14 Feb 2017

The creative arts industry is pinning its hopes on the year 2017. The artists are hoping for great possibilities and it remains to be seen what the year has in store for them including art lovers.
Thapong Visual Arts Centre will kick start its programme for this year by hosting an exhibition on Friday evening.
Well established artists in the likes of Wilson Ngoni, Sedireng Mothibatsela, Veryan Edwards, Shepard Ndzudzo, Ditshupo Mogapi, Ngozi Chukura, Neo Matome, Moratiwa Molema, Modirwa Kekwaletswe, Uhuru Kgope, Harun Harun and Steve Jobson have been lined up for the exhibition titled Backstory.
Speaking in an interview, coordinator of Thapong Visual Arts Centre Reginald Bakwena said the exhibition would portray the work in progress focusing on the working method.
“We want to display the artist through their work, what drives them and how ideas evolve through the process of making. It is also a snapshot of a variety of people from varied circumstances living in the same country and what their individual responses have been through a similar period of time,” he said.
He indicated that each artist would display two  or three pieces of work which can be finished but not necessarily be so.
“Alongside each piece, sketches and thoughts of the artist over the period of making the piece will be shown,” he said, adding that photographs and physical evidence of how the piece came about would also be available.
Bakwena said it was important that the audience should be able to talk to artists about their work on the opening night; hence he encouraged people to attend.
He noted that seeing how an artist conceptualised and brought their work to life had always left art lovers with a warm feeling and some sense of understanding, something that a finished artifact sometimes leaves out.
“I have also invited a number of schools, colleges and universities to attend the opening so that students who are doing courses that require interaction with a working artist can use this occasion to interview and create contacts with artists for future research,” he concluded. ENDS