LOST IN THE LIGHT

01.12 - 18.12.2021

A solo exhibition by Kirsten Sims

Salon Ninety One is honoured to present Lost in the Light; a rare collection of luminescent, sensitive colour pencil drawings by Kirsten Sims.

 

This artist statement has been an impossible one to write. Since deciding to exhibit these drawings, I’ve started and stalled more times than I can count.

In March this year my world came crashing down when my partner Dale, the father of my son Finlay, died in a drowning accident after finishing a 3-day hike with friends in the Drakensberg mountains.

When I was finally ready to go back into my studio, I sat down to paint and nothing worked. What I needed to process was simply too big. The weight of my grief was too heavy. Paint was too heavy. My usual way of working stopped working and I couldn’t just go back to painting familiar landscapes and parties because the world I found myself in was a completely different place from the one I’d known before.

Day after day I showed up in my studio hoping to escape, hoping that the imaginary worlds I usually get lost in would carry me far away. But I just couldn’t go there.

Meanwhile the garden that Dale started to plant a year ago began to come alive. Every few days my mother would pick a single flower and put it on my desk. One day I picked up some colour pencils and I drew that day’s flower. Then the next and the next.

It was as if my grief was driving me back to the beginning, back to art school basics. I had the voice of my high school art teacher in my head, and I suddenly understood things he tried to teach me 16 years ago. I started to find comfort in the lightness and fragility of the pencils. Their sensitive and vulnerable nature mirrored my internal world quite perfectly and I was finally able to go to those impossible places.

This collection of drawings is in honour of my love, Dale Kilian. I will keep trying and failing to draw you for the rest of my life.

I titled the show after a song of the same name by Bahamas.

- Kirsten Sims

ARTWORKS

 

 

GOODNIGHT MOON

04.11 - 28.11.2020

A solo exhibition of new paintings by Kirsten Sims

 

In response to being confined to a small space with a tiny newborn, this body of work is a reflection on the early lockdown months of 2020. I started reading an old classic, Goodnight Moon (Margaret Wise Brown) to my son every night at around the same time as our one bedroom flat became our entire universe. The act of reading the same story out loud every night, over and over again, became a meditative ritual. The story is poetically simple and its words have a way of gently lulling one to sleep as the bunny says goodnight, one by one, to all the familiar things in the room. The story started to reflect my relationship to our flat and the way it became our whole world and the way the plant in the corner and the light fittings and the paintings on the walls became these objects of total fascination to my one-month old baby. We weren’t allowed outside, and outside wasn’t allowed inside. The book is both comforting and strangely unsettling and I think that reflects my experience of being a new mother in these weird times: cozy and lonely at the same time.

- Kirsten Sims; Cape Town, September 2020

 

This exhibition features a combination of mixed media paintings on Italian cotton and board. Sims' subject matter for Goodnight Moon ranges from vistas, portraits, landscapes, nightscapes, animated crowd scenes, to intimate domestic moments; with images drawn from the Artist's new life as a mother, themes from the book, familiar landscapes, as well as narratives both real and imagined. Each highly unique piece has been brought to life by the Artist's extremely vivid imagination and much-loved sense of humour; for which her work has become so renowned.

ARTWORKS:

 

INSTALLATION VIEWS:

 

A HAZY SHADE OF WINTER

08.08 - 05.09.2020

A Hazy Shade of Winter is a salon-style group show including works by represented, associated, and exciting new artists. Exhibiting Artists include Adele Van Heerden, Alexia Vogel, Amber Moir, Andrew Sutherland, Black Koki, Elléna Lourens, Keya Tama, Ello Xray Eyez, Emma Nourse, Gabrielle Raaff, Heidi Fourie, Jade Klara, Jeanne Hoffman, Jessica Bosworth Smith, Joh Del, Katrin Coetzer, Katrine Claassens, Keneilwe Mothoa, Kirsten Beets, Kirsten Sims, Laurinda Belcher, Lené Ehlers, Lili Probart, Linsey Levendall, Mareli Esterhuizen, Marolize Southwood, Matthew Prins, Mona Haumann, Natasha Norman, Nicole Clare Fraser, Nina Torr, Paul Senyol, Sarah Pratt, Tara Deacon, and Zarah Cassim.

