Submit something, anything. All welcome, selection will be based upon available space and how it adds to the overall exhibition. (But please keep things to a reasonable size and price, if you have any questions please feel free to send a DM or email) This is intended to be a fun, irreverent group show where artists can submit work they might not normally produce, without censorship. Say ‘fuck it’ to your worries, from the possibility of idiots starting world war 3, to what your mom or agent might think, to whether its truly original or been done before.
Selected works must be ready to hang and delivered to Seth Deacon Art Studios in the Woodstock Exchange between 8 - 10 October 2025. The exhibition will open on 18 October 2025. There is no participation fee, however participants are encouraged, to contribute where they can with marketing, hanging and rent, as this is an independent project without funding at this point. (This can be monetary or otherwise).
The studio will take a 30% commission on any sales. You will need to deliver and collect your work from the studio (if it isn’t sold). Submit up to 3 works, with clear, high res images, artist name (+pseudonym if you want), title, medium, dimensions and date.
news and studio updates
Call for artists - group exhibition
New deadline - 23 September 2025
Communion
17 May - 30 June 2025
Wednesday - Saturday
11:00 - 17:00
(or by appointment)
seth deacon art studios
66 Albert Road, Woodstock Exchange, Cape Town
MImam Muhsin Hendricks
this portrait was created at the request of I AM (Inclusive and Affirming Ministries) for the inaugural annual Imam Muhsin Hendricks memorial lecture.
Communion or Queer Communion is a project dedicated to remembering and celebrating the lives of marginalised queer people who were murdered for living as themselves. The project is a rejection of the attempts to dismiss, defile or simply erase LGBTQIA+ people. It started from a need to process on a personal level the emotional impact of news reports of hate crime murders that became increasingly frequent during the Covid pandemic. It has continued in part because of the engagement of those in the community who have reacted positively and encouraged me to continue.
I believe that hate crime and the manner in which authority and society respond to it act to create an environment of fear, as well as the sense that LGBTQIA+ lives are disposable and shameful. In spite of this queer people continue to live openly in defiance of attempts to control or police them into compliance. The works are meant to celebrate the simultaneously incandescent and ordinary lives that have been lost, as well as mourning, they also are a refusal of the tendency to place the inflicted pain, death and violence at the centre of how we remember them.
The project is also about visibility, asking us who is deserving of commemoration and who we are content to erase, sweep under the carpet. Many of these were create using photographs that were blurry or overly cropped, and in some sense the accessibilty of photographs has dictated the choice of portraits.
The project consists of a series of portraits that evoke a sense of the sacred through references to spiritual iconography to create spaces for contemplation and stillness. There are currently three forms of the project that are ongoing.
Unit 14, the WEX
66 Albert Road, Woodstock, Cape Town
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Soul Parts
29 March - 10 May 2025
Wednesday - Saturday
11:00 - 17:00
(or by appointment)
seth deacon art studios
66 Albert Road, Woodstock Exchange, Cape Town
Download the catalogue and price list here
Soul Parts is a body of work consisting of ink paintings using traditional Chinese ink and paper, oil paintings, and poetry. Emerging from earlier explorations of the internal fragmentation of self we experience living in a world that constantly asks us to compromise and sacrifice in different ways, and that means for those parts of ourselves we relinquish, this body of work looks outward.
The work is a meditation on finding moments of belonging in unlikely spaces. A shared language of creativity and dreams of freedom that transcend language and cultural difference. It is a record of sitting in and embracing discomfort, risking misunderstanding and alienation for the chance of brief moments of connectedness and love. It is also a reflection of the tensions inherent in the negotiations of power, of feeling small but living boldly, much like ants relentlessly building new dreams when the old ones are torn down. I was inspired by a relentless litany of ‘can do’ from the artists, poets, theatre practitioners and musicians I met, encouraging experimentation and hybridity.
Most of the works are created with traditional Chinese materials, ink and xuan paper, and mounted in China.
Unit 14, the WEX
66 Albert Road, Woodstock, Cape Town
To be updated on special events please subscribe down below or send us an email at admin@sethdeacon.co.za
Tentative roots in foreign places
Chinese ink and watercolour on xuan paper, traditionally mounted
82cm x 82cm
2024
Keep it together
The artist is currently creating work (and begining the healing process after a recent motor vehicle accident) at the Purple Mountain Arts Residency. The work will culminate in an installation to be shown at Aloe House in Porterville on the evening of Sunday 24 March 2025. We will share more about the work and experience here soon.
