‘Twitter’ is the latest exhibition by Luan Nel, at the Everard Read Gallery in Cape Town from 3 to 16 April 2013.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Twitter is the third and latest instalment in artist Luan Nel’s ongoing project dealing with birds, birdlife and the many possible interpretations and understanding of this subject matter. His first exhibition exploring this was Aviary in 2011. The exhibition consisted exclusively of watercolours of various birds, both indigenous and alien. Following on from Aviary, the second exhibition on this theme was titled Swallow, which was a two-man exhibition with Joachim Schonfeldt  in Johannesburg in 2012. The exhibition included four watercolours of swallows in flight. These were then also reproduced by the hundreds to be used in the installation piece Swallow. This exhibition also included Seisoen – a large lithograph of swallows in flight.

Twitter is the culmination of his ongoing fascination with this theme, and includes the Seisoen lithograph, the Swallow installation, as well as recent oil paintings of various birds and related imagery. James Tate’s poem ‘The Blue Booby’ functions as an entry-point to this whole body of work. In the poem, Tate adopts the language and voice of the wildlife narrator and initially the poem simply reads as such. On closer inspection though, it becomes clear that Tate is dealing with much larger issues than mere wildlife facts – the poem deals with issues of desire, possession and sublimation. In a similar way, Nel creates visual imagery that goes beyond mere ornithological study.  That is not to say that Nel is not a masterful painter capable of ornithological exactness (as evidenced by many of the works on show) but here he is more concerned with how we experience birds,  what they are doing as protagonists in a story and how that relates to us.  Moreover in some paintings there aren’t even any birds , but rather references to their behaviour, demeanour or habitat,  and thus our own. The titles of these works invariably hold a key or hint at multiple interpretations and meanings,  in Nel’s characteristically witty, yet poignant way.

Luan Nel was born in 1971, and matriculated from De Kruin Art School, Johannesburg. He received his BA (FA) in 1993 and his Higher Diploma in Education in 1994 from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Nel won the Judge’s Prize in the SASOL New Signatures Competition in 1993. In 1998 and 1999 he participated in an artist’s residency at the Rijks Academie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam and a research residency at the Dutch Institute in Rome in 1999. He has had many solo exhibitions and participated in various group shows. His work can be found in public collections in South Africa, Europe and the United States of America.

Twitter Exhibition

Die Burger

10 April 2013

Deur voëltjies te skilder, stel Nel hoë eise aan homself: alle illustrasies wat die lewende natuur betrek, kom met vereistes van akkuraatheid en identiteit. Een geveerde is nie presies soos die ander nie, verskille is betekenisvol. Maar Nel is… Read More.

 

 

Art Times

View the Art Times Facebook Gallery.

 

 

 

Pendock Uncorked

Luan scoops Gary.

 

 

Twitter Triumph.

 

 

 

Main Ingredient

Luan Nel’s exhibition at Everard Read.

 

 

 

Spill

Art, Poultry and Twitter – Luan Nel’s Exhibition.