Tamlin Blake

Exhibitions and Events



SOLO STUDIOS - Intimate Art Encounters 2023

18 - 20 August 2023
Event: Riebeek Valley, Western Cape

Art Times article Aug / Sep 2023 on ISUU

STUDIO ARTISTS

17 Riebeek Valley resident artists will open up their personal spaces to all the art lovers attending this year’s events,  to experience the work in the realm of the artists private studios. 

COLLABORATIONS

Since last year, Solo Studios accepted the proposal to partner with non-resident artists to form collaborations. This has allowed more creators & artists to join Solo Studios, resulting in some captivating & dynamic exhibitions!

There are 8 collaborators this year! 

GALLERIES

This year, we have 8 galleries that will present their unique and curated experience for this years event. In addition to the four permanent public Galleries in the Riebeek Valley area, there are 2 Private Collections as well as 2 pop-up galleries that will be on display. 

OTHER EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES

Apart from the art on display, you will have the opportunity to experience our award-winning wines, including Joseph Dhafana, gourmet restaurants with exceptional food, live music by the Winelands Philharmonic Orchestra, insightful talks, as well as guided art walks as part of this year’s event.

 
 



If You Look Hard Enough, you Can See Our Future

20 April - end October 2023
Group Exhibition: African American Museum, Dallas, Texas, USA

The highly anticipated exhibition, If You Look Hard Enough, You Can See Our Future, makes its worldwide debut at the African American Museum, Dallas, in the city’s historic Fair Park. Made possible by the beloved restaurant group Nando’s, one of the largest collectors of contemporary Southern African art in the world, the exhibition features nearly 90 pieces from more than 60 emerging, mid-career and established artists. 

Interview with curator Laurie Ann Farrel

Article in Kera News - Dallas scored a major show of Southern African art. 



 



SOLO STUDIOS - Intimate Art Encounters 2022

26 - 28 August 2022
Event: Riebeek Valley, Western Cape

Art Times article June / July 2022 on ISUU

STUDIO ARTISTS

18 Riebeek Valley resident artists have been selected to open their personal spaces to a limited number of visitors; the artists invite the art lover into their personal realm. 

COLLABORATIONS

In order to add some variety to the event and for the first time since its inception in 2016, Solo Studios has accepted Studio Artists’ proposals to partner with non-resident artists, resulting in some interesting collaborations! 

FEATURED

Solo Studios is proud to be associated with this year’s featured partners and contributions, providing for some stimulating variation to the visual art on display. 




 
 



EBB AND FLOW

10 - 19 June 2022
Group Exhibition: The Marine Hotel, Hermanus

An exhibition of work by  twenty thread artists curated by Dal Botha and 
held at the Fyn Atrs Gallery, Hermanus
 
The twenty-two invited artists have interpreted the theme, Ebb & Flow: a recurring pattern of coming and going or decline and growth, particularly relevant to our present times.
Over the past forty years fibre work has become increasingly conceptual with fibre artists creating artworks that are influenced by cultural, social, environmental and political issues. These artworks maybe textile only or textiles used in combination with mixed media, including paper.
 



JUMP!

3 February - 4 April November 2022
Sisonke Gallery, Cape Heritage Hotel
Group exhibition with Hanneke Benade and Marlise Keith

 
 



JUMP!

7 November - 28 November 2021
RK Contemporary, Riebeek Kasteel
Group exhibition with Hanneke Benade and Marlise Keith



Opening event: poetry intervention by South African poet Kobus Moolman
Sunday 7 November 11:30

“Change is the only constant”, a familiar term but one we have particularly had to come to terms with one way or another over the last year or two. So much has changed, is changing and will change in the immediate future that even previously unquestioned institutions and ideas, if they have not crumbled, have been shaken. For many of us at this time some action is being demanded, or we are being pushed to make difficult decisions.

One way to deal with all this is to jump!
Jumping can offer a way out, it is about movement and energy.

The works on this exhibition explore what happens when you make that leap of faith, take the risk of starting something new, or accept an ending by moving on. We explore the hidden emotional jump needed to stay afloat in the chaos and change and where possible to rediscover the excitement of new possibilities.
 



PERSISTENCE OF VISION

2 October - 15 November 2021
Knysna Fine Art
Thesen House Knysna
Group exhibition 

Art has always been interconnected to the human condition. It helps us to come to terms with our existence and own mortality.

 
 



EMERGENCE

11 September - 31 October 2021
Group exhibition at IS Art Gallery, Old Lutheran Church, 138 Dorp Street, Stellenbosch





 
 



JOE'S SIRENS

Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg
This newspaper tapestry is currently on view through the gallery.

In this piece I have held in my mind the stories my mother’s father told, stories my mother repeated or embellished.

Visually, I have chosen to focus on the women in my grandfather’s life (his sirens or temptresses?) and to touch gently on the question of their roles as wives, mothers and daughters. How have they been affected by his life, his stories, and a fraught emotional family life?

Just after starting to weave this piece we went into lockdown and the strange new world of forced domestic existence and the fear of an unseen threat wormed its way into the practice of weaving. To make this more visceral I wove the numbers of the covid-19 infected and death rates into the tapestry as I worked. I became fascinated with how we have to number everything even our fears, quantify them, in the hope that this will give us some control.
 
 



OCCUPANTS OF THE INHABITED

Current 
Group Exhibition: The Old Manor House, Spier Wine Farm
Curated by Kefiloe Siwisa

An exhibition featuring leading South African artists, curated by Kefiloe Siwisa in collaboration with Spier Arts Trust, currently on show at our Manor House.

Works by artists including Athi Patra-Ruga, Billie Zangewa, Thandiwe Msebenzi, and Igshaan Adams will be showcased for a year in this historic space, along with excerpts from interviews with some of the featured artists.

