Barnard Gallery is pleased to present Justin Dingwall’s solo exhibition Albus, in association with
Lizamore & Associates.
With an arresting vulnerability and striking intimacy, the photographs in Justin Dingwall’s ongoing
body of work Albus constitute an extended meditation on the nature of beauty and perception. Aiming both to raise awareness about Albinism and to challenge the taboo that exists around it, the series interrogates and o_ers an alternative to traditional notions of beauty. Recurring motifs of butterflies, snakes and water suggest notions of rebirth, metamorphosis, fluidity and flux; reflecting Dingwall’s desire to inspire a change in perception and indicate that beauty is not a fixed ideal but rather one that is ever shifting and changeable. The conception of beauty as it exists in Albus is one that is ambiguous, subjective and diverse.
Justin Dingwall graduated cum laude from Tshwane University of Technology in 2004 and has since built a successful career as both a commercial and fine art photographer. His work has been featured in numerous group exhibitions both locally and abroad, including Twenty: Contemporary Art from South Africa (Turchin Centre for the Visual Arts, USA, 2013); Making Africa: A Continent of
Contemporary Design (Guggenheim Bilbao, Spain, 2015); Twenty: Art in the Time of Democracy (Pretoria Art Museum, Pretoria, 2015) and Representations of Otherness and Resistance (Johannes
Stegman Gallery, Bloemfontein, 2015). Since its inception in 2013, Albus has been shown at M.I.A Gallery (Seattle, USA, 2014); Rooke Gallery (Johannesburg, 2014); North West University Gallery (Potchefstroom, 2016); and Lizamore & Associates (Johannesburg, 2016); as well as being featured at several local and international art fairs including 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair (London, 2013); Art14 (London, 2014); FNB Joburg Art Fair (Johannesburg, 2015) and Cape Town Art Fair (Cape Town, 2016). Dingwall’s work is featured in the collections of the South African Foundation for Contemporary Art, North West University, Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Spier Art Collection, Pretoria Art Museum and Equatorial Guinea’s Museum of Modern Art.