Blue Star Contemporary [Exhibition]

Soot on the grass, 2016, Photo-collage transfer on Found Fabric and burnt wood, 28 in x 82 in x 8in

The Crossing, 2015, Mixed Media on Found Table Cloth, Soil, and Found Objects, 73in x 115in x 20in

FROM UNDERFOOT: BREAKING THROUGH SURFACE AND GROUND

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION:

The works in this exhibition feature in some shape or form the ground as part of the subject and the artists focus. The surface of the earth is depicted as an active space, laden with tension. The artists featured reflect on the landscape and emphasize changes above and below gravel and grass, with subtle yet moving references to natural and manmade disasters. We can also find themes of how we reflect on the passage of time and mortality through the landscape, with references of resurrection, rejuvenation, erosion, and growth.

Location: Blue Star Contemporary

Address: 116 Bue Star, San Antonio, Texas
Museum Hours: TH FR 10am-8pm | SA SU 10am-6pm 

By |2018-06-06T10:27:30+00:00June 6th, 2018|

Catalog for Bridge Red Exhibition [flip book]

By |2018-05-09T10:35:15+00:00May 9th, 2018|

The Mountain Without a Shadow [exhibition]

Location: BRIDGE RED
Address: 12425 NE 13TH AVE, North Miami, FL 33161
Dates: Friday, April 8, 2018 | 4 pm – 7 pm

Exhibition Ends May 27th

In “The Mountain Without a Shadow” themes of displacement and cultural heritage permeate Anja Marais’ work. Often using photography combined with found objects, her work is imbued with a ritualistic quality. Central to Marais’ work is the disintegration of material, creating apt metaphors for the human condition, geography, and memory.

Born in South Africa and now living in Miami, Marais’ work challenges the viewer to rethink the meaning of systematic conditioning. Photography forms the basis of much of her mixed media work, but she also employs more archaic materials like maize, soil, rust, etc to realize her works.

Whilst Marais’ work subtly alludes to the impact of racism in South Africa – a country immersed in political and social turmoil during her upbringing – her themes have a universal appeal. Marais reinforces this:

‘…. I am interested in interpreting direct experiences that contradict our conditioning. With first-hand experience we don’t see things as they are, but how we see them as we are. An opportunity to discover dissonance between what we know and what we are born with ‘

The exhibition comprises nine of Marais’ most telling works from multiple projects around ‘the sins of the fathers’. In ‘The Transparency of Rocks‘, one of the larger pieces in the exhibition, Marais combines images of a child merging with rocks, a reflection on carrying the transgressions of our forefathers.

In ‘A Poem for the Sharpevilles‘, she uses press images from traumatic events in history and washes them away to recede and merge into the landscape, an attempt to memorialize landscape as a mute witness to the actions of man.

Also featured are recent sculpture works. These include found objects enmeshed with Maize. Corn is a staple food in Africa as in many other countries and is used in rituals of the ancestors.

“Libation for the Lineage of the Unlived.” is a video work that combines ritual and ethnopoetics bringing the outside and ‘other’ world into the space of the gallery.

By |2018-04-05T06:50:57+00:00April 4th, 2018|

FOLD: Exhibit combines unique disciplines through art [write-up]

Exhibit combines unique disciplines through art
by NANCY MOYER

Marais’ bold images reflect the inner psyche bleeding through external reality. She describes her work as a chronicle of the undertaken journey to wander between the two worlds while being a mirror to both. Her surfaces resemble roughly weathered posters, survivors of life’s events, yet still alive and vital.

Believing that all life is a story, “I cut out bits and fragments of this epic tale,” Marais declared in her statement, “and piece them back together searching for coherence and sense; this mutilation creates a new world.”

The powerful work, “Up Flight of the Wingless Bird,” predicts the ultimate transformation. The feminine image, slightly larger than life, rises up above a panel suggesting a nervous system, bone structure, or maybe brambles, into a figurative form. Continuing this path, a light from above changes the physical features into a deadly visage.

FOLD is a women exhibition at the International Museum of Art and Science in Texas curated by Raheleh Filsoofi.

Read the full article HERE

Anja Marais Art

Up flight of the wingless bird, Photomontage Mixed Media on Found Fabrics, 2015, 85 IN x 79 IN

By |2018-02-28T12:16:55+00:00February 28th, 2018|

Between transformation and disintegration – Art Salon [Art Talk]

Memorial Landscapes between transformation and disintegration: Photography as a Textural Approach

by Anja Marais

Elle Schorr’s Art Salon – South Florida has become a vibrant center for art and artists, and ART SALONS at the ARMORY ART CENTER in West Palm Beach are a gathering place for artists from throughout in the region. Each month from October to May, Art Salons offer presentations by influential professional artists whose artwork is being shown in museums and galleries in South Florida. Presenters show their work, talk about their influences, and explore the work of artists showing in museums and galleries, followed by stimulating discussions between all who attend. Our discussions cover the gamut of contemporary art themes, including conceptual, cultural, socio/political, environmental, race and gender-focused and aesthetic practices, the materials and techniques used to convey these ideas, and where we fit into the world of contemporary conceptual art. Art Salons also offer the opportunity to explore the practical side of being an artist, enhance professional development, share useful resources, and network with other artists.

By |2018-02-28T12:04:03+00:00February 13th, 2018|