Bio
Born in 1973, South Africa
Barbara Wildenboer was born in Pretoria, South Africa in 1973. She received her Bachelor of Visual Arts from UNISA and completed her Masters in Fine Art (with distinction) at the Michaelis School of Art at the University of Cape Town in 2007. She currently lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa.
Barbara Wildenboer’s work mostly consists of collage, photo/paper-construction, and digitally animated photographic sculpture. She uses a combination of analogue and digital processes to create work which explores different phenomena such as temporality, fractal geometry, and the interconnectedness of all living things. Wildenboer exposes the connections between a myriad of life forms: from the microscopic to the immense. Her main focus is on environmental aesthetics, seeing this as something that not only encompasses natural territories, but also extends to human interaction within the natural realm.
Education
2007: MFA (with distinction), Michaelis School of Art, UCT.
2003: Bachelor of Visual Arts, UNISA.
1996: BA (Ed) with majors in English literature and Psychology, University of Pretoria. 2003: Bachelor of Visual Arts, UNISA.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2022: LOOT, This Is Not A White Cube Gallery, Lisbon, Portugal.
2020: Super/Natural, Everard Read Gallery /CIRCA, Cape Town, South Africa.
2020: Retrospective exhibition – Online, Festival artist for the Klein Karoo Arts Festival, Oudshoorn, South Africa.
2020: Library of the Infinitesimally Small and Unimaginably Large II, XVA Gallery, Dubai, UAE.
2019: Folly, Everard Read Gallery, London, UK.
2018: Eros / Thanatos, Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa.
2017: The Invisible Gardener, Everard Read Gallery /CIRCA, Cape Town, South Africa.
2016: Mythematics, Mcontemporary, Sydney, Australia.
2015: Something Rather Than Nothing, The Cat Street Gallery, Hong Kong.
2014: The Lotus Eaters, The Reservoir Gallery, Oliewenhuis, Bloemfontein, South Africa, William Humphreys Museum, Kimberley, South Africa, North West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa.
2013: Disjecta Membra, Amelia Johnson Contemporary, Hong Kong.
2012: Canaries in the Coalmine, ErdmannContemporary, Cape Town and Aardklop, Potchefstroom, South Africa.
2011: Library of the Infinitesimally Small and Unimaginably Large, ErdmannContemporary, Cape Town, South Africa.
2008: Present Absence/Absent Presence, ErdmannContemporary, Cape Town, South Africa.
2008:Vanitas, AVA, Cape Town, South Africa.
2006: Everyday Alchemy, Darat al Funun, Khalid Shoman Foundation, Amman, Jordan.
Awards
2018: Hannacc Residence for Arts, Barcelona
2016: L’Air Arts Residency, at L’Atelier sur Seine, Fontainebleau, France
2013: Rimbun Dahan Residency (Penang, Malaysia, 2013)
2011 Public Vote Prize
2011 African Art Prize
2006 Maclver Scholarship
2005/6 KW Johnstone Scholarship
2005/6 Jules Kramer Award
2005/6 Harry Crossley Scholarship
2002 Overall winner Vuleka Art Award, South Africa
2000 Merit award winner New Signatures, South Africa
Selected Group Exhibitions
2021: CODA Paper Art 2021, CODA museum, Apeldoorn, The Netherlands.
2021: OASIS -25th anniversary exhibition, Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa.
2021: Either the world is crowded with garbage or our memories, Golubitskoe Art Foundation, Golubitskaya, Russia.
2021: Conversations, Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa.
2021: The Art of the Book, The Seager Gray Gallery, San Francisco, USA.
2017-2021: Cut Up /Cut Out, travelling Museum Exhibition, Bellevue Arts Museum, WA (June 30 – Oct. 20, 2017) Huntsville Museum of Art, AL (Nov. 19 – Feb. 11, 2018), Pensacola Museum of Art, FL (March 2 – June 17, 2018) Ellen Noël Art Museum, Odessa, TX (July 19 – Oct. 14, 2018) Foosaner Art Museum, Melbourne, FL (Nov. 10 – Feb. 3, 2019) Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, WI (Mar. 2 – May 26, 2019), Amarillo Museum of Art in Amarillo, TX (July 6 -September 15, 2019), Lamont Gallery in Exeter, NH (Jan 21- March 4, 2020), Carnegie Arts Center in Turlock, CA (Oct 30 -January 3, 2021), USA.
