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Nicholas P. Hauser

Painter

 

BIOGRAPHY

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First real public solo exhibition was “The Picture looks Black” 1983 at the Market Gallery in Newtown, Johannesburg curated by the late Wolf Weinek and Paul Stopforth. Mahala was a regular exhibitor in solo and group shows at the Market Theatre and ICA. Performed in the dissident jazz/ protest combo Khaki Monitor with film editor and artist Wilhelm Saayman. In the 1990’s, was among a group of makers and performers who exhibited frequently at Wayne Barker and Robert Weinek’s F.I.G. (Famous International Gallery) in Troye street, Johannesburg. Multi-instrumentalist in performance group Mud Ensemble with Marcel Van Heerden and Juliana Venter. Mahala was blessed to work with the late “Big Voice” Jack Lerole, Moses Taiwa Molelekwa, Pops Mohamed, Trompies and Brothers of Peace (BOP). Lectured at Bill Ainslie’s Johannesburg Art Foundation on a staff with William Kentridge, Ainslie and David Koloane. Taught at Technikon Witwatersrand. From 2010 to 2013 lectured drawing and painting at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.

 

RECENT WORK

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Following (B)orders

 

In 2013, Mahala began a series of “psychic battlefield documents” that re-imagine conflicts from the century-long nine Eastern Cape Xhosa Wars (1779 -1879). The paintings build from the ongoing war of principles taking place in the invisible (spirit) world. Images incorporate the knotted, tangled bush habitat that characterises much of the rural Eastern Cape, finding its equivalent in the gnarled and twisted undergrowth of the fractured human relations, events, triumphs and disappointments that people encounter daily in South Africa. Mahala is upset and motivated by the ever-present war of principles going on inside and outside minds and molecules. The large-scale drawings and paintings are made with powdered graphite, oil paint, glitter and commercial house acrylics. He hopes to upset the order of certain things and to stimulate intellectual disobedience and contrariness.

IMG-20220918-WA0007_edited_edited.jpg

Nicholas Hauser interviewed by Phoebe Hsu.
Click here

 

       SOLO EXHIBITIONS

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  • 1978 Flesh boy - King George VI Gallery, Gqeberha SOUTH AFRICA

  • 1981 Nebuchadnezzar - Gallery 82, Bloemfontein SOUTH AFRICA

  • 1983 The Picture Looks Black - Market Gallery Johannesburg SOUTH AFRICA

  • 1992 Bless my Insect Repeater - F.I.G. Gallery, Johannesburg SOUTH AFRICA

  • 1996 Mud Ensemble (Performance) - F.I.G. 2 Gallery, Troyeville SOUTH AFRICA

  • 2002 Bless my Insect Repeater - Sheraton Hotel, Kampala UGANDA

  • 2006 Nicholas Hauser - National School of Arts Gallery SOUTH AFRICA

  • 2009 Nicholas Hauser - Art Afrique Gallery, Johannesburg SOUTH AFRICA
    Afrobot - Gordart Gallery, Rosebank, Johannesburg SOUTH AFRICA

  • 2010 Afrobot - Carroll Boyes Gallery, Soho, New York, USA

  • 2011 Missing the Boat – ArtEC Gallery, Gqeberha, SOUTH AFRICA

    GROUP EXHIBITIONS
     

  • 1985 New Visions - Market Gallery, Newtown, Johannesburg

  • 1989 Anniversary show - Freestate Technikon, Bloemfontein

  • 1992 Group show - F.I.G. gallery Johannesburg

  • 1993 Come as you are - F.I.G. gallery Johannesburg

  • 1994 Volkskas Atelier finalists show - I.C.A. gallery, Newtown

  • 1994 Painting with light - I.C.A. gallery, Newtown

  • 1995 Africus Biennale, Newtown, Johannesburg

  • 1995 SomeArtists! - De Villiers Gallery, Troyeville

  • 1996 Mud Ensemble - F.I.G. 2 gallery, Troyeville

  • 1996 The Young & the Restless (without permission) - Sandton Civic Gallery

  • 1997 The Beat Hotel Carfax, Newtown Jhb
    Eurovirus #1, 2 & 3 Carfax, Newtown, Jhb

  • 1998 Mud Ensemble “level” -  Grahamstown Festival University of the Witwatersrand Theatre, Johannesburg

  • 2000 Group Show -  Gallery 111, Kensington, Johannesburg

  • 2001 New Blood -  Spark! Gallery, Orchards, Johannesburg

  • 2011 Finding Kaggen -  ArtEC Gallery, Gqeberha
    200 Artists - The Athenaeum, Port Elizabeth NMMU Contemporary Ron Belling gallery, Gqeberha

  • 2012 Benguela (Current) - Alliance Française, Gqeberha
    Ceramics Eastern Cape - Nelson Mandela Metro Art Museum
    In Praise of Vessels (curated) - Nelson Mandela Metro Art Museum
    The Other World -  Intoto Gallery, Birdhaven, Johannesburg

  • 2013 Any Old Irony Art Performance/street event, Gqeberha

  • Winter Hues & Blues Art in the Forest, Constantia Nek, Cape Town

  • Reveal - ArtEC Gallery, Gqeberha
    Measuring Dust -  GFI Gallery (formerly Rob Belling Gallery)
    For Play -  Underculture Contemporary Gallery, Gqeberha

  • 2014 Parergons of the Divine Virgule -  ArtEC gallery
    Redefining the Status Quo -  Galerié Noko, Gqeberha
    NMMAM Biennale -  Nelson Mandela Metro Art Gallery, Gqeberha
    End Sheet - ArtEC Gallery, Gqeberha

  • 2015 The End of History -  ArtEC Gallery, Gqeberha

  • 2016 Critical Discharge -  Priest Gallery, Rosebank, Johannesburg
    Thank you Cape Town -  Art It Is Gallery, Woodstock, Cape Town

  • 2017 Levitate - Art It Is Gallery, Parkwood, Johannesburg

  • 2018 Collective Ink -  GFI Gallery, Gqeberha

  • 2019 Interrupting Tradition – perceptions, notions and convictions Gallery Noko, Gqeberha

  • 2020 Journey to America (Through Our Eyes) -  Nelson Mandela Art Gallery, Gqeberha

  • 2020 Bridges to Music Art -  It Is Gallery, Cape Town

AS EXHIBITION CURATOR // CONCEPTUALISER

 

  • 2019 Xhosa Walls II - ArtEC Gallery, Gqeberha

  • 2016 The Drawing Stokvel (Community Drawing Therapy - ArtEC Gallery, Gqeberha

  • Talking Trash, Making Cash (NAPDI creativity & recycling programme) - Gelvandale Xhosa Walls – A public, open-wall exhibition of post-truth visual thinking – ArtEC Gqeberha

  • 2015 So, You Think You Can Draw? - Community Open Drawing Slam @ ArtEC Gallery, Gqeberha

  • 2013 Measuring Dust GFI Gallery - Gqeberha

  • 2012 Blood Sweat Fears ArtEC Gallery  - Gqeberha

  • 2011 Finding Kaggen (Beliefs and myths of the Tikolosche) - ArtEC Gallery, Gqeberha
    *Gqeberha - formerly known as Port Elizabeth or PE

NH Interview
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