Woodstock Industrial Centre taps into next artisitc market

After three weeks in Cape Town, a group of artists from Germany will display their work along with contributions from South African artists at the Woodstock Industrial Centre this Friday, 21st January.

A Word of Art, the art gallery established and run by Ricky Lee Gordon, will mark the end of stay for Brent Dahl, Marc Einsiedel and Felix Jung of We Are Visual from Hamburg, Germany, with their show called Guten Tag.

Their sojourn in Cape Town culminates with an installation made of materials and objects salvaged from the Mother City’s streets and includes a three-day exhibition of paper works from the Gaengeviertel artist squat in Hamburg.

The Woodstock Industrial Centre on Albert Road, once an industrial building for Cape Town, now gives artists and musicians from around South Africa and all over the world the opportunity to work and live in a studio amongst over 100 other tenants.

For A Word of Art, such close proximity to other artists will hopefully allow for a broader perspective and enrichment of their artistic practice, tapping into a new artistic market, widened visibility and the opportunity to network, exchange ideas and collaborate with new people.

“We want artist’s to go home with a real South African story. And we want to contribute to a creative community here in South Africa and help raise our profile within the international art world,” said Gordon.

Gordon believes the future of the Woodstock Centre will reflect what is happening within this new artistic subculture – which is a mix of street art, graffiti art, underground art, popular art, modern art and contemporary art.

“A Word of Art aims to create art projects and experiences rather then white-wall gallery shows,” Gordon added.

Other artists in attendance and showing on Friday 21st January, include Tika, from Rio/Zurich/Berlin, who will begin her three-month residency in January, and Fuzzy Slipperz, a Cape Town native and up-and-coming artist who has already tasted success in his first show, Something Has Changed in Me.

Fuzzy will show four illustrative works, along with contributing his DJ skills to the after party.

“Yeah, I am really excited about the show. It will be exciting to see what everyone else has come up with,” Fuzzy said. “People respond really well to these shows, and it’s really good exposure for everybody.”

Woodstock is the only place in Cape Town that shows the growing low brow artists that seem to be very popular, and thanks to shows like this, the art scene in Cape Town is gaining ground.