The Michael Stevenson gallery will relaunch in May 2008 in a new creative precinct in Woodstock, Cape Town.

With more than 600 square metres of exhibition space, the new premises will allow Michael Stevenson to cement its leading position among commercial galleries in South Africa.

The opening will coincide with the fifth birthday celebrations of the gallery which launched in Green Point in 2003.

Designed by Lunetta Bartz, the new space boasts five galleries, a photographic print room and a courtyard. Michael Stevenson will also continue to show young artists on a project basis in a side gallery.

"The new gallery will be one of the biggest commercial exhibition spaces in Africa, with four-and-a-half metre high ceilings, and accessible parking for visitors," said Stevenson. "It's a grown up version of the current gallery."

The new Michael Stevenson gallery will open on Thursday May 15 with an exhibition entitled Disguise: The Art of Attracting and Deflecting Attention. This ambitious exhibition curated by Joost Bosland will feature a range of media including painting, sculpture, photography, video and performance and explores threads of pageantry, trauma, drag, political pretence, fashion and stealth.

Michael Stevenson gallery, currently based in De Smidt Street, Green Point, has staged more than 50 exhibitions including curated group shows, solo exhibitions and two and three-person shows. The gallery represents young, mid-career and established South African artists and a number of high-profile contemporary African artists.

Artists include Conrad Botes, Wim Botha, Meschac Gaba, David Goldblatt, Nicholas Hlobo, Pieter Hugo, Anton Kannemeyer, Churchill Madikida, Mustafa Maluka, Nandipha Mntambo, Samson Mudzunga, Zanele Muholi, Youssef Nabil, Hylton Nel, Odili Donald Odita, Tracy Payne, Deborah Poynton, Berni Searle, Doreen Southwood, Guy Tillim.

In 2007 Michael Stevenson gallery was the first in Africa to exhibit at the New York Armory and Paris Photo art fairs. In the first quarter of 2008 the gallery will take part in ARCO in Madrid (February 13 to 18), in the first Johannesburg Art Fair (March 13 to 16) and in the Armory Show in New York (March 27 to 30).

Gallery founder, Michael Stevenson, is an art historian who has published widely in the field of South African art history. He works closely with collectors and public galleries, and has curated many private and corporate collections. He has been dealing in art since 1990, initially focusing on 19th and 20th century paintings and art from south-east Africa. The gallery has a curatorial staff of five, including Sophie Perryer, the founding editor of Art South Africa magazine; Andrew Da Conceicao, Federica Angelucci and Joost Bosland.

Visit the new space on the ground floor of Buchanan Building, 160 Sir Lowry Road, Woodstock from mid May. For information about forthcoming shows and artists visit www.michaelstevenson.com.

Editor's Notes
Many of the gallery's artists have been included in high-profile international exhibitions including Documenta 12 in Kassel 2007 (Guy Tillim, David Goldblatt, Churchill Madikida); the 2007 Venice Biennale (Odili Donald Odita); the 2006 Dakar Biennale (Berni Searle, Wim Botha, Churchill Madikida), the 2006 Havana Biennale (Conrad Botes), the 2006 Sao Paulo Biennale (Mustafa Maluka, Guy Tillim, Pieter Hugo) and the travelling exhibition Africa Remix 2004-2007 (Wim Botha, Meschac Gaba, David Goldblatt, Guy Tillim).

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