I’d rather be swimming

Sarah Pratt

Sarah Pratt is a highly skilled printmaker and painter specialising in copperplate etching, linocut, collograph, and monoprint as well as gouache paintings rendered in fine detail.

She begins her work with a subject or animal that interests her and then imagines what unexpected relationship to build with another. The results are mapped in the final artwork where pen, paint, print, or ink materialise her subjects. Her current interest is in drawing and painting with gouache, pen and ink; but it is the process of layering (so fundamental to printmaking) that continues to influence her aesthetic. Pratt relishes the juxtaposition of unusual or discordant subjects and the absurdity and humour of dreams. Witty and endearing, Pratt’s works also communicate her own personal struggles with space and place, the loss of a beloved pet, or humanity’s tenuous link with the natural world.

Born in Zimbabwe in 1972, Pratt spent ten years teaching printmaking part-time at UCT’s Michaelis School of Fine Art where she completed her MFA. The artist currently spends her time between Wales and South Africa. She often works on projects that take her to places renowned for their natural beauty and wildlife - such as Zimbabwe, Rwanda, and Tanzania - where the landscape, flora, and fauna are so inspiring that it is unsurprising that they find their way into Pratt's exhibitions. She is an extremely prolific artist, constantly creating, and actively participating in exhibitions.

2018 – ‘Migration’ solo exhibition at Salon91; ‘Turbine Art Fair’, Johannesburg, Salon91 Booth. 2017 – ‘The Dark Forest’ at Rust en Vrede Gallery; ‘Oracle’ at Salon91. 2016 – ‘The Fox, The Owl and the Robber’, solo exhibition at Salon91; ‘The Grand III’ at Rust en Vrede Gallery. 2015 – ‘Dog Days’, solo exhibition at Salon91; ‘Narratives’ at Rust en Vrede Gallery. 2014 – ‘Away', solo exhibition at Salon91. 2013 – ‘I’d Rather be Swimming’, Salon91; Lytton Street studio Exhibition, Cape Town; ‘Shoes from Chinese Ships’ at Salon91.

Rocky Shore clean up a great success

Photographer: Desiree Schirlinger

001 Rocky Shore Clean Up

Kalk Bay to Muizenberg beach clean up on held Sunday 14 April

11 times South African freediving record holder, Hanli Prinsloo of the I Am Water Trust in collaboration with Salon 91 Contemporary Art Collection, organized a well-supported beach clean-up along the rocky shore from Kalk Bay to Muizenberg on Sunday 14 April. The I Am Water beach clean up which forms a part of the SAMSA SEA Pledge Saldanha to Sodwana Tour, not only made that stretch of coastline more appealing to the people that live there, but also saved the lives of countless fish, mammals and birds that call the ocean their home.

The usual Sunday strollers expressed great appreciation for the teams efforts for removing the well-hidden and lodged rubbish which was stuck between the rocks.

“Like so many of you, I am so proud to live here, so thank you for helping to keep our home clean!” said Prinsloo to the gathered troops. Monique Du Preez, the gallery director for Salon 91, joined the fight armed with her bright blue rubbish bag and matching rubber gloves. “Every year in December we chose a local charity to support with profits made from an appropriately themed exhibition at the gallery,” explained Du Preez, “We chose to support I Am Water last year, their work with teaching underprivileged children how to swim as well as their dugong project really appealed to us, we were proud to have raised just over R20 000 for them.”

Joining in the clean-up were also representatives from the Sustainable Seas Trust (SST), an Eastern Cape based charity that along with the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) are currently on the SAMSA SEA Pledge Saldanha to Sodwana Tour. For four weeks the team will be touring South Africa’s coast line and spreading the word of coastal conservation to everyone from young school children to the various mayors and dignitaries along the way.

Supported by Hanli and the I Am Water trust, the SST will be holding various educational beach activities for children and adults of all ages to partake in at 15 stops along our coastline. Members of the public are encouraged to join in and make their very own SEAPledge, a written or verbal promise about how they plan on making a difference to our oceans – even committing to arrange one of their own beach clean ups.

