At the end of an eventful 2019, we thought it was a good time to look back at the year for the Scheryn Art Collection and look forward to 2020.
We were proud to stage the first public exhibition of the Scheryn Art Collection. The exhibition, which runs from 2 November 2019 until 27 January 2020, is as part of the Norval Foundations Collector’s Focus series. Mapping Worlds: Selected Works from the Scheryn Art Collection has been curated by Norval Foundation Chief Curator, Owen Martin. The exhibition investigates how artists in the Scheryn Collection translate the material world or abstract conceptions of space into two-dimensional images or three-dimensional form. For more information about the exhibition, follow this link. We are serious about our responsibility to display elements of the collection and we will continue to prioritise alternative conduits for investigating, contextualising and exhibiting the collection in 2020.
Over the course the year, we acquired 11 artworks from 10 different artists hailing from countries such as South Africa, Cameroon, Kenya and Ghana. The works acquired were by artists including Ibrahim Mahama, Pascale Martine Tayou, Bronwyn Katz, Cinga Samson, Nolan Oswald Dennis, Mawande Ka Zenzile, Robin Rhode, Kemang Wa Lehulere, Jared Ginsburg and Chemu Ng’ok.
Throughout 2019, we loaned out artworks by Nick Cave, Robin Rhode, Gerald Machona, Athi Patra-Ruga, Zanele Muholi, Kemang Wa Lehulere and Yinka Shonibare to various exhibitions taking place at public museums, private museums and foundations, locally and internationally. We are very pleased with this aspect of the collection and openly welcome any loan requests for artworks in the collection. It is our aim that the collection becomes available to the public in a way that allows educational opportunities and engages new audiences.
In 2019, we were proud to support various initiatives outside of the collection. This included Mawande Ka Zenzile’s three-month residency at Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, The Association for Visual Arts (AVA) Archives Project, SEED – which was SAFFCA’s end of the year celebration of Southern African Contemporary Art, and lastly, working in collaboration with Guns & Rain to install artworks at the Johannesburg office of the Harvard University Centre for African Studies. As we continue to grow the collection, we are always on the lookout for collaborative ways to support and showcase African contemporary art. We look forward to building on this in 2020 with new projects and partnerships.
Finally, members of the Scheryn team took part in panel discussions during the year. Scheryn director, Herman Steyn, took part in the Art Basel Cities Talks Program in Buenos Aires during the weekend of 12 – 14 April 2019. Herman spoke about the Public Task of the Collector with fellow participants Axel Haubrok and Mauro Herlitzka. Scheryn manager, Brett Scott, took part in the panel discussion Should Contemporary Art Last that took place as part of Specialist Conservation Week at the Iziko South African National Gallery.
Looking towards 2020, we will continue to build the collection around African Contemporary Art by supporting artists, galleries, museums and foundations. We look forward to building on our first public exhibition as we investigate alternative ways of displaying and contextualising the collection. And, we will continue to support the arts community and engage in collaborative projects and partnerships which showcase the creativity of the African continent.