Foundry Proof

Southern Guild and Bronze Age Studio present Foundry Proof, a group show exploring the versatility of bronze in collectible design. The exhibition is curated by Julian McGowan – co-founder of Southern Guild – and Otto du Plessis and Charles Haupt – both of Bronze Age Studio – in celebration of the close working relationship the gallery and studio have enjoyed over the past 10 years.

Foundry Proof will feature work by some of the country’s leading artists working in bronze, such as Dylan Lewis, Guy du Toit and Conrad Botes, as well as designers from the Southern Guild stable such as Stanislaw Trzebinski, and Haupt and du Plessis themselves.

Du Plessis, a classically trained sculptor, opened Bronze Age Foundry in Cape Town in 1997. Incorporating a gallery and artist residency, it has nurtured the careers of many young bronze artists who have apprenticed there. Haupt joined in 2005 to help start a design studio, and they regularly produced work by artists such as William Kentridge, David Brown, Brett Murray and Wim Botha.

Together with McGowan, they began to foster a new regard for bronze as a modern material equally suited to furniture, lighting, functional design and sculpture. Through its affiliation with Southern Guild, Bronze Age added international designers to its list of clients, producing work for the US-based Haas Brothers and Misha Kahn. Today, Bronze Age Foundry is under new management but du Plessis and Haupt continue to run Bronze Age Studio, where new pieces are conceptualised, sculpted and refined before being cast.