“We need to pick up all this plastic or else the sea creatures will eat it and die,” explained seven year old Miles Dickering as he bagged another discarded plastic water bottle. A perfectly accurate statement, as more than 100 000 marine creatures a year are found dead due to plastic entanglement. Aside from this, approximately one million sea birds fall victim to ingesting plastic.

“Plastic never really biodegrades,” said beach cleaner and environmental educator Jacklyn Stephenson, “It just gets smaller and smaller, where it causes even more damage by entering the fish’s gills, getting filtered by mussels , eaten by birds and much more. We’re messing up the ecosystem that’s keeping us alive.”

“We would like to thank the City of Cape Town and Solid Waste Management for their support supplying the large blue rubbish bags and for removing over 50 bags of rubbish collected off the rocks by our team,” commented Prinsloo.

I Am Water, SST and Salon 91 all share the same vision of wanting protected and cared for coastlines and oceans. The simple act of picking up a rogue plastic bag could mean the difference between life and death for a sea creature just metres away from you.

Please visit www.iamwater.co.za to learn about the work done by Hanli and her team and www.sst.org.za to learn more about the coastal tour.

Join I AM WATER and SALON 91 for a fun COASTAL CLEANUP!

wreath_beach clean up

During December and January Salon91 hosted the ‘I’d rather be swimming’ group exhibition in association with the I AM WATER ocean conservation trust.Salon91 and its artists donated 10% of all sales of artworks to the I AM WATER conservation trust. Part of the proceeds will go towards a beach clean-up project and the rest will be put to excellent use in supporting their other amazing projects – see: www.iamwater.co.za/projects/.

The exhibition was a huge success and we would like to extend a big thank you to all the artists and people who supported the show by purchasing works. We also would like to invite any ocean & / art lovers to be a part of the beach clean up project…

The rocks along the boardwalk from Kalk Bay to Muizenberg tend to pick up a lot of trash, which is extremely harmful to the environment and marine life, so join us on SUNDAY 14 APRIL to hop, skip and jump along the rocks, keeping our ocean clean!

Meet at Kalk Bay Reef Parking Lot on Main Road (next to the Kalk Bay Garden Shop) at 9 am. City of Cape Town SOLID WASTE are supplying clean-up bags, so just bring your family, friends, sun block or rain coat whatever the weather, walking shoes and ocean love!

We will finish in Muizenberg around 11 and either walk or take the train back to the parking lot in Kalk Bay!

See you in Kalk Bay!

Hanli, Monique and the I AM WATER/ SALON 91 Teams!

01.12.12 – 26.01.2013

‘I‘d Rather Be Swimming’ End of year Group Salon in association with the I AM WATER ocean conservation trust, featuring some Salon91 favourites as well as some fresh all-new local talent.

As passionate Ocean lovers, I AM WATER, founded by champion freediver Hanli Prinsloo, strives to share the joy aquatic with as wide an audience as possible. With the help of Salon 91 water will once again take centre stage, as it should! We are all Water, and we all share the opportunity and challenge to protect our last wilderness beneath the waves. The I am Water Ocean Conservation Trust aims to do this through education and awareness, spreading the love and protection of the oceans through introducing South Africans from all walks of life to the ocean environment & important conservation issues.

Marieke Prinsloo-Rowe, best known for her beautiful swimmer sculptures, which were installed at the Sea Point Promenade until recently, will be the guest speaker at the opening.

Salon91 & I AM WATER will be hosting a beach clean up on Sunday the 20th of January 2013 at 10:00 am. We would love for the Salon91 community & everyone who appreciates nature, art or the ocean to get involved. Please contact us on info@salon91.co.za if you would like to help out.

