Opening this evening (August 9) at 18h30 is an exhibition titled Identity Unveiled. Forming part of The South African Women’s Arts Festival 2000 presented by the Playhouse Company and Transnet, it will be on show in the Playhouse Alhambra Room.

Identity Unveiled is a collection of multimedia visual art works from Durban-based artists, co-ordinated by Pascale Chandler. Represented are Monique Ballam-Smith, Bongi Dube, Louise Harcourt, Gabicile Nkosi, Rani Pillay and Wendy Lovell Greene.

Offering a group of paintings entitled People in the Country, full-time artist Wendy Lovell Greene has been exhibiting her work since 1987. She also has extensive experience in teaching theory, practice and history of art at secondary school level and privately. A 1990 Standard Bank drawing finalist, she draws inspiration from South Africa’s diverse cultures.

Rani Pillay’s current works Celebration Series were recently on exhibition at the Touchstone Gallery in Washington DC. She has worked in multiple mediums, including pastels, charcoal, pencil, watercolours and ceramics. She has been painting in oils at the Pascale Chandler School for the past five years.

Monique Ballam-Smith runs her own complementary health practice and says, "Painting provides a space for me to be alone, to process some of the stuff of my life and work by providing a mirror for me to see in. I am currently drawn to paint my family, to honour my "ancestors", so to speak, as well as to try to convey my experience of the very tactile work that I do (Ka huna bodywork). I try not to consciously convey any "message" or "truth" in my work.

Bongi Dube specialises in oils, acrylics and watercolours. She draws in pencil, chalk and charcoal, and produces both etchings and screenprints and has participated in community mural and art projects. She also sculpts, using metalwork, clay, cement and resin-casting.

A relative newcomer Louise Harcourt had her first exhibition in January this year at the NSA Gallery with Pascale Chandler’s Art School. She studied horticulture at Technikon Natal and holds a diploma in fine arts. Gabicile Nkosi is a Natal Technikon graduate and printmaker who is currently working at the Bat Centre. Her works deal with the topics of assault and rape.

From tomorrow (August 10), the exhibition will be open to the public from 9h00 to 16h30 and one hour before the first evening show. It closes on Saturday (August 12) at 16h30. Entrance is free.