LETTERLIK
31.08–06.09.2024
Kalashnikovv Gallery
Johannesburg | South Africa
The title of this project is a wordplay on the Dutch ‘letterlijk’, Afrikaans ‘letterlik’ which both mean ‘literally’. The artist claims that in English it intuitively translates to ‘Letters so good you want to lick them’. Something that connects naturally to Shoe’s adagium ‘words are images, writing is painting’.
Letterlik exhibition features artists Niels Shoe Meulman, Naledi Modupi, Seth Pimentel, and Rasty Knayles. The exhibition is in partnership with Open City Joburg.
Naledi Modupi
Naledi Modupi, a multi-talented visual artist based in Johannesburg, is renowned for her distinct style of portraiture showcasing black femininity and cultural pride. Inspired by the strong South African women who raised her, Modupi creates abstract portraits using shapes, patterns and lines to form bold black figures accompanied by vibrant colours. Modupi's art celebrates South African women, showcasing mastery of both traditional and digital mediums like chalk, paint and digital art. Her portraits capture the spirit, strength and beauty of women from her community, including her mother and grandmothers, paying homage to the pivotal role they played in her upbringing. Through her art, Modupi seeks to tell stories of identity and heritage, ensuring future generations acknowledge the role of South African women, past and present. Modupi's versatility and cultural pride shine through in every piece, a testament to the impact the women in her life have had on her own journey as an artist.
Rasty Knayles
"Painting graffiti since 1999 and tattooing since 2009, Rasty is an artist of many skills and job descriptions. His dedication to mastering his crafts has made him one of the most respected artists in the South African graffiti and lowbrow art communities. As a graffiti artist, Rasty has been instrumental in the growth of the Johannesburg graffiti scene over the last two decades. His artwork has continuously evolved in style, from letters to cartoons to photo realism and hybrid variations of all three, all the while executed with precision and a focus on technique. Through this continual pursuit of bettering his art he has inspired contemporaries and younger generations while setting the standard of quality for both. Rasty's 'off the wall' contributions to the local graffiti scene equal that of his physical artworks. In 2007 he opened Grayscale, South Africa's only dedicated graffiti and art supplies store, supplying high quality imported and local materials over the counter in Johannesburg and online to Southern Africa.
Seth Pimentel
Seth Pimentel is an illustrator, painter and experimental visual artist currently living and working in Johannesburg. Pimentel (also known as African Ginger), focuses on pushing the boundaries of visual art's conventions by attempting to merge traditional and digital work, into a hybrid of experimentation. Continuously drawing and developing his style and approach to mental illness, he uses his practice to highlight the nuances in his own personal experiences, and aims to create a "visual bridge" of understanding with his subjective experiences of dealing with mental health to a wider audience. Pimentel channels all of his energy and emotion into newer, bigger bodies of traditional and digital pieces and has collaborated with numerous brands and artists from South African and around the world such as Netflix, Converse, Redbull, SneakerLab, Jameson, Adobe & Hennessey.
Niels Shoe Meulman
Niels Shoe Meulman (born 1967) is a visual artist, known for his gestural paintings which reveal vivid traces of graffiti and calligraphy. He revolutionized the art of writing when he initiated the Calligraffiti movement, claiming “a word is an image and writing is painting”. Being a graffiti pioneer from Amsterdam, Shoe tagged along with New York counterparts such as Dondi White, Rammellzee and Keith Haring in the 1980s. Equally influenced by the great painters of Abstract Expressionism, he gradually found his own way to translate street attitude to gallery walls. Experimenting within the traditional medium of paint-on-canvas, but also unafraid to venture into new realms like conceptual installations and poetry, Niels Shoe Meulman keeps pushing the limits of Urban Contemporary