The group exhibition inspired by the Simon and Garfunkel song of the same name, seeks to explore subject matters, palettes, and imagery which capture and express the varied emotions, colours, memories, and atmosphere, which this season brings. For some artists, winter evokes icy vistas, cool palettes of blues and whites, and the change to colder and shorter days. For others, the changing season elicits a longing for warmer times, the comfort of staying indoors close to the fire, the use of warm and jewel tones, and the desire to capture nature in full bloom.

Winter provides a milestone for the passage of time through the year. For many, 2020 has felt somewhat surreal; time has moved on and the seasons have changed and yet there is a feeling that normal life was a lifetime ago.

Throughout the collection, the viewer is invited to contemplate the artists’ relationship with the season of winter and how something as simple as a change in weather can have a profound impact on the kinds of work they produce.

ARTWORKS:

ADELE VAN HEERDEN

ALEXIA VOGEL

AMBER MOIR

ANDREW SUTHERLAND

BLACK KOKI

ELLÉNA LOURENS | KEYA TAMA

 

ELLO XRAY EYEZ

EMMA NOURSE

GABRIELLE RAAFF

HEIDI FOURIE

JADE KLARA

JEANNE HOFFMAN

JESSICA BOSWORTH SMITH

JOH DEL

KATRIN COETZER

KATRINE CLAASSENS

KENEILWE MOTHOA

KIRSTEN BEETS

KIRSTEN SIMS

LAURINDA BELCHER

LENÉ EHLERS

LILI PROBART

LINSEY LEVENDALL

MARELI ESTERHUIZEN

MAROLIZE SOUTHWOOD

MATTHEW PRINS

MONA HAUMANN

NATASHA NORMAN

NICOLE CLARE FRASER

NINA TORR

PAUL SENYOL

SARAH PRATT

TARA DEACON

ZARAH CASSIM

 

INSTALLATION VIEWS:

INVESTEC CAPE TOWN ART FAIR 2020

14.02 - 16.02.2020

Venue: Cape Town International Convention Centre

Booth Numbers: B11 in main galleries / B12 in solo section

From the 14th – 16th of February 2020, the 8th edition of Investec Cape Town Art Fair (ICTAF) will return to the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC). Positioned as the leading art fair in Africa, ICTAF 2020 will include the foremost galleries from South Africa, the African continent, and abroad.

Salon Ninety One will be participating in the MAIN GALLERIES and SOLO sections of the fair this year.

The main gallery exhibit will be located at Booth B11, and will feature the latest works of Amber Moir, Chloe Townsend, Heidi Fourie, Jeanne Hoffman, Katrin Coetzer, Kirsten Beets, Kirsten Sims, Linsey Levendall, Nicole Clare Fraser, Paul Senyol and Zarah Cassim.

At Booth B12 the gallery will be presenting a curated solo exhibition by Kirsten Beets.

ARTWORKS:

AMBER MOIR

 

CHLOE TOWNSEND

 

HEIDI FOURIE

 

JEANNE HOFFMAN

 

KATRIN COETZER

 

KIRSTEN BEETS

 

KIRSTEN SIMS

 

LINSEY LEVENDALL

 

NICOLE CLARE FRASER

 

PAUL SENYOL

 

 

ZARAH CASSIM


 

LINKS RELATED TO THIS EXHIBIT:

metalmagazine.eu | "Ten artists you can't miss"Read Article Here

 


 

WILDFLOWERS

07.12.2019 - 18.01.2020

 

Year-end group salon in aid of Ilitha Labantu, celebrating the diversity, beauty and resilience of women.

Opening Saturday 07 December 2019 at 11am.
Concludes 18 January 2020 at 2pm.

