Originally from Cape Town, Jonathan was one of five students at the age of 17 from around the world selected to study at St Oswald’s Academy in London. Since then he has been involved in a huge number of projects: Solo exhibitions in Cape Town and across Europe, co-founder of the Edinburgh International Fashion Festival and co-founder of the much talked about Hazard gallery, alongside the redevelopment of the historical Cosmopolitan Hotel in Johannesburg. Our extraordinarily over qualified art guide in Johannesburg, gives us an insight into what makes him tick.
You have achieved so much over the last twenty years, what is your current main focus?
I split my time between running HAZARD Gallery which includes our building development, The Cosmopolitan and working in my studio. I enjoy the balance. Running a gallery requires a very different part of my brain and brings me into daily contact with so much emerging talent in this dynamic city, it’s a genuine joy. My studio is more of a monastic place, and my studio practice resembles ritual more than chaos, and takes me to special places. Recently I’ve been making work centered on the Cradle of Humankind, near Johannesburg. I’ll climb one of the many small mountains which form the foothills of the Magaliesburg, gather ochre rocks, grind the rocks to make pigment and then mix this with linseed oil, dammar resin and turpentime to make paint. The actual making of the paintings is only a small element of the process. It’s a kind of Alchemy that I’m after really.
Tell us more about the Hazard Gallery and your dream for the old Cosmopolitan Hotel.
HAZARD Gallery was born out of conversations with Benji Liebmann who is director of the Nirox Foundation and his son, Daniel who is my business partner in the adventure. I was interested in creating a platform for emerging Southern African talent and using the same platform for more established, visiting international artists. I was also interested in bringing in fashion and design and blurring the lines between contemporary art gallery, concept store, retail environment and lifestyle space. When we found The Cosmopolitan, a former hotel completed in 1899 in the heart of the Maboneng Precinct ,the pieces all came together. We now have a fine dining restaurant, a bar, a tea room, coffee shop, model agency, nail salon, art gallery and department store as well as art residency spaces and my studio – all housed in the one building. Our garden, designed by a celebrated landscape architect, Patrick Watson, is a kind of oasis in the middle of the buzzing inner-city.
People often have very pre-conceived ideas of what it’s like to live in Johannesburg. Tell us about your personal experience.
My experience is quite the opposite of what the naysayers would have you believe. Johannesburg is a fascinating place, and a city that is buzzing with creative energy. Much like Shoreditch in the 90s or the early days of Berlin and Williamsburg in New York, the cultural awakening happening right now in Johannesburg is thrilling to be a part of. It’s a prospector’s town, home to hustlers and artists and all the rest in between. I love its raw energy, and the potential that it holds. There is no area that epitomizes this more than the Maboneng Precinct, a large area of inner-city urban renewal, and home to most of my Johannesburg story.
If someone had just a few hours to spare in Johannesburg, what would you recommend they do?
I’d say visit Maboneng, walk the streets and grab a coffee on a sidewalk cafe – a rare treat for Johannesburg which is such a car obsessed place. Then come for lunch at The Cosmopolitan and pop upstairs and say hello at HAZARD. After that take in the Apartheid Museum, which is fantastic and important and then move on to Rosebank where you will find some other fantastic galleries, all conveniently in one building on the Keys Art Mile. End off with a drink upstairs at Marble.
Tell us something that people may not know you can arrange during their stay in South Africa.
I have access to some magical places, not the least being Nirox Sculpture Park in the Cradle of Humankind. It is home to an artist’s residency and an expansive sculpture park with a changing programme of world class exhibitions. The surrounding area is very special too and nearby is the Sterkfontein Caves where some of our earliest ancestor’s remains have been excavated. Another treat is visiting an artist’s studio, and I can arrange visits to many of the best young artists’ spaces, a thrilling way to see another side of the city. My connections in the fashion industry are useful too, we can visit the ateliers of some of Johannesburg’s most exciting designers.
Which is your favourite lodge/hotel in Africa?
I recently stayed for the first time at Singita Pamushana, in Zimbabwe and must say it was the most elegant lodge I’ve been to. Very understated, genuine luxury. I’d go back in a heartbeat.
Top restaurant, bar, place to reboot in Johannesburg?
Marble restaurant has a great bar with a fantastic view over Johannesburg and they make a killer Old Fashioned. An even better view and another good bar is at the Four Season’s Hotel. Sundowners there are magical. Our bar at The Cosmopolitan is one of the four oldest in Johannesburg, we often have live jazz and the atmosphere is understated and relaxed, with a fine dining menu to match.
Your perfect day off would be? How do you switch off?
I like to get into the bush, and will either go to the Cradle of Humankind, or to a friend’s farm in the Magaliesburg for the weekend. You are so close to this huge, African city and yet it feels like you’re a million miles away. That said, I like a good party and Johannesburg delivers in spades. So a big night out with great live music is another huge attraction to being here, the scene is so electric. I don’t really ever switch off and I do what I love so a perfect day would be today, or tomorrow, or the day after that. Every day is so different here, it’s why I choose to be in this place.