In 1992 Noel Hodnett was chosen
as ‘Artist in Residence’ at the South African National Festival of the Arts
in Grahamstown. He was invited by the governing committee of the prestigious
Standard Bank Centre Gallery in Johannesburg to
hold a major solo exhibition in November that same year.
In 1995 Noel Hodnett was invited to exhibit
his work as part of the 1st Johannesburg ‘Africus 95’ Biennial in a major
solo exhibition at the Everard Read Gallery,
Johannesburg, South Africa. In 1997 his work was selected for inclusion in “The South African Landscape – Four
Points of View” exhibition at ‘Art First – Contemporary Art’, London, U.K.
Hodnett's well-received
"Portraits of the Forgotten" exhibition, featuring portraits of Steve Biko, Stompie Seipei and Masha Bruskina, was held at the Britannia Community Centre
Project Gallery in East Vancouver in May 2002. These works now form
part of the permanent collection at Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC.
The artist's first major solo
exhibition in North America was held in November 2002 at the Ballard Lederer Gallery
in Vancouver, British
Columbia. Hodnett was represented by the prestigious Buschlen Mowatt Gallery
between 2004 and 2006. In 2007 he opened his own gallery,
hfa contemporary, in the developing
art district of east Vancouver.
In 2007 the Director and
Curator of
Simon Fraser University Galleries, Bill Jeffries, invited Noel Hodnett to exhibit a series of paintings depicting, among others, victims of
authoritarian regimes. The "Memory, History and Loss"
exhibition which was formally opened by SfU President,
Dr. Michael
Stevenson, centred around eight paintings that were donated by the artist
to the University. These and other works by Hodnett are on permanent
display at SFU's Burnaby campus.
Click here to read Dr. Stevenson's opening speech.
SFU purchased a major work entitled "C.I.T.E.S.
Scapegoat" for their permanent collection in 2008.
Hodnett has curated
numerous exhibitions since 1975 and has been selected to judge various
national and international art competitions in both South Africa and Canada.
He worked with author and poet Tom McGauley, editor Michael Barnholden and
The Art Emporium on a
book on Canadian painter Jack Shadbolt .
since his arrival in
Vancouver, Noel Hodnett has actively
supported the Canadian Foundation
for Trauma Research, UNICEF's
Unite with Art and
Arts Umbrella's annual
SPLASH event by donating major works to their respective annual
charity auctions.
The artist is the subject of a 12 minute documentary film
(2001) by Swiss
film maker Verena Endtner entitled "Noel
Hodnett - Portrait of a Painter" .
Hodnett's
Blog
~ Quotes:
"Hodnett shocks and repels, yet one is drawn back time and
time again to be seduced and energized by the sheer beauty of paint application, the
mastery of space articulation, the exploitation of the expressive aspects of visual
experience and artifice." - Marilyn Martin -
Director, South African National Gallery.
"Noel Hodnett magnificently
transcends in his art the political and personal contradictions that mark
our experience. He is able superbly to articulate what for most of us is
inarticulate, subconscious, repressed, confusing and emotionally
overwhelming" -
Dr. Michael
Stevenson - Former President and Vice-Chancellor, Simon Fraser University,
Vancouver, Canada
"The work is sensuous and expressionistic, and has much in
common with contemporary British painting in its exaltation of paint." - E.M. -
The Art Newspaper , United
Kingdom.
"Noel Hodnett's painting
practice is arguably the most diverse and prolific of any Vancouver painter.
His depictions are dense, layered, and achieve what the American poet Lorine
Niedecker termed the state of being 'a condensery'."
- Bill Jeffries - Director/Curator,
Simon Fraser University
Art Galleries, Vancouver, Canada.
"Hodnett's paintings are never merely descriptive, for they
finally depict journeys of the psyche, not destinations of the soma." - Denise Louw - South African Author and Journalist
"His art immediately commands admiration for its painterly
knowledge and also for the depth and range of experience he incorporates in his canvases,
for he constantly reaches beyond the obvious to the hidden imaginative and spiritual
meanings." -
Doris Shadbolt
- Author and Curator, Canada. (Curator/Associate Director -
Vancouver Art
Gallery, 1963 - 1975)
"There is a message in Hodnett’s paintings to be noticed; it refuses to be
ignored, and deserves to be contemplated."
- Megan
Lau - Art Critic, SFU Student Newspaper.
"In the final analysis Hodnett is
a master of his craft and a manipulator of paint that few have achieved." - Professor Michael Hallier - Artist / Educator
(Head of the Fine Art Department, Fort Hare University, Alice, S.A. !981 - 2000)
"As an artist of undisputed technical acumen, Hodnett's
paintings are painted with apparent abandon despite the formality of their underlying
structure." - Hazel Friedman - Art Critic - The
Star.
"Hodnett revels in the use of the paint itself. The
subject.....to me is less important than his inspired, sensual use of paint for paint's
sake. Get up close and take in passages of the painting." - Kin Bentley - Art
Critic - The Eastern Province Herald
"His paintings are so large and epic in nature that they seem to
explode in the confines of the galleries" - Mia Johnson -
Preview
- The Gallery Guide. |
