"I am endlessly fascinated by the buildings, shops, bioscopes and general dealer stores that lie scattered across South Africa, especially those in the Western, Eastern and Northern Cape, Eastern Free State and Karoo," says painter John Kramer. Road Trip, Kramer's new solo show opening on Sat, Oct 7 at Gallery 2 in Parkwood, is a chance to appreciate the fruits of this decades-long fascination. 

In the early 1970s, fearing they may be demolished, Kramer begun to photograph the buildings in his home town of Worcester as the first big-chain supermarket was due to arrive. His realist paintings have been a way for him to preserve the memory of these idiosyncratic sites ever since. "My paintings are not about architecture as such, about structures that have been designed; instead, they have to do with buildings that have grown and matured over time, that show the ravages of alteration, that reveal their amusing quirks and peculiarities, with all the eccentric bits and pieces added by their owners," says Kramer. 

Kramer's works are void of human elements, drawing full attention to the buildings' facades. These are deliberately memorialised in characteristically stark South African light, casting shadows that bring out every mark, texture and pattern, which themselves point to the everyday human lives and activities that have existed in and around these structures and have changed them over time. Kramer's wonderfully attentive, nostalgic paintings are a window to a bygone era, distilling the essence of small-town life in South Africa. His style is reminscent of painter Walter Meyer who captured the spirit of small town South Africa by focusing more on domestic settings. 

Road Trip is showing at Gallery 2 in Parkwood until Sat, Nov 4.