BRONWYN KATZ
BRONWYN KATZ
Incorporating sculpture, installation, video and performance, Katz’s practice engages with the concept of land as a repository of memory and trauma, reflecting on the notion of place or space as lived experience, and the ability of the land to remember and communicate the memory of its occupation.
Working with found natural materials such as iron ore, or used man-made objects such as foam mattress and bed springs, Katz’s approach to making is driven by storytelling and intuition. Conceptually, the artist's sculptures refer to the political context of their making, embodying acts of resistance that draw attention to the social constructions and boundaries that continue to define our environments.
For Katz, the language of abstraction is in active opposition to overt representation, allowing their work to be open to multivalent readings. Theirs is a minimalism that converses with early forms of abstract art; methods and traditions of mark-making and storytelling that long predate western modernism.
Recent solo exhibitions include stone's embrace, a love spiral of erosion and renewal, Stevenson, Johannesburg (2024); Kaeen-de-haree, Lively sunshine, Andrew Kreps, New York (2023); Tus tsĩ ǀxurub, Rain and drought, MASSIMODECARLO, Paris (2023); I turn myself into a star and visit my loved ones in the sky, White Cube, London (2021); Salvaged Letter, Peres Projects, Berlin (2019); / // ! ǂ, blank projects, Cape Town (2019) and A Silent Line, Lives Here, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2018).
Katz has featured in group exhibitions including SIGHTLINES on Peace, Power & Prestige: Metal Arts in Africa, Bard Graduate Center Gallery, New York (2023); The Milk of Dreams, the 59th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale (2022); Soft Water, Hard Stone, the New Museum Triennial, New York (2021); the Future Generation Art Prize exhibition, PinchukArtCentre, Kyiv (2021); Upkeep: Everyday Strategies of Care, The Arts Club of Chicago (2020); We Aim to Live, Zuzeum Art Centre, Riga (2020); NIRIN, 22nd Biennale of Sydney (2020); Là où les eaux se mêlent, 15th Biennale de Lyon (2019) and Material Insanity, Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden, Marrakech (2019).
In 2022 Katz was selected as a protégé for the Rolex Mentor and Protege Arts Initiative, set to work with El Anatsui over a period of two years. They were shortlisted for the Future Generation Art Prize in 2021 and recieved the First National Bank Art Prize in 2019.
Katz is a founding member of iQhiya, an 11-women artist collective which has performed across various spaces, including Documenta 14 (in Kassel and Athens), Greatmore Studios, and Iziko South African National Gallery.
Katz was born in 1993 in Kimberley, South Africa. They live and work between Cape Town and Kimberley.