BIOGRAPHY
BARBARA WILDENBOER
(b. 1973 Pretoria, South Africa)
Barbara Wildenboer is a South African artist who uses various mediums to create text-based works with a focus on early forms of ‘writing’ and storytelling. Her work focuses on language, typography and the elements of writing in a non-linear manner that offers a different reading of earlier writings.
Her trademark ‘altered books’ function as narrative clues, intertexts or ‘subtitles’ accompanying the other works. Using an approach of interdisciplinary curiosity she makes reference to various subject matter such as ancient history, comparative mythology and religion, archaeology ,fractal geometry and psychoanalysis. The altered book series Library of the Infinitesimally Small and Unimaginable Large (2011-present) was inspired by a short story by the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges titled The Library of Babel. In this large-scale ongoing project she uses the library as a metaphor for the universe.
Wildenboer lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa, and is represented by galleries in Cape Town, Johannesburg, London, Lisbon and Luanda and Morocco. In 2007 she obtained a Masters in Fine Art (cum laude) from the Michaelis School of Art at the University of Cape Town. The title of her Master’s thesis was’ Present Absence / Absent Presence’, and the research was concerned with aspects of melancholy, loss and longing as is embodied by the photographic medium. Before that she completed a BA(Ed) with majors in English literature, Psychology and Pedagogics at the University of Pretoria in 1996, followed by a Bachelor of Visual Arts from UNISA in 2003. From 2009-2016 she was working as the head of the Photography Department at the CityVarsity College of Creative Arts, where she lectured Theory & Discourse and History of Photography.
In 2011 she was nominated and subsequently selected as one of the top 20 finalists for the Sovereign African Arts Award, for which she received the Public Choice Prize. She has been awarded several international residencies such as the Darat al Funun exchange residency / Unesco-Aschberg (Amman, Jordan 2006), the Al Mahatta residency (Birzeit, Palestine 2009) and the Red De Residencias Artisticas Local (Bogotá, Colombia 2011), the Rimbun Dahan artist residency (Penang, Malaysia 2013), L'Atelier Sur Seine (Fontainebleau, France 2017), Hannacc (Barcelona, Spain 2018) L’Air Arts, Paris (2022), Art Omi residency (2024) and Le Jardin Rouge at the Montresso Foundation (Marrakech, Morocco 2022/23/24/25).
EDUCATION
2007 Master of Fine Art (with distinction), Michaelis School of Fine Art, South Africa
2003 Bachelor of Visual Arts, UNISA, South Africa
1996 BA (Ed) with majors in English literature, Psychology and Pedagogics, University of Pretoria
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025 Articulations, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa
2023 BABEL, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
2022 LOOT, THIS IS NOT A WHITE CUBE, Lisbon, Portugal
2020 A Retrospective, KKNK (Klein Karoo National Arts Festival) Festival Artist, South Africa
SUPER/NATURAL, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
Library of the Infinitesimally Small and Unimaginably Large II, XVA Gallery, Dubai, UAE
2019 Folly, Everard Read, London, UK
2018 Eros / Thanatos, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa
2017 The Invisible Gardener, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
2016 Mythematics, MContemporary, Sydney, Australia
2015 Something Rather Than Nothing, The Cat Street Gallery, Hong Kong
2014 The Lotus Eaters, Reservoir Gallery, Oliewenhuis Museum, Bloemfontein; William Humphreys Art Gallery, Kimberley; North West University Gallery, Potchefstroom, South Africa
2013 Disjecta Membra, Amelia Johnson Contemporary, Hong Kong
2012 Canaries in the Coalmine, Erdmann Contemporary, Cape Town and Aardklop, Potchefstroom, South Africa
2011 Library of the Infinitesimally Small and Unimaginably Large, Erdmann Contemporary, Cape Town, South Africa
2008 Present Absence/Absent Presence, Erdmann Contemporary, Cape Town, South Africa
Vanitas, AVA, Cape Town, South Africa
2006 Everyday Alchemy, Darat al Funun, Amman, Jordan
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024 INNER SANCTUM, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa
IMAGOS, Duo with French-Moroccan poet and photographer Mouna Saboni, Galerie des Residences, Montresso Art Foundation, Marrakech, Morocco
2023 What I Feel When I Think About The Cosmos, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa
Moving Art, XVA Gallery, Dubai, UAE
Collide, Featherstone Centre for the Arts, Massachusetts, USA
Chimère, Fondation Blachere, Bonnieux, France
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with THIS IS NOT A WHITE CUBE, Cape Town, South Africa
2022 EX LIBRIS, group show, Everard Read at Leeu Estates, Franschhoek, South Africa
FNB Art Joburg, with Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa
Spring, group show, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa
Things I’d like to remember, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
AKAA Fair, with THIS IS NOT A WHITE CUBE, Paris, France
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
(Im)materiality, THIS IS NOT A WHITE CUBE, Lisbon and Centro de Artes Agueda, Portugal
2021 Spring Show, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa
In Conversation, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
World Filled, Golubitskoe Foundation, Taman Peninsula, Russia
Paper Art 2021, CODA, Apeldoorn, Netherlands
Transitory Terrain, Everard Read, London, UK
The Art of the Book, Seager Gray Gallery, San Francisco, USA.