2020: The Art of the Book, The Seager Gray Gallery, San Francisco, USA.
2020: Tiny Treasures, Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa.
2018: The Art of the Book, The Seager Gray Gallery, San Francisco, USA.
2017: Booknesses: South African Artists’ Books – FADA Gallery, As part of the BOOKNESSESS COLLOQUIEM held at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa.
2017: By the Book, Kaller Fine Arts, Washington DC, USA.
2017: Reality Check, Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa.
2017: The Art of the Book, The Seager Gray Gallery, San Francisco, USA.
2016: This is Not a Book, The San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, California, USA.
2016: Surface and Subtext, Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa.
2016: -nano Barnard Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa.
2016/2015: Map of the New Art – Imago Mundi – Luciano Benetton Collection, Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore, Venezia, Italy and New York, USA.
2016: The Art of the Book, The Seager Gray Gallery, San Francisco, USA.
2016: Lush, SMAC Gallery, Stellenbosch, South Africa.
2015: Ten years of Artists Books, A collection of artists’ books curated for the Brooklyn Public Library, New York, USA.
2015: Homage, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa.
2015: Picture & Paper, Barnard Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa.
2015: The Spiritual in the Material, Lizamore and Associates Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa.
2015: The Art of the Book, The Seager Gray Gallery, San Francisco, USA.
2015: The Artist as Author, Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees, Oudshoorn, South Africa.
2015: Empire, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa.
2014: Butterflies in my Stomach, XVA Gallery, Al Fahidi, Dubai, UAE.
2014: Capital: Contemporary, Fried Contemporary, Pretoria, South Africa.
2014: The Art of the Book, The Seager Gray Gallery, San Francisco, USA.
2013: Crossing the Divide Erdmann Contemporary, Cape Town, South Africa.
2013: Wonder Works, The Space, Hong Kong, HK.
2012: Conversations, Sydney, Australia.
2012: Clover Aardklop Arts Festival, Potcheftstroom, South Africa.
2011: Implemented Environments, Brundyn & Gonsalves, Cape Town, South Africa.
2010: Conceptual Matters (part II), ErdmannContemporary, Cape Town, South Africa.
2010: The Mysteries and Mechanics of Perception, iArt, Cape Town, South Africa.
2010: Es(Cape), Pretoria Kunsvereniging, Pretoria, South Africa.
2010: Return to the Land, Klein Karoo Kunstefees, Oudshoorn, South Africa.
2010: Matters Conceptually(part I), ErdmannContemporary, Cape Town, South Africa.
2010: Reading between the lines, US Gallery, Stellenbosch, South Africa.
2009: 3d Riwaq Biennale, Birzeit, Palestine.
2008-2009: Construct: Beyond the Documentary Photograph (Travelling exhibition) Unisa Gallery, Pretoria, KZN Gallery, Durban, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Gallery, Port Elizabeth, Grahamstown Art Festival (Main show), Grahamstown, Goethe Institute, Johannesburg, South Africa.
2008: Print 08: Myth, Memory and the Archive, Bell-Roberts Gallery, Woodstock, South Africa.
2007: Greenhouse, Bell-Roberts Gallery, Lourensford estate, Stellenbosch, South Africa.
2007: Critic and Committee’s Choice, AVA, Cape Town, South Africa.
2007: Come, Michaelis Gallery, Cape Town, KZNSA, Durban, South Africa.
2007: Fest, Durbanville Cultural Centre, Durbanville, South Africa.
2005: Absolut Finale, AVA, Cape Town, South Africa.
2005: FINDING YOU (Collaborative exhibition of ceramic installation), AVA, Cape Town, South Africa.
2004: Absolut Moment, AVA, Cape Town, South Africa.
2004: Exfoliate (A collaborative printmaking exhibition), ArtB, Cape Town, South Africa.
2003: Trilogy, Sanlam Gallery, ArtB, Durbanville Cultural Centre, Cape Town, South Africa.
2003: Old and New (Selected old and new works from the Sanlam Collection), Sanlam gallery, Cape Town, South Africa.
2002: Absolut Voyeur, AVA, Cape Town, South Africa.