APS is an accredited training provider with the MAPPP SETA, we conduct a three year training programme comprising of a first year foundation course that is an NQF level 4 Learnership in Design Foundation. On qualifying with this learnership, learners can exit the programme or continue studying in our 2nd year Advanced printmaking programme. Those learners who excel in this programme are invited into our Professional Development programme which requires learners to submit a body of work for exhibition, develop workplace experience within their chosen area of specialization as well as complete community service hours assisting with our outreach campaigns.
Intake is based on talent and aspiration for professional achievement, and we are able to provide subsidies for the majority of the student body who come from financially disadvantaged backgrounds. APS aims to build the capacity of its students by providing them with the necessary holistic skills to become professional practitioners, empowered and self-sustaining individuals, and community leaders. Engagement with HIV/AIDS and other social issues such as gender equality and xenophobia empowers the learners to live well-rounded and healthy lives. Students witness the power of art in addressing key social issues. Inputs from experienced professional artists from outside the Studio offer students additional feedback on their work and perspectives on visual art in general.
The part-time Saturday Youth Portfolio Development Programme arose from the need to offer visual arts training to young artists unable to access arts training through their schools. While still offering this service, the programme also provides a bridging year to aspiring artists who need further exposure to the art world prior to joining either the APS full-time training or entering other tertiary institutions.
A new programme offered in 2009 is our Internship Programme which carries on from our Professional Development Programme and offers employment to some of our graduates as interns within the various business units of the studio.
These training programmes are based on a holistic view of skills needed in all aspects of life. As well as dealing with art appreciation (visual literacy) and art-related skills, they also provide skills such as problem-solving in communities, basic maths and literacy, computer skills, and business development and product design skills assisted by our long term partners EDL Foundations.
We are hugely proud of the accomplishments of the artists introduced briefly below. They are all graduates of the Artist Proof Studio printmaking educational programme and have grown into accomplished professional artists and print technicians. Some of them are well-known both in South Africa and abroad; others have remained locally-focused and became valued staff members of APS. These are just a few of the many APS success stories!
Phillemon was born in Giyani, Thomo Village, in Limpopo. He comes from a family of artists, and says that ‘art chose him, he did not choose art’. He also says: ‘In my art I used to depict women that symbolized my mother. She is the one who encouraged me to make art. The women in my art are shown working because they are equal’.
Phillemon attended the Johannesburg Art Foundation Fine Art courses in 2000, and in the same year obtained his first Artist Proof Studio printmaking certificate. He notes: ‘When I came to the Artist Proof Studio I saw many changes in my art. There are many people who inspire me at the Studio. Since I have been with APS, I have started to exhibit my work in many galleries’. Phillemon has participated in numerous group exhibitions, and has recently had solo exhibitions at the Premises Gallery, the Trinity Art Gallery, and the ABSA Gallery. In 2008, a range of his artwork was exhibited in a three-person show at the Gallery on the Square in Sandton. Phillemon works in a variety of printmaking mediums such as intaglio (etching) and linocut, and also creates beautiful charcoal drawings. His recent commissions include the Johannesburg Development Agency and MTN.
In addition to pursuing his career as a successful professional artist, Phillemon has worked for APS as coordinator and facilitator of our professional artists programme, as teacher of papermaking, as a facilitator of Paper Prayers workshops, and as coordinator of the NOAH’s arks art teaching project. He is about to depart on an extensive study tour of printmaking studios in the United States sponsored by the prestigious Ampersand Fellowship.
Nelson was born in Nylstroom (now Modimolle) in Limpopo in 1982. He participated in a number of local exhibitions in Limpopo before finding his way to Artist Proof Studio in 2003. He was initially supported in his APS studies through a bursary from Johnson & Johnson International and later through a Pinpointone Human Resources scholarship. He received his APS Certificate in Advanced Professional Printmaking in 2005.
Since then, Nelson has worked as a professional artist and as marketing and sales administrator for the APS Gallery. In January 2009, Nelson resigned from the Gallery position to devote himself full-time to his art, in light of the fact that he has seven solo shows to prepare for in 2009! His solo show at the Gallery on the Square in Sandton opens in early May. Shows are also planned in galleries in Amsterdam and Edinburgh as well as other venues.
Nelson held his first solo show at the Obert Contemporary Art Gallery in Melrose Arch in 2005. He exhibits regularly in group exhibitions, including Ten Years of Printmaking at David Krut (2006), Gallery on the Square (2006), and the Joburg Art Fair in March 2008. He has also had previous shows in the Netherlands and Italy. In addition, he has undertaken numerous commissions for murals and other artworks.
Nelson was selected as Art South Africa’s seventh Bright Young Thing in 2007. Robyn Sassen wrote that he ‘works with the idea of a visual diary and his sketchpad is his constant companion’. Nelson says that ‘My work is my life, pain and joy from the first piece to the last piece, and in my work I am a storyteller, a narrator. I tell stories of places I have been, people I have met, but most importantly, I beautify everything that is before my eyes. My recent work is about “moving into light” and “sharing realities”… What I am saying is: come walk with me and see what I see”.
