Michael Betancourt

Greg Tate

Isolde Brielmaier

José Parlá

Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery

José Parlá (born 1973) derives his art from the accretions and damage of city walls, and the record they supply of neighborhood character and local history. To these collectively authored public surfaces, Parlá brings a consciousness of art history, and the transformations of graffiti traditions dating back to ancient Rome by painters such as Twombly, Basquiat and Kiefer. His mixed media works sometimes employ fresco techniques and include acrylic, oil paints, plaster, posters used as collage, homemade inks and enamel spray paint. Parlá's archeological works celebrate the chronicles of the urban fabric as a diary: he writes, "as my works evolved, be it paintings, signatures, or even the documentation of these early ephemeral artworks throughout city walls, the works took on the nature of personal journals based on empirical experiences." This volume surveys his two-decade oeuvre.

Walls, Diaries, and Paintings

Okwui Enwezor

Zwelethu Mthethwa

Zwelethu Mthethwa's large scale portraits often portray rural immigrants on the margins of South African cities, revealing the efforts his subjects make to maintain their cultural identities through their choices in clothing, and the decoration of their dwellings and places of worship. Mthethwa also addresses the economic and political reality of present day South Africa.

Christoph Heinrich

Elizabeth Alexander

"Jordan Casteel: Returning the Gaze brings together nearly thirty paintings made between 2013 and 2018 by Jordan Casteel, including examples from Brothers, Visible Man, Nights in Harlem, and her subway Subway series. By transforming her photographs into larger-than-life portraits with subtle shifts in light, bold colors, and gestural brushwork, Casteel reveals individuals and atmospheres that often go unnoticed"--

Returning the Gaze

Jordan Casteel

Tumelo Mosaka

Tosha Grantham

Photography and video are powerful tools for shaping perception and effecting change, as is convincingly portrayed through the images in this catalogue. Featuring the works of sixteen South African photographers and video artists from 1950 to the present, the catalogue was conceived to accompany the exhibition of the same name at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. The cultural and political turbulence of South Africa has lent particular urgency to the role of these media. The eight sections of this catalogue explore a broad spectrum of social and aesthetic themes that have not been brought together in this way before in the United States or abroad. Darkroom focuses on four generations of artists, including those who lived and worked primarily in South Africa during the apartheid era (1948-1994) and a younger generation that has gained wide international prominence since apartheid's end. The title refers to both literal and metaphorical dark rooms: the actual place where photography and video is made or seen; the artistic isolation created by apartheid; and the psychological and physical hardship of making meaningful work under threat of imprisonment, torture, and exile. The images appear as they are organized in the galleries: eighty-six photographs, eight photo-based installations, and six video installations. The artists include native South Africans and long-term South African residents from Germany, the United States, and England. Contributing Artists: Roger Ballen * Ian Berry * David Goldblatt * William Kentridge * Peter Magubane * Thando Mama * Senzeni Marasela * Santu Mofokeng * Zweiethu Mthethwa * Robin Rhode * Tracey Rose * Jürgen Schadeberg * Berni Searle * Andrew Tshabangu * Nontsikeleio Veleko * Sue Williamson Distributed for the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Photography and New Media in South Africa, 1950

Darkroom

Isolde Brielmaier

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