Artists to be participating in ‘I’d rather be swimming’:

Adam Shear
Adrie Le Roux
Alice Edy
Alice Toich
Ben Winfield
Bruce Mackay
Cameron Richards
Candace Di Talamo
Carla Kreuser
Carlo Milandri
Caroline Mackintosh
Christiaan Conradie
Clinton Osbourn
Donna Solovei
Dylan Culhane
Elsabé Milandri
Elise Wessels
Elize Vossgatter
Emalie Bingham
Emily Jane Long
Fred Clark
Gabby Raaff
Galia Gluckman
Hugh Byrne
Ian Engelbrecht
Jaco Haasbroek
Jade Klara
Jean de Wet
Johke
Jo O’Connor
Justin Southey
Katrin Coetzer
Katrine Claassens
Kirsten Beets
Kirsten Lilford
Kirsten Sims
Lara Feldman
Lisa Firer
Lorraine Loots
Lucie Demoyencourt
Lucinda Mudge
Maaike Bakker
Maria Lebedeva
Marieke Prinsloo-Rowe
Mariëtte Bergh
Marlise Keith In association with Brundyn + Gonsalves
Mia Chaplin
Michael Tymbios
Michele Rolstone
Nicola DeJager
Pascal Paquette
Paul Senyol
Rebecca Haysom
Rikus Ferreira
Rohan Etsebeth
Sarah Pratt
Shan Fischer
Simon Berndt
Susana Paez
Swain Hoogervorst
Warren Lewis
You’ve Changed
Zelda Weber
& more…

Artworks – selected overview:

Exhibit Images:

Photos by David Hecker

Opening night:

Jade Klara

Jade Klara uses a wide range of materials to give form to her limitless imagination. All her works revolve around the narrative potential of the image. She works with picture and text in paint, neon, print or digital painting to articulate soft focus worlds of strange magic and beauty. Her work has been described as whimsical, graphic, slick and dark, centered around the transformative potential of the concept of magic to change or rearticulate the everyday. It is the polarising potential of a narrative that she strives to find, so you are always likely to see a bit of melancholy amidst the beauty or satire in the commonplace. A sense of childhood and transience, love and loss is central to her work with deep companionship between her characters a pervading theme. Overall she routes for the aesthetic underdog to flavour her beauty out of potential boredom. Klara works from her studio in Woodstock. She graduated with a B.A from UCT (2003) and a B.A from Vega (2007). She has exhibited in galleries in London, Los Angeles, Portland and Cape Town. She also does work for various commercial clients.

2017 – AO group show, Salon91, Oracle group show, Salon 91. 2016 – Cape Town Art Fair with Salon91; Stellar Group show, Salon 91. 2015 – This is The Place, collaborative group exhibition at Salon91; Golden Haze, Salon91. 2014 – Those Who Wander, Salon91; Home is Wherever I’m with you, Salon91; 2013 – The Witching Hour, Salon91; I’d Rather be Swimming, Salon91. 2011 – If You Let Yourself Love a Wild Thing, Salon91; Guten Tag, A Word of Art Gallery, Cape Town. 2010 – WTF is Low brow, London Miles Gallery, London; Salon Summer Show, Salon91; Illustrious, Compound Gallery, Portland OR; Spookasem, Salon91. 2009 – Way of Flow, C.A.V.E Gallery, Los Angeles; Candy coated canvas, London Miles Gallery, London.

Maaike Bakker

MAAIKE BAKKER is visual artist and illustrator working with various drawing, sculpture and installation based mediums as well as digitally with regards to her illustration based work. Bakker’s practice explores limitations imposed by systems or structures and aims to determine at which point such structures may become excessive and irrelevant, ultimately exploring futility. Her work also sets out to introduce a variety of abstract visual languages that start infiltrating each other’s space, disrupting their original expression and developing an abstract dialogue, which takes on a sort of visual broken telephone. Besides creating her own work, Bakker also lectures illustration and is a practicing art curator.

2019 – Wildflowers, end-of-year group salon in aid of Ilitha Labantu, Salon91. 2018 - Folklore, group exhibition, Salon91. 2017 – Trees Make Forests, group exhibition, Salon91. 2016 - Oracle, group exhibition, Salon91. 2015 – Stellar, group exhibition, Salon91. 2014 – Gravity, group exhibition, Salon91. Joburg, Joburg, Johannesburg Art Gallery. 2013 - Now museum | Now you don’t, solo exhibition, Nirox Project, Johannesburg; Mega Bonanza - Maybe you just have bad taste, Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg; Et al. Nirox Projects, Johannesburg. 2012 - Re-sampled, Absa Gallery, Johannesburg; Hanging Gardens, KKNK; Untitled, Long Street Art Lovers 1972, Pretoria.