Oasis, 25th anniversary exhibition, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
AKAA Fair, with THIS IS NOT A WHITE CUBE, Paris France
2020 Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
Homework, Barnard Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Either the world is crowded with garbage or our memories, Golubitskoe Art Foundation, Golubitskaya, Russia
The Art of the Book, Seager Gray Gallery, San Francisco, USA
artMRKT International Art Fair, with Seager Gray Gallery, San Francisco, USA
2019 Winter, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
Seattle Art Fair, with Seager Gray Gallery, Seattle, USA
14th Annual Art of the Book, Seager Gray Gallery, California, USA
2018 Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
2017-20 Cut Up /Cut Out, travelling museum exhibition, Bellevue Arts Museum, WA; Huntsville Museum of Art, AL; Pensacola Museum of Art, FL; Ellen Noël Art Museum, Odessa, TX; Foosaner Art Museum, Melbourne, FL; Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, WI, USA
2017 Booknesses: South African Artists’ Books, FADA Gallery, part of the BOOKNESSESS COLLOQUIUM, University of Johannesburg, South Africa
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
By the Book, Kaller Fine Arts, Washington DC, USA
Reality Check, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
Art Africa Fair, Cape Town, South Africa
2016 This is Not a Book, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, California, USA
Surface and Subtext, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
nano, Barnard Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Barnard Gallery, South Africa
The Art of the Book, Seager Gray Gallery, San Francisco, USA
Lush, SMAC Gallery, Stellenbosch, South Africa
Twelve Days, The Cat Street Gallery, Sheung Wan
artMRKT International Art Fair, with Seager Gray Gallery, San Francisco, USA
Turbine Art Fair, with Dead Bunny Society, Johannesburg, South Africa
2015/6 Map of the New Art, Imago Mundi, Luciano Benetton Collection, Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, Italy and New York, USA
2015 Ten Years of Artists Books, Brooklyn Public Library, New York, USA
Picture & Paper, Barnard Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
The Spiritual in the Material, Lizamore and Associates Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
The Art of the Book, Seager Gray Gallery, San Francisco, USA
The Artist as Author, Klein Karoo National Arts Festival, Oudshoorn, Karoo, South Africa
Empire, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
artMRKT International Art Fair, with Seager Gray Gallery, San Francisco, USA
Art Central Fair, with Cat Street Gallery, Hong Kong
2014 Butterflies in my Stomach, XVA Gallery, Al Fahidi, Dubai, UAE
artMRKT International Art Fair, with Seager Gray Gallery, San Francisco, USA
The Art of the Book, Seager Gray Gallery, San Francisco, USA
Art Taipei, with Cat Street Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan
Singapore Art Fair, with Cat Street Gallery, Singapore
2013 Crossing the Divide, Erdmann Contemporary, Cape Town, South Africa
Wonder Works, The Space, Hong Kong
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Cape Town, South Africa
Joburg Art Fair, with Erdmann Contemporary, Johannesburg, South Africa
2012 Conversations, Sydney, Australia
Clover Aardklop Arts Festival, Potchefstroom, South Africa
Art International Zurich, with Erdmann Contemporary, Zurich, Switzerland
