MOK is run by Cecile Blevi, a relative of Muratie's owner, Rijk Melck. Rijk took us to have a look and we were very impressed. It is in an
historic 300 year old house on the property, where freed slave Ansela van de Kaap lived
with her German husband Lourens Campher from 1695
Rijk showed us the way to the
gallery, which is across the road from his wine cellar
The gardens are full of these
large bronze figures
Cecile has a very good eye for
art and exhibits the works of many, varied South African artists
Amusing pottery from Ayanda Mji, a ceramic artist from the Eastern Cape
Admiring the works. The plaster
has been removed to show the way the walls were made from mud bricks
Sometimes Art is the window
Gallery owner Cecile Blevi, The
current exhibition is of charcoal drawings by Rentia Retief and oil and
watercolour paintings by Johan Coetzee
If you are interested, MOK
gallery and Diane Victor offer two advanced drawing workshops in June at
Muratie wine estate in Stellenbosch from 26th to 30th June 2017 (Fee: R4100 excluding
food and accommodation) and at Cape St. Martin, Britannia Bay from 3rd to
7th July. Check out the details on
the MOK Facebook page
Woodcuts by Theo
Paul Vorster and ceramics by Lisa Walker
Striking oil on canvas by Thembalethu
Manqunyana, and some of his other powerful work
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2017
This is the SHOCKING REALITY about Mok Gallery, and the SHOCKING treatment I received there!!! HOW MY ARTWORK WAS CHUCKED OUTSIDE AND LEFT THERE FOR GOD KNOWS HOW LONG!!!! I don’t care if my art was left outside for 10 minutes, this is UNEXCEPTABLE!!! This is a professional gallery with a responsibility to those artists who intrust their work to their care and respect! Cecile Blevi procured one of my sculptures almost a year ago, but never ever contacted or updated me, so eventually I emailed her to ask if all was still well. The email I received back from Cecile was to inform me that she had “allegedly” somehow managed to lose my contact information, including my email from her email account??? She then asked me to fetch my sculpture within the following two days, by the Thursday. Unfortunately, due to health problems I was unable to drive and the soonest I could get someone to drive me was on the Saturday. I emailed her about my predicament, but again, received no answer. I arrived at Mok Gallery at nine on Saturday Morning, and waited for the Gallery to open at ten. A gentleman arrived to open the gallery and my friend went to fetch and carry my sculpture to the car for me. But upon informing the gentleman of the piece he was there to retrieve, he was led back outside and around to the side of the building where he found my sculpture left out in the open on an outside table. It was not wrapped or protected in any way, and not only was it left to the elements and dust and dirt overnight (though it could have been for longer than that???), but anyone could have stolen it! In fact, if we had known it was there, we could have retrieved the sculpture the moment we arrived and driven off with it!!! I honestly can’t even process how UNPROFESSIONAL this kind of treatment is, and to such a RIDICULOUS LEVEL!!! I came home in tears!!! What kind of person must you be to be so UNFEELING and DISRESPECTFUL, that you feel okay with treating one of your artists with this level of INDECENCY, and taking their personal art piece that they put blood sweat and tears into, something that is precious to them, something that is valuable, and just dump it outside!!! Was this all because it took me a few days before I could fetch it? Because if that is the case, if you had E-MAILED that you were going to DUMP my art OUTSIDE for until I could get to you, I would have tried to pay for a fetch and deliver service or something. Cecile Blevi, I’m not sure you should even be allowed near gallery and artists work, let alone run a gallery if this is how PURPOSEFULLY NEGLIGENT, UNPROFESSIONAL, DISRESPECTFUL, ARROGANT and SELFISH you choose to conduct yourself. SHAME on you, shame on you indeed!!!
ReplyDeleteDear artist,
ReplyDeleteI am really sorry that you had this experience. I apologize if I made you feel unworthy, it was not my intention. I do not know anyone by the name of Sheryl that ever exhibited with me. Still, I am open for criticism, however harsh, and would use it to improve where I can.
Regards, MOK gallery.