Karl Gietl comes back to Joburg for a solo exhibition of his latest paintings, taking us for a journey through downtown’s backstreets to suddenly emerge on the bustling boulevards of the city and, in the same breath, enter the intimacy of a bedroom.

Gietl paints the terrible beauty of life in visual tales happening when people get together, with bliss and desire, death and memory. Le Café de la Vie!

The exhibition features thirty-two richly layered compositions painted by Karl Gietl with superb skills and commendable patience, bringing to life his very own universe, somewhere over the rainbow.

Karl Gietl

Born in Worcester in 1970. Lives and works in Sète, France.

Selected Exhibitions

2009

A Series of Travels, solo exhibition, Afronova Gallery, Johannesbrug, South Africa

2008

One for the road, solo exhibition, Afronova Gallery, Johannesbrug, South Africa

2007

Afronism, group show, Afronova Gallery, Johannesbrug, South Africa

Double 007, Group show, Polokwane art museum, Polokwane, South Africa

Myths and memories, solo exhibition, Villa Arcadia, Johannesburg, South Africa

2006

A search for Paradise, solo exhibition, Afronova Gallery, Johannesbrug, South Africa

2005

City people mythologies, touring solo exhibition, Johannesburg, South Africa, Mbabane/Swaziland, Maputo/ Mozambique, Cape Town, South Africa

2004

Identity, Group exhibition, Circus Theater, Bildenburg, Holland

2003

Bringing it All Back, solo exhibition, Joao Ferreira fine Art, Cape Town, South Africa

The Fun Never Sets, two man show with Wayne Barker, Everard Read contemporary, Johannesburg, South Africa

Twenty Four Seven, Group exhibition/residence Project, Johannesburg art gallery, South Africa

2002

You can get There from Here, solo exhibition, Rembrandt van Rijn Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

I Lost my Heart in Troyeville, solo exhibition, Spaza art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

2001

There is no Place like Home, solo exhibition, Sterkwerk gallery, Tilburg, Holland

Neither Here nor There, solo exhibition, Gallery Doreen Dierckx, Antwerp, Belgium

2000

Body and Soul, solo exhibition, Moba art gallery, Brussels, Belgium

Hanging Around, Group exhibition, Kunstcentrum, Sittard, Holland

Dress Code, Group exhibition, Gallery 1646, Den Haag, Holland

1999

Artol: Labor 6, Group exhibition/workshop, Bedburg-Hau/Kleve, Germany

It’s a Small World after All, solo exhibition, Joao Ferreira Fine Art, Cape Town, South Africa

1998

A Day in the Life, Absa L’Atelier award, first prize, Polokwane art museum, South Africa

1997

Safe Passage, solo fringe exhibition, 2nd Johannesburg biennale, South Africa

1996

One Thousand Nine Hundred and Ninety Six, installation piece, Rembrandt van Rijn Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

Marchons!, group exhibition, French Institute of South Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa

Unplugged, group exhibition, Rembrandt van Rijn gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

1995

FIG Again, group exhibition, Famous international gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

Four Rooms, group exhibition, The Johannesburg civic gallery, South Africa

Spring Time in Chile, group exhibition, Contemporary Museum of Modern Art, Santiago, Chile

Brown and Green, group exhibition, Pretoria Art Museum, Pretoria, South Africa