American singer, songwriter, composer and actor, Thomas Alan Waits (1949–), has been a major inspiration to artists, musicians, poets, writers and thinkers for almost 40 years. He is considered as one of the godfathers of grunge and poetic rock and is a master of contemporary narrative –able to weave emotion and intrigue into his stories of urban grit and rural abandonment. His sometimes jaundiced view of the underbelly of society serves as a rich source of visual imagery.

The Johannes Stegmann Art Gallery is celebrating this vanguard with the exhibition Tom Waits for No Man.

Gordon Froud, artist and senior lecturer at the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Johannesburg (UJ), curated and toured with the Leonard Cohen exhibition entitled Altered Piecesin 2011 and 2012. Due to the success of that exhibition, Froud decided to extend his curative activities in the direction of Tom Waits.

This exhibition is based on a roughly LP-sized circular format (30cm in diameter). Most works hang on the wall, but some artists that preferredto work in 3D, made use of the disc as a base or platform on which to build. There was no restriction on materials or approach. There was no process in selection of songs and each artist was free to use whichever lyric or section of lyrics that they choose (even if someone else had selected this too – artists seldom come up with the same solutions).

The exhibition was launched at the ABSA KKNK in April 2013 and has travelled to the UJ Art Gallery and Grande Provence Wine Estate for the Literary Festival.

The exhibition is on display at the Johannes Stegmann Art Gallery until 25 October 2013.

Gallery hours: 08:30 – 16:30, Monday – Friday

Enquiries: +27(0)51 401 2706 | dejesusav@ufs.ac.za