cbg artist portfolio - candice berman gallery · 2016 the loop art gallery, cape town, south africa...

Artist Portfolio John-Michael Metelerkamp

GALLERY

POSITIONING

STATEMENT

Candice Berman Gallery / Artist Portfolio / John-Michael Metelerkamp

1

At Candice Berman Gallery, founded in 2013, we view the world with a curious eye. When

choosing which artists to represent, we are driven by this vision of curiosity and our earnest

quest to provide a platform for the multifaceted palette of fine art.

The artists with whom the gallery works offer a novel approach to their chosen medium and

expression and include artists who are often multi-disciplinary. For Candice Berman, the

fascination is with the stories behind the works, the cultural and personal narratives, which

the artists infuse into their expressions. The aesthetic is often wild and unashamedly

passionate in that it primarily regards artists working within the Expressionist Movement.

When building relationships with artists and collectors, Candice and her team are hands-on

and dedicated, and will go to the ends of the earth to make sure that the experience of

producing and purchasing art is a journey filled with excitement and learning.

The figure has remained one of my cornerstone subjects, so it is not

surprising that I would incorporate people into my paintings. I have found

people and interpersonal relationships difficult for as long as I can

remember. Even in my more abstract paintings there is the energy of a

physical presence. The process is very physical. I feel it is me that I am

leaving on the canvas

My work is autobiographical in the context of my recovery and journey to

being a whole person. Painting has so many elements in it that I find

effective for accessing a certain mood or energy. I don’t step back until I feel

I have something to look at. I don’t edit my thoughts and I have tried, in the

past, to find the most awkward colours that still work together in harmony.

ARTIST

STATEMENT

Candice Berman Gallery / Artist Portfolio / John-Michael Metelerkamp 2

ARTIST

BIOGRAPHY

John-Michael Metelerkamp was born in 1982 and is based in Knysna, South Africa. From

an early age he showed a talent for drawing. It became a constant practice for him to draw

on paper. He also kept creating drawings throughout his difficulties with substance abuse.

(He would destroy most of the work.) From his late teens and up until his early thirties he

experienced a challenging period emotionally, mentally and spiritually. Ultimately he was

sent to a neurological clinic. The ensuing months saw him on the couch in front of the TV.

He was cast from the couch when his brother presented him with an ultimatum. “Paint!” he

said. And so John-Michael did just that. And since late 2013, he hasn’t stopped.

Website candicebermangallery.com

Instagram @jahn_my_kul


ARTIST

RESUME

Solo Exhibitions 2019 Nekkies, Section: Tomorrows / Today – Investec

Cape Town Art Fair (CTAF 2019)

2018 The Immortal Nekkies, Turbine Art Fair 2018

– Candice Berman Gallery, Johannesburg, South

Africa

2017 Gateway Series – Berman Contemporary,

Johannesburg, South Africa

2017 Metelerkamp: Keepers – Candice Berman Gallery,

Johannesburg, South Africa

2016 That Art Fair – Cape Town, South Africa

Group Exhibitions

2018 Turbine Art Fair 2018 (TAF18) – Candice Berman

Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa 2017 Turbine Art Fair 2017 (TAF17) – Candice Berman

Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

2016 Metelerkamp I Canadas | Meyer – Candice Berman

Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

2016 The Loop Art Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2016 Transmutation – Knysna Fine Art, Knysna,

South Africa

2016 2.99 – 99 Loop Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2016 Look – The Eye, Cape Town, South Africa


2015 JMM, Pop-up Gallery, Knysna, South Africa

2015 1.99 – 99 Loop Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2015 A|No Magazine launch show – Studio 7, Atlanta,

USA

2015 Untitled – Luvey n Rose, Cape Town, South Africa

2014 Untitled – Knysna Fine Art, Knysna, South Africa

Publications 2018 Neo-Expressionism in Africa – Metelerkamp and

Selibe, pioneering a new art movement in

Contemporary South Africa by Ashraf Jamal –

Berman Contemporary publication

2018 Immortal Nekkies by Amy Gibbings – Art Africa

Magazine

2018 The Neo-Expressionists | John-Michael

Metelerkamp and Stompie Selibe by Ashraf Jamal

– Creative Feel Magazine, 1 June

2018 Alien Growth: Confronting the world’s agenda with

acrylic, oil and cut-outs – Art Africa, Newsletter, 26

April

2017 John-Michael Metelerkamp by Catherine

Terblanche – Habitat Magazine, 15 December

2017 Trust Pool, John-Michael Metelerkamp on Reality

and the Subconscious – Art Africa Newsletter, 25

May 2015 Cover Artist, A|No Magazine launch

show – Studio 7, Atlanta, USA

NEKKIES

2019

Candice Berman Gallery / Artist Portfolio / John-Michael Metlerkamp 5


Nekkies 2019

Mixed-media on panel

90x90cm

Metelerkamp paints images that are continuously mined from his unconscious.

