Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/433799
S P O R T I N G C L A S S I C S 1 1 0 gallery forests with massive canopies and predators and prey moving through them—elephants, lions, and buffalo skirting waterholes inhabited by hippos and always flanked by the mighty river, a sanguine magnet for birdlife yet just beneath the surface are 12-foot crocodiles that can snatch anything not paying attention. If Van Schalkwyk's new lion painting could talk, its brushstrokes would speak to the adrenalin surge that raced through him when, unarmed, he saw the lion's golden eyes glinting in the sun as the big predator walked toward him. The male and his large 12-member pride had moments earlier taken down a calf elephant, while its frantic, trumpeting mother tried futilely to fend off the swarming circle of felid hunters. The violence of survival is tempered with Van Schalkwyk's gentle, respectful interpretation of the aftermath. The humans had heard uproars from the harrowing clash that happened beyond view. After all had gone quiet, the anguished mother elephant had lumbered away, alone. And then, when Van Schalkwyk, Langmead, and Parker assumed they had safely skirted the lions, the simba stepped forward, making certain the intruders had no designs on interrupting the family feast. It approached within feet but let them be. Langmead, raised on a farm in Zimbabwe, has Apart from his wildlife work, he's acclaimed as a contemporary painter who pushes the envelope, using art to address social issues in his homeland and experimenting with an iconography that is a mix of sacred and profane. Part of what makes Van Schalkwyk's portfolio so intriguing is the contrast between his classic naturalism beloved by sportsmen and women and his corpus of edgier, avant-garde paintings. Van Schalkwyk has been accepted into residency programs at the Art Students League in New York and in 2013 won a merit award in the Absa L'Atelier competition, earning a stint of study at the Kunst: Raum Sylt Quelle Foundation in Germany. The work that netted him the prize, a provocative painting titled Promised Land, portrays a black South African couple next to a burning field. Unlike many of their contemporaries, Van Schalkwyk and Langmead are not just wildlife documentarians. Their mature perspective is one reason why their work has attracted attention from many museums. Resonant in both of their works is the dreamy shadow light of Mana, the SECOND LIASON by MOPHO GONDE FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH by MOPHO GONDE