Last One Standing- a solo exhibition by Tanya Poole

On February 27th 2010 at 11h00 Brett Kebble Art Award winner Tanya Poole will open an exhibition of new work at Artspace gallery in Rosebank, Johannesburg.

Taking as her starting point the idea of unsustainable dualities, she uses, as a visual analogy, an imaginary series of fights between karateka (those who practice karate) and animals. These images are a playful narrative on our tendency to seeing the world in a context of polarities, to dominate rather than to engage. These are cautionary tales, a reminder that what we seek to dominate, we often end up destroying.

In conversation with curator Clive van den Berg, Poole explains her approach to painting as a medium to encourage viewer interaction.

"To engage the viewer in the emotional site of my work, I needed to make it compelling and contemplative; compelling in that holds the viewer's interest, and contemplative in that there is a generous amount of time made for the viewer to sit with his or her changing responses."

In 2008 Poole participated in the Artspace Mentorship Programme as mentor to two artists, Nomusa Makhubu and Lindi Arbi. The programme aims to give new artists an opportunity to engage with the market through a mentoring process by an established name. Poole showed with her two mentees in an exhibition entitled Hollywood, Bollywood, Nollywood which sought to unpack the relationship between these diverse but powerful institutions of popular culture.

Poole's distinctive work received widespread acclaim after she was awarded the joint first prize of the prestigious Brett Kebble Art Award in 2004. Both prior to and after this Poole has participated in many shows and projects.

In 1998, Poole completed her Master's submission, an exhibition in three parts with painting, video installation and performance. In January of 1999, Poole's closest friend, Clare Keenan, survived a brutal attempted rape and murder. For nearly a year, they worked on Inner Site Violence together, an exhibition based on Keenan's experience. This opened on International Women Against Violence Day in Cape Town, 1999, in the house that was the site of Keenan's attack. Supported by the Canadian Government, the exhibition was seen in Pretoria and later in Grahamstown. Poole's other solo exhibitions include Behind the Green Door(1996), Limnetic Zone (1998) and Bedtime Stories (2000).

Poole has coordinated and part taught the drawing programme at the Fine Art Department at Rhodes, judged and assessed scholar and student work. She was a selector for the Brett Kebble Art Awards in 2005. In 2004, she designed the set, props and costumes for Andrew Buckland's award-winning production Fuse, which was performed at the SA National Arts Festival, Grahamstown and at the Edinburgh Festival where it won the Best of Fringe Award. She has worked with Juanita Finestone-Praeg on 37 Degrees of Fear, performed at The Dance Factory in Newtown, Johannesburg and has collaborated with Juanita Finestone-Praeg, Leonard Praeg, Dion van Niekerk, Acty Tang and the performers on 16 kinds of emptiness, a multi-media/physical theatre production in 2006 at the SA National Arts Festival, Grahamstown.

The exhibition opens at Artspace, 1 Chester Court, 142 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parkwood, at 11h00 on the 27 February. Arts critic Zingi Mkefa will open the exhibition.

Please join us at the opening for a glass of wine and to meet the artist.

For more information and images contact

Taryn Cohn
Media Liaison for Artspace Gallery
083 6715139
taryncohn@artsourcesouthafrica.co.za