Outlines, Bylines and Pickup Lines - an exhibition review for Revolution Daily

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So it was the first week of January and as wistfully expected, there wasn’t much going down in Jozi. No crazy-big parties. Bob Rocks was still closed. We were all broke. We are all still broke. What’s a girl to do? I know! How ‘bout not get wasted and choo-choo-train dance to electro and go to this little gem instead?

Enter: Outline, an exhibition by Koos Groenewald.





I arrived at Wolves on the opening night, expecting to see some familiar faces but for the most part, assumed everyone was still on holiday. I was wrong. Wolves may not be a big place, but it was packed with freshly tanned, eager-eyed Jozinis, slapping their jaws together with such vigor that it actually felt good to be back.


Outline was more than an art exhibition – it was a play date. It felt right. So did the niche-brewed beer. And Wolves, set in the heart of Illovo, Jo’burg, was the perfect backdrop for Koos’ quirky, playful illustrations.




Koos’ style is fun and reminds me a little of Quentin Blake’s sprawled illustrations from Roald Dahl novels – naughty, irreverent, cheeky. The character and mischievousness in the faces of his animals, human-like expressions at that, have a way of making you grin. And the human faces? Well, they’re the kind of humans I want to make friends with. There’s a crazy energy to Koos’ childlike scrawls, something dangerous.




But let’s just get one thing straight; there is a difference between ‘childlike’ and ‘childish’. The former is awesome and imaginative, naïve in a way that suggests zero ego and hardened cynicism. Childish is just, well, silly and rudimentary. Koos’ work is certainly not the latter.The childlike element might also have something to do with the fact that these illustrations were created from one line.




One line.




Yup, like that game where you put pencil to paper, freely scribble some lines, create a shape then ask, ‘What is it?’ This is a game I’d like to play but can swiftly confirm would need labels and descriptors. I envy kids who can, without a doubt in their minds, create. Little artists making little metanarratives in crayon. That’s basically every kid. That was me as a young lass. That’s Koos Groenewald.





Review by Lauren Bow and photographs by Chris Corbett.


The exhibition runs until 31 January, so best you come play. Check out the Facebook event here and see more from Koos here.