Nigel Mullis: 21st Century Talismans and Caryn Scrimgeour: Postcards from China at Everard Read London are highlighted in a round up on The South African

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Deborah Belll , leading South African artist represented by Everard Read discusses her new body of work for her forthcoming exhibition - Return of the Gods - at Everard Read Gallery London. Here we find Bell, a long time collaborator with South African legends Robert Hodgins and William Kentridge, at her most introspective best, contemplating what it is to practice art in a far flung corner of South Africa as an outsider from the global often circuitous and incestuous art dialogue which allows her to bring her own unique vision to the conversation.

Everard Read|CIRCA Galleries are pleased to announce that artist Beth Diane Armstrong has won the 2017 Standard Bank Young Artist Award for visual art. Armstrong follows in the footsteps of William Kentridge, who won the Visual Arts category in 1987, and Brett Murray in 2002.  

Scrimgeour’s table settings intrigue and fascinate, juxtaposing fragile and precious

curios with commonplace objects, exquisitely rendered. Rich in symbolism, her

work is reminiscent of still life paintings from the Dutch Golden Age, while the

use of bird’s-eye perspective creates a contemporary context for a

very traditional genre.

"I want to present my paintings as superstitious objects with bogus protective powers to bend reality in our favour. My paintings offer somehow to help you. 'Buy you time.' Or 'Reduce insignificance.’ Or 'Guarantee Afterlife.’ The squishy bodily qualities of paint, thick gestures, and sometimes outright messy application, are ideal to evoke a low-tech, talismanic object or fetish and our chaotic and often absurd strategies for controlling the vagaries of chance and guaranteeing a bright future."

- Nigel Mullins

Dylan Lewis's oversized wildlife sculptures reflect the vastness of South African Landscapes by Jonathan Foyle. Published in the Finincial Times on 15 October 2016.

"South African sculptor Dylan Lewis is forging the evolution of bronze. He was raised in a landscape of red soils rich in copper. His country offers some of the earliest evidence of man, such as the Cradle of Humankind, a Unesco world heritage site near Johannesburg. Here, hunters lived in caves, some of which contain bulbous, tumbling limestone stalactites — natural sculptures directly expressive of primeval forces, wrought through base material."

Everard Read I CIRCA Gallery will present a solo exhibition of work by Colbert Mashile at the 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair. Colbert is an artist who has developed a unique iconographical language within South African art, often dealing with the mystical, mythological and archaic elements of traditional African culture and its legacy in present-day life.

In South Africa, hundreds of thousands of children die from AIDS every year. CHIVA Africa sends teams of highly skilled volunteer doctors, nurses, psychologists, pharmacists and dietitians from South Africa and the UK to provide targeted, on-site mentoring, teaching, assessment and quality improvement support to health facilities across South Africa. By sharing their knowledge and experience they greatly increase the impact of local frontline staff help them to achieve their ultimate goal – a long and healthy life for all children and adolescents. 

 “We work with South African healthcare professionals, providing on-site mentoring and teaching to equip them with the skills and knowledge they need to provide high quality, long term care for children and adolescents living with HIV. ” Stephen Harvey, CHIVA Africa CEO

Funds raised from the sale of these spectacular chairs at Everard Read London will support the work of CHIVA Africa - a leading AIDS charity focused on improving the lives of children and teenagers living with HIV in South Africa

The recently published 'A Voyage To The Interior' explores the paintings of Gary James as well as introducing the remarkable work of his son Alexander James. 

John Meyer, a leading South African artist who is represented by Everard Read Galleries, was recently commissioned to paint Queen Elizabeth II. With his usual attention to detail (and one eye on the historical narrative). Meyer, mindful of her 90th birthday, chose to conjure an image of her 69 years ago as a young princess, riding on a beach in South Africa in 1947, in what must have been a rare moment of unbridled freedom for the young woman who was to become the world’s oldest reigning monarch, as well as Britain's longest-lived.

Queen Elizabeth II, during her 64 year reign, is the most portrayed human in recorded history, by no lesser artists than Lucian Freud and Andy Warhol. Meyer's remarkable portrayal adds to this tradition. One can only imagine how this invocation of a time so utterly different from the present must have been received. It is hoped that this unique painting will find its way to one of her special homes.