Two Artists. One City
August 03, 2025 - September 07, 2025
RK Contemporary 32 Main Street Riebeek Kasteel
JENNY PARSONS | MADELEINE VAN MANEN
The infatuation with a city like Cape Town, its moods, its light, its cultures, history and architecture, has been an ongoing inspiration for Jenny Parsons and Madeleine van Manen.
They express personal, visual experiences with overlap and contrast, representing their views of the same city from different geographical and interpretive perspectives using a variety of mediums. As part of an extended collaboration, each artist has also had a mosaic made of one of their works with Spier Arts Trusts’ HUB Mosaics Studio.
Van Manen draws inspiration from her inner city studio in Bree Street, while Parsons paints from her Woodstock studio.
For Parsons, the affinity with Woodstock runs deep. It was the first suburb she lived in when moving to Cape Town in the 90’s. Now, she paints from her 4th floor studio in the heart of Woodstock, depicting expansive views towards the harbour and mountain.
For her, the urban landscape is a “metaphor for the human condition, shared experiences of light, air and space”.
Van Manen moved into her inner city studio in Bree Street in 2019. She found it both unsettling, exhilarating and reassuring to feel so inwardly silent among all the noise. “One city needs to nurture millions. There is destiny, distraction/destruction, delight and despair.”
While there is a different physical view point, there is a shared optimism and enthusiasm for the nuances and structures that make a city.
