SculptX 2019 Returns To Melrose Arch

Put together by the The Melrose Gallery, South Africa's largest sculpture exhibition returns to Melrose Arch for the third year in a row. SculptX 2019 will take place from 30 August to 29 September.

What Is SculptX 2019?

Over 200 artworks created by more than 90 established and emerging local sculptors will be showcased in numerous indoor and outdoor spaces throughout the Melrose Arch Precinct, creating a meander route throughout the precinct. Spaces to visit are not limited to sidewalks and the retail galleria, but include The Melrose Gallery itself, the luxurious Daytona showroom, Stanlib, the African Pride Hotel and Letsema Holdings. SculptX was formed by The Melrose Gallery, in association with Melrose Arch, to provide a valuable platform to promote sculpture art and sculptors to those who live, work and play in the precinct, as well as art collectors and enthusiasts in general. SculptX provides emerging sculptors with the opportunity to exhibit alongside some of our most established artists, which is often not the case.

The Sculptors

Participating artists include such notables as Noria Mabasa, Willie Bester, Pitika Ntuli, Vusi Khumalo, Wilma Cruise, Gordon Froud, Adejoke Tugbiyele and Strijdom van der Merwe, among numerous others. Megan Theunissen and Ruzy Rusike, the curators, have considered more than 350 works in order to select over 200 sculptures for showcase this year. These come from different cities throughout South Africa and include numerous mediums ranging from bronze, steel, found objects and stone to wood, crystal, glass, grass, fibre glass, carbon fibre and even virtual reality. “This fair is quite an assault on the senses, but in an extremely stimulating and positive way. To see so many sculptures in one area representing so many different media and styles is very rare and has proven extremely popular, consistently attracting a large crowd of artists, art collectors, art enthusiasts and media alike”, Craig Mark – The Melrose Gallery director.

Sculptures In Conversation

The Fair is accompanied by the ‘Sculpture Dialogues’ which consist of a panel discussion involving experts who will discuss issues of pertinence to sculpture in Africa. The Melrose Gallery has put a lot of effort into sourcing female and young artists from the previously disadvantaged communities to give them the benefit of this valuable platform as they are often overlooked and under-represented in this genre. Education also plays an integral role in SculptX 2019, both for emerging sculptors who have the opportunity to hone their practice and to learn from so many different mediums and styles, and the public by making sculpture more accessible. “SculptX 2019 is a testament to the increasing number of talented sculptors who are working with a diversity of materials, new mechanisms and technologies that are testing their production and creativity, the growing demand for sculpture from local and international collectors seeking powerful Pan-African narratives and a desire to encourage the continued growth of the genre within South Africa and the African continent at large”, say curators Megan Theunissen and Ruzy Rusike