Sophie Cope. Installation view of ‘Sky of Myself’ (endorsing ink on paper) and ‘Mapping the Sky’ (digital lithograph grid stacks). Mia Thom photography, 2021

Katlego Phetlhe. ‘Got your front and back’ Photography print.

Greatest Hits

Curated by Mirjam Asmal

Mezzanine Gallery - 28.04.22 - 09.06.22

Since the first time in 2008, the Association for Visual Arts has been curating and hosting a fixed-anchor exhibition called 'Greatest Hits' - the only exhibition on the calendar curated by the AVA gallery director. AVA's Greatest Hits alumni include Igshaan Adams, Gerald Machona, Sethembile Msezane, Claire May van Blerck, Haroon Gunn-Salie, Mohau Modisakeng, Rowan Smith and Johno Mellish.

This year, work was selected from last year's graduate shows at Michaelis School of Fine Art and Ruth Prowse School of Art. Part of the exhibition will be on view at the Vault at the Silo Hotel.

Greatest Hits has emerged as a means of closing the chasm that exists for art students between tertiary education and professional exhibition exposure, and it serves as a launch pad of new talent for AVA audiences, too.

It is the curator's eye on art instead of the academic's, selecting works on grounds of individual value and their rapport with other selected work. The end result is an exhibition that offers an overview of the local and broader discourses that run through art schools in the Western Cape at the moment. 

The 2020/21 graduates participating in Greatest Hits 2022 are Caitlin Hendricks, Nkhuwemi Kumwenda, Sophie Cope, Kirstie Pietersen, Katlego Phetlhe, Erin Sweeney, Karen Elkington, Sinead Mason, Megan Fritz and, the only male participant, Anton Birkenmayer.