LADY SKOLLIE

(b. 1987 Cape Town, South Africa)

Lady Skollie – aka Laura Windvogel – lives, works, performs and hustles for centre stage in Johannesburg, South Africa, with storytelling, ink, watercolour, crayon and woodcut printing as her weapons of choice. She describes her own work as ‘fire, ritual, Khoisan’, referring to the Khoisan indigenous people of southern Africa, who have lived in the region for thousands of years and to whom she connects the self-identifying ‘coloured’ community of South Africa – a multiracial group native to the area and distinct from the ‘Black’ and ‘white’ population.

Alive with emotional, political, sexual turmoil and loud questioning voices, Lady Skollie’s works depict relationships between godlike figures and flawed mortals singing, grunting, reflecting, gushing. Her characters writhe, twist and dance, queue and hold each other up whether on paper, architecture, or on the new coin that the artist designed to commemorate 25 years of constitutional democracy in South Africa.

The moniker ‘Skollie’ is a widely-used derogatory term to describe a shady character, historically used in South Africa when a person of colour was in a place deemed unsuitable by the white populace. Lady Skollie embraces this shadiness, combining it with an interplay of masculine and feminine energies, creating a space where the disparate parts of her personality are reconciled. The artist explains: ‘I just like having an alias. You feel like you can take more risks under a pseudonym… there is a psychology behind aliases, a kind of strength that they give you.’

The artist’s work has been exhibited widely at galleries, community spaces and art fairs across South Africa as well as in the UK, Europe and the USA. In 2017, along with Tschabalala Self and Abe Odedina, the artist contributed artwork for the stage design of a gala performance of The Children’s Monologues, a charitable event directed by Danny Boyle and held at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

Lady Skollie’s persona also exists outside of the art world circuit appearing on the covers of lifestyle and fashion magazines, and her position as an influencer in South Africa is bolstered by her enthusiastic use of Instagram and connections to brand culture.  She has been featured on BBC Africa and CNN International on African Voices, as well as on the BBC World Service’s online and radio series In the Studio. She was included in the 2018 edition of OkayAfrica’s 100 Women, an annual list which honours women in different fields for their achievements and influence.

After winning the 2020 FNB Art Prize, Lady Skollie won the 2022 Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Visual Arts. One of the most prestigious prizes offered to South African artists under the age of 35, winners are celebrated as national treasures, and many have gone on to achieve international acclaim. Previous winners include William Kentridge, Brett Murray, Mmakgabo Helen Sebidi, and Blessing Ngobeni among others.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2024 Groot Gat, Standard Bank Young Artist Award exhibition, Norval Foundation, Cape Town, South Africa

2023 Groot Gat, Standard Bank Young Artist Award travelling exhibition, South Africa 

2021 A Prediction, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

2020 Bound, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2019 Good & Evil, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

        Weakest Link, Eastside Projects, Birmingham, UK

        Solo booth at Art Joburg, with Everard Read Johannesburg, South Africa

2017 Lust Politics, Tyburn Gallery, London, UK

        Fire with Fire, solo booth at FNB Joburg Art Fair, Johannesburg, South Africa

        Mating Dance, solo booth at AKAA Art Fair, Paris, France

        Hottentot $kollie, Tomorrows/Today, Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Cape Town, South Africa

2015 One-Night, WorldArt Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2015 Vroeg Ryp, Vroeg Vrot, RAMP Project, Stevenson Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

2014 Skattie Celebrates Series, Association for Visual Arts, Cape Town, South Africa

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 

2024 Winter Collection, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa

2024 Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

        EXPO CHICAGO, with Everard Read, Chicago, USA

2023 What I Feel When I Think