I met Thonton’s collection at the Everard Gallery on Keyes in Rosebank. I found the pieces to be very loud, and wildly detailed. The image of different black couples dancing the night away is quite refreshing and the bright colors lure you in but the different contexts which love is being celebrated keeps you engaged.
A few weeks later I bumped into his work again at the FNB Art Faire, here I managed to really engage with one of his larger pieces. From a distance the wall this piece looked like a reed wall painted randomly but as you get closer you realize there is a whole city on that piece with all kinds of life happening. It was a story of texture, color, black skin, black sexuality, dance and and all the sins of city life in an art-piece , that’s so cool!
A story of texture, color, black skin, black sexuality, dance and and all the sins of city life in an art-piece , that’s so cool !!
Noma
He creates portraits of people and cities alike, bustling street scenes and tender exchanges between individuals. His recent works have focused on rhumba dancing, inspired by the dance studios and clubs frequented by the artist. The rhumba music is of Cuban origin, Cuba having an important historical link to Africa through the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and the rhumba dance gained enormous popularity in the Congo during the 1960’s and 70’s – in recognition of its cultural significance, the Congolese Rhumba was recently added to UNESCOs intangible heritage list
EVERARD READ Gallery