The artist is known for creating a painting a day and has a recurring theme

asking: What is reality? His search for meaning is like that of a child at play or

an embodiment of William James’s idea of one that is twice-born: ‘The process

is one of redemption, not of mere reversion to natural health, and the sufferer,

when saved, is saved by what seems to him a second birth, a deeper kind of

conscious being than he could enjoy before.’

Metelerkamp has conceptualised his work around a group of people who live on

the outskirts of Knysna in a highway settlement called Nekkies, but these might

as well be self-portraits. ‘I feel I can identify with some of the characters. I’ve

seen there, not their circumstances, but the feeling of utter despair. There is a

tavern along the highway running through Nekkies, there is always plenty of

people, dogs, cattle and cars around. But you can feel a sense of uneasiness

on that stretch of highway,’ he says. This perhaps is why Metelerkamp’s

obscure paintings are hard not to relate to when one really looks.

IMMORTAL NEKKIES

2018



Immortal Nekkies 2018

Mixed-media on panel

90x90cm

In his series, The Immortal Nekkies, Metelerkamp steps into yet another paradigm –

neo-expressionism. Figurative and surrealist, his previous works concentrated on

beady-eyed people in swirling landscapes, distinctive wildlife and abstracted and

peculiar still-life forms. But his most recent paintings are more chaotic and layered.

Presenting the viewer with a sense of discomfort that is deeply subconscious.

His paintings are an amalgamation of acrylic, oil and cut-outs from his old

sketchpads – bringing to mind the work of late neo- expressionist Jean-Michel

Basquiat and German artist Jonathan Meese. His work is provocative and glaringly

emotional. It lays bare the complexities of the human psyche, making reference to

the worlds agenda that can be seen manifested in the dichotomy of the physical

versus the spiritual human experience. “I feel the tension in my paintings alludes to

an internal dialogue between landscape or figure, or eyeball and elbow. The

paintings are like alien growth in a far-off land, that when they fall to the ground,

they will make a sound. Even if no one is around to hear it,” he says.

GATEWAY

2017



Gateway Series, 2017

Acrylic on Fabriano

132x100cm

KEEPERS

2017



Keepers Series, 2017

Acrylic on Fabriano

130x200cm

In keeping with most of Metelerkamp’s work, the 11 acrylic paintings that make up

Keepers started as a single painting and organically progressed into a series. Each

painting comprises paired, voluptuous, naked females painted in a Picasso-esque style

who dominate assorted landscapes (occasionally, a manmade environment) which are

dotted about with tiny, seemingly less significant figures. Each of the women is depicted

with dual faces. Keepers is firmly positioned in the artist’s highly personal iconography.

Although he is not concerned with the political, he is fascinated by human nature and the

behaviour that drives it. He is naturally drawn to “the experience of those on the fringes

of society”, and he likes to think that his work “is the antithesis of stereotype”.

Metelerkamp says that he understands people and explains that though he will always

try to portray humans in a sympathetic manner, his way of painting and thinking puts a

subversive spin on his interpretation. Metelerkamp prefers the viewer to make up his or

her own mind about the meaning of his paintings. Apart from Keepers’ emotional impact,

there are some other inherent clues. The title holds the first one. For Metelerkamp it

suggests a “guiding force”. He does, however, describe Keepers as “a battle of sorts;

inner turmoil with a resounding longing and request for relief”.

INESCAPABLE BIRD SONG

2016


Inescapable Bird Song, 2016

Acrylic on Fabriano

170x160cm

LAS SERIES

2012


Las Series, 2012

Acrylic on Panel

90x90cm

GALLERY ADDRESS:

Shop 8, Riverside Shopping Centre,

Bryanston, Johannesburg, RSA

Shop 3, Rand Steam Shopping Centre,

Johannesburg, RSA

WEBSITE ADDRESS:

candicebermangallery.com

EMAIL:

[email protected]

TEL:

+27 11 463 8524

MOBILE:

+27 84 843 8302


mailto:[email protected]

cbg artist portfolio - candice berman gallery · 2016 the loop art gallery, cape town, south africa...

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