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IMMATERIAL
THK COLOGNE GROUP SHOW -
THK Gallery is proud to announce Immaterial, our new show at THK Cologne.
Featuring Jan Scharrelmann, Patrick Bongoy, Pardon Mapondera, and Johno Mellish.
Immaterial brings into conversation four artists who interrogate the surface of our constructed realities. With a focus on materiality, they invert expectations and invalidate assumptions. They probe, test, and question; engaging in a dance of opposites to expose the elasticity of meanings.
Materials have complex associations. They function as a signifier of the past, and from this negotiated present, speak to a contingent future. With the slippage in meaning the centre cannot hold.
What is, what was, what still might be: reimagined, Immaterial. -
Jan Scharrelmann's works engage with the transience of their materiality in the wider phenomena of astrophysics, simultaneously drawing on references as varied as Science Fiction and contemporary music and culture. His voluminous creations with their iridescent surfaces take a variety of forms — from the monolithic to the polygonal — and through their complex construction, challenge their own materiality. Suggesting flux and movement, his variegated colours are a metaphor for the changing states of aggregation— from foggy fumes to dull compounds to shiny metallic liquids.
As if a challenge to gravity itself, this Cologne-based sculptor mobilises the signalling effect of colour in an alchemic-like process, drawing the viewer deep into his luminescent interior voids. In a play of opposites, his sculptures embody dichotomies: both light and heavy, hollow and condensed, shapeshifting on the continuum between order and chaos.
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The textured surface of Patrick Bongoy's works are the result of a painstaking process of cutting and weaving together strips of hessian and rubber. This complex technique, carefully layered in a three-dimensional relief, reference the physical labour still present in day to day living in the DRC. Bongoy’s works reference colonial legacies and power structures that still exist today.
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Pardon Mapondera's material of choice is found materials. Through this spectrum of unpredictable paraphernalia of materials he is able to collect, contend, and curate already existing histories, stories, continuing politics embedded in this debris of a consumerist culture. He is fascinated by the flexibility of some materials, how for instance heat transforms plastic into a metaphor for contorted and traumatised bodies. At this point the materials carry their own stories and philosophy.
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Johno Mellish constructs his photographic mise-en-scènes by combining history, memory and imagination. Sourcing imagery from both traditional media channels and vernacular photographs, he composes fictional narratives which mirror our post-truth, fragmented, and data-driven society.
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About Jan Scharrelmann
Jan Scharrelmann (b. 1975) is an established mid-career contemporary artist who lives and works in Cologne, Germany. He studied at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste under the guidance of renowned German sculptor Meuser. In 1999 he was awarded the Erasmus scholarship to further his studies at the Königliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Den Haag. His Post Graduate education was completed at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf under the guidance of contemporary German sculptor Georg Herold.
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About Patrick Bongoy
Patrick Bongoy was born in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts. He currently lives and works in Cape Town.
The textured surface of his works are the result of a painstaking process of cutting and weaving together strips of hessian and rubber. This complex technique, carefully layered in a threedimensional relief, draw on traditional basket making skills while referencing the difficult colonial histories and physical labour which defines day to day living in the DRC.
Bongoy featured in the first Stellenbosch Triennale in 2020, and he work has been exhibited at fair including Contemporary Istanbul, 1-54 London and Lisboa Art Fair. His works have been placed in collections around the world, including: Nando’s (both in the UK and SA); SADI Collectif, DR Congo Africa; First Collection, Israel; IZIKO South African National Gallery; UNISA Art Gallery, Johannesburg and Amazon South Africa.
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About Pardon Mapondera
Pardon Mapondera (b. 1992, Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe) is a full-time artist, currently living and working in Cape Town, South Africa.Growing up in Zimbabwe, his education was affected by Zimbabwe’s economic and political upheavals, but he persevered and completed his education. He applied at the National Gallery Visual Art and Design (former British American Tobacco School of Art) after being encouraged to do so by his brother and mentor, the well-established visual artist Wallen Mapondera, and successfully graduated in 2016.He is represented in a number of prominent collections, both in Africa and Europe, and received awards and recognition for his work.In August 2020, Pardon Mapondera was a runner-up in The Emergence Art Prize, which was organised by THK Gallery with support from Rand Merchant Bank. -
About Johno Mellish
Johno Mellish (b. 1991) constructs his photographic mise-en-scènes by combining history, memory and imagination. Sourcing imagery from both traditional media channels and vernacular photographs, he composes fictional narratives which mirror our post-truth, fragmented, and data-driven society.
