Exhibition # 10 - Austin Hleza

17/03 – 1/04/2011

A sold-out exhibition featuring work from the late Austin Hleza, Swaziland's most renowned artist. The artwork is from Austin's wife's personal collection, in collaboration with Yebo! Art Gallery, Alliance Francaise Swaziland, & Indingilizi Art Gallery.

"From his earliest years Austin Hleza broke with tradition, first by becoming a potter (traditionally a female role) and then later by developing new art forms within the Swazi cultural context. He received formal training at the Danish Pottery Development Centre and afterwards took over pottery production at Mantenga Craft. He shared his skills by lecturing at the National Handicrafts Training Centre.

His period at Mantenga allowed him the freedom for artistic development and he experimented with the possibilities inherent in clay pottery and sculpture. As a result he was able to develop the finely made sculptures of cars and buses which are a unique fusion of technical skill, acute observation and an ironical view of society.

For years he operated out of an old Volkswagen Combi, which was his studio. Later he produced linocuts of rural and urban life. These show a very different aspect of his personality – they reflect the fractured society in which he lived: half rural, half urban. Then Hennie Van Vuuren and Austin collaborated on pottery at Waterford Kamhlaba School for four years. In his final years he moved to Ngwenya where he combined experience and a mature artistic eye to produce the superb sculptures, pottery and linocuts for which he is celebrated."

Excerpt from the illustrated book on Austin's life: Austin Hleza Mbuluzi – Ngwenya 1949 – 1997 – From Pottery to Poetry – The Journey of a Swazi Artist