The year 2021 was a productive one in the workshop and the gallery. We saw editions and projects by a variety of new artists, as well as exhibitions and continued progress on projects from 2020 with household names and artists that we have collaborated with before. Take a look at a selected list of these below!
WILLIAM KENTRIDGE – ‘Studio Life’ Photogravure Series Continues
In 2020 William Kentridge dedicated himself to making a series of ten films called Studio Life, focusing on the place of production, confinement and sanctuary for an artist: the studio. A series of photogravure images were simultaneously created in collaboration with the David Krut Workshop (DKW). Each photogravure directly connects to a film, taking on different vantage points and building one another up. During 2021 a number of the photogravures were completed, the series evolving further with added drypoint marks by Kentridge on the most recent plates. More to come in 2022!
LINDO SOBEKWA – Pronto Lithography and Chine collé
Photographer Lindo Sobekwa began collaborating with Kim-Lee Loggenberg, Sarah Judge and DKW in early 2021. The collaboration follows recent projects, including an artist book (made with digital print collage and silkscreen) and a residency at the A4 Arts Foundation in Cape Town. Sobekwa explores combinations of his photographs digitally printed onto pronto lithographic plates, which he hand alters. These are then worked in combination with digitally printed images on thin Japanese papers as collage or applied using chine collé.
ANNA VAN DER PLOEG – ‘Visitor’ Series and Exhibition
In January 2021 Anna van der Ploeg collaborated with the DKW team on new editions in a 10-day residency. The prints were featured alongside paintings and hand painted woodcarvings later in the year at her solo project – Visitor – online and at the David Krut Gallery in Parkwood. The scale of The Negotiators allowed van der Ploeg to technically push her expressive brush marks in combination with drawn drypoint lines. Her pair of drypoints – Rude guest and Who invited this guy? – were resolved through the printer’s suggestion to cut negative shapes from sheets of Kitakata paper and adhere using chine collé.
OLIVIA BOTHA – ‘Caught’ Exhibition
Olivia Botha is a multidisciplinary artist working in media such as painting, poetry, printmaking, installation, video and drawing. Botha collaborated with DKW in 2020 on a series of monotypes – traditional oil-based and a second series of trace monotypes. The monotypes featured alongside a recent body of portrait paintings in her DKP exhibition Caught from August to November 2021.
STEPHEN HOBBS – ‘Woodview Residency’ @TAF2021
At Turbine Art Fair 2021 David Krut Projects (DKP) presented a “hybrid” booth, where we not only displayed some of our most recent printing collaborations, but also gave visitors the chance to get a glimpse into the making of fine art editions by having Johannesburg-based artist Stephen Hobbs in residence and creating at the physical fair. For this, we created a fully-equipped satellite workshop, enabling Hobbs to work with the DKW printing team during the fair.
ZHI ZULU – ‘The Curious Five’ Series Continues
Two new silkscreen prints from artist and illustrator Zhi Zulu‘s The Curious Five series were editioned in 2021. This series is inspired by Zulu’s experience of African stories being told for tourists and foreigners; the images are a humorous take on stereotypical, often inaccurate and fantastical tales that foreigners sometimes believe – of wild animals walking in the streets of Johannesburg, or people keeping them as pets. Zulu began The Curious Five series in 2019 together with printer Roxy Kaczmarek, and the series will be completed in 2022 with just the final print still to come. Keep an eye out!
LEBO THOKA – ‘Eden’ Exhibition
In 2021 Lebo Thoka’s third solo project titled Eden opened at 151 Jan Smuts Avenue, showcasing works from her previous projects alongside new images. These works were also included in a collaborative exhibition entitled I Exist! at AKKA Project Venenzia alongside fellow photographer Margaret Ngigi (Kenya) which opened in July 2021.
CHAD CORDEIRO – Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2021
One of DKW’s own printers, and an artist in his own right, Chad Cordeiro, created a pair of etchings for the 2021 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in London. The prints are visual representations of musical scores and sound works which Cordeiro has been making. Both The End and its partner Under the infirmary center around a song called St James Infirmary. The songs original composer is unknown but the song has been covered over 300 times. Cordeiro is interested in this specific song as an example of open source material. For years the song has been referenced and reinterpreted to create different collaged versions or representations over time. The prints were editioned by fellow DKW printer Kim-Lee Loggenberg.
NINA TORR – New Etchings
Nina Torr returned to the workshop this year to work with printer Roxy Kaczmarek on a body of monoprint etchings which will be showcased later in the year. The Little Dog Laughed is the first print released from this series and was editioned by printer Sarah Judge. Keep an eye out for her solo project featuring these alchemical editions, coming soon this year!
WILLIAM KENTRIDGE – Completing ‘Triumphs and Laments’
2021 saw the completion of a mammoth project – the Triumphs and Laments Woodcut Series by William Kentridge, which has been ongoing for over 5 years. In early 2016 Kentridge was at work on a monumental frieze (550 metres long) to be installed along the banks of Rome’s Tiber River. This was the starting point that eventually led to a series of large woodcuts made in collaboration with the DKW team, including Master Printer Jillian Ross, Sbongiseni Khulu and Chad Cordeiro. Kentridge’s reference images for this series were drawn from moments in Roman history and interleaved and overlaid with current world events.
A GREAT DEAL OF MONOTYPES…
Alongside these exciting collaborations, much of the DKW’s time in 2021 was spent working towards an immense monotype project, culminating in an upcoming group exhibition – Alone of its kind – at the David Krut Gallery at 142 Jan Smuts Avenue. This show will open on Thursday 27 January 2022. Continue reading to find out more about some of the artists involved and what they got up to in the workshop and the gallery in 2021.
HEIDI FOURIE – ‘Grass You Can Swim In’ Exhibition and Watercolour Monotypes
Heidi Fourie has been working intermittently with DKW since 2017. Her focus has been on making watercolour monotypes but in 2020 she collaborated with printer Kim-Lee Loggenberg and DKW on a series of etchings. In early 2021, DKP presented a solo show of Fourie’s work – Grass You Can Swim In – including etchings, monotypes and paintings. Fourie collaborated with Amé Bell on an artist’s book to accompany the exhibition.
After this solo show, Fourie has continued to create watercolour monotypes with DKW during this year, branching out with monotypes at larger scales.
ADELE VAN HEERDEN – Residency, Watercolour Monotypes and Etchings
Adele Van Heerden worked on a series of various sized monotypes during a month-long residency in July 2021 and completed her first etching titled Field Trip (2021). The DKW team worked with the artist in developing the etching, which reflects her illustrative style in painting, using liftground aquatint with spitbite and hardground etching with additions of colour using a la poupé. Van Heerden used spitbite in the liftground areas to achieve an uneven, paint-like, pooling quality of tone.
MAAIKE BAKKER – Monotypes with Chine collé
Maaike Bakker is a visual artist and illustrator currently collaborating on a series of watercolour monotypes that incorporate elements of collage with hand-coloured and silkscreened chine collé papers. Layering, the ability to work reductively on the perspex plates, chine collé and collage has allowed her to embrace a looseness in the making process, which is reflected in her work.
Maaike Bakker | The Interplay of collage and abstraction in monotypes
VUSI BEAUCHAMP – Oil- and Water-based Monotypes
Vusi Beauchamp is an artist with a signature style – bright colours reminiscent of the pop art era, striking patterns and a quirky humour to his work which makes it fun to look at despite the works’ deeper, heavier meaning. His work comments on social issues, politics and events that make up the current socio-political landscape. For the latter part of 2021 Beauchamp has been hard at work collaborating on monotypes with the DKW team.
New Collaboration: Painter Vusi Beauchamp makes unique, layered prints at the David Krut Workshop
LEBOGANG MOGUL MABUSELA – Oil Monotypes
In late 2021 the DKW and printer Sarah Judge assisted Lebogang Mabusela, AKA monotypebabe, in further developing her body of work Johannesburg Words with the Weh Beyontse series. Where Mabusela worked primarily with watercolour monotypes prior to her collaboration with the DKW, her time at our workshop was spent delving into oil monotypes. This allowed her to experiment with colour recipes and a much larger scale to deliver an engaging body of work in vibrant colour.
A Torr(ent) of Creativity: New work by Nina Torr and others in Creature Feature exhibition
MAJA MALJEVIĆ – Go big or go home…
Towards the end of the year, Maja Maljević returned to work with the DKW team on a series of giant, unique prints involving silkscreen, intaglio, linocut and hand work. The first release of works will feature in the upcoming show Alone of its kind, and the rest of the series and even bigger works will feature in her solo project later in the year.