Melvyn Minnaar

A smart contemporary art gallery in New York has just opened an exhibition featuring seven South African photo- graphers of whom the majority are based in the Cape.

It is the first time that local artists' work are shown at the gallery, a new contemporary space for a long-established, premium art dealership.

The Spanierman Modern, at 45 East 58th Street, New York, opened last year as addition to the art gallery group owned by father and son, Ira and Gavin Spanierman.

The group show's witty title, "Uniform: South Africa's New Clothes", refers to the mostly young photographers' unflinching and original views of contemporary society in its colourful diversity.

Pictures on show are by Pieter Badenhorst, Bridget Baker, Lien Botha, Franci Cronje, Santu Mofokeng, Dale Yudelman and Donovan Ward.

The gallery commissioned Miami-based curator Claire Breukel to compile the exhibition. Cape Town-born Breukel is well-known in local circles, having worked for the Association of Visual Arts and the Bret Kebble art award project.

A number of the photographs on view were recently seen in Cape Town.

Santu Mofokeng's retrospective Iziko South African National Gallery show has finished and Pieter Badenhorst's engaging and impressive Oasis series of filling stations features in the recent X-Cape.

Dale Yudelman's work will soon be seen at the Photographer's Gallery, opening on May 16. It is Donovan Ward's first outing in the US, showing mostly a series called Erased House.

Breukel says the group show reveals qualities of life and the nature of human relationships in South Africa after it celebrated its first decade of democracy.

Included are photographs of people from different ends of the socio-economic spectrum, wearing either actual uniforms or clothing indicative of status and position that characterise reformation at all levels of culture. "Like trying on a suit for the first time, South Africa is now in a stage of wearing in a new persona," says Breukel.

Gavin Spanierman says the gallery is thrilled with the show. "We are delighted to feature a first show devoted exclusively to photography and a first by South African artists, providing a window into a culture amid a fascinating period of re-orientation," he said.

South African photographers, particularly the young, are being noticed in international art circles.

The show runs until the end of June, in prime New York art season.

View the original article at www.capetimes.co.za