15 november 2022, Flor Linckens
Paula Rego and Neo Matloga in Gallery Sofie Van de Velde
Until 20 November, Gallery Sofie Van de Velde presents a duo exhibition in her Nieuw-Zuid space in Antwerp. It shows the work of the Portuguese-British artist Paula Rego alongside the work of the South African artist Neo Matloga.
Paula Rego (1935-2022) passed away last summer in London, after an exceptionally successful year on a professional level. Her work was featured not only in a major retrospective at Tate — which then traveled on to the Kunstmuseum Den Haag and Museo Picasso Málaga — but also in the acclaimed Venice Biennale exhibition: The Milk of Dreams, curated by Cecilia Alemani, on show until 27 November. Rego's work deals with topics such as feminism, violence against women, power relations and sexuality and is often based on her personal experiences. The layered work of the artist also feels extremely current. Abortion, for example, is a recurring subject in her work, a human right that is under pressure in various countries, from the US to Poland and Hungary.
The gallery also shows some works by Neo Matloga (1993), who divides his time between Amsterdam and his birthplace Mamaila in South Africa. The artist is known for his instantly recognisable, large-scale and monochromatic collage paintings. He builds his pieces using paint, photographs, ink and charcoal and usually depicts everyday, domestic scenes and social interactions. His intimate and mysterious works often show memories from his childhood, which took place in the aftermath of apartheid. Despite the fact that the images are very personal and local, they contain something universal at the same time. The fragmented faces of his characters generally consist of elements from different people, which imbues them with something surreal, comical and abstract. The artist plays with conventions surrounding perspective, scale and light. Matloga himself states that this distorted image refers to the ways in which black faces are still viewed: from a white/Western perspective, which creates a distorted and incomplete image. Matloga emphasises the healing element of family and hopes to fill a gap in Western art history with his work.
Matloga completed several residency programs: at De Ateliers, the Thami Mnyele Foundation, Foundation AVL Mundo, Zeitz MOCAA and The Bag Factory. He won the Royal Award for Modern Painting (2018) and the ABM AMRO Art Award (2021) and exhibited his work in S.M.A.K. in Ghent, the Fries Museum, the Marta Herford Museum for Art, the Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town, Hermitage Amsterdam and the Royal Palace Amsterdam.