Lara Feldman

Lara Feldman is a contemporary figurative painter. She works intuitively, with a love of rich colour. Paint is applied for its emotional and psychological potential. Her mastery lies in her respect for the materials, allowing them to play an important part in forming an image while balanced with her artistic intentions and painterly skill. Born in Cape Town, Feldman currently lives and works in London. After her decision to exit Michaelis School of Fine Art in 1990, she entered the world of graphic and interior design but eventually decided to navigate her way towards painting again. It is here that she nurtures her expression.

2020 – The Spectacle, group exhibition, The Fourth Art gallery/Concept store; ‘Hadeda’ pop up at Anthropologie, Kings Road, London; ‘The Grand’, Rust en Vrede Gallery, group exhibition, Cape Town; Oasis, a solo exhibition at Chandler House. 2018 – In Their Nature, a solo exhibition at Chandler House. 2017 – Trees Make Forests, a group exhibition at Salon91. 2016 – Oracle, a group exhibition at Salon91; Spirit of Irma, group exhibition at Irma Stern Museum; Space Between, group show at The Cape Town Jewish Museum; Under 18’s Only, at Association of Visual Arts; Cape Town Art Fair with Smith Studio. 2015 – Summer Salon, at Association of Visual Arts; Resonance of Wonder, a group exhibition at The Cape Town Jewish Museum; Sanlam Portrait 100 at Irma Stern Museum; Cape Town Art Fair with Salon91. 2014 – Golden Haze; group exhibition at Salon91. 2013 – Roadscapes, a solo exhibition at AVA Gallery; Cape Town Art Fair with Salon91; Collections and Archives, group show at Salon91. 2012 – I’d Rather Be Swimming, a group exhibition at Salon91. 2011 – Figuring Difference, group show at Salon91. 2010 – Transition, Emergence & The Parts In Between, solo exhibition at Salon91

Gabrielle Raaff

Gabrielle Raaff is a painter whose subjects are subtle and nuanced, avoiding neat categorization and tending instead towards fluidity and allusion. Throughout her works she engages the relationship of the individual to the crowd in the urban landscape. The delicate conceptual space of the material qualities of ink, watercolour and oil defines her practice that consistently challenges a sense of visual surety.

Raaff’s latest body of work sees an emphasis placed on the emotive quality of the brushstroke loaded with watery paint. In some paintings the form and the landscape are brought together whereas in others the subject is severed from its context, leaving forms stranded or floating in white space.

Raaff’s visual references are photographic, drawn from local neighbourhood newspapers or her family’s pictures. One type of reference is impersonal and the other deeply nostalgic. These two states merge within the final painting where, as is characteristic of her work, the picture plane repeatedly asserts itself against the pull of illusionism. The recognisable image arises and then dissolves in the terrain of the painting. With minimal description and often very little paint, Raaff reveals just enough visual evidence to springboard an idea. Her work’s seduction lies within its suggestiveness.

2020 – ‘Hazy Shade of Winter’ Salon 91 Gallery. 2019 – ‘Echoes From the South’ (solo) SMITH gallery, ‘Emphatic Whispers’ SMITH gallery. 2018 – Cape Town Art Fair, Smith Gallery. 2017 – ‘Trail’ (solo) Smith Gallery, Cape Town; ‘Lady Garden,’ Cavalli Gallery, Somerset West; ‘Nano. 1.2,’ Barnard Gallery, Cape Town; ‘Field,’ Salon 91 Gallery, Cape Town; ‘Salad,’ Smith Gallery Summer Show, Cape Town. 2016 – ‘Nano 1’ Barnard Gallery, Cape Town; ‘Paper is You III,’ Salon 91 Gallery. 2015 – ‘Night Watch’ (solo) Salon 91 Gallery; ‘However,’ Art Hun Gallery, London; Aperture Gallery, Paris; ‘Winter Show’ and ‘Empire’ at Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town; Turbine Art Fair with Salon 91 Gallery, Johannesburg. 2014 – Rotterdam Art Fair, The Netherlands; Turbine Art Fair with Salon 91, Johannesburg; Scintilla: An Alchemy Show at Commune 1 Gallery, Cape Town; Paper is You II, group show, Salon 91, Cape Town. 2011 - Realm at Salon91, Cape Town; People at Chagan Contemporary, London; Paper Is You, group show, Salon 91, Cape Town. 2009 – In Our Midst (solo) at The Muti Gallery, Cape Town. 2008 – Periphery (solo) at These Four Walls, Cape Town. 2007 – Finalist exhibition, Spier Contemporary Art Awards. 1998 – Unplugged at Rembrandt Van Rijn Gallery, Johannesburg.