Abe Mathabe was born in Pimville, Soweto, in 1959. From 1980 he spent three years studying part-time under the late Durant Sihlali at Entokwezweni Community Centre. From 1992 to 1993, he attended the Johannesburg Art Foundation where he completed the Foundation Course as well as a Graphic Design Course. For this part of his education, he was sponsored by Nedbank. Over the period 1994-96, Abe completed the Artist Proof Studio courses qualifying as a professional printmaker.
Abe has exhibited widely, including a two-person show with Dumisani Sibisi at the Civic Centre in 1994 and the JAG exhibition, ’30 Years of Printmaking’, in 2004. He has participated in many shows sponsored by the Miniature Art Society of South Africa, such as those held annually at Hyde Park. His work has been included in the annual ‘Black Like Me’ exhibitions at the Manor Gallery in Fourways, and several of his works were recently successfully auctioned at Sotheby’s. Overseas, Abe has exhibited in New York and South Wales. The ‘highlight’ of 2008 was his participation in the World Federation of Miniature Art exhibition held in Durnie, Tasmania at which he was invited to display his artwork and give demonstrations of his unusual techniques. His participation there was sponsored by Herman Mashaba of Black Like Me.
Abe has painted a three-floor high mural at the Raphael in Sandton which resulted from a Legacy Group competition won by him and Thabo Phala. Another of his murals is at the Standard Bank in Johannesburg painted in conjunction with the Picasso and Africa exhibition held there in 2006. He also created a large sculpture displayed at Uncle Tom’s Hall in Orlando West, across from the Hector Peterson Memorial.
In the highly unusual work on paper for which he is best known, Abe is a master of the intimate. He specializes in minute drypoint prints and ballpoint pen drawings. He particularly enjoys drawing landscapes, traveling throughout South Africa and Botswana for inspiration. He loves to sketch ‘ladies moving away on windy days’. His main influence is Rembrandt van Rijn.
Paul Molete graduated as a professional printmaker from the Artist Proof Studio and has been affiliated with the Studio as a teacher, outreach facilitator and professional artist. In 2003, Paul won the Brett Kebble Award for Printmaking and has since been increasingly well-known for his strong linocuts and his excellent technical ability.
Paul does not hesitate to confront sensitive social issues in South Africa, often creating a certain level of discomfort among viewers of his work. His artwork has dealt with controversial issues such as the sexual molestation of children, abortion, the corruption of the priesthood, and homophobia. Inevitably, his works challenge the viewer and provoke serious reflection.
Paul had a well-received solo exhibition at Gallery Art on Paper in 2005, and a group exhibition there in 2007/8. He produces prints regularly in the APS Pro Print Studio, in collaboration with master printer Tim Foulds. His 2007/8 show included a series of two or three-plate etchings, in which he used ‘aquatint and line etching in superb combination’ (Gallery AoP). His prints at this most recent exhibition were described as follows: ‘completely redolent of the evocative images of such printmaking masters as Albrecht Durer and James Ensor, and such contemporary painters as Jean-Michel Basquiat, fuses emotional, psychological and physiological aspects of the contemporary human condition. Like Basquiat, he adorns his work with numerous pieces of writing… His etchings certainly constitute the best of contemporary social criticism in South African art’. (Gallery AoP)
Molefe Thwala
Molefe Thwala studied printmaking at Artist Proof Studio from 2004 to 2006, when he completed his Professional Printmaking qualification. Previously, he obtained a Certificate of Excellence in Art and Design at Central Johannesburg College in 2003. The same year he won a national award for the Best College Student for Drawing. He also holds a qualification as an NQF Level 5 Skills Development Facilitator. Following his studies, he has remained at APS, working first as a printer’s assistant, then as an intern printmaking facilitator, and currently as drawing teacher and coordinator of the second-year printmaking class.
Molefe has also co-facilitated several short-term art workshops at APS, including the Isithunzi writing workshop for artists with Judith Mason from the University of Michigan, US, and an etching workshop with Kim Berman, Executive Director of APS. As a print technician, in 2006 he was involved in the printing of the MTN 30 Years in Soweto Portfolio and collaborated with Kim Berman for the SASOL Wax competition for which she was a finalist. Molefe has also participated in APS commissions and corporate mural painting activities such as the Standard Bank Picasso in Africa murals and HIV/AIDS awareness murals with Men As Partners.
In 2007, Molefe attended an art residency at the Mason Gross School of the Arts in New Jersey, US, during which he also facilitated a printmaking workshop at the Experimental Printmaking Institute in Pennsylvania. He exhibited work at both institutions. Since 2006, he has also exhibited at several galleries in Johannesburg, including the Thompson Gallery, the Gallery on the Square in Sandton, the Johannesburg Art Gallery (’30 Years of Printmaking in Soweto’), and the Stewart Gallery, as well as the Greater Port Elizabeth Gallery Centenary Exhibition.
Molefe’s artwork focuses on issues of ‘identity’. Some of the sub-themes he has addressed include memory and how identity affects his space and places.
Each of these artists, in his own way, uses art to communicate his emotional reaction to or social commentary on the realities of life in South Africa. Their various approaches to art and society strongly reflect the values and commitment developed during their studies and work at Artist Proof Studio – caring for others, protecting human rights, bringing crucial issues into the light for debate, learning and most importantly, ensuring that the issues are addressed and peoples’ lives improved.