Exhibition: SIMON STONE | A Retrospective Exhibition
Artist: Simon Stone
Venue: Standard Bank Gallery
Dates: 10 July – 14 September 2013
SIMON STONE | A Retrospective Exhibition,the first comprehensive review of the career of one of South Africa’s foremost artists, Simon Stone, opens on 10 July at the Standard Bank Gallery. Jointly organised by the Stellenbosch Modern and Contemporary Art Gallery (SMAC) and the Standard Bank Gallery, the exhibition spans 35 years of Stone’s work, from 1978 – 2013, and includes a selection of his most definitive paintings.
Over a prolific career, Stone has built an impressive reputation as a painter. This exhibition identifies him as unique amongst other South African painters.
Best described as a lyrical and narrative Neo-Expressionist, Stone is renowned for his various stylistic approaches, such as natural realism and symbolic collage. He juxtaposes different genres (portraiture, landscapes, cityscapes, seascapes, nudes, still-lifes and domestic interiors) in paintings constructed around multiple images that provide vivid and poetic accounts of his own personal journey. Flashbacks to the troubled history of South Africa are interspersed with evocations of fabled works of art, legendary cities, beautiful women, and memories of the Cape, Johannesburg, as well as small towns and the lonely highways and byways of his beloved Karoo. He creates a semi-Surrealist, alternative world that is beautifully painted and layered with complex meanings, recurring motifs, personal metaphysics and a strange sense of the mundane. Stonersquo ;s paintings have been described as “unashamedly traditional – with a twist”.
The location of this exhibition in Johannesburg is particularly significant as in 1980, when Stone and his wife Giovanna Biallo Stone relocated there, he gained a reputation for his grittily evocative paintings of the city. This earned him the nickname of “the inner city poet” of Johannesburg.
This exhibition is accompanied by the publication of the first extensive monograph on Simon Stone’s life and work. Entitled Simon Stone: Collected Works, it is authored by Lloyd Pollack and published by SMAC Art Gallery.
This exhibition runs until 14 September 2013, at the Standard Bank Gallery, corner of Simmonds and Frederick Streets, Johannesburg.The Gallery (Tel: 011 631 4467) is open Mondays to Fridays, 08:00-16:30; on Saturdays,09:00-13:00; and is closed on Sundays and public holidays. Admission is free. For further information about Standard Bank Gallery see www.standardbanks.co.za. For more info on Simon Stone see www.simonstone.co.za.
URL: http://www.simonstone.co.za
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Author: Fiona Gordon from The Famous Idea Trading Co.. Originally distributed by MyPR.co.za.
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Images:
Simon Stone, Novacain Result, 1987. Oil on metal, 29 x 20 cm
Simon Stone, Commissioner Street, 2000. Oil on lead, 17 x 22.3 cm
Simon Stone, Learning, 1986. Oil on metal, 20 x 25 cm
