Celebrating 75 years of existence
The Association of Arts Pretoria was established on 27 September 1947. The Association’s aim is to host at least thirty exhibitions per year, whether pottery, sculpture, painting or experimental. One of the most exciting projects driven by the Pretoria Arts Association is the Sasol New Signatures Art Competition. This competition creates a platform for new and undiscovered artists to kickstart their careers. Many South African artists have benefitted greatly from this competition and are now well known locally and abroad.
In honour of the 75th anniversary of the Association of Arts Pretoria and the 50th anniversary of Ceramics Southern Africa, an exhibition entitled Fifty Pots for Fifty Years were held at the Association of Arts Pretoria from 29 October to 19 November 2022. The exhibition honoured the founding members of both associations for their vision and dedication in supporting the visual arts in South Africa over the past decades. On display was fifty selected ceramic works by members of Ceramics Southern Africa, Gauteng Region, along with pieces from two guest Western Cape artists, Ralph Johnson and Hennie Meyer.
Also included on this exhibition was the ceramic works of Alex Shabalala.
Alex Shabalala is originally from KwaZulu-Natal who now works from his own ceramic studio in Johannesburg. He joined Ardmore Ceramic studio in October 2008, where he strove to translate printmaking techniques into his clay painting and developed his own unique graphic style. In 2010 he was selected to work extensively on designing a limited-edition range of dinnerware for Ardmore – the Ardmore Design Collection. In the same year his design of African wildlife and flora was selected for the commemorative Relais & Chateaux Plate.
He moved to Johannesburg in 2013 with the hope of fulfilling his ambition as an artist. Since he has resided in Johannesburg, he had the opportunity to work with Bronwen Findlay by running several mosaics projects which include the Mandela Children’s Hospital and a ceramic art project at the American International School.
He works in earthenware clay and uses underglaze paint, which is water based and glazed with a transparent glaze before being fired in a kiln Underglaze is a method of decorating pottery in which the decoration is applied to the surface before it is glazed. Because the glaze will subsequently cover it, such decoration is completely durable, and it also allows the production of pottery with a surface that has a uniform sheen.
Alex works with three themes: Divine, Flora and Butterfly. The Divine design is inspired by South African wildlife, the Flora design is inspired by South African flowers and the Butterfly design is inspired by butterfly wings in a full design.
