Ennri Kums

Ennri Kums (Henry Coombes)

b. Mauritius 1948. Lives in Port Louis, Mauritius.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Ennri Kums (aka Henry Koombes/ Coombes) is an artist and illustrator. A self-taught artist, Ennri Kums deals directly with themes of sexuality and death in his works, with a strong homo-erotic focus. He is the creator of the Adventures of Tikulu, a series of books aimed at children. 

Art Education

Self-educated

Exhibitions

2018: D’Éros Et d’Épines, Artelier, Port-Louis, Mauritius.
2015: Eros Thanatos, Imaaya Art Gallery, Mauritius.
2010: Sensored, Imaaya Art Gallery, Mauritius.
2000: Millennium Exhibition, Mauritius.
1998: Sequences 3, MOBAA Caudan Waterfront, Mauritius.
1998: Art in the world, Paris.
1998: Seychelles Biennale, Seychelles Islands.
1998: L’Art Dans Le Monde, Beaux-Arts Magazine, Paris.
1997: New Delhi Triennial, India.
1997: Suites Africaines, Couvent des Cordeliers, Paris.
1996: Un incomparable de Kums, La Fabriks, Marseille.
1996: Novante Nova Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
1996: L’Etoile Noire, Salle Clément Ader, Quatre-Bornes, Mauritius.
1993: Art Contemporain en Francophonie, Port-Louis, Mauritius.
1993: Centre Wallonie, Bruxelle, Belgium and Paris.
1992: Esta Novo Gallery, Tokyo. 
1992: Maison Créole d’Eureka, Mauritius.
1992: The Group of Nine, Port Louis, Mauritius Hill, Mauritius.
1989: Maison Créole d’Eureka, Mauritius. 
1988: Black Bull Gallery Fulham Road, London.
1986: Hélène de Senneville Gallery, Mauritius.
1985: Cadre Noir, Reunion.
1984: Cultural Center Charles Baudelaire, Rose-Hill, Mauritius

Theatre

1995: Concours de Beats (with Dominic Larrivaz), Merlan Theater, Marseille, France
1995: Musical comedy Mokko, Whiting Theater, Marseille, France
1994: Musical comedy Mokko (sets, costume, actor), Port Louis Theater, Mauritius

Residencies

1997: La Fabriks, Marseille, France.
1996: Rotterdam, Netherlands.
1995: Marseille, France.

Childrens books

1998-present: Creator and illustrator a series of children’s books entitled The Adventures of Tikulu

Links

Patricia de Villiers

b. 1950, Cape Town, South Africa; lives in Cape Town.
Patricia de Villiers is an artist, illustrator and designer. She has been active as a cultural worker and poster designer since the early 1970s, contributing to community organisations including the Community Arts Project in the 1980s in Cape Town, and the Broadside Workers’ Theatre Company in the UK. 

Bio

Born nearly in 1950 in Cape Town, to an Afrikaans father and an English mother.

Schooled in numerous places and received an education (of a sort) in fine art at what was then the Johannesburg College of Art, primarily dedicated to the production of ‘commercial artists’, teachers and, above all, industrial designers.

Fled the miseries and artificialities of apartheid in the early 1970’s to study and then practice stage design in London. Drawn by Marxism and Feminism I joined a touring theatre company that made plays ‘with and about’ the trade union movement and drew its inspirational roots from Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weil as well as the folk tradition of the broadside ballad.

Post 1976, I resolved to return to South Africa, and decided that my most practical contribution to the anti-apartheid struggle was to become a printer. I then learnt the trade (with limited success) at a Cooperative Press where I learned in particular to throw large reams of paper up the stairs. I was also schooled in the politics of the ANC but was finally (I thought shamingly) advised that I was ‘probably most suited to cultural work’.

I returned to Cape Town in the early eighties and soon discovered that the local printing trade did not accommodate white female offset litho machine operators. However, after a period back in theatre with the People’s Space, I was introduced to the Community Arts Project at a serendipitous moment  - just after the Gaborone Arts Festival when the assembled artists poets and performers were buzzing with excitement and resolve.

