a solo exhibition by

Sulette van der Merwe

7 - 28 October 2021

Node is Sulette van der Merwe’s second solo exhibition at the WORLDART gallery in Cape Town.

The title of the exhibition refers a point in a network or diagram at which lines intersect or branch. In
physics a node is a point at which the amplitude of vibration in a standing wave system is zero.

When manipulating digital images on a computer, node points are used to generate a vertex and make graphic representations.

The title of the exhibition bears reference to the conceptual origin of the paintings and the digital artwork that will be on display, as well as to the process the artist used to create the images.

“I edit images from media, the internet and the real world on my computer and then paint or make video animations that are a mashup of these explorations. I am observing the cross-chatter between what is online and ephemeral and offline and tangible”

Sulette van der Merwe is interested in the interplay of the digital and the real, the computational generated world of online experience and the images that cross infect the biologically embodied space of the nondigital.

A “node “ can also be a growth point for a leaf or twig if described in botany and the natural world. The slight swelling that can be observed on a sprouting plant has it’s origin from the Latin word “nodus” which means knot.

Similarly to an imagined knot the intuitive non-linear visual narratives that emerge when looking at these artworks are meant be apex points to the viewers connecting with an aesthetic visual experience.

The acrylic on board paintings in this exhibition are a confluence of two dimensional ultra-flat colours, grids and lines and realistically painted objects and bodies. Her work is informed by philosophy , surrealism and pop art.

The exhibition will open on 7 October 2021.

For more information or to request a digital exhibition catalogue, please email us at info@worldart.co.za

Sulette van der Merwe (b. 1982) lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa. She enjoys philosophy and art history, and recent works explore the theme of Heterotopia, a concept used to describe spaces that have more layers of meaning than the immediately obvious. Pop art, surrealism and digital culture also feature prominently in her paintings and video animations. “I am interested in the narrative abstractions that arise when information from disparate spaces such as illustration, internet sourced images and photography are combined. It is an intuitive and conceptually playful experience to observe the cross chatter between the physicality of painting and the ephemeral nature of the online experience.”

EDUCATION

• 2004 Dip Fine Arts. Tshwane University of Technology

EXHIBITIONS

• 2021 Solo exhibition at WORLDART

• 2020 Turbine Art Fair (online)

• 2019 Summer group show, WORLDART, Cape Town

• 2019 “nano 1.3”, Barnard Gallery, Cape Town

More information: Charl Bezuidenhout | charl@worldart.co.za | +27 21 423 3075