2011 Implemented Environments, Brundyn & Gonsalves, Cape Town, South Africa
2010 Return to the Land, Klein Karoo Kunstefees, Oudtshoorn, South Africa
Es(Cape), Pretoria Kunsvereniging, Pretoria, South Africa
Matters Conceptually/Conceptual Matters, Erdmann Contemporary, Cape Town, South Africa
Reading between the lines, US Gallery, Stellenbosch, South Africa
2009 3d Riwaq Biennale, Birzeit, Palestine
2008/9 Construct: Beyond the Documentary Photograph (travelling exhibition) Unisa Gallery, Pretoria, KZN Gallery, Durban, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Gallery, Port Elizabeth, Grahamstown Art Festival, Goethe Institute, Johannesburg, South Africa
2008 Print 08: Myth, Memory and the Archive, Bell-Roberts Gallery, South Africa
2007 Come, Michaelis Gallery, Cape Town, KZNSA, Durban, South Africa
Greenhouse, Bell-Roberts Gallery, Lourensford estate, Stellenbosch, South Africa
Critic and Committee’s Choice, AVA, Cape Town, South Africa
RESIDENCIES/AWARDS
2024 Art Omi, New York, USA
Montresso Art Foundation, Marrakech, Morocco
2023 Fondation Blachere, Bonnieux, France
Montresso Art Foundation, Marrakech, Morocco
2022 Montresso Art Foundation, Marrakech, Morocco
Top 20, Sustainable Arts Foundation Award, San Francisco, USA
2021 Modern Art Projects, South Africa
Top 20 finalist, Thami Mnyele Fine Art Awards, South Africa
2016 L’Atelier Sur Seine residency, (Fontainebleau, Paris)
2013 Rimbun Dahan residency, Penang, Malaysia
2011 Red De Residencias Artísticas Local at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, (Bogotá, Colombia)
Public Vote Prize, Sovereign African Arts Award
2009 Al Mahatta residency, Palestine
ABSA l’Atelier, ArtB, Bellville & Johannesburg, South Africa
2008 ABSA l’Atelier, ArtB, Bellville & Johannesburg, South Africa
2005 ABSA l’Atelier, ArtB, Bellville & Johannesburg, South Africa
2006 Unesco-Aschberg residency, Jordan
MacIver Scholarship
2005/6 KW Johnstone Scholarship
2005/6 Jules Kramer Award
2005/6 Harry Crossley Scholarship
2003 BRETT KEBBLE ART AWARD, CTICC, Cape Town, South Africa
2002 Winner, Vuleka New Signatures, South Africa
2000 M-WEB NEW SIGNATURES, South Africa
COLLECTIONS
Art Omi collection, New York.
Fondation Blachere, Bonnieux.
Fondation H, Antananarive.
Francis Greenberger collection, New York.
Hollard, Johannesburg.
Khalid Shoman Foundation, Amman.
Montresso Foundation, Marrakech.
Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Bloemfontein.
Sanlam Art Collection, Cape Town.
Spier Art Collection, Cape Town.
SITE SPECIFIC INSTALLATION & COLLABORATIONS
2024 IMAGOS, Duo with French-Moroccan poet and photographer Mouna Saboni, Galerie des Residences, Montresso Art Foundation, Marrakech, Morocco
2023 The Conference of the birds, site-specific collage installation, Marrakech, Morocco
Museum of Shadows, site-specific collage installation, Marrakech, Morocco
2016 Collaboration with 50ty50ty prints, Cape Town, South Africa
2015 DEKOR-Z Collaborative site specific installation with Liza Grobler, South Africa
2013 Chance Favours the Connected Mind Collaborative installation with Liza Grobler, South Africa
2009 Mother Tongue. Site specific installation at the Birzeit Conservatory, Palestine
2008 Public Memorial for Olive Schreiner, Kalk Bay, South Africa
2006 Epitaph, (Collaboration with Sima Zereikat), Cave, Darat al Funun, Amman, Jordan
2004 Spier Sculpture Biennale, Spier Wine Estate, Stellenbosch, South Africa