Joined and remained for 10 years with the Silkscreen Workshop aka Poster Workshop aka Media Project. After a quiet beginning, with the launch of the UDF and thereafter until the end of the decade, the workshop became a production line for hand-printed posters, banners and T-shirts, enthusiastically, if somewhat wildly, produced by youth groups, civics and community organisations of various affiliations. Our efforts to move with the times and become a training centre rather than a ‘service organisation’ never quite took off – the prescience of IBM in showering computers across the liberation movement meant that our methodologies and love of the silkscreen took on a quaint and nostalgic aspect.

After the birth of my daughter (in the nick of time, given my age) I turned to illustration, poster making and cartoon strips for both adults and children. This enjoyable, poorly paid, and, at times, lonely and apparently irrelevant, occupation was followed by an opportunity to work in the newly designed provincial health department. Here I spent 15 years striving to fit my rough round peg into the infinitely square, finely chiseled and intellectually challenging hole that is the health sector.

These days I am busy oiling my rusty artistic cogs with a view to doing, full-time, what I think I do best and certainly love the most – drawing, painting and making things with my hands.

Education

2023: ASAI Print Access Workshop, Michaelis School of Fine Art, Cape Town.
2018: ASAI Print Access Workshop, Michaelis School of Fine Art, Cape Town.
2015: ASAI In Print, Print Access Workshop Series, Michaelis School of Fine Art, Cape Town.
1990: Advanced Diploma in Adult Education (with distinction), Centre for Adult & Continuing Education (CASE), University of the Western Cape, Cape Town.
1981: Certificate in Reprographics (day-release), London College of Printing, London.
1973: Certificate in Theatre & Costume Design, Sadler’s Wells Design School, London.
1972: National Diploma in Fine Arts (with distinction), Johannesburg School of Art, Johannesburg.

Career

1997 - 2012: Deputy Director of Health Promotion, Western Cape Health Department, Cape Town.
1989 - 1997: Volunteer, Community Arts Project (CAP), (made various posters, illustrations to support the ANC electoral campaign), Cape Town.
1982 - 1989: Founder member and Project Coordinator of 'CAP Poster Workshop'/ 'CAP Media Project', Community Arts Project (CAP), Cape Town.
1981 - 1983: Stage Management & Costume Design, People’s Space Theatre, Cape Town.
1971 – 1981: Resident Designer, Co-writer/ Producer, Broadside Workers’ Theatre Company, London.
1970s - Lithographic Printer, Spiderweb Print Cooperative, London.
1970s - Freelance stage and costume designer, London, Birmingham, Bristol.

Published Works

1989 - 1997: Cartoon booklets and other materials for adults, Careers Research and Information Centre, Grassroots Educare, Early Learning Resource Unit, Catholic Welfare and Development, Cape Town; Juta Publishers, Maskew Miller Longman, Johannesburg; Constitutional Assembly, South Africa.
1989 - 1997: Thirteen fully-illustrated children’s books and numerous contributing illustrations and posters, Juta Publishers, Maskew Miller Longman, Heinemann Publishers, Kagiso Education Publishers, Johannesburg; Oxford University Press, Cape Town.
Muziwakhe Nhlabatsi

Muziwakhe Nhlabatsi

b. 1954, Johannesburg, South Africa; lives in Johannesburg.

Muziwakhe Nhlabatsi is a graphic artist and illustrator, best known for his representations of political themes, published in progressive media in the 1970s and 1980s. Flexible across drawing and print media, Nhlabatsi’s images have accompanied works by Es’kia Mphahlele, Chabani Manganyi and others, have appeared in texts by Black publishing House Skotaville, and have featured multiple times in anti-apartheid publication Staffrider. The artist currently runs a digital art studio in Soweto.

Peoples College Comics - Down Second Avenue

 

Down Second Avenue

Illustrations by Mzwakhe Nhlabatsi
Original script by Lesley Lawson. Edited by Joyce Ozynski.

