Last night, Jean de Wet’s The Tropic Of Soda exhibition opened at A Word Of Art, featuring incredibly detailed pen illustrations.
Article and photos by Riette van der Walt.
Last night I attended the first solo art exhibition at /A Word Of Art. I’m always amazed by Jean de Wet’s detailed pen illustrations – it’s never only a pretty picture with this guy, but somehow always has an intricate story to tell – which can make one lose one’s thoughts in a deep world of fine dip pen markings. Jean’s work evokes some sense of innocence and escape, like a line work utopia of ink. (I think he must have had carpal tunnel syndrome at some stage in his life.)
The exhibition also featured work by Ello and Black Koki (together as Cool de Suck) in collaboration with Jean de Wet in a project room called ‘Time, Time, Time’. As well as a limited edition screen print poster exhibition by Bruce Mackay and others next door.
“The Tropic of Soda is a series of detailed drawings that explores and describes a remote cluster of islands, mutating and evolving for centuries off an unknown and mysterious coast. With the first records of this new and unknown ecology, Jean de Wet presents a strange and opulent world with his idiosyncratic use of dense and hypnotic line work.”
The Tropic Of Soda will be up until the 18th November 2012 at /A Word Of Art in the Woodstock Exchange (previously the Woodstock Industrial Centre).
