Daisy Angy Kekae, collage portrait by Ian van Coller
Fall 2007 Hot Shot, Ian van Coller is showing his series of collage portraits of South African female domestic and farm workers at Philadelphia's Sol Mednick Gallery now through the end of August. The exhibition, Looking Forward: Portraits of South African Women, also features portraits from Coller's series Domestic Relations which pictures women wearing their favorite clothing posed inside the homes that they are employed to clean. Both series seek to engage a conversation about post-Colonial identities in a post-Apartheid South Africa.

From Ian's statement on his collage portraits:

My portrait collage series combines several influences that have personally been relevant to my art-making process. The work grew out of my experimentation with the use of quilting techniques based on traditions from Africa and Gees Bend, Alabama as a way to tell stories and record oral histories. The manner in which individuals in these portrait collages are presented, was heavily influenced by posters from the period of resistance against apartheid in South Africa (particularly 1980s and early 1990s). The union posters are now iconic examples of the strong printmaking tradition that grew out of resistance and artistic movements that began in the townships, and which often created "heroic" figures out of ordinary people.

Looking Forward: Portraits of South African Women
Sol Mednick Gallery
211 S Broad St, Fl 15th
Philadelphia, PA

Ian is also showing work at Chicago's Schneider Gallery in group show, A Glance at Photography, now through August 22.

A Glance at Photography
Schneider Gallery
230 West Superior St.
Chicago, IL