Activities prepared by Joan Hoffman, edited by Barbara Hutton and Helene Perold.
Designed by Mary Anne Bahr and Zaidah Abrahams
Typsetting by Jenny Stanfield, Sached production department

Published by Ravan Press (Pty) Ltd
First impression 1988
The Sached Trust
ISBN 0 86975 329 4
Printed by Creda Press, Cape Town

Education

1994 - 1997: Various computer training courses, Hirt & Carter training school, Parkhill Technologies, Johannesburg.
1993: Management of Book Production, British Consulate, Johannesburg.
1988: Creative Publications Design, SACHED Trust, Johannesburg.
1980: Archie Legatts Fashion Academy, Johannesburg.
1976 - 1977: ELC Art and Craft Centre, Rorkes Drift, KwaZulu-Natal.
1970 - 1971: Mofolo Art Centre (under Dan Rakgoathe), Soweto.
1969 - 1972: Jubilee Art Centre (under Bill Hart), Johannesburg.

Solo Exhibitions (South Africa)

1972: Exhibition, Gallery of African Art, Johannesburg.

Group Exhibitions (South Africa)

2006: Ubuntu - Striving for life and peace, Durban Art Gallery, Durban.
1981: Black art today, Jabulani Standard Bank, Soweto.
1979: Contemporary African art in South Africa, De Beers Centenary Art Gallery, University of Fort Hare, Alice.
1976: New in the sun, Auden House, Johannesburg.
1975: Tribute to courage, Diakonia House, Johannesburg.
1974: Group of six, Atlantic Art Gallery, Cape Town. 
1972: Art of the townships, Gallery of African Art, Johannesburg.

Group Exhibitions (international)

1975: Young artists, International Play Group Inc., Union Carbide Building, New York.
1974: Group of six, Botswana National Museum, Gaborone.

Publications (illustrations)

1988: Down Second Avenue: The comic, Ravan Press, Johannesburg. Maria Mabetoa, A visit to my grandfather's farm, Ravan Press, Johannesburg.
1987: Staffrider, vol. 6 no. 4, Ravan Press, Johannesburg. Mbulawa A. Mahlangu, Igugu lamaNdebele, Skotaville Publishers, Johannesburg.
1986: Gabriel Setiloane, African theology: An introduction, Skotaville Publishers, Johannesburg.
1985: Essop Patel (ed), The world of Nat Nakasa, Ravan Press, Johannesburg.
1984: Eskia Mphahlele, Father come home, Ravan Press, Johannesburg.
1983: Bheki Maseko, The night of long knives, Staffrider, vol. 5 no. 3.
1982: Mbulelo Mzamane, The children of Soweto, Harlow: Longman, Cape Town. Eskia Mphahlele, Over my dead body, Staffrider, vol. 4 no. 4, pp 10-12. Mothobi Mutloatse, Mama ndiyalila, Ravan Press, Johannesburg.
1979: Chabani Manganyi, Looking through the key hole, Ravan Press, Johannesburg.

Publications (books, exhibition reviews)

2004: Elza Miles, Polly Street: The story of an art centre, The Ampersand Foundation, New York.
1992: E. J. De Jager, Images of Man: Contemporary South African Black art and artists, Fort Hare University Press, Alice.
1975: Elliot Makhaya and Eric Mani, Art in the Van Gogh tradition, The World newspaper, Thursday, July 10. Vusi Khumalo, Big Art show for Jo'burg City, The World newspaper, September 18, p 11. Elliot Makhaya, Mum doesn't appreciate, The World newspaper, Wednesday, March 12.
1974: Eldren Green, Black artists, The Argus, October 17. Group of six at the Atlantic, Cape Times, October 22.

Other

current: Runs a computer generated digital art studio in Soweto.

1999 - 2005: Senior industrial technician, Gauteng Provincial Government, Johannesburg.
1987 - 1998: Graphic artist, Maskew Miller Longman, Johannesburg.
1986 - 1993: Graphic artist, SACHED Trust, Johannesburg.
1986 - 1987: Graphic artist, The Graphic Equaliser, Johannesburg.
1979 - 1981: Graphic artist, SACHED Trust (Turret College), Johannesburg.
1978 - 1979: Make-up artist, Hollywood Display (Multiform), Johannesburg.
1978: Art teacher, The Open school, Johannesburg.
1974: Art teacher, YWCA Vukuzenzele Children's Art Centre, Soweto.

Awards

1979: UTA Airways Fashion Design Competition, Johannesburg.
1970: Merit prize, Chamber of Commerce art competition, Johannesburg.

Collections

De Beers Centenary Art Gallery, University of Fort Hare.

Links