Girls Night Out: Biographies

Bridget Baker

Born 1971 in East London, Bridget Baker was educated at the universities of Stellenbosch and Cape Town. Working mostly within the realm of installation incorporating diverse processes such as photography, video, forms of craft, and the documentation of her public interventions.

Baker participated in the "Very Real Time'" residency in 2003. The event focused on projects of a non-gallery and non-object based nature, instead concentrating on forms of exchange that are primarily social and personal. Projects were selected to promote art of a socially engaged nature without setting preconditions of large-scale inclusivity (sic) or overt moral, political or social relevance in the work.

She has held several solo exhibitions in Cape Town. "The Official BB Project", exhibited at the University of Stellenbosch Art Gallery (2001), explores the nature of the art-making process as inclusive / exclusive: randomness, taking chances, voting, playing the lotto, applications to art schools, change, success and failure.

Other solo exhibitions include:
"As if you've never seen it before" at the Artists Unlimited Gallery in Germany (2000); and "The Shrill sound of a telephone at 3am" (1996) at the Planet contemporary Art Site in Cape Town.

Baker has participated in a large number of group exhibitions in South Africa, Europe and the United States, including:
"Liberated Voices: Contemporary Art from South Africa", touring various venues throughout the United States from 1999 to 2002; "Buzzards", a collaborative performance piece with Marlaine Tosoni and Mara Verna at the Klein Karoo Art Festival in Oudshoorn (2002); "Holland South Africa Line" at the Castle of Good Hope in Cape Town and at the Baggegehal in Amsterdam during 2000; "Softserve", a multi-media evening art-event held at the South African National Gallery in Cape Town (1999); and "Graft" at the second Johannesburg Biennale in 1998.

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Lien Botha

Lien Botha was born in Gauteng, studied languages at Pretoria University and worked as a Press Photographer for BEELD before moving to Cape Town in 1984. In 1988 she obtained a BAFA degree from the University of Cape Town. Botha runs a professional photographic practice and has been invited as part-time lecturer at the Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town, Stellenbosch University and the Ruth Prowse School of Art.

Since1988, she has participated in more than 70 South African group shows and 13 international group exhibitions and has held four solo exhibitions. She has curated 5 exhibitions, including PHOTO WORKS by Women in 1994, BLOEDLYN for the Klein Karoo Arts Festival and INVINCIBLES for the Pretoria Art Museum (both in 1999). During the same year she served on the curatorial committee of the first Cape Town Month of Photography.

Over the past 14 years she has produced consistent bodies of lens-based work and is represented in major collections throughout South Africa.

In 2002 her work appeared in the fifth edition of the TAXI series on contemporary South African Artists.

She is the invited artist for the 10th anniversary of the KKNK in Oudtshoorn 2004, where her solo exhibition 'Groot Inkleurboek: Safari' will be on view.

Claire Breukel

Claire Breukel was born in 1979. In 2000 she obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree majoring in Photography and English, at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. She has recently returned from an internship at the Rubell Collection in Miami and is currently co-curator of the second Brett Kebble Art Awards.

She was curator and co-ordinator of the "Vision Photography Festival" held in collaboration with the Bell-Roberts Art Gallery for the 2003 Night Vision event launching the Cape Town Festival. Breukel also acts as curator of exhibitions at the Veo Gallery, a platform for young contemporary artwork, in Cape Town.

Breukel held two solo shows in 2002, "London's not my Home" at the second Cape Town Month of Phogoraphy Festival, and "Pink Loerie Festival 2002" as part of the MCQP photography festival.

In 1999 she exhibited "100 faces of Cape Town" as part of the first Cape Town Month of Photography Festival, and participated in the UCT/Pretoria Tech collaborative exhibition "Invincibles" in Pretoria. During this same year, she was curator or co-curator of a number of Cape Town exhibitions including: "Untitled", a photography exhibition at the Pinnacle Gallery; the Kodak "Photo-earth" exhibition at the V&A; Waterfront; Jason Laure's "Africatrek"; "Love, Life and Laughter"; "Framed", a fine arts based exhibition of up-and-coming young photographers including, Anthony Strack, Solam Mhkabela, Celeste De Kock, Elize Vossgater and Caronline Kaye, at the Association for Visual Arts; and "MCQP does Photography", the visual component of the MCQP festival.

In 2001 she was responsible for co-curating the second Cape Town Month of Photography Festival.

Katherine Bull

Katherine Bull was born in Cape Town in 1974. In 1995 she obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, majoring in Printmaking, at the University of Cape Town, South Africa and in 1998 was awarded an MFA, with distinction from the same institution. She is currently employed as a Fine Art and Printmaking lecturer in the Fine Art Department at the University of Stellenbosch and is working towards a solo exhibition at the João Ferreira Gallery in December.

Bull was winner, together with Fritha Langerman of the Third Cape Town Public Sculpture Competition in 2002. The piece, Come to Pass was unveiled in Cape Town in early 2004.

2003 saw her curating and contributing to "Print works from the Fine Arts Department, University of Stellenbosch" which was exhibited at the US Art Gallery in Stellenbosch. The 2002 collaboration with Tracy Lindner Gander, "Flounce", was exhibited at the Jo‡o Ferreira Gallery, Cape Town, and PhotoZA in Johannesburg (2003).

In 2001, she exhibited with Fritha Langerman at the US Art Gallery in Stellenbosch.

In 1999 she held her first solo exhibition showcasing work completed for her Masters degree at the Association for Visual Arts Metropolitan Gallery, Cape Town. The work was supported by her Masters dissertation entitled Positioning the Cape: A Spatial Engraving of a Shifting Frontier. Work from this show formed part of the Nicolaas Verghunst curated exhibition "Hoerikwaggo Images of Table Mountain" which was on view at the South African National Gallery, Cape Town (2001).

Other group exhibitions in which she participated include:
"Photo/art" works by staff and students of the Fine Arts Department, University of Stellenbosch as part of the Cape Town Month of Photography Festival for 2002; "Anima(l): identity personified", curated by Wilna Coetza and Sandra Hanekom at the Arts Association of Bellville Gallery (2000); and the John Murray, Doreen Southwood and Julia Clark curated show at the Bell-Roberts Gallery entitled "Emergency" (2000).

Arnold Erasmus

Artist Arnold Erasmus was born in Pretoria in 1971, obtained a BA Fine Arts degree, majoring in Photography, from the University of Cape Town (1995), and has since been living in Cape Town. He is currently working towards a solo exhibition of photographic works and video installation.

In 2002 he participated in the second Cape Town Month of Photography Festival exhibiting "Bodies, Rest and Motion".

The digital projection piece, Horizon, created in collaboration with Tracy Lindner Gander and Elena Barbisio was shown on "Channeltoo" at The Association for Visual Arts Gallery (2000), Cape Town, and on "Switch On/Off", curated by Marcus Neustetter for the Oudshoorn Visual Art Festival 2001.

The audio piece, Celebration, is a sound installation created to partner an installation by Sue Williamson at Tokara wine estate in Stellenbosch (2000). In the same year he created the soundtrack Look like someone who cares for a PMInc performance and installation in Cape Town.

In 1999 he collaborated with Sue Williamson and Tracy Lindner Gander on an interactive projection piece dealing with issues surrounding Truth Commission testimony. Can't Forget, Can't Remember was first shown at Joáo Ferriera Gallery in Cape Town. The piece has been widely exhibited locally and abroad, including World Wide Web Video Festival, Rotterdam Foto Biennial, and Video Brazil (2000).

Erasmus also took part in the first Month of Photography Festival in Cape Town in 1999, with the solo exhibition entitled "Mantaray". In 1998 he exhibited "Stillness in Motion" in Cape Town and "In Corporeal" at the Ibis Gallery in Nieu Bethesda.

Tracy Lindner Gander

Tracy Lindner Gander was born in Cape Town in 1972. In 1995, she obtained a BA Fine Arts, majoring in Photography, from the University of Cape Town. Alongside her exploration of and interaction with the landscape, is a fascination with narrative, identity, gender, and the authority of the photograph.

Her most recent exhibition entitled "AfterDark"- a series on roadside spaces at twilight or at night, illuminated by the artists' car headlamps- was exhibited at Joáo Ferriera Gallery in Cape Town last year.

"Flounce", a collaborative exhibition with Katherine Bull, was shown at Joáo Ferriera Gallery in Cape Town in 2002, and at PhotoZA in Johannesburg in 2003.

"Babes", shown as part of the first Cape Town Month of Photography Festival as well as at the Market Theatre Gallery in Johannesburg, explored stereotypical views of women in an effort to subvert the derogatory connotations of the term.

The digital projection piece, Horizon, in collaboration with Arnold Erasmus and Elena Barbisio, was the result of an on-going exploration of the local landscape. It has been shown on "Channeltoo" at The Association for Visual Arts Gallery, Cape Town, as well as on the Marcus Neustetter curated "Switch On/Off", at the Oudshoorn Visual Art Festival.

She was one of three artists participating in the show "Aprés lÕ apartheid: Trois photographes dÕAfrique du Sud", curated by the Gallerie Beckel Odille Boicos, forming part of the Paris mois de la photo in 2000. The show was recently exhibited in Normandy.

In 1999 she collaborated with Sue Williamson and Arnold Erasmus on an interactive projection piece dealing with issues surrounding Truth Commission testimony. Can't Forget, Can't Remember was first shown at the Goodman Gallery curated show "Artery", at Joáo Ferriera Gallery in Cape Town. The piece has been widely exhibited locally and internationally.

During the years 1997-99, Gander's focus was on the local landscape, those spaces found on the road between Cape Town and anywhere, as well as on the Cape shoreline. These images resulted in the duo exhibition with Arnold Erasmus "Stillness in Motion: fluid spaces" and a body of work which came to form the exhibition "Salt" which was shown in Cape Town as part of the 1998 Revue Noir "Eye Africa" Photography Festival.

Please point your browser to Tracy Lindner Gander's ArtThrob Artbio by Sean O'Toole.

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Dorothee Kreutzveldt

Dorothee Kreutzfeldt was born in Namibia in 1970. She studied at the Michaelis School of Fine Art in Cape Town (1996) and is currently completing her Masters at the University of the Witwatersrand. She lives and works in Johannesburg.

Following her interests in both painting and public art, she has been exhibiting nationally and internationally, while conceptualising and co-coordinating various collaborative public art projects since 1996. These include Sluice (1996-1998) and the District Six Sculptural Festival (1997). In 2000 she co-founded the Joubert Park Project (JPP) which started of as a series of collaborations between various inner city communities, South African and international artists, an education and workshops programme and a multi media exhibition, which opened in October 2001 at the Johannesburg Art Gallery. JPP has since initiated and facilitated a range of exhibitions and projects that aimed to support the cultural landscape and redevelopment of the inner city, including the Creative Inner City Initiative (CICI, 2002/2003), a poverty alleviation and community development project based in Hillbrow/Joubert Park (in collaboration with The Trinity Session). Ê

Kreutzfeldt's recent public interventions include commissions for the new-built Metro-mall Taxirank in downtown Johannesburg, in collaboration with Siphiwe Ngwenya and site specific paintings at the Faraday Place (taxi rank and muti market), assisted by sign-writing trainees from the CICI.

In 2001 she participated in an artists-in-residency programme, FRESH, at the South African National Gallery in Cape Town. Kreutzfeldt collaborated with four artists on researching a spate of bomb attacks which occurred in Cape Town between 1998 and 2000. The outcome took the form of a sound installation, entitled In View of You, which included recorded testimonies by bomb survivors.

Her solo shows include: Tigers Don't Cry at the Jo½o Ferreira Gallery, Cape Town (2004); Things Left Unsaid (2002) at Association for Visual Arts, Jo½o Ferreira Gallery; 26 Acts of Balance (2000) at the Castle of Good Hope, Jo½o Ferreira Gallery and Contamination (1997) at Association for Visual Arts, Cape Town.

Other group exhibitions in which she participated include:
Painting of Tomorrow - UBS Art Award 2000, at the Whitechapel Gallery, London, touring in Germany and Switzerland; Bilde-Dialog - an Exchange/Exhibition with Artists in Denmark (1999); Staking Claims, curated by Emma Bedford, at the Granary, Cape Town, 1999; Bloedlyn at the Klein Karoo National Kunstefees in 1998 and at the Association for Visual Arts in 1999; and 'Sleuth' in Graft at the 2nd Johannesburg Biennale, The South African National Gallery, Cape Town (1997).

Please go to Dorothee Kreutzveldt's ArtThrob Artbio by Sue Williamson.

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Senzeni Marasela

Senzeni Mthwakazi Marasela was born in Thokoza, Gauteng in 1977. She is based at the Bag Factory (Fordsburg Artists Studios) and is a full time artist.

For Marasela, a student work called Our Mother (1997) remains a seminal and indexical work in her artistic production thus far. The artist has always had a complex and often non-existent relationship with her schizophrenic mother, and when looking through family photographs, found images of her mother were conspicuously absent. She is currently working on a new series of works based around the antics of the imaginary persona Theodorah.

During 2000, Marasela exhibited as part of the South African contingent on the Kathleen Grundlingh curated African photography show, 'Portrat Afrika', in Berlin. She also took part in 'Translation/Seduction/Displacement', curated by Lauri Firstenberg and John Peffer at the White Box Gallery, New York. Marasela was a featured artist on 'Lines of Sight', the large scale survey of photography held at the South African National Gallery and was a participant in the 'Unplugged' exhibition series at the Market Theatre Gallery during 1999. Her work was included in 'Democracy's Images' in Sweden as well as in 'Truth Veils' at the Gertrude Posel Gallery (1998). Marasela has been a constant presence at the Wits Fine Art annual exhibitions since 1997.

Please go to Senzeni Marasela's ArtThrob Artbio by Kathryn Smith.

Sarah Nankin

Sarah Nankin was born in 1980 and graduated from the Ruth Prowse School of Art in 2001. She is currently working as a freelance fashion and advertising photographer and has been a part-time lecturer at the Cape Town School of Photography since 2002.

Since graduating, she has worked as a photographer's assistant to Dave Southwood (2001/02), George Doyle (2002), Guy Tillim (2002), Peter Badenhorst (2002/03), and Stan Engelbrecht (2002/03).

Her first solo exhibition, "Licence to Dream", was shown at the Castle of Good Hope in Cape Town as part of YDEsire Softserve event in 2003.

Sue Williamson

Sue Williamson occupies an influential and highly respected position in the South African art world, not only for her formidable artistic talent but also for her long history as a writer and cultural worker. She is the published author of two seminal books - Art in South Africa: the Future Present (1996), in collaboration with Ashraf Jamal and Resistance Art in South Africa (1989) - and an art critic and founder of the online art site ArtThrob. A founder member of arts organisation Public Eye, Williamson is also a cultural organiser who contributes to many collective or group art projects.

Born in 1941 in Lichfield, England, Williamson holds an Advanced Diploma in Fine Art from the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town (1983). She is currently working on a commission for South Africa House in London.

Williamson held a solo retrospective at the Centre d'Art Contemporain in Brussels in 2003. A recent video work about South Africa immigrants recently won a Brett Kebble Merit Award (2003).

From 2000 to 2002, Williamson worked on a collaborative project about people living with HIV/ AIDS called From the Inside. The exhibition was shown at the Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, and at the Joáo Ferreira Gallery in Cape Town in 2002.

Prior to this, Williamson made a series of artworks concerning the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), public hearings set up to hear testimony from victims and amnesty applications from perpetrators concerning human rights violations committed during apartheid. Truth Games was exhibited at the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg and at the Joáo Ferreira Gallery, Cape Town, in 1998. The interactive projection piece Can't Forget, Can't Remember was first exhibited on "Artery", Goodman Gallery artists at Joáo Ferreira Gallery in 1999. It has since been widely shown abroad.

Please go to Sue Williamson's ArtThrob Artbio by Kim Gurney.

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