Artists Bios

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SCOTT ROBINSON

Scott Robertson (a.k.a Dirty Sanchez) combines a love of all things glamorous and filthy (DirtyGlamourotica) with a dedication to the purest principles of design. Scott's illustrations have appeared in diverse publications ranging from i-Jusi, One Small Seed, SL, IdN and the Design Indaba Magazine to the Leurzers Archive. He has ridden the corporate bus, exhibited amoral canvases, customised shoes and skate decks, been the mysterious figurehead of a street wear label and is presently developing a range of limited edition toys. Always subversive, sometimes scandalous, never soft.

BOARD - My piece basically deals with the futility of human nature and how we (most) often ‘fuck’ things up first and then rally our collective consciences to correct our machine age dependency blunders. If only we could put our supercharged monkey brains in smart mode and avoid an issue before it becomes a problem. Just as the scorpion whispered to the frog as they slipped beneath the watery drench “I'm a scorpion; it's my nature.’ so I guess, it is in ours.

‘What lesson’s will we teach,’ refers to the ‘teach a man to fish’ saying but when we have served our last Blue Fin maki roll what then? What will we pass on to the next generation. On the bottom left is a small smiling green figure done by Swan, our daughter (aged 4). Lets hope I (we) can pass more than just a puzzle we can’t solve.

RICHARD HART

Richard Hart is a Durban based artist and graphic designer whose work has been internationally recognized by internationally by The Art Director’s Club of New York (US) and The Society of Illustrators (US) to name a few. He has received numerous awards locally for illustration, poster design, typography, environmental design, publication design and packaging design. Richard was featured in the 2008 Luerzers publication, “200 Best illustrators worldwide” and on the cover of the September 2008 edition of American design bible, I.D. magazine. He runs the acclaimed Disturbance design studio, which is the subject of the design monograph, “These are a few of our favourite things”, written by art and design journalist Sean O’Toole. He is also a surfer who prefers the KZN south coast.

BRETT MURRAY

Brett Murray is one of South Africa’s most renowned artists, and has been called “The dark prince of South African pop (art)”. Working mainly with steel and mixed media sculpture, but adept in any medium, Murray aims to critically entertain through his work, which often includes pop-culture imagery he skillfully manipulates towards satire and the subversive. He is remembered by Wavescapes Surf Art fans for his infamous surfboard featuring a naked Bart Simpson with an erection. Murray’s work has been exhibited extensively in South Africa and abroad, and he was the Standard Bank Young Artist of the Year for 2002. Murray is a full time artist and lives in Cape Town with his wife Sanell Aggenbach and baby daughter, Lola.

KIM LONGHURST

Kim Longhurst believes that craft is next to godliness. She is a mama, designer, illustrator, painter, embroiderer, gardener, purveyor of all things beautiful (and kitsch), partner to Scott Robinson. Her work has progressed from a shoe shine poster, the side of a bus, an underground zine, packaging, posters, t-shirts and book covers to publication in Martin Dawber's Big Book of Fashion. Kim has taken part in collaborative exhibitions, curated an exhibition of seven of Durban's top illustrators and made a curious little solo show, more cabinet of curiosities than traditional fine art.

BOARD - 'With Every Beat of my Heart'  Normally most of my dialogue as an artist takes place in my head and is made up of stories that have grown very organically from images or words that light bush fires in my imagination. Having caught every germ in the book during the last year I have been focused very much on my physical body, not necessarily in a happy way. So a lot of my work now that I am feeling better seems to be stripped down to the inner workings of the fragile yet astonishing piece of meat that is my body. I'm wearing my inside outside. At the same time this piece is also very much a love letter to my family.

ROSS TURPIN

Ross Turpin is one of Durban's rising number of talented, forward-thinking artists and designers. With his grounded, DIY ethic, Ross has worked hard at developing a signature style with strong, simple lines and vivid colours. His rich characters speak of intricate back-stories, and often evoke a dreamy sense of calm. He uses negative space to full effect, and takes conventional imagery and reworks it into something fresh and exciting. Ross is one of the most proactive local artists, and is constantly organising as well as participating in a number of local exhibitions big and small.

"His characterisation, and use of simple lines to display features and/or emotion is spot on, again utilising a simple stroke of his illustrators pen// brush he creates characters which appear caught whilst not being watched." – www.moralfibre.co.za

ANTON KANNEMEYER

Anton Kannemeyer is an artist and founding editor of Bitterkomix (started 1992), a socio-political and satirical comic magazine in South Africa.  His highly politicised and sometimes shocking work aims to challenge and critique South African culture. Working alongside Konradski, (under the pseudonym ‘Joe Dog” which sounds like “you dog” when said in Afrikaans), he has caused more than his fair share of controversy with hard hitting satire that uncovers the dirty underbelly, cuts it up, and offers it in raw chunks that may be difficult to swallow. Anton has exhibited his work extensively in South Africa and Europe. In April 2008 he had his first solo exhibition in the US at the Jack Shainman Gallery in New York.

ANDRE AND NATHAN TRANTRAAL

Andre Trantraal is one half of the dynamic comic book duo that constitutes the Trantraal Bros. He has published a serial comic in the Cape Argus Daily Newspaper and more recently a graphic novel called Stormkaap for Tafelberg publishers. He resides in Cape Town and is currently involved in several upcoming publishing events which range from comics to poetry. He's about twenty 28 or twenty 29 years old, no one knows for sure.

Nathan Trantraal is the other half of the dangerously talented Trantraal bros. He draws, reads and lives comic books. Along with Ashley Marais he did pencil work for 2008's Stormkaap, Tafelberg publisher’s very first foray into the realm of graphic literature. He is currently busy doing pencils for an upcoming comics serial. He's a tender 26 years old often mistaken for a 16 year old. He's extremely good looking and also extremely modest.

The brothers are students at the Centre for Comic and Illustrative Book Art at Stellenbosch University.

SUE OPPERMAN

Sue Opperman is an illustrator, painter, cartoonist and sculptor and surfer. She graduated in fine art at P.E Technikon in the Eastern Cape and in her spare time created her first full length comic. She has experience in bronze-casting making life-size movie monsters in resin and silicon. Her paintings have been exhibited at the National Arts Festival and at the Absa L'Atelier and exhibition. Sh is currently doing her MA in illustration at the University of Stellenbosch and is a member of the Centre for Creative and Illustrative Book Art. Sue prefers her plate full and is also busy with her second graphic novel at the moment.

BOARD - Practically put I don't have an actual concept for my board. I am busy painting whatever comes to mind and just giving my great creative hands a free reign! I go to work on the board very much like I work on my comic. So it’s all doodles and visuals centering on strange mindwanderings.

N.D MAZIN

N.D. Mazin is a cartoonist, illustrator, book designer, editor, writer, academic and goofyfoot longboarder. His underground comix, some going back to the ‘70s, include Cogent and Crint, Vittoke in Azania, The Adventures of Alison Wonderland, Praxis and Paranoia, The Big Chillum, the Legend of Blue Mamba, The Vittokes, New Planet TV and AZANIAMANIA. His new strip, Apocalypse WOW, now appears on www.wavescape.co.za. His alter ego, Andy Mason, is head of the Comic Art Unit at Stellenbosch University’s Centre for Comic, Illustrative and Book Arts (CCIBA).

KONRADSKI

Conrad Botes, aka “Konradski” is half of the very whole Bitterkomix. Botes has an MA Fine Arts from the University of Stellensbosch (1997) and a Diploma in Second Phase Illustration from the Koninklijke Akademie voor Beeldende Kunsten, Den Haag, Netherlands (1994). His biting satire, frequently directed at South African society, politics and religion, is channelled into his painting and printmaking, and his comix which have been published in the Bitterkomix series, alongside those of his frequent collaborator Anton Kannemeyer, since the early 1990s. Recent group exhibitions include Africa Comics at the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2007); Turbulence at Hangar-7 in Salzburg, Austria; the Havana Biennale (2006)

JUSTIN FISKE

Justin Fiske first staked his claim on a serious art career at the 2008 Spier Contemporary, when his piece 14-kundali walked off with the ‘People’s Choice’ award. His winning artwork, a magical kinetic mobile of suspended pebbles, was voted the favourite by those who trawled through the large group exhibition. He has since been awarded a prestigious residency at the Akiyoshidai International Art Village in Japan. This work “Helix” was made of pebbles from a famous zen garden & describes a universal shape & motion that every viewer has recognized and found beautiful. It is wound into the fabric of all DNA and repeated in tier upon tier of fractals in Nature. His work can be seen at www.justinfiske.com.

GABBY RAAFF

Gabrielle Raaff is a painter, designer and artist, as well as being a freelance lecturer at the Red and Yellow School of Advertising and Design. Her most recent exhibitions have been “Periphery” at These Four Walls gallery in Observatory in October 2008 and a solo exhibition titled “In Our Midst” at The Muti Gallery in Vredehoek in April 2009. After working with oils for most of her career, she has now shifted to watercolour and is interested in capturing everyday urban scenes, with her inspiration coming “from what I see as a voyeur”, from city foot traffic and Cape Town’s differing neighborhoods to bodies sprawled on beaches.