Contemporary visual art lovers who couldn’t make it to this year’s KKNK cultural festival in Oudtshoorn will be delighted to hear Absa Gallery’s 2016 KKNK exhibition will feature works from not only Absa’s own festival exhibition, but pieces from other KKNK curated exhibitions as well.
An overview of KKNK 2016 will comprise a well-selected and curated exhibition representing some of the exceptional artwork that was on display at KKNK this year.
The theme for the visual arts at KKNK 2016 was Blank Spaces: The poetry of the unfinished or the beginning of the new.
“The design brief explored the idea of blank spaces: that we embrace the concept that there is more space than can be seen, that there are void spaces or, as it were, that there is a vaster horizon. The odd thing about removing content in making space is that we, as humans, find it very hard to deal with the absence of content,” says Stephan Erasmus, curator of Absa Gallery’s Empty Spaces exhibit.
“The brief also embraced the idea of opportunities created through these spaces. Blank spaces allow for the new: a fresh start from the past, new beginnings, an opportunity to wipe the slate clean, a shift in direction or a reinvention of the old. Blank spaces welcome new interpretations, ideas and challenges. Working with a clean canvas, no matter what art field you are in, stimulates the mind in mysterious ways, allowing life and objects to flourish without discrimination,” he adds.
Empty Spaces: An overview of KKNK 2016 reveals the different interpretations of this idea of blank spaces and the overall festival theme by the various exhibitors and curators that participated in this year’s KKNK.
These exhibitors include Blank Spaces, curated by Candice Berman of the Candice Berman Fine Art Gallery, About Empty Spaces, curated by Dead Bunny Society, In the midst of things, curated by Maaike Bakker and Jayne Crawshay, Palimsest, curated by Trent Read of Knysna Fine Art, Anantomic by Lehlogonolo Mashaba, Catalyst, curated by Lucia Boer of Kuns, The Crossing Place, curated by Mandy Conidaris of outoftheCUBE, Skerwe Verbeeld by Heidie Fourie and Allen Laing, Herbesoek: Twee Dekades by Hanneke Benadé (festival artist), and Retro-Pre-Intro by Pat Mautloa (festival artist).
The exhibition will also feature those artists that formed part of the Absa Gallery KKNK exhibition.
Empty Spaces: An overview of KKNK 2016 runs at the Absa Gallery from Sunday, 8 to Friday, 27 May. The gallery is open from 8:30 to 16:00, Monday to Friday.