23 December 2005
	Art A LITTLE LET DOWN By Michael Coulson Johannes Phokela (MoMo); Jo'burg Art Gallery

Phokela so raised our expectations by making such a great impression in his previous show - with his beautifully painted African takes on the Old Masters - that his latest offerings are doubly disappointing. Significantly, the only really major painting, reproduced on the invitation, is actually left over from that previous show, as - I understand - the buyer hasn't yet paid for it. For the rest, it's mostly monochromatic sepia works on paper. They're lyrical and spontaneous, but look more like preparatory sketches than finished work. One almost feels that the show crept up on the artist, who then suddenly found he had to produce an oeuvre in short order. Second shows are notoriously difficult, but I've no doubt Phokela can bounce back and regain the quality we know he's capable of. While most commercial galleries estivate over the holiday period, the Jo'burg Art Gallery emulates London's Windmill theatre's wartime boast: "We never close." Fittingly, in a year that has seen so many photo-graphic exhibitions, the new wing's downstairs rooms are entirely devoted to that medium. Unfortunately, the results are mixed. Abri Fourie's show is so slight as hardly to warrant the wall space and Peter McKenzie's studies of Durban's Wentworth township, though interesting social documents, as art fall well short of the likes of David Goldblatt or Roger Ballen. The best work is actually drawn from JAG's own collection, ranging from Ernest Cole to Steve Hilton-Barber. JAG has also hung several semipermanent exhibitions of its various collections, which confirm how well it has bought over the years. Under Modern International, for instance, there are significant works by Picasso, Dali, Francis Bacon and others. The Pioneers refutes any accusations that JAG has neglected emerging African artists, with fine pieces by Sekoto, Mancoba, Mohl, Sihlali and others. Best of all, though, Landscapes across time & place draws from a number of the gallery's permanent collections, local and international. Indeed, there are so many jewels here as to suggest that the show would have suited the main ground floor gallery better than the artistically comparable but numerically smaller show The Pioneers.