Exhibiting Artists:

Adele Van Heerden
Alexia Vogel
Amber Moir
Andrew Sutherland
Berry Meyer
Black Koki
Bruce Mackay
Chloe Townsend
Craig Smith
Emma Nourse
Gitte Moller
Heidi Fourie
Jade Klara
Jean de Wet
Jeanne Hoffman
Jessica Bosworth Smith
Joh Del
Katrin Coetzer
Katrine Claassens
Kirsten Beets
Kirsten Sims
Lara Feldman
Lara Meintjes
Laurinda Belcher
Lili Probart
Maaike Bakker
Mareli Esterhuizen
Marolize Southwood
Mona Haumann
Nicole Clare Fraser
Patricia Fraser
Paul Senyol
Sarah Biggs
Tara Deacon
Zarah Cassim

Since our gallery was established in 2008, we’ve maintained the tradition of hosting our annual December show, held in aid of a local charity, whereby 10% of all artwork sales have been donated to our chosen cause. This year we’ve decided to support Ilitha Labantu, an organisation which was started in Gugulethu, Cape Town, during February 1989. At that time it was the only organisation in any township of Cape Town providing emotional support, practical advice and education around the serious issue of violence against women.

Visit their website for more information.

PREVIEW:

SYDNEY CONTEMPORARY ART FAIR

Sydney Contemporary Art Fair 2109

12.09 - 15.09.2019

Salon Ninety One was proud to be a part of the fifth edition of the Sydney Contemporary Art Fair at Carriageworks, Sydney, Australia.

We have took a very playful approach to scale, colour and installation within our SCAF 2019 booth, characteristic of Salon Ninety One gallery, our Artists and our aesthetic. The Gallery Booth A01 featured the work of Salon Ninety Onesignature artists, Kirsten Beets, Paul Senyol and Kirsten Sims. In addition to our featured booth Artists we were thrilled to be representing the work of Amber Moir at NEXT, a group exhibition platform with works from around the world carefully selected by the SCAF team.

KIRSTEN BEETS paints our contemporary Eden. Her paintings inhabit a place somewhere been the real and imagined, a painted mythology that explores ethical realities. She is continually looking at the shifting relationship between people at leisure and the natural world. She isolates the moments of these interactions, sometimes as immersive images other times as curious objects suspended in the picture plane. Snapshots of our curious human interactions with natural environments are all rendered in delicate detail. Her works are complex collections of observations and imaginary musings made manifest in oil paint on paper, board and linen. Her carefully considered compositions tell a subtle story of serenity and loss, leisure and decay, stasis and transience.

KIRSTEN SIMS expresses the way she views the world through painting, seeking a connection with viewers through images. Her work has a strong narrative quality and is often animated by a sartorial crowd of characters, but she just as naturally replaces the theatre of human interaction with the drama of a natural landscape. Whether familiar or imagined, place plays an important role in her work. She lives and works in Cape Town but the vista she has painted most is the ocean view from her family home in Mossel Bay, South Africa. Sims completed a BA in Applied Design at the Stellenbosch Academy and her Honours degree in Illustration at Stellenbosch University. She currently works on editorial and commercial illustration projects while exhibiting her artworks both locally and internationally. Sims paints with a combination of inks, acrylics and gouache on museum board.

PAUL SENYOL is an abstract painter who reflects the details of everyday life, paired down to an empathy with colour, line and form. His work is a crafted response to his wonderings through various spaces. The colours and textures of urban and natural environments inform his spontaneous practice in the studio where every material he uses – acrylics, pastels, ink, pencils and spray paint - is chosen for the particular mark it can contribute to a finished composition. Senyol has been studying art and the mark since his fascination with skateboarding magazines as a teenager in Cape Town. Skateboarding emerged as a gateway to early creative works on the street and remains an important part of Senyol’s experience of urban spaces. He makes regular visits to the public library to source graphics, album covers, magazine layouts and illustrations. Senyol’s unique visual language is founded on the inevitable change and flux in environments. His works are testament to the translation of experiences into form.

