← Back Transitions , Rhodes University Alumni Gallery, Albany History Museum, National Arts Festival, Makhanda (formerly known as Grahamstown), Eastern Cape, South Africa, 2 – 11 June 2009 Transitions documents shifting male identity. This was the fifth showing of this touring solo museum exhibition comprising an installation of 5 original drawings, courtesy of the Spier Contemporary Collection and the short film 3SAI: A Rite of Passage (2008) Transitions premiered at The Apartheid Museum, Johannesburg South Africa in 2008 and debuted internationally at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington DC, USA in 2010. A full-colour publication with writings by André Croucamp and Robyn Sassen was published by project managers, Art Source South Africa. Related content ←Previous Next→

← Back After-image , Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Bloemfontein, Free State, South Africa, 5 – 29 April 2005 The third showing of this touring solo exhibition comprising early etchings and lithographs, photographs from The Lost Men Grahamstown (2004) and a major drawing also entitled After-image (2004). This drawing is permanently housed in the main reception room of Villa Arcadia as part of the Hollard Collection of South African Contemporary Art. After-image was exhibited in South Africa at the US Art Gallery, Stellenbosch, Western Cape, The Old Fort at Constitution Hill, Johannesburg, Gauteng, Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Bloemfontein, Free State and Villa Arcadia, Hollard House, Johannesburg, Gauteng. An illustrated, colour catalogue with text by Julia Charlton was printed and published by US Art Gallery. Related content ←Previous Next→

← Back Transitions , William Humphreys Art Gallery, Kimberley, Northern Cape province, South Africa, 15 April – 15 May 2009 Transitions documents shifting male identity. This was the third showing of this touring solo museum exhibition comprising an installation of 5 original drawings, courtesy of the Spier Contemporary Collection and the short film 3SAI: A Rite of Passage (2008). Transitions premiered at The Apartheid Museum, Johannesburg South Africa in 2008 and debuted internationally at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington DC, USA in 2010. A full-colour publication with writings by André Croucamp and Robyn Sassen was published by project managers, Art Source South Africa. Related content ←Previous Next→

← Back After-image , The Gallery Hall, Villa Arcadia, Hollard House, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa, 16 April – 15 May 2005 The fourth showing of this touring solo exhibition comprising early etchings and lithographs, photographs from The Lost Men Grahamstown (2004) and a major drawing also entitled After-image (2004). This drawing is permanently housed in the main reception room of Villa Arcadia as part of the Hollard Collection of South African Contemporary Art. After-image was exhibited in South Africa at the US Art Gallery, Stellenbosch, Western Cape, The Old Fort at Constitution Hill, Johannesburg, Gauteng, Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Bloemfontein, Free State and Villa Arcadia, Hollard House, Johannesburg, Gauteng. An illustrated, colour catalogue with text by Julia Charlton was printed and published by US Art Gallery. Related content ←Previous Next→

← Back Impermanence , Fried Contemporary Gallery, Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa, 8 March – 7 April 2018 A solo exhibition installed in Rooms 1 and 2 of Fried Contemporary Gallery. Emmanuel was invited by the gallery to show a selection of works dated from 2004 to 2015, curated by Johan Thom and Shenaz Mahomed. Editioned photographic works from The Lost Men (2004 –) were selected for this exhibition along with lithographic works from the Transitions Multiples (2009 – 11) series and the video Remember-dismember (2015). Presented in association with Art Source South Africa. Related content ←Previous Next→

← Back Transitions , Apartheid Museum, Johannesburg, Gauteng province, South Africa, 27 September – 31 December 2008 Transitions documents shifting male identity. This was the first showing of this touring solo museum exhibition comprising an installation of 5 original drawings, courtesy of the Spier Contemporary Collection and the short film 3SAI: A Rite of Passage (2008). Transitions then travelled to The Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Bloemfontein, South Africa in February 2009. A full-colour publication with writings by André Croucamp and Robyn Sassen was published by project managers, Art Source South Africa. Related content ←Previous Next→

← Back Men and Monuments , Wits Art Museum, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa, 3 – 18 March 2020 and 6 – 30 April 2021 For the past 16 years, in an ongoing project titled The Lost Men , Emmanuel has challenged conventions around war memorials. He has questioned which soldiers are memorialised and which erased, and the stereotypes around soldiers and masculinity. In contrast to accepted practices where war memorials are erected using robust, permanent and immovable materials such as granite, he commemorates the forgotten using his own transient and vulnerable body to transform himself into a living, but temporary war memorial. Artworks from all three iterations of The Lost Men are featured in Men and Monuments . A monograph titled Paul Emmanuel , edited by Professor Karen von Veh and with writings by Professor emerita Annette Becker, Professor Karen von Veh and Associate Professor emerita Pamela Allara, was published by the museum. Related content ←Previous Next→

