Nicholas Hlobo's Post-Apartheid Sculpture Art | Brilliant Ideas Ep. 58

Jul.25 -- Nicholas Hlobo is a South African artist, best known for his sculptures and installations using materials that have become iconic to his work. Hlobo is considered one of South Africa's brightest post-apartheid stars and his studio is in a former synagogue in his home city of Johannesburg.

[@ronelleoosthuizen3043]

Thank you for the brilliant work that you do, Nicholas.

[@hubineer4128]

Nicholas does great work. Insightful, introspective and really authentic.

[@Yanaschaf]

Shaun, shut up. You're screming racist nonsense.

[@bhekazingcobo4307]

awee broooo #kyasetshenziwa :D

[@hellobaby133]

Why doesn't Bloomberg have any realist painters represented within these short docs.?

[@skyjuiceification]

The short answer is that we are old hat!!!! it's an antique mode (as far as the machine is concerned). what realist painter is doing something that is truly interesting in terms of ideas? I'm sure ur aware that art has to involve the transfer of concepts, ..possibilities, the shock of the new. speaking as a figurative painter, the painter has to have something more and more difficult to get in an overstimulated boundary dissolving visual environment. something extraordinary. flatness and stasis is a limitation that has to be overcome by any painter who is going to capture the interest of the "art world secret society". the painter still has a role to play but the skill required to really compete against the relational aesthetics of the now moment of rapid change and meta-narratives is indeed very high. most realists end up doing background and set-piece work on multimedia productions in mainstreams forms of marketing and entertainment. ....the 21-century realist has been maneuvered into serving a post-production function in other mediums in order to be made use of at all. meanwhile, a painter can paint, thousands of hours to get to a very high level of epiphany,...only for themselves. which is what i do. the good thing is that one can develop very slowing and really go deeper than any of the rapid speed mediums allow. very little of the stuff being done by most contemporary artist will really stand the test of time. and that serves a purpose as well. one of the reasons i decided to remain primarily a painter in spite of the above insights is that i can see that the medium and the slow, methodical, crafting nature of it, will become more and more important as time goes on...not less. similarly , there may come a time when handwriting will be again seen as a kind of magic as typing is now replacing it. i forsee a time when the person who can paint realistically will once again be seen a very special phenomenon. when no one's eyes are adjusted to anything other than CGI, the reintroduction of lived experiences, a quality cell animation or of flat oils on a canvas looking like the production of ur eyes may be a kind of revelation again. but until then the machine still sets the course......

[@Yanaschaf]

Painting realistically is only a first step. Groundwork. Basics. Some skip it, some spend their lives mastering it. But this series is about ideas, not JUST techniques. Concept, not crafting.