Conrad Hicks - Artist, Blacksmith and owner of the Bijou
Our Tenants
Loft Editions
Loft Editions is a new printmaking studio established in 2023 in Cape Town by printer Georgina Berns. Loft collaborates with artists to produce quality limited-edition fine art prints.
Artists spend time working in the studio with Georgina who facilitates the technical side of the printmaking process from start to finish. Once signed by the artist, prints are published by Loft Editions. I Prints are available for sale in the studio and online and can be shipped worldwide. The studio is a space that is primed for collaboration and experimentation, constantly changing to accommodate and support the artist in residence.
Although fine art print publication is the main focus of Loft Editions, members of the public can book one on one printing time in the studio or take part in community workshops.
MercerBikes
In 2013 David Mercer built his first steel bicycle frame:
“I was tired of my professional routine and craved some creativity. I desperately wanted to leave something behind on the bench. Something to show for my efforts”
That first frame was supposed to scratch an itch but it ended up inflaming a passion and it wasn’t long before he was fully committed to the art of bicycle framebuilding. His previous professional career as a Veterinarian was all but forgotten.
In the last 10 years Mercer has built a reputation for beautiful, bespoke, one-off bicycles. They have been commisioned from all corners of the globe and he enjoys a worldwide following. His creations embody all bicycle styles and he builds classical beauties alongside the latest, modern designs.
“Steel has a heritage in Bicycle Framebuilding that is impossible to beat. It has a liveliness and feel that other frame materials just can’t match. And it’s sexy as hell.”
Besides one-off custom frames and forks, Mercer also repairs classic and vintage frames, builds stainless steel touring and commuting racks and offers one-on one framebuilding classes to enthusiastic students.
The Tool Room
HAND-FORGED IMPLEMENTS FOR YOUR KITCHEN
Using an approach of ‘If you use beautiful tools, you make beautiful things’, Conrad decided to develop kitchen implements so as to bring functional art into people’s homes.
Our first made objects were tools. We developed our values around judgements of function that became our instinctive sense of beauty. Ugly forms didn’t work. As a result of selective evolutionary principles, our driving force for development was and is a striving for beauty. Our generation is cut off from the tools and implements that keep us alive – we don’t know how to use them. The tasks we do are very abstract and unfulfilling. Early tools give us a strong sense of security and understanding. There is no design, only a feeling of “this is good”.
Chris Denovan
Since 2015, Denovan has presented 11 solo exhibitions. He has participated in numerous group shows, at Rust-en-Vrede Gallery, Chandler House, Salon 91, AITY Gallery, Ebony Curated and The Irma Stern Museum.
Since 2018, Denovan has been selected annually for the RMB Turbine Art Fair in Johannesburg and the Investec Cape Town Art Fair. In 2014, Denovan was short-listed for the Vuleka Competition for his portrait titled Kouros. In 2016, Denovan was the first non Danish artist selected to paint the portrait of the IDA’s chairman in Copenhagen. A tradition dating back to the 1800s. Denovan’s work is featured in the Hans Porer collection in Switzerland, the Celvin/Uller collection in Sweden and the IDA Headquarters in Copenhagen.
In 2017, Denovan was selected as a finalist for the Sanlam Portrait Award, and in 2019, he was granted the Bosch and Simons Art Residency in Chelva, Spain. Denovan is currently represented by 99 Loop Gallery in Cape Town, SOTA Gallery Online and Ebony Curated in Franschhoek.
Artroute
Simone Verfaille
Simone Verfaille (b. 1995, Cape Town, South Africa) creates through the folds and layers of her life. After earning her BA(Hons) Fine Art from Stellenbosch University in 2018, she had a break from the art world, before returning in 2023 with renewed passion and perspective.
To Simone, art is not merely a product but a process that extends beyond the canvas. It mirrors the way we experience, navigate, and embrace life's ever-evolving nature. She believes that life, in all its facets, is best captured through the intricate layers that compose it. In all her work, she strives to capture the depth and richness of life, whether it be the present moment or memories. Each layer of paint represents a distinct memory, a fragment of time, or a moment of existence. To Simone, layers hold the power to create depth and dimensionality. Through layering, she’s able to process the multitude of narratives that shape our and her existence, both weaving together the personal and the universal.
Her works become a captivating interplay of colours, forms, and textures, where she hopes to capture the folds and layers of her own sense of self, life and expression. Simone uses her artistic expression not only as a medium for self-discovery but also as a means to find her voice and articulate the profound beauty and complexity of the world.
Gerben Meiring
Gerben Meiring is born in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, he is interested in the processes of creativity and the experience of artmaking through painting, photographic and sculptural endeavor. He explores the practice of action painting through investigations in oil on canvas, and the peculiarities of the medium through action on the canvas plane.
The paint acts as gestural residue for the artist’s subjective expression, and is captured by the canvas, these works of art are painted alongside gravity, force, distance. His work aims to blur the boundaries between two- and three-dimensional expression by layering materials, medium to compose a complete timeless captivating experience.
The Local Baker
After spending 20 years as a professional photographer Warren became fascinated with sourdough process as an antidote to the world of advertising and filled his free time bread baking, even installing a big deck oven in his study at home and honed his baking skills during the pandemic.
The Local Baker has been trading at The Oranjezicht City farm market for the past 4 years and is an accredited Pastry Chef. He has now expanded his trading to Wednesdays from the bakery at The Bijou and is offering top shelf sourdough and Swedish buns to the public.
Sean Wilson / Silver Light
Sean Wilson works primarily with Analogue Photographic processes. Over the last two decades he has also worked in various genres of commercial photography. Recently he has been working with the Nineteenth Century process Wet Plate Collodion, which has been an enormously challenging and enthralling journey.
His latest venture - Silverlight Cape Town - is a new studio and darkroom space which offers Ambrotype Portraits and other Analogue Photography services. Workshops on film photography, darkroom printing and other processes will commence shortly.
“I find the world to be fundamentally mysterious and I feel compelled to make photographs that attempt to reflect my experience. Beyond that, it’s difficult to articulate what it is that I’m looking for – but photographing seems to offer me the best chance of recognising it when I see it.
The photographs that come closest to satisfying me can act as a salve or even an antidote to the dissociation that haunts me as a result of traumas I’ve experienced. Through experimentation and especially the embracing of the Felix Culpa – Latin for ‘happy mistakes’ – of the processes that I’m drawn to, I hope to discover new ways of seeing and making sense of myself and my world.
Currently the world appears to have an unhealthy obsession with convenience and instant gratification and we are beset by a deficit of Wonder. It’s my hope that the experience of slow photography and the darkroom might offer some moments of magic to those who haven’t had the chance previously.”
Instagram : @silverlightcapetown www.seanwilson.co.za