Katrine Claassens

Katrine Claassens’ paintings reflect her interests in climate change, deep ecology and conservation. Her miniature paintings present us with tiny golden worlds where endless scenes from the natural world play out. From escaping circus ponies to jungle tigers, something truly wild always nips out from these small, but powerful works. In style and atmosphere, the paintings unite two very different painting traditions: Persian miniature paintings and 18thcentury travel paintings. Even though these traditions are removed geographically and temporally, they both reflect a recognition that small bits of paradise can be found here on earth.

Indeed, through Claassens’ works we visit unspoiled tropical islands, overgrown gardens and fire-fly filled forests,all bursting with a menagerie of creatures who have come out to play. The use of golden metallic leaf and the diminutive size of the paintings emphasises the preciousness of these places and their animals, reminding us to be better guardians of the small Edens we still have left in the world.

Katrine Claassens has a degree in Visual Arts from Stellenbosch University and master’s degree in Climate Change from the University of Cape Town. She has led workshops, given public lectures and curated exhibitions all over the world from the Arctic to Antarctica. She is a writer and illustrator for The Nature of Cities and also volunteers with CliMates. She currently lives and works in Montreal.

2020 - Love Letters to the Muted World, solo exhibition, 99 Loop Gallery, Cape Town. 2019 - Regarding Winter, group exhibition, Salon91, Cape Town; Trees Make Forests, group exhibition, Salon91, Cape Town; Turbine Art Fair, Salon 91, Johannesburg. 2018 - Extinction & Climate Change, talk & workshop, Redpath Museum, McGill University, Canada; ‘Adaptation Futures’, Cape Town International Convention Centre; ‘Trees Make Forests’, Salon91. 2017 – ‘we came at a time,’ 99 Loop Gallery (solo), Cape Town; ‘Thoughtful Planet,’ The Thought Foundation, Gatehead, UK; Art Africa Fair, DF Contemporary, Cape Town. 2016 – ‘Oracle’ at Salon91; ‘Welcome To The Internet I Will Be Your Guide’ (solo) 99 Loop Gallery; ‘Reverie,’ AGOG Gallery; ‘Artemisia,’ DF Contemporary; ‘Imago Mundi,’ Pratt Institute. 2015 – ‘The Persistence of Memory,’ Untitled Studios; ‘Golden Haze,’ Salon91. 2014 – ‘Fresh Produce,’ Turbine Art Fair; ‘Five Wolves No Pigs,’ Montreal. 2013 – ‘Between The Blue Swimming Pools,’ AVA (solo); ‘Muse,’ Casa Labia; ‘Fissure,’ Commune1; ‘In Good Company,’ Irma Stern Museum Gallery; ‘Home is Wherever You Are,’ Salon91. 2012 – ‘Die Landskap van Vrouwees,’ Grevilleas Gallery; ‘Shoes From Chinese Ships,’ Salon91; ‘I’d Rather Be Swimming,’ Salon91. 2011 – ‘The Jacaranda Girls and Other Stories,’ Salon91 (solo). 2009 – ‘The Birds/ Les Oiseaux,’ Cheap as Candy, Syndrome, Montreal (solo). 2008 -Sasol New Signatures Exhibition, Pretoria Arts Museum; ABSA Atelier, ABSA Gallery. 2007 – Greatest Hits, AVA Gallery; Timo Smuts Art Prize, University of Stellenbosch Gallery.

Tag: I’d rather be swimming

Sarah Pratt

Sarah Pratt

UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS

SELECTED PROJECTS & EXHIBITIONS

Rocky Shore clean up a great success

Join I AM WATER and SALON 91 for a fun COASTAL CLEANUP!