For some people; like my girlfriend Kae, the idea of art or even going to an art exhibition, is a romantic concept. So seeing as Valentines Day was looming, I thought it would be ingenious if we made our way to the David Krut Projects space on Jan Smuts Avenue on what was turning out to be a typical lazy Saturday afternoon. We had a look at Bubble and Leak; the latest showing by Maja Maljevic.
I was expecting to score a few brownie points with my art critic's persona (one arm behind my back and the other hand on my chin; rubbing contemplatively as I "examined the art"). I was hoping to be staring at a few "pretty pictures" that weren't too conceptually demanding - That would have done very nicely. Instead as soon as we had arrived we were confronted by large scale panels of seemingly playful, yet vaguely uneasy oil paintings- which had a grunge inspired edge to them. All with a distinctive use of colour, where abstracted and/or figurative forms, and sometimes scribbles of illegible text revealed themselves.
Just when it seemed as if Kae and I were getting used to the large gestured, whimsical yet slightly melancholy paintings, we noticed that amidst the larger paintings were smaller monotype prints; where the artist?s emotions were much more focused.
Nothing is as it appears with this artists work; the subtext and meaning is as layered as her canvases. I'm willing to bet that underneath all those bright colours are layers of angstful meaning. But hey, that's just my gut feeling. Check it out the show for yourself.
If you find yourself in the Parkwood area between now and the 19th of March; give this show a peek, it's filled with raw emotion and might just surprise you; just like Kae did on our way home when she said "Cool art works 'ey?"
