Four Seasons at David Krut

I (Ruby McCrae) joined the David Krut team fresh out of high school to spend my gap year acquainting myself with the “art world.” After a completely eye opening eleven months I am reflecting on time spent residing in-between the blue walls.

Summer

My First day:

I walked through the gate shaking with nerves and I was immediately tossed into the store room with Britt and Annabel to watch them flex their knowledge on our artworks as they selected pieces for a huge consignment at Workshop 17.

I was in absolute awe at the extent of their knowledge of our art, this is when I got super excited to begin my internship.

I was also introduced to the workings of the bookstore, which I remained helping out in during the course of the year, in terms of stock, social media, customer interactions, blogs and website work.

Today I visited our Printmaking Workshop, and for the first time I fell in love with print. The Printmaking team are genuine magicians, I remember feeling so lucky to watch such incredible artworks by artists who I had just written exams on being made. This day Sbongiseni and Chad Printed this woodblock over 30 times!

Heid Fourie’s sole exhibtion “Grass you can swim in” was the first show I viewed and worked with during my internship. On this day Roxy and Kim from the Workshop held a print tutorial in the gallery, it was my first time helping out at one of our events and I absolutely loved the conversations that arose in the environment.

Autumn

In Autumn we adopted two tiny kittens to live in the bookstore, these critters are definitely one of the highlights of my year! I also begun working a lot on social media, helping out on the Instagram, Facebook and creating a Tik Tok account.

Lebo Thoka’s Exhiiton “Eden” is absolutely one of the most memorable for me, I feel so luck to have spent so much time amongst these artworks. On this day we hosted a conversation between Lebo Thoka and Kholeka Shange, It was so refreshing to be apart of the audience and have the opportunity to listen to the pair unpack identity politics, culture, history, archives, community and whole lot more…(Totally Worth a re-watch it on our IGTV channel on @DavidKrutprojects, mind my shaky camera work (: )

Gail Behrmann is the first artist I’ve genuinely created a relationship with, spending several hours a day, everyday, for weeks on end in the gallery together. Gail taught me so much about the art world, painting, exhibitions and most importantly how to navigate boy drama! (As well as that, at her events I got to meet several of my artist idols and that totally blew my mind)

Winter

I have been a MASSIVE fan of Anna Van Der Ploeg’s work for a long time, having the opportunity to speak authoritatively about her works, stare at her art for hours and hours and introduce new people to her art was surreal for me.

On this day Roxy hosted a Printmaking event where she printed Nina Torrs prints at workshop 17 (total full circle moment for me to see all the artworks on the wall which I watched Annabel and Britt take out on my first day)

Two of the thing that made Winter a whole lot more bearable: The gorgeous afternoon light in THE BLUE HOUSE gallery and of course the fluffiest paws working very hard to help get my work done.

Spring

Olivia Bothas exhibition “Caught” was so important for me as it served as a great platform for conversation with visitors, I found myself growing in confidence by talking about this show. Botha’s work created a fantastic base to form connections and chats with all the super interesting people coming in to visit. My Matric English teacher would have been SO proud of all the public speaking I did with this show.

The most fun project ever! Britt asked for my input on the artworks to be hung at the most gorgeous restaurant; Edge of Glory. It was so great being able to suggest works, and see the beautiful outcome. I walk past this restaurant everyday on my way home and its so fulfilling seeing our art hanging!

Summer (again)

My last couple of months at David Krut have been so important to me. I’ve picked up a whole lot more responsibility, I feel confident in the space, and I’m so excited to come back to visit during my studies.

Leaving David Krut with the Creature Feature show up feels like a good omen, a gorgeous jolly show to say goodbye to.

EEEK! Now this blew my mind, Aida Muluneh is one of my greatest idols, she is exactly the kind of woman I look up to, studying her work, talking about it and teaching visitors about the absolute wonders of Muluneh’s photography has been such a powerful experience for me.

This year I have learnt way more than I could have at any school, I will be forever grateful for my time as a part of the David Krut team. I am going to miss every single one of the people I’ve worked with, each of them having taught me so much, laughing with me and really listening to me despite being totally naïve.

Thank you for helping me grow, I am so excited to come back and visit!