Brundyn + Gonsalves is pleased to present SeeingEye, a group exhibition curated by Leigh-Anne Niehaus that focuses on the stylistic and conceptual relationship between a selection of painting and photography.
Defined as a photographic style attempting to mimic painting’s ideals in composition, style and subject, Pictorialism was in many ways one of the first responses to what now seems a time-old debate: what is photography’s status as art? At first glance it seems simple, painting is born of canvas and paint pigment while a pho... Read more
Brundyn + Gonsalves is pleased to present SeeingEye, a group exhibition curated by Leigh-Anne Niehaus that focuses on the stylistic and conceptual relationship between a selection of painting and photography.
Defined as a photographic style attempting to mimic painting’s ideals in composition, style and subject, Pictorialism was in many ways one of the first responses to what now seems a time-old debate: what is photography’s status as art? At first glance it seems simple, painting is born of canvas and paint pigment while a photograph is a product of the camera, film and the development process. But the complex relationship between the two mediums has waxed and waned since photography’s inception in the 1840s; at points differences were reinforced and at other junctures they were all but disintegrated. The last four decades artists have explicitly tasked themselves with pushing the limits of each. Today photography has so influenced the way that we look at the world, that ‘seeing photographically’ has become second nature to most. Indeed much of painting’s aesthetic has become inextricably linked to that of photography, and reflecting on the one can lead to a deeper understanding of the other.
Spanning from painting that draws on photographic tropes such as blurs, pixilation or tight cropping, through to photography that directly references the tradition of portrait painting, SeeingEye is intended to be a conversational exhibition offering small moments of overlap. These include the easily recognizable visual cues of how two mediums can impact one another to complex theoretical appropriation.
Participating artists:
Sanell Aggenbach, Roger Ballen, Zander Blom, Alex Emsley, Matthew Hindley, Karin Preller, Andrew Putter, Matty Roodt and Chad Rossouw.
