NEW YORK, NY.- David Krut Projects, New York is presenting The Cult of One, Part II, the gallery’s first solo exhibition with artist Vusi Beauchamp. Through a selection of mixed-media paintings on canvas and unique works on paper, the exhibition explores visual narratives that comment on social and political landscapes in a South Africa thirty years post-Apartheid.
Vusi Beauchamp’s provocative iconography employs popular culture, satire and stereotypes in service of a visual political commentary. The Cult of One, Part II seeks to interrogate current societal ills and musings against a backdrop of South Africa’s post- “Rainbow Nation” era – a time that promised racial equality, upward mobility, and “a better life for all” after the country’s transition from Apartheid. Beauchamp examines the South African government currently embattled within itself, the disconnect it displays with its people, and the tense social climate under years of viral threat, mired in misinformation and heightened insecurities over corruption. He writes that “it’s no longer about the people, but about the abuse of power” - words that could easily be spoken about the systemic inequities and political polarization we are acutely experiencing in the United States today.
The exhibition features mixed-media paintings created with an array of mark-making, pop art-inspired colors and text on both canvas and paper, along with a selection of monotypes printed in collaboration with the David Krut Workshop in Johannesburg from 2021-2022. Predominantly a painter, Beauchamp creates his works on canvas by using various methods, including spray painting and stenciling, with mediums such as crayons, charcoal, oil sticks and acrylic paint. Beauchamp’s works on paper similarly use a variety of materials and techniques, often incorporating multiple layers to create the final image.
Vusi Beauchamp (b. 1979, Johannesburg) studied printmaking and painting at the Tshwane University of Technology and Graphic Design at Damelin in Pretoria, South Africa. The Cult of One exhibitions are a continuum of his ongoing Paradyse of the Damned series, which has been exhibited at the Pretoria Art Museum, the Johannesburg Art Gallery and the Borderline Art Space in Iași, Romania. Judy Peter, Curator of the Borderline Art Space, writes that Beauchamp’s “profile somewhat typifies the younger educated generation of South African artists - who have not been acculturated into indifference when reflecting on the fraught politics of the land or neoliberal manifestations of a rising black petite-bourgeoisie."