AMBER MOIR's unconventional approach to making her watercolour monotypes explores and reconstitutes the limitations of traditional printmaking techniques. Moir’s large works are the result of the intensely physical and unpredictable process of printing with a manual pitch roller. She says of her method: “The challenges within my process create space for the works to acquire greater meaning and be more successful than if it were predictable and easily controlled”. Original paintings are impressed onto calico, creating a confluence of painting and print. Gashes, strips of folded fabric and uneven printed surfaces serve as visual cues of the presence of Moir’s body in her process. Moir graduated from Stellenbosch University with a degree in Fine Arts in 2014. She has worked from Cape Town, South Africa since returning in 2017 from two years of living and teaching on Kyushu Island, Japan.

Beets’ background in 3D rendering, Sims’ formal training as an illustrator and Senyol’s formative years as street artist have come to influence their personal visual language, ensuring an interesting conversation between their diverse works within the walls of the Salon Ninety One booth and the greater context of the fair itself. Their work has shown significant growth, with the artists takings risks, in refining their techniques and pushing the boundaries of their chosen medium. Paul Senyol was the first artist to ever exhibit with the gallery, Kirsten Beets and Kirsten Sims have been showing with Salon Ninety one for eight and seven years, respectively. Amber Moir recently held her first solo exhibition with our gallery and is known for her monotypes on paper and fabric, printed by way of a highly energised and physical process utilising a pitch-roller in order to create these unique works.

We look forward to sharing our Artists latest works with new collectors from Australia and Asia.

Should you wish to receive a catalogue please contact enquiries@salon91.co.za

If you are visiting the fair and need to reach us telephonically we are available on Whatsapp only +27 82 679 3906

Please note that this collection is available exclusively from the Sydney Contemporary Art fair, Australia.

ARTWORKS | NEXT PLATFORM AT SCAF 2019

AMBER MOIR

 

ARTWORKS | BOOTH A01 SCAF 2019

KIRSTEN BEETS

 

KIRSTEN SIMS

 

PAUL SENYOL

 

INSTALLATION VIEWS

 


 

LINKS RELATED TO THIS EXHIBITION:

Article | The Guardian | "Sydney Contemporary 2019: Australia's largest art fair scales it down"

 


 

REGARDING WINTER

12.06 -13.07.2019

A mid-year group show

We are delighted to be sharing works by our regular Salon Ninety One favourites, extremely talented associated artists, as well as some exciting new signatures. Participating artists include: Alexia Vogel, Amber Moir, Andrew Sutherland, Chloe Townsend, Gabrielle Raaff, Heidi Fourie, Jade Klara, Katrin Coetzer, Katrine Claassens, Kirsten Beets, Kirsten Sims, Lara Meintjes, Laurinda Belcher, Linsey Levendall, Mareli Esterhuizen, Michael Amery, Natasha Norman, Nicole Clare Fraser, Paul Marais, Paul Senyol, Rico, Sarah Biggs, and Tara Deacon.

ARTWORKS:

 

ALEXIA VOGEL

 

AMBER MOIR

 

ANDREW SUTHERLAND

 

CHLOE TOWNSEND

 

GABRIELLE RAAFF

 

HEIDI FOURIE

 

JADE KLARA

 

KATRIN COETZER

 

KATRINE CLAASSENS

 

KIRSTEN BEETS

 

KIRSTEN SIMS

 

LARA MEINTJES

 

LAURINDA BELCHER

 

LINSEY LEVENDALL

 

MARELI ESTERHUIZEN

 

MICHAEL AMERY

 

NATASHA NORMAN

 

NICOLE FRASER

 

PAUL MARAIS

 

PAUL SENYOL

 

RICO

 

SARAH BIGGS

 

TARA DEACON

INSTALLATION VIEWS:

AS YOU WERE

17.07 -17.08.2019

A solo exhibition by Kirsten Sims

 

i am of the earth
and to the earth i shall return once more
life and death are old friends
and i am the conversation between them
i am their late-night chatter
their laughter and tears
what is there to be afraid of
if i am the gift they give to each other
this place never belonged to me anyway
i have always been theirs

- rupi kaur
the sun and her flowers

 


 

ARTWORKS: