Kotze to stage solo exhibition

paintings tomorrow at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe.
Kotze who paints mainly in oils on canvas will present 21 large oil paintings and eight small paintings all under the theme “Abstract”.
This will be his second solo exhibition at the National Gallery since 2005.
The exhibition is part of a project which has seen Kotze holding a two-week-oil painting workshop earlier this year for the National Gallery Visual Arts Studios second and third year students sponsored by British Council and Friends of the Gallery.
Through his willingness to help young artists, more partners have since come on board in support of his endeavours.
African Capacity Building Foundation, Culture Fund, delegation of the European Union, Delta Breweries, African Distillers, Alliance Francaise, KDB Holdings and Alpha Media Holdings are among the sponsors of his exhibition and a catalogue which will be produced for the exhibition.
Through the generosity of these organisations, Kotze will be running three more workshops for the next three years for local artists. In his own words, Kotze said he is overjoyed and grateful for the amazing support he has received from the partners.
His fundraising project has since received impressive response from the public and he hopes such an initiative will go a long way in nurturing local talent.
The theme “Abstract” will seem paradoxical as the paintings are more or less realistic in style.
The artist seeks to explore the interplay between realism and abstraction through the use of photography as the source for recording the everyday images that surround us.
This exploration has seen the artist adopt repetition, pattern, rhythm and complexity to question the ordinariness and banality of the elements drawn from our surroundings.
These techniques introduce a meditative quality to the works made poignant through the formalised nature of the compositions and the large scale of the paintings.
Photography is exploited for its vividness as well as its imitative power, presenting a seductiveness that involves the viewer in the interplay between the perceived illusionistic depth and the material reality of the flat painted surface.
In the paintings to be exhibited, John tries to focus the viewer’s attention on the complex action of creating the painted surface as well as its illusionistic effect.
“Abstract” will also demonstrate what has been happening to Kotze in the intervening six years since his last exhibition at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe.