Sea Point // Denise's Delights: A Mad Hatter's Tea Party.

The Duchess is an intimate, owner-run restaurant with offerings of sophisticated, delicious fare in a classic, romantic setting that's laced with passion, humour and a signature bar. Home to a super cool crowd of zesty locals and visiting internationals in the heart of Cape Town's Atlantic Seaboard The Duchess offers a uniquely seductive dining experience that's quite unlike any other.

Located down a cosy, broad side street in Sea Point, The Duchess of Wisbeach is a widely known and loved hidden gem . It's been serving up it's honest, tasty menu since 2009 in a candle-lit, slightly glam, somewhat nostalgic environment with a subtle dose of twenty first century edge. A checkerboard floor in the bar area and a giant, taxidermied animal head crowned with the word 'cunt' in neon yellow join forces with a cute army of collectible ceramic dogs on every table. An array of mirrors, soft lighting, and fine-dining table settings house uninhibited conversations spiked with an unpredictable, wild party spirit that's spurred on by a secret Duchess tradition.

Our past exhibition is a lush, graphic, pop-fuelled collection of South African and international prints, oil paintings, watercolours and mixed media works. 

It's inhabited by a host of colourful people and their various, sometimes juxtaposed pscychologies. Their individual and collective narratives are witnessed, observed, digested and later expressed, by Max. 

For example,  'The Three Graces', a homage to Shakespeare's 'The Three Witches' in Macbeth are "graceful" women being "disgraceful" - indulging in red wine, smoking joints, cackling with infectious laughter and reigning their empowerment.

By contrast 'Remittance Man' in Max's own words: "wouldn't be seen dead at Afrikaburn" and continues: "He would give his life for the Empire. He would be one of the characters in a boys comic. He is almost a joke. His motto would be he who laughs last, laughs longest. Obviously he's limited. I believe he was a shoemaker, probably a good one. He is certainly no Bohemian."

Max both finds the humour in observing society and gifts his honesty and wisdom to those he encounters. There is no standing on ceremony with Max Wolpe and his personae is as real as you'll ever find. He doesn't drink alcohol or gassy, synthetic cold drinks and he doesn't use synthetic paints either. A purist, his art is defined by the ritual of paint and palette. Similarly the ritual of tea and coffee is observed as ceremony.  For this particluar exhibition we have included "A Wall of Ceremony"  featuring Max's still life paintings of tea and coffee. "Still Life with Tea" and  "Still Life with Coffee" refer to quality societal rituals of connection and intimacy. They value the real. What you see is what you get with Max. In a society that is starting to show the edgings of it's craving for "the real",  never has his work been more relevant than right now.