Overlooked African artists get time in the spotlight

If you encountered one of Jason Bronkhorst’s subjects in a park, you would head off in the opposite direction, scooping up your poodle and keeping it close to your chest. With small eyes, large ears and pointy teeth, they look like vicious bull terriers. Yet, "people were fighting over his paintings", says MJ Turpin, artist and gallerist, recalling the demand for Bronkhorst’s art at the Kalashnikovv Gallery’s stand at the Cape Town Art Fair in 2016. This year’s fair opens to the public on Friday at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. Turpin and Matthew Dean, his partner in the gallery, were surprised and excited by the interest in the disordered-looking pink-faced subjects of Bronkhorst’s. There isn’t much cultural cachet attached to white men — unless they are "trans" or albino — even though they appear to still rule the world and the annual billionaire rich lists. Turpin and Dean are regarded as the new vanguard in edgy young art, but they are guided by sales, not fashi...