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Patrick Rulore wins Sasol New Signatures award at 3rd attempt

Art
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The winner of the 2019 Sasol New Signatures award, Patrick Rulore, says he is excited to start working on his solo exhibition.

Rulore won the competition on his third try. The first time he wasn’t selected as a finalist and the next two years he made it to the final 100, but not the top 7 and this year he stands head and shoulder above the rest.

Rulore’s work catches your eye when you walk into the Pretoria Art Museum‘s exhibition hall.

His work is a marvelous reflection of South Africa’s contemporary history.

 

Titled Stage 4 Moments, Rulore used Eskom’s Stage 4 load shedding, when most residents are plunged into darkness, as his inspiration to depict rare things people do whenever load shedding strikes.

“This painting is 1.80 in size and oil on canvas with varnish. And it ‘s a realistic painting. The painting is very dark in tone. It includes five portraits of my family over the table, talking, playing games and enjoying the dark moments,” says Rulore.

 


A light shards from a lantern on the table illuminate the center of the table where you can see plates and cups, with a powerless discarded cellphone.

Stage 4 Moments further focuses on the interaction between families and people when they are not distracted by electricity and social media.

Rulore says he was born to be an artist and is currently a second year fine arts student at the Tshwane University of Technology.

“Since this is my talent this is what I can do best when voicing out and commenting on our social issues. Absolutely there is no way besides art that I can be the best of me”

For his creative works Rulore won R100 000 as well as the guarantee of support for a solo exhibition that will be on show at the end of next year at the Pretoria Art Museum.

National chairperson of the Sasol New Signatures competition, Prof. Pieter Binsbergen, says helping up-and-coming artists to build a sustainable career is part of the mission and vision of the competition.

“Inception to not only create a hype around the winner for a single year and then allow him to disappear into the woodwork. So sustainability has become a very important buzzword in and around the competition ethos and our winners and our top 100 finalists have gone to have illustrious careers within the visual arts. I think the reach and communication platform has been so great that international markets are paying attention and our finalists are being offered residency in other countries and are exposed to various platforms in other countries.”

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