“In a sense, the selected artists become occupants, the building’s second skin,” explains Siwisa. “The works have been selected to challenge the Manor House’s spatial history, exploring and acknowledging the physical and psychological impact of colonial architecture and how it sits in this moment of postcolonial movement, making, and transformations.”

The works invite viewers to consider the complexities of heritage preservation, recent appropriations, and repurposing of colonial sites. Siwisa adds: “These works cannot be asked to heal the spirit of the place but rather they can bear witness to the weight of the past and carry new dialogues into the present.”

 
 



SOLO STUDIOS 2020

11 - 13 December 2020
Event: Riebeek Valley, Western Cape

Since its inception in 2016 Solo Studios has established itself as a premier art event through its unique core activity of inviting a limited number of aficionados into the intimate studio spaces of the renowned participating artists for one weekend. Complementary fringe activities and entertainment add to the experience, making it a not to be missed date on the arts calendar.
 



DESIGN MATTERS: ART OF THREAD

31 October - 30 November 2020 
Group Exhibition: Hermanus

An exhibition of work by  twenty thread artists curated by Dal Botha and 
held at the Fyn Atrs Gallery, Hermanus
 
The colourful, detailed and thought-provoking works address cultural, social and political issues and reflect the artists' experimentation with a wide range of materials and techniques. These invited artists prioritise aesthetic value and design above utility, with the result that their artworks communicate emotion and meaning. They achieve this through either the use of textiles only, or through textiles in combination with mixed media.
 



PINK

6 - 18 November 2020
Group Exhibition: Everard Read Gallery, FNB Art Joburg Online

The colour of candy-floss, flamingos, blossoms and lipgloss.
The colour of almost every toy in the “Girls” section of our stores.
The colour of optimism, rose-tinted glasses and innocence.
The colour of internal flesh.
The colour of protest.

Pink is powerful.
 
 
 



TIED BY TIME

23 November - 20 December 2019
Solo Exhibition: CIRCA, Johannesburg

Curatorial statement by Olga Speakes
 
 



TIED BY TIME - Open Studio 

27 October 2019 14:00-18:00
Riebeek West, Western Cape

To all those wonderful friends, family and generally amazing people who have given me so much support over the last four years, please come celebrate the completion of this tapestry before it leaves the studio in Riebeek West for exhibition in Johannesburg. 
 
 



SOLO STUDIOS 2019: INTIMATE ART ENCOUNTERS 

9 - 11 August 2019
Event: Riebeek Valley, Western Cape

Solo Studios was conceptualised to be an intimate, personal and exclusive art encounter that allows people the rare opportunity to meet acclaimed artists in their, otherwise, very private spaces.
 



FORWARD? FORWARD! FORWARD...

5 December 2018 - 30 April 2019
Group Exhibition: Stellenbosch University Museum
Curated by Ulrich Wolff and Elizabeth Miller-Vermeulen

The Stellenbosch University museum invites you to the opening of a group art exhibition addressing the future of Stellenbosch University and higher education in Africa.
“Forward? Forward! Forward..." is the result of an open call to artists earlier to propose artworks addressing the future of higher education, locally and in Africa, and re-imagining the future of Stellenbosch University.



STEALING BEAUTY

23 August - 7 October 2018
Solo Exhibition: Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg

Review by Robyn Sassen:
"Stolen beauty that gives back"
 



SOLO STUDIOS 2018: Intimate Art Encounters

9 - 12 August 2018
Event: Riebeek Valley, Western Cape

​Following the resounding success of the inaugural event in 2016, Solo Studios has become an annual event on the South African arts calendar.

Hosted in and around the towns of Riebeek Kasteel and Riebeek West, Solo Studios is a collaboration between artists, art curators and galleries based in the area, and has been created to provide an opportunity for art collectors to visit artists in their studios to view and purchase their art. Mostly private and reclusive, the artists invite the fraternity into their personal realm for a rare intimate encounter.
 



MATERIAL GAINS

26 July - 20 October 2018
Group Exhibition: Stellenbosch University Museaum

Material Gains showcases selected works from Spier’s diverse
collection of contemporary African art. Curated by Candice Allison,
it explores the concept of ‘material’ – denied as both intangible ideas and physical substance.
Woven through the exhibition is a common  interest in materiality and especially in concepts
and values attributed to materials, alternative mediums, and contemporary appropriation of
traditional techniques.
Created by artists from across the continent – including South Africa,

Zimbabwe, Malawi, Congo and Nigeria – these works span the
mediums of painting, photography, bead work, sculpture, crochet,
embroidery and found materials. Collectively, they represent and
celebrate the ‘material gains’ which have positively impacted the
stability and sustainability of Africa’s visual arts.

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SOLO STUDIOS: Intimate Art Encounters

11-13 August 2017
Event: Riebeek Valley, Western Cape

​16 Artists' Studios • 5 Group Exhibitions • 10 Authors • 5 Photographers all resident in the Riebeek Valley.
​
Following the resounding success of the inaugural event in 2016, Solo Studios returns to the Riebeek Valley. Pre-booking essential. 
 



THE SOLO STUDIOS LINOCUT PROJECT 


An initiative of seven artists participating in the annual Solo Studios event in the Riebeek Valley.
​
It is a collaborative fundraising project with each artist producing a limited edition of 15 relief prints (linocut or woodcut), presented in limited edition bespoke boxes and accompanied by a catalogue.
 



WOMEN'S WORK: CRAFTING STORIES, SUBVERTING NARRATIVES


1 December 2016 - 30 April 2017
Group Exhibition: iZiko South African National Gallery

The past and present intersect as contemporary South African artists blur the boundaries between art, craft and gendered spaces.
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