← Back The Lost Men , Sylt Foundation, Rantum, Sylt Island, Germany, July – September 2009 Paul Emmanuel was invited to The Sylt Foundation as an artist-in-residence from 26 May to 26 June 2009. The Sylt Foundation is located on the island of Sylt in the North Sea, off the coast of Germany. During this residency, the existing memorial installations of The Lost Men Grahamstown (2004) and The Lost Men Mozambique (2007) were installed on the island, to be seen by visitors to the Meerkabarett Cultural Festival, which takes place annually from 6 July to 23 August 2009. Related content ←Previous Next→

← Back Remnants , The Reservoir, Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Bloemfontein, South Africa, 25 May – 9 July 2017 First exhibited at South Africa's Freedom Park Museum and then at Boston University's 808 Gallery USA, this solo, museum exhibition features artworks related to Emmanuel's counter-memorial, The Lost Men France which was installed adjacent to the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme in 2014. The Lost Men France , the 3rd in his The Lost Men series, comprised 5 large silk banners depicting the artist's body bearing names of WWI servicemen from all nations pressed into his skin. The exhibition underscores concepts of loss, memory and memorialisation in an installation centred around the ‘remnants’ of The Lost Men France banners, torn and battered by the winds of the Somme. The banners are complemented by videos, drawings, prints and plaster casts of the artist's body. A 4 page publication was produed and published by Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Boston University Art Galleries and project managers Art Source South Africa. Related content ←Previous Next→

← Back The Lost Men France , World War One Centenary, Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, Picardy, Northern France, 1 July – 1 October 2014 The Lost Men France was a once-only counter-memorial and an official feature of the 2014 – 2018 First World War Centenary. It was temporarily installed adjacent to the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, Picardy, Northern France as an intervention in the Somme Circuit of Remembrance. In the battles that were fought on the Western Front between 1914 and 1918, thousands of South African servicemen took part and died alongside the Allies but white and black South African men were valourised differently. The Lost Men France depicted these names alongside those of the Allies and Germans. Supported by La Mission du Centenaire de la Première Guerre Mondiale, Paris, Institut Français Paris / Johannesburg and The National Arts Council of South Africa. Project managed by Art Source South Africa. Related content ←Previous Next→

← Back Air on the Skin , Standard Bank Art Gallery, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa, 28 January – 15 March 2003 The Standard Bank Gallery hosted an exhibition of the major drawing Air on the Skin (2002) (Standard Bank Collection) in their ground floor exhibition space. The Johannesburg public also had the chance to view a sister work of the same title and year from the Sasol Collection. Air on the Skin won first prize at the Schumann-Sasol Wax in Art competition (2002). The show also featured a selection of lithographs and etchings as well as page proofs from the artists’ book Cathexis . A private viewing of this show was also mounted at Fordsburg Artists Studios from 13 to 20 September 2002. Artist’s statement For me, Air on the Skin is – among many other things – about exposure. Clothes are our outer coverings; they determine what we want the world to see of us, either by circumstance or choice, forming first impressions. They are an outer ‘skin’, which, like the dried remnants of an insect exoskeleton or snake scales, are shed, washed, re-worn or replaced. They are intricately involved in our evolution and transformation. Shoe polish reflects the light and changes the surface appeal of shoes, bags, belts and other human accoutrements. Shoe polish also absorbs the light when left in its untampered form. In this work it has been layered over acrylic to create the deeply recessive matt blackness which gives this work its depth. I think of these landscapes not as depictions of physical spaces, but as renditions of inner landscapes. Related content ←Previous Next→

← Back The Lost Men Mozambique , Counter-memorial, Catembe Ferry Jetty, Maputo, Mozambique, 24 April – 12 May 2007 For this once-only counter-memorial it was intended to depict the names of Mozambican and South African combattants who had died in the Mozambican Civil War between the Frelimo and Renamo political movements. During the 1980's, South Africa's apartheid government supported Renamo. In 2007 however, Mozambican authorities placed a moratorium on releasing any names to the public and consequently, Emmanuel's skin was embossed with the words Unknown Soldier repeated in Shangaan and Portuguese languages. Two printmaking workshops were conducted at The National School of Visual Art in Maputo and an exhibition of participant’s prints was installed at the French-Mozambican Cultural Centre. Supported by Pro Helvetia Arts Council of Switzerland, The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, The Centre Culturel Franco-Mozambicano, The French Institute South Africa and The National School of Visual Art. In memory of John Hodgkiss. Related content ←Previous Next→