On 31 March I delivered my woodcut “Trace of a red tide” to the Iziko South African National Gallery after their recent acquisition of the artwork for the Gallery’s permanent collection of works on paper. This acquisition into a national public collection is a momentous milestone in my art career and is the most wonderful affirmation of my work with woodcut.

I watched my work taken into the Iziko storage vaults, and it will come out again a little later in the year for an exciting exhibition of Japanese Ukiyo-ye and other related prints, from the Iziko Prints and Drawings collection. This exhibition will juxtapose traditional prints off the surface of wood, with more modern or contemporary examples of woodblock, woodcut and wood engravings. I am hoping to have the opportunity to exhibit the "Trace of a red tide" carved woodblock along with the woodcut.

I am grateful to Olga Speakes, Director and Curator of the Association for Visual Arts (AVA) Gallery for her role in presenting the artwork to the Iziko South African National Museum and to Andrea Lewis, Curator at the Iziko South African National Gallery, for considering the work and facilitating the acquisition. 

"Trace of a red tide" was printed in the studio of and with the assistance of Warren Editions in Cape Town, late in 2023, and was exhibited by Circle Contemporary Gallery at the London Art Fair in January 2024 and in gallery later in the year, and at the AVA Gallery in October 2024, as part of our exhibition titled For(Sea)Change, with The Printing Girls. I am indebted to each of these people and organisations for their role in printing and exhibiting this large artwork that is quite demanding is its space. I will share the Iziko exhibition details later in the year.