Making haircuts the headline act

Artist Gary Stephens confesses to being quite shy. He's learnt, however, in the three years he's been in South Africa, the way to people's smiles is through their hair.

Born in a small town in the US, near the Mexican border, Stephens, 49, came to Africa after a nine-year stint in Italy. He loves South Africa, saying the forward-looking nature of its art contradicts how Italian artists worship their past.

But more than anything, it's the braids that drive him wild, in particular, the rhythms and patterns they set up. This exhibition, of drawings, linocuts and photographs, is about what people do to their hair - braid it or cover it.

Seduced as a schoolboy by the Op Art movement, which was about optical illusion, Stephens developed a love for patterns. Beginning his career in mosaic and ceramics, he matured as a meticulous draftsman and printmaker. He does this through careful observation, pleating his work and mounting it behind thread, attached at regular vertical intervals to the frame.

The effect is dazzling, once you have recovered from the shock of realising that not only does he make these astounding drawings, but he has the courage to score them with a blade and fold them into a regularly spaced zigzag.

"It frightens me, too," he says, grinning. "But I am never satisfied with just a static drawing. I never mind working for a long time."

He says he listens to audio books when he's creating his art and runs marathons when he's not. "I believe that long hours of focus instil reverence into work. In places like Bali, you feel the love that has been invested in the incredibly detailed art."

His work is about more than adorning the head. It's about celebrating the potency of the ordinary guy in the street.

"I started off making these experimentally," he says. "But the bigger I made them, the more I liked them."

Referring to a drawing of the coiffure of this year's Standard Bank Young Artist, Nandipha Mntambo, he says: "These are not portraits. The works are more than the face of a person. Most of these people are cashiers and secretaries; people I meet in the street, but does that make them not worthy of celebration?"

Stephens studied in Arizona and San Francisco. He never specialised in printmaking. "I learnt it in high school," he explains, demonstrating how he makes his linocuts, printing them with a spoon. The image must be stretched 25%, so that when it is folded it is in proportion. He cuts the linoleum into uniform strips, printing one half one colour; the other, another.

The work looks completely different, depending where you stand .

"I wasn't planning to show my work in Johannesburg, but it's certainly a relevant way to look at, and give back to South Africa, particularly given that I am a foreigner."