Main Gallery

Jaco van Schalkwyk 2024

Jaco van Schalkwyk - Smoke and Mirrors
16 March to 6 April 2024
 
Jaco van Schalkwyk’s was born in 1981 in Benoni and he holds a BA degree in Historical studies at UNISA.
 
Van Schalkwyk’s oeuvre of work has been concerned with the idea of the exotic and the symbolism of forests and islands.  Exploring beyond the surfaces of these places, the artist challenges our idea of ‘Utopia’ or ‘Paradise’ and questions the Western notion that paradise is found in the beauty of exotic places and/or ‘the other’.
 
The artist is an avid photographer of life around him including people, landscapes, oddments and whatever interesting he encounters.  His artworks could be described as a collection of notes, a ‘Wunderkammer’, a curiosity cabinet.  However, they are reconfigured and manipulated to create a ‘Teatro Mundi’- a theatrical reimagining of his experiences as both omniscient recorder and subjective participant.
 
Van Schalkwyk has exhibited on several occasions in South Africa and abroad and is represented in various local collections, amongst others The Reserve Bank of South Africa, Barclays Bank, RMB, the University of Pretoria, the University of Johannesburg as well as overseas.
 
Because of Covid, when faced with the prospect of having to find material for a new exhibition without his usual access to photographic documentation from global travel, Jaco turned inwards.  The results are on display as from 16 March 2024 at the Association of Arts Pretoria.  Smoke and Mirrors is a highlight on the South African arts calendar.