Penny Siopis Retrospective

Penny Siopis, Spell, 2007 Courtesy Michael Stevenson

Penny Siopis, Blow Up, 2010. Courtesy Michael Stevenson

The retrospective of one of my favorite artists Penny Siopis, "Time and Again," is ongoing at the South African National Gallery, Cape Town. I oh so wish I could see it before it closes. Even from this great distance, her "Pinky Pinky" and "Lasso" series still give you the shivers, their terrible beauty hard ignore; and the laboriously detailed surfaces of her Apartheid-era commentaries on the violence and decadence of racist-masculinist history/society, still make a strong argument for art's symbolic and critical power in the face of systemic injustice. This link to virtual views of the exhibition is the next best thing for those of us who can't make it Cape Town before March 23.