WINDHOEK- Going Nowhere, is the title of the solo art exhibition of Namibian artist and graphic designer, Pieter Basson, currently on at the Blue Frog restaurant of the Franco-Namibia Culture Centre in the capital until October 9.

Fellow Namibian visual artist, Kay Cowley, on Monday evening officially opened the exhibition with a mixture of 15 old and new art works on display. This is Basson’s sixth solo exhibition since he graduated with an N2 art diploma in 1989 from the Cape Town College of Arts. “His works clearly teem with symbolism and emphasis on his creative mental state of mind. He is of the opinion that he might not physically going anywhere, but mentally he go to places. At the end of the day one can lose everything and all you really have left is one’s own head space, finding it either inspiring or entertaining,” Cowley said.

In her opinion art is a wonderful thing because it can materially manifest feelings and or concepts. “The design like quality of the artworks shows Basson’s background as a printmaker and designer. In his works we see figurative shapes, which are flat with bright colors and very clearly selective lines. There is a clever juxtaposition of secondary and tertiary colours enhancing the brightness of the images. They remind one of glass windows. The images are also very African in style, happy, bright and cheerful,” she said.

In Cowley’s view the aura-like outlines of tone, which each figure has, creating imaginary spaces of color fields. In an interview Basson recalled how he became interested in visual art at high school. “I attended a few art workshops in the capital after which the creative bug bit me. This ended with six solo and a number of group exhibitions in small shops and later at galleries. My biggest solo exhibition was staged at the National Art Gallery in 2007,” Basson, whose works have been bought by tourists from Germany, South Africa and Mexico, said.

He has also participated in art exhibitions in France, the Trianalle Mondale in Paris.
“I prefer working with gouache, a type paint between oil and water paints with exceptional covering capacity. I also like working with linocut, a form of printmaking,” he concluded.