Karel Anthony Nel, (South African, born 1955)

Cosmos

Cosmos
inscribed 'Karel Nel/ 2011/ Cosmos: 259 Degree Field' (verso)
sprayed pigment on bonded fibre paper
55 x 210cm (21 5/8 x 82 11/16in).

Provenance
Purchased at Art First, 2011.
A private collection, UK.

In 2004, Karel Nel was appointed as the resident artist on COSMOS - an ambitious project to map a two degree field of the universe. Working alongside a team of astronomers, Nel produced a series of pieces that were informed by the images and data collected from radio, x-ray, infrared and optical telescopes.

This piece explores one of Nel's chief preoccupations: the visual and scientific conventions of representing vanishing points. He is fascinated by the way a vanishing point can determine a focal point, sidelining other objects to the periphery.

Nel's medium is highly unusual, incorporating pastel, ochre, volcanic glass, sand and dust on a background of bonded fibre fabric.

In 2012, Nel participated in the major exhibition African Cosmos, Stellar Arts: African Cultural Astronomy from Antiquity to the Present at the Smithsonian Museum of African Art.

Nel's aesthetic fusion of scientific phenomena and artistic abstraction has been described by the South African poet, Stephen Watson, as an intellectual and spiritual investigation:

"follow(ing) the trajectory of an inner journey, trawling amidst the rich multiplicity of the world's cultural traditions, their rites and symbols, searching for that imagery which might connect our conscious lives with the deepest spiritual potential within ourselves." (1994)