he was asked to get involved in the Memorial Project of George Pemba, while he was still a painter and art lecturer at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth.
“ Since my student days, I’ve admired George Pemba’s courage and his work- he recorded his peoples life through visual images...”
