One&Only Cape Town Supports Contemporary South African Art

By tapping into the country's cultural landscape, spaces within One&Only Cape Town will be given over to eye-catching installations and cutting-edge canvasses, while the mezzanine level of the resort will launch a new branch of the contemporary art gallery, Goodman Gallery.

In the gallery space, works on display will range from photographs and sculptures to oils and prints by known and emerging artists and will rotate at least six times per year. The experience of art at One&Only Cape Town is meant to immerse and inspire guests to appreciate and perhaps dabble in collecting exciting South African artwork.

Upon entering the lobby at One&Only Cape Town, eyes will be immediately drawn to three impressive bronze sculptures by painter, sculptor and printmaker Deborah Bell. Standing proud as guardians of place and heritage, 'Sentinel', 'Staff' and 'Memory of Wood' symbolize fortitude, constancy and eternal stability, showcasing Bell's passion for distilling magic and ancient mythology into the everyday.

On either side of the reception area, Norman Catherine's 'Day' and 'Night' screens – inspired both by African mythologies and decorative traditions – welcome visitors as they enter whilst further down the area, two striking paintings by Walter Oltmann 'Larva Suit II and III' and 'Imago' depict his obsessive explorations of the natural world, resulting in bleach and ink drawings that reference local craft traditions and suggest cultural manifestations.

Both evocative and sensuously aesthetic, Berni Searle's piece, "Offering" is the showcase piece in Gordon Ramsay's maze restaurant. Cape Town- born and bred Searle is known for defying the boundaries of painting and photography, and this piece, at 15 metres long, presents a series of printed panels with the artist's signature motifs of food and spices. The 14 panels depict abstracted red and ochre crepe paper forms that bleed vibrant, swirling colour into water. The piece draws on the particularities of Searle's Cape Malay heritage, invoking the rituals and traditions that persist through generations.

Nobu at One&Only Cape Town will house another special commission from major South African sculptor and printmaker Brett Murray. Murray collaborated with Freciano Ndala, one of several Xhun and Khwe San artists. The five and a half by two meter lino cut piece in wood and finished in gold against a claret background, delivers an interesting marriage of South African and Eastern iconography.

One&Only Spa will showcase the 'Home & Away' photograph from Berni Searle's Seeking Refuge series. Portraying a moment in a powerfully lyrical manner, Searle highlights the journey of refugees landing in the volcanic and barren landscape of the Canary Islands. As beautiful as it is dramatic, this image –suited to its ethereal surroundings – reveals the protagonist of this work letting go of her past and looking ahead to the future.

Also complementing the spa location will be Paul Edmunds' fan-shaped sculpture 'Fan'. This abstract work was painstakingly woven from a bundle of 4,096 insulated wire strands, held together by copper. This obsessive and meditative process of construction took around six weeks to finish.

Both the Presidential and Imperial Suite at the resort will house original works from iconic South African artists Conrad Botes, Willem Boshoff, Andrew Putter, Guy Tillim, Jeremy Wafer, David Goldblatt, Peter Clarke, Walter Oltmann and Paul Edmunds.

Taking inspiration from debased Christian iconography and proving his status as the 'torchbearer of the Post-Pop movement in South Africa', Botes' six roundels painted on the reverse side of glass in the dining area of the Presidential Suite depict people in transit. The works draw on comic traditions and mock the conventional notions of individualism and humanism while intertwining a certain sentimentality to give his work a bittersweet edge.

A panel of detailed wirework woven by Walter Oltmann, who for this commission produced an image inspired by brass plaques from Benin and centred on a form of a crocodile, is also featured in the Presidential dining area.

On display in the Presidential Suite's study is a large colour photograph of a coastline by veteran South African photographer David Goldblatt alongside 'The Queen of Sheba' and 'Tutu', two paper works with prose by Peter Clarke, famous in the Cape for his collage combined with quirky poems in his handwriting beneath.

The entrance to the Imperial Suite is dominated by a hanging sculpture from Paul Edmunds named 'Same but Different I'I. Based on a linocut the artist made in 2000, created as one long continuous line, this three-dimensional execution was fashioned out of PVC-insulated wire.

The entrance area also features 'Post Mistress' and 'Miles Davis', two collages and prose from Peter Clarke's Fanfare series as well photographer Guy Tillim's 'Lumbumbashi City Hall, DR Congo, 2007' and 'Maputo, Mozambique, 2007' from his recent series Avenue Patrick Lumumba which reflects on modernist architecture in Africa.

The focal point of the salon in the Imperial Suite is a wall sculpture by Willem Boshoff, arguably South Africa's best-known sculptor and conceptual artist. 'Walking Stick Jig' -constructed from 13 walking sticks made in distinctive dark and light coloured Zebrawood – shows the pieces of wood turned into jewel-like bits that flitter about, similar to musical notes on sheet music.

The central living space also features a large wirework panel woven by Walter Oltmann, inspired by the complex geometric patterns of the Congo Kuba Cloths. Jeremy Wafer in turn sought his inspiration for his two large disc sculptures 'Red Disk' and 'Ochre Disk' cast in resin and covered with clay and ash from the landscape of South Africa, in particular in the Zulu and Xhosa ritual practices and rites of passage.

Finally, in the master bedroom is a pair of photographic prints of flowers from the series 'Flora Capensis' by Andrew Putter, who looks at Cape history with imagination and humour. Putter invokes the 17th century Dutch style of exquisite flower paintings and at the same time recalls the Khoekhoe - who once lived where Cape Town now stands – through the materials from which the still life works are composed.