He completed a Post Graduate Diploma in Photography at the Michaelis School of Fine Art in 2017, after completing a B.A at AFDA Film School. Represented in collections both locally and abroad, he was selected as a focus artist during AKAA 2019 in Paris, where academic Ashraf Jamal described his work, “Mellish is a visual DJ, a master of the remix. If his images seem novel and ‘unexpected’ it is also because, in his world, everything is up for grabs, everything can be reassigned a ‘new’ or different meaning. This process is not only a matter of shifting perspective, it is also the result of the deterritorialisation (Deleuze and Guattari) and defamiliarisation (Brecht) of the images. In Mellish’s photographs nothing possesses its essence, everything – the images content and reason for being – is, in effect, anti-and-post-essential. ” He currently lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa. -
PRESS
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Artscape Japan I Jan Scharrelmann I Invisible Memories at the Hara Museum
September 13, 2011 An article on Invisible Memories, a show at the Hara Museum in Japan, featuring the work of Jan Scharrelmann. Read the full piece here . -
E-Flux | Jan Scharrelmann at the Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen
November 24, 2010 An article on the group show The New Rhineland. The Post-ironic Generation, which featured the work of Jan Scharrelmann. Read the full piece here . -
Daimler Contemporary Berlin | Jan Scharrelmann | Visions of Exchange
September 3, 2018 A review of Visions of Exchange, a show held at Daimler Contemporary Berlin which included the work of Jan Scharrelmann. Read the full review here . -
Art Times | Between the Lines | A Group Show | Dec 2019/Jan 2020 Edition
November 28, 2019 Feature article on Between the Lines, a group show featuring the works of Patrick Bongoy, Atang Tshikare, and Jake Michael Singer. The show was held at THK Gallery from 12... -
ArtThrob | Rendering the Unseeable: on Pardon Mapondera
January 25, 2021 An article on the work and practice of Pardon Mapondera, as well as a review of his current inclusion in THK Gallery's Reflect. Reimagine. Reset. group show. Read the full... -
AfricanH | Pardon Mapondera
March 6, 2021 An article on artist Pardon Mapondera by Lifang Zhang. Read the full piece here . -
ArtThrob | Pardon Mapondera | Hutsanana
July 8, 2021 A review of Pardon Mapondera's online show Hutsanana by Lukho Witbooi. Read the full review here . -
Pardon Mapondera | The Malta artpaper. | A cross section of Zimbabwe's resilient art practice
December 1, 2021 An article on the artHarare Contemporary Art Fair 2021, with mention of the work of Pardon Mapondera. Read the full piece here . -
Le Journal des Rencontres AKAA 2019 | Johno Mellish | Ashraf Jamal
November 20, 2019 Featured article within the Also Known As Africa (AKAA) fair newspaper on Johno Mellish, written by Ashraf Jamal. A selection of Mellish's works were on exhibition at THK Gallery's booth... -
Johno Mellish | Connecting the Dots | Metal Magazine Online
April 21, 2020 Interview with Johno Mellish for Metal Magazine online. Read the full interview here . -
Art Times | Different Angles | February 2020 Edition | Nyasha Marovatsanga | Johno Mellish
January 28, 2020 A Featured article by Sven Christian on the show Different Angles. The show features two solo presentations by Johno Mellish and Nyasha Marovatsanga, and is on at THK Gallery from... -
Lux Life Magazine Online | Johno Mellish at AKAA 2019
November 6, 2019 Mention of THK Gallery and Johno Mellish at AKAA 2019. See the feature here . -
Johno Mellish | British Journal of Photography | On Location: Cape Town
August 16, 2021 An article on Cape Town's contemporary photogrpahy scene, featuring the work of Johno Mellish. Read the full article here . -
Conceptual Projects | Paris Photo 2021 | Johno Mellish
November 17, 2021 A selection of presentations at Paris Photo 2021, with mention of Johno Mellish. Read the full article here . -
Johno Mellish | Paris Photo 2021, a kaleidoscope of Africa
November 12, 2021 An article on Paris Photo 2021, with mention of Johno Mellish and THK Gallery. Read the full piece here . -
Johno Mellish | Paris Photo 2021: Curiosa | L'oeil de la Photographie
November 12, 2021 An article on the Curiosa sector of Paris Photo 2021, with mention of Johno Mellish and THK Gallery. Read the full piece here . -
Johno Mellish | ZEITmagazin
January 26, 2022 A ZEITmagazin online feature on the work of Johno Mellish. Read the full feature here . -
Johno Mellish | Booooooom Photographer Spotlight
March 10, 2021 A feature on the work of Johno Mellish. View the full piece here . -
Art Times | Ashraf Jamal | April 2020 Edition | Different Angles | Nyasha Marovatsanga | Johno Mellish
March 25, 2020 An article written by Ashraf Jamal, which highlights the show Different Angles. The online version of the full April 2020 edition of Art Times can be found here . Or...
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