Exhibition | Two Ceramic Tile Murals at Joburg Art Fair

Two tile mosaic artworks were featured at the 2013 FNB Joburg Art Fair in Johannesburg, collaborations between Spier Architectural Arts and South African artists Gerhard Marx and Sam Nhlengethwa.

A video on the construction of Sighlines at the 2013 FNB Joburg Art Fair. Video courtesy of Yellowwoods Art and Spier Architectural Arts.

Construction Workers by Nhlengethwa was a 10-square-meter ceramic relief panel which depicted uniformed construction workers and pedestrians against the Johannesburg cityscape.

The piece began as a collage, which the artist achieves by cutting up magazines, newspapers in billboards– Drum and Ebony magazines in particular. The piece was realized with more than 10,000 irregular ceramic pieces, some of which were handpainted, others which were overlaid with UV resistant phototransfers.

Nhlengethwa (b. 1955) graduated from the Rorke’s Drift Art Centre in Natal. Once seen as one of South Africa’s leading resistance artists, Nhlengethwa taught part-time at the Federative Union of Black Artists in Johannesburg.

Vertical Aerial: Johannesburg by Marx is a 3-ton freestanding mosaic sculpture mounted on a rectangular steel frame with a compound angle. It shows an aerial view of Johannesburg’s historic center.

Marx said he was intrigued by aerial views because they are both a photograph and a map. As a photograph, he said, it’s objective and scientific; as a map it invites the user to “read” it, even though it has no text.

Each panel in the mosaic measured 800 x 800 mm, which together creates a grid pattern seen on maps. The pieces are made of both natural and engineered stone, ceramics and glass.

The artist worked with seven other ceramic artists, some of whom graduated from the Spier Arts Academy, and nine apprentices to create the work.

Marx (b. 1976) graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand in 2004. He lives and works in Johannesburg as an artist, theater director and a film maker. His work often explores ideas of broken and collaged images.

Above image: Sam Nhlengethwa, Construction Workers, 2013

Any thoughts about this post? Share yours in the comment box below.