Still Life: A Contemporary Arrangement

Still Life: A Contemporary Arrangement

Exhibition Dates: Open from Saturday 5th of July

Location: David Krut Projects, 151 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parkwood.

David Krut Projects, The Blue House, 151 Jan Smuts Avenue Parkwood Throughout art history, the still life has served as a fertile ground for artistic invention. Traditionally considered a minor genre—often defined by the absence of the human figure—still life has nevertheless been a site of experimentation, symbolism, and reflection. Margit Rowell, former Chief Curator of Drawings at the Museum of Modern Art, noted that artists have used the seemingly static depiction of objects to challenge the perception of still life as a lesser form. In doing so, they offer a unique index of their formal concerns, personal interests, and cultural contexts.

This exhibition presents works by contemporary artists, each reinterpreting the still life tradition in their own way. Whether through the arrangement of inanimate objects or the processes involved in rendering them, these works invite the viewer to reconsider what is often overlooked. At its core, the still life is an arrangement of objects connected to form a unified, organic whole— visually compelling and often rich in hidden or symbolic meaning. It is a genre rooted in the artist’s choice and organisation of elements, used to express both personal and collective worldviews, and to reflect structures of desire, perception, and technical innovation.

William Kentridge