/ Current Exhibitions

North Gallery

Milton Miltiades
narratives of the unconscious

1 November to 23 November 2024

Main Gallery

‘A Garden of Expression’
Cultivating community through art: A printmaking exhibition by The Printing Girls
15 March to 5 April 2025

The Printing Girls, a dynamic all-female printmaking collective, proudly presents a vibrant exhibition that serves as a prelude to World Art Day 2025. This much-anticipated showcase brings together a diverse range of printmaking techniques, celebrating the power of art to cultivate community, creativity, and collaboration.

Opening on Saturday, 15 March 2025 at 11:00 at the Association of Arts Pretoria, this exhibition explores the metaphor of a garden as a space for artistic and personal growth. Just as a garden thrives through careful cultivation, The Printing Girls foster an environment where artists can flourish, exchange ideas, and nurture their creative practices. Through the intricate language of printmaking—whether through linocut, etching, monotype, screen-print or other techniques—each artist expresses her unique interpretation of growth, connection, and transformation.

“As printmakers, we work with layers, textures, and impressions—much like a garden, where every element contributes to a thriving ecosystem,” says Cloudia Rivett-Carnac. “This exhibition embodies our collective spirit, highlighting the diversity and depth of contemporary printmaking in South Africa.”

The Printing Girls remains committed to creating spaces where women artists can exhibit, inspire, and engage with broader audiences. A Garden of Expression is not merely an exhibition but a celebration of the role that art plays in fostering meaningful connections and a sense of belonging within our communities.

The Printing Girls will present a walkabout and printmaking demonstrations on Saturday, 29 March 2025 between 10:00 and 12:00. Join us for this immersive journey of print, passion and purpose.

Gallery Chaton

Adelle van Zyl
Spirit Place

30 November – 12 December 2024

Artist’s statement

In this body of work, I explore our connection to the land, its animals, and the myths that shaped our understanding of both. My inspiration comes from a recent visit to the Kalahari. In that magical place, where the geology of the desert reflects its formation from prehistoric lakes, I witnessed the dichotomies of nature in terms of drought, heat, light, and visibility versus flood, cold, darkness, and concealment. This experience of the desert’s extremes led me to reimagine the concept of landscape.

Having been introduced to the rich symbolism of alchemy by my mentor, Dr. Gwenneth Miller, I imagined seeing these landscapes through the eyes of the alchemist. For these medieval scientist-philosophers, stones contained spirits, minerals held potential panaceas, and animals mirrored the movement of the human soul through higher or lower states of being.

I used abstracted details from previous photographic works and transformed them into reflective waterscapes populated with images of animals and objects. The process of selecting these images was both playful and instinctive. I use collage as a method of transmutation—one that mirrors the alchemical and psychological processes of separatio (separation) and conjunctio (union). In alchemy, this fragmentation and reconstitution create new, altered materials. Similarly, my collages reimagine the elements of the landscape to construct new narratives.

Through this work, I aim to invite viewers into a space where the boundaries between nature and myth dissolve. By reimagining the landscape through the lens of alchemy, I seek to return to a deeper, more symbolic understanding of our relationship with nature and our inner selves.