Bell-Roberts

31 year old Italian artist Andrea Mariconti lives and works in Milan. For this exhibition Mariconti has produced 20 new works, each 35 x 50cm using mixed media on paper.

Mariconti's work is informed by memories - who we were and who we are. He paints using white oil paint and ash, a material which cements the idea of ou...r past and our future and at the same time belongs to the land. For Mariconti colour is a hindrance because it distracts. Grey is sufficient for him. A grey which is not a colour but a material (mostly ash and sometimes cement) and which structures or shapes the painting and gives body through variations of its thickness. White and ash, flashes of active light on the inertness of matter, will take you anywhere; and the landscape, thus translated in an elementary alternative, becomes readable as if it were a written piece.

After graduating from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera (major in visual arts) in 2001, he was appointed as assistant professor at NABA - Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti - Milan in 2003.

In 2005, Mariconti was invited to design the stage setting and the costumes for Mozart's "The Magic Flute" which was performed at the famed Suntory Hall in Tokyo.

During 2005 and 2006, Mariconti spent a lot of time in war ravaged Kosovo, teaching art therapy to child victims of trauma. He has also taught drama to disabled students. In 2005 Mariconti attended a workshop held by Anselm Kiefer during the period in which Kiefer was setting up his Sette Palazzi Celesti (The Seven Heavenly Palaces) in the Hangar Bicocca, Milan. He graduated in scenography from Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in 2006.

Andrea Mariconti continues his art therapy programme in South Africa. At the end of June 2009, he will be hosting a 3 day workshop for 20 children from the the Rainbow Centre in Gugulethu, Cape Town. In 2009, Leonard Shapiro met with artist Andrea Mariconti and his gallerist Federico Rui. They discussed the possibility of Mariconti conducting a creative workshop with South African children in need, in order to assist them in coping with their stresses and traumas. In addition, Mariconti would exhibit his own work at a gallery in Cape Town. This project was facilitated by Leonard Shapiro who first met Mariconti in Milan in 2008. Shapiro identified Ikamva Labantu as a deserving organisation to host the creative workshop with children, and the Bell-Roberts Gallery as an appropriate gallery to exhibit Mariconti's work.

Mariconti has exhibited extensively throughout Europe and also in Japan. This will be his first exhibition in South Africa. Read More

Nanette Nel recently graduated from the University of Stellenbosh with a Masters of Arts in Visual Arts Cum Laude. Nel has also studied at the Gerrit Rietveld School of design in Amsterdam.

In this body of work the artist explores the handbag as subject. She concentrates on social, cultural and personal history in the c...onception of her art works. The exhibition consists of four collections divided into two groups – The Mielie Collection and the Protea Collection – which are culture specific within the South African context; and the the Body-Bag collection and the Secrets Collection. Nel's art practice and art works exist within the boundaries of contemporary jewellery and fine art practice and these meticulously crafted objects are an absolute pleasure to behold! Read More