OLAF HAJEK
Olaf Hajek is currently one of the most internationally renowned and sought-after illustrators. His colourful work can be seen in publications including The New York Times and The Guardian, as well as on stamps for Great Britain’s Royal Mail. Drawing on the diverse influences of folklore, mythology, religion, history, and geography, Hajek’s paintings transport us to a world of surreal juxtaposition and rearranged realities to explore a realm that is always strangely off kilter.
Using his impressions of Africa as a departure point for this series of new works, Hajek combines a sense of wonder inspired by the continents natural beauty with a darker look at its social and political reality. The result is a body of work that whilst visually beguiling at first glance expresses a series of more complex concerns.
Working between the borders of reality and imagination, Hajek reshapes the rough with the smooth, creating dreamlike tableaux that are skillfully rendered in his signature use of color and technique. His work has been exhibited in London, Berlin, New York, Alanta, and Buenos Aires.
Hajek’s work and monograph by Gestalten is available from CO-OP.
KUDZANAI CHIURAI
Born in 1981 in Zimbabwe, Kudzanai Chiurai is an internationally acclaimed young artist now living and working in South Africa. He was the first black student to graduate with a BA (Fine Art) from the University of Pretoria. Regarded as part of the “born free” generation in Zimbabwe because he was born one year after the country’s independence from Rhodesia, Chiurai’s early work focused on the political, economic and social strife in his homeland. Seminal works like Presidential Wallpaper depicted Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe as a sell-out and led to Chiurai’s exile from Zimbabwe.
Chiurai’s large mixed media works now tackle some of the most pertinent issues facing Southern Africa such as xenophobia, displacement and black empowerment. His paintings confront viewers with the psychological and physical experience of inner-city johannesburg, the continent’s most cosmopolitan melting pot where thousands of exiles, refugees and asylum-seekers battle for survival alongside the never-ending swell of newly urbanized South Africans. The actuality of these environs is reinforced by Chiurai’s use of photographic transfer. Boldly stenciled figures and anonymous text provide running commentary, leading viewers on a journey through his intricately painted turn-of-the century buildings, bustling streets and congested transit systems.
His latest sell-out exhibition Graceland offered striking commentary on issues related to black economic empowerment and inner-city rejuvenation in South Africa. From his home/studio located in one of Johannesburg’s most notorious crime hotspots (now earmarked as a rejuvenation zone), Chiurai produced a body of work that featured buildings, residents and signage seen from his own balcony. And while stereotypical benchmarks of urban development, such as the new BMW-driving suburban black elite, were challenged and often ridiculed, a subtle yet powerful ray of hope and progress also emerged. Works like since 1900 and fela heralded the perseverance and longevity of ‘mom and pop’ neighborhood businesses and indigenous african icons. Chiurai offered a deeply personal glimpse of his version of ‘graceland’ and signaled a fresh direction for future works.
