Thelma Van Rensburg
BTECH Fine Arts - Thesis completed Cum Laude 2007
My work deals with the pin-up. The pin-up is a sexually evocative image. Examples of this phenomenon are the Flappers and Varga girls of 1930s and the current media use of the pin-up to advertise anything from a car to beauty products.
Even as innocent as this genre may seem, all the elements of patriarchal values are present in the exploitation of the woman as sexual object and the objectification of the female as a piece of property to be owned and ruled by men. My aim is to subvert the male gaze by creating a contemplative gaze and physically slashing the paint on to create a palpable feeling of skin and the creation of thick make up. This illustrates the enhancement of beauty and thus the illusion of beauty created by magazine’s use of Photoshop manipulation. Also illustrating that beauty is only temporary and that woman are only sexual objects as long as they are beautiful and young.
Resident Artist at : Kunsthouse Cape Town
Smudge Contemporary Gallery Clarens
Art-Mine Gallery New York
Exhibitions:
2006:
Student's exhibition at UNISA, Pretoria with news paper review
2007:
Finalist in the Sasol new Signatures Art Competition
2008:
Group Exhibition at the Fried Contemporary Gallery in Pretoria
Group Exhibition at Magpie Gallery in Centurion
Group Exhibition at The Gallery, Duncan yard, Pretoria
Group Exhibition at the MAP Gallery in Graskop
2009:
Group Exhibition at Dluxeville Gallery, Woodstock.
Group Exhibition at Rust-en-Vrede Gallery, Durbanville, Cape Town
Group Exhibition at Magpie Gallery in Centurion
Group Exhibition at Kunsthouse Gallery in Cape Town
Group exhibition at Fried Gallery, Pretoria, Affordable Art Fair Pretoria
Group exhibition at St lorient Fashion and Art Gallery, Pretoria
Group Exhibition at Duncan yard gallery, Pretoria
Group Exhibition at Duncan Yard Gallery, Pretoria
Magpie group exhibition
Solo Exhibition Kunsthouse, Cape Town 24th September
Aardklop Exhibition, Potchsefstroom
Magpie group exhibition
Group exhibition St Lorient Fashion Gallery, Brooklyn
2010:
Group Exhibition at Fried Contemporary in Pretoria "Bodies in Transition"
Competitions:
Finalist in Ekhurhuleni competition 2009
Finalist in Vuleka competition, Cape Town 2009
Finalist in Sanlam Vuleka competition Cape Town 2010
Private Collections:
Germany
Switzerland
Holland