WHEN FEET ARE GONE

A duo exhibition of photographic artworks and mixed media paintings

by Arno Tietz-Geldenhuys and Michaela Rinaldi.

The exhibition will run until the 30th of October 2021

ARNO TIETZ GELDENHUYS

The world today has changed from what it was at the beginning of last year, the seasons have changed, we have changed. We look at things differently. Some things are viewed under a microscope and some aspects are figuratively viewed under a magnifying glass. This is the inspiration of this photographic collection. Zoom into the beauty, it is always around us, but we are often too busy, that we look, but we don’t see. Everything outside is fresh and new, it is still the same but also it is not. Plants keep growing day by day, to some people it is just there, its “pretty”, but if you look closely, they are extraordinary!

"Start fresh, start new, look at the pretty, but see the extraordinary"

Arno Tietz-Geldenhuys is one of the “born there, and left there” Capetonians. He was born in Bellville in 1978. After matriculating in Parow in 1996, he studied as a Town Planner, an Architect and a Medical Rep, but realised that all these fields do not have the creativity he needed in his life. He met his husband, artist Michael Tietz-Geldenhuys in Stellenbosch in 2006, and the creativity exploded. He started experimenting with photography as he realised painting and drawing were never his strongpoint. Arno is always busy expanding on his creativity and has recently also started making and upscaling furniture.

Arno and Michael started wedding photography, but after 5 of the 7 marriages ended in the divorce, it was decided to rather focus on someone or objects, rather than people.

Buildings, plants, cars, restaurants and just general spaces or things he found interesting then took the foreground. He submitted some small prints of his works to ArtB Gallery, Barnard Gallery and to Zeitz Museum and they were exhibited as part of group exhibitions. Some of the photos he took in Florence, Italy in 2014 were all bought by an Italian couple on holiday in South Africa. Lockdown made him realise that the present time is the best time to explore something new. Arno bought some new lenses and spent a whole day sneezing in Kirstenbosch Botanical garden, taking the microphotography images displayed today.

MICHAELA RINALDI

To know truth is to feel it. And the same applies to original creations. Michaela expresses mood directly from her gut onto canvas. Her craft is her voice. What you see in Michaela Rinaldi’s work is the journey and flavour of the human psyche. Yes, there is the initial invitation of ardent colour, to feast your eyes in appreciation. But soon after this affect, allow your focus to deepen beyond the two-dimensional and into the essence of abandonment, isolation, dependencies and patterns that we all experience. Each painting grows. It transfixes you with its layers, connects you to your own.

Michaela has completed numerous successful solo exhibitions in the Western Cape, South Africa and internationally over the years. Most notable recent shows were a series of exhibitions in Germany in 2018 and early 2019, which saw a sell out at the Vernissage on the opening evening of the first exhibition in Heldesheim. Internationally, Michaela's work is not only popular in Germany, but can also be found in homes in Russia, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, France, Australia, UK and many American states to name a few.

Michaela was nominated in 2018 as one of South Africa’s top five female contemporary artists.