Art of the week: Jozua Gerrard’s ‘In the Present Tense’

This hot Cape Town artist’s colourful work is great to look at – but there’s more to it than meets the eye.
1 min read

Young Capetonian Jozua Gerrard’s art seems simple. Aren’t we just viewing pleasing images of figures that somehow feel familiar, and strangely normal and comforting? Look a little closer and the truth reveals itself.

First, the works in his new show, In the Present Tense, on at Southern Guild in Cape Town, are, in fact, huge and made by painting enamel on glass.

Jozua Gerrard. I’ve Been Here Before, 2024. Hayden Phipps/Southern Guild.

It’s no coincidence that the glossy finish makes these paintings look like something you’d view on a phone screen. Gerrard has been very intentional about that. He’s also been deliberate about painting these somewhat mask-like figures engaging in the sort of mundane acts we recognise. Sitting on the floor, hair in a towel, or holding a bag, for example.

Again, Gerrard is commenting on how we’ve all become almost intimate with the curated feeds of the celebrities and the people we follow on social media. As the show catalogue puts it, “The hyper-stylisation of each painting elicits the sense that these bodies are conscious of being observed, posing as they would for the lens of a camera.”

Jozua Gerrard. Pack Light, 2024 and Powers of the Sun, 2024. Hayden Phipps/Southern Guild.

For all his commentary on the way we interact with humans and images in this digital age, Gerrard is caught up in the technology too. He first creates scenes using props, and family and friends as models, then photographs them and turns these snaps into digital renderings on his iPad. From there, he transfers them onto glass, in paint, by hand.

Meaning and mark aside, what we especially love is the saturated, flat colour and graphic composition of these pieces. They are smart, joyful and beguiling too.

In The Present Tense is on at Southern Guild until November 7.

Jozua Gerrard. Talk less listen more, 2024 and The Giggles, 2024. Hayden Phipps/Southern Guild.

Top Image: Jozua Gerrard. Different Day, 2024. Hayden Phipps/Southern Guild.

Sarah Buitendach

With a sharp eye for design, Sarah has an unparalleled sense of shifting cultural, artistic and lifestyle sensibilities. As the former editor of Wanted magazine, founding editor of the Sunday Times Home Weekly, and many years in magazines, she is the heartbeat of Currency’s pleasure arm.

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