The 2Inspire Network, Celebrating the Creativity of Women Saturday 9 March 2013

Alexandra Galleries will be exhibiting at Celebrating the Creativity of Women, the popular 2Inspire Ladies Day event taking place on Saturday 9th March 2013 at the Crowne Plaza, Docklands.

 

Coinciding with International Women’s Day, Celebrating the Creativity of Women is a free event to showcase budding and established female entrepreneurs, focusing on the creative sector.

 

There will also be entertainment and a number of workshops to meet the lifestyle, personal and business development needs of attendees. Workshop topics will cover health, education, personal development, business start-up, media and styling.

Celebrating the Creativity of Women offers a platform that promotes and celebrates the creative talent of women.  It provides an arena that will empower and support women in creating a crystal clear vision for both the personal and professional aspects of their lives.

The 2inspire network was launched in May of 2012 with the aim of empowering individuals and helping them to realise their potential. “I believe that women should work together and support each other on their journey. This belief is the foundation of the network, an organisation that provides forums and platforms that help to empower, promote and inspire women”, says Founder Hazel Chawapiwa.

The network held its successful inaugural Ladies Day event in August of 2012, with over 200 delegates in attendance. “The aim is to make this 2^nd Ladies day an even bigger and better event, a real celebration of women. We believe all women are creative in their everyday lives as home makers, mothers, employees and entrepreneurs and we want to showcase and celebrate this on the day.” Hazel anticipates 500 delegates at the March ladies day.

The event will also mark the official launch of the 2Inspire Network’s Academy; a personal development and life-skills programme for young people aged 16-21. The academy is a partnership with Radical Leap Success Network founder and Success Coach, Noreen Mak’Osewe. “We formed the academy to help young people focus on what's important for them now and in the future, to learn the mindset and life-skills for success, and to help them set and achieve personal targets. At this 2Inspire Ladies Day we aim to raise awareness, raise funds and kick-start our recruitment drive for the academy.”- Noreen Mak’Osewe. 2inspire Network, Celebrating the Creativity of Women, Crowne Plaza Hotel, Docklands, Royal Victoria Dock, Western Gateway E16 1AL, Saturday 9 March 2013 11.00am - 6.00pm.



Peter Clarke: Wind Blowing on the Cape Flats

Exhibition

16 January – 9 March 2013

This week Iniva (Institute of International Visual Arts) in partnership with the South African National Gallery (Iziko Museums of South Africa) opened its major retrospective and first substantial exhibition in the UK of the internationally acclaimed artist, Peter Clarke.

 

Wind Blowing on the Cape Flats honours Clarke’s life, work and contribution to art over sixty years and tells the story of an artist who is part of a lost generation, a voice that has been largely unheard in Europe.

One of the most accomplished and versatile visual South African artists, Peter Clarke was born in 1929. In his early twenties he declared that he would make his living as an artist, which was a highly unusual ambition for a young black South African at the time.

 

Over the last sixty years, Clarke has reflected on his country’s social and political history and is often referred to as the ‘quiet chronicler’. His work constitutes a subtle critique of apartheid and its social consequences as well as more recently, aspects of the ‘new’ South Africa.

Although largely self-taught, Clarke was encouraged by taking informal art classes and studying European masters that he saw reproduced in books - including Picasso, and the South African modernist Gerard Sekoto (the first black artist to be represented in a South African public collection). Witty, sharp, poignant, aesthetically memorable, Clarke’s work provides an extraordinary context for discussion of his country as it prepares to celebrate 20 years since the momentous elections that brought Nelson Mandela to President.

 

Peter Clarke’s art is about people and in his reflection of humanity and in the contribution he has made to his country’s cultural development, he has become an inspiration to many other artists.

 

Wind Blowing on the Cape Flats charts his development as an artist, his prolific creativity as a painter, printmaker and an internationally acclaimed writer and poet through over 80 works including paintings, drawings, prints, woodcuts, collages, sketchbooks as well as artist books.

Describing why it is important to show Peter Clarke’s art in London, Tessa Jackson, Chief Executive of Iniva and co-curator of Wind Blowing on the Cape Flats said, ‘Peter Clarke combines his belonging to Africa with an understanding of Western art history; this makes his work memorable in both subject matter and aesthetics.’

Wind Blowing on the Cape Flats is curated by Tessa Jackson and Riason Naidoo, Director: Art Collections (South African National Gallery & Old Town House), Iziko Museums of South Africa.

The exhibition continues Iniva’s work to promote culturally diverse artists, curators, writers and thinkers ignored by mainstream institutions. A series of related events are programmed as part of this exhibition including Hans Ulrich Obrist in conversation with Peter Clarke and free guided exhibition tours. Full details can be found on www.iniva.org. Iniva Rivington Place London EC2A 3BA Tel: +44 (0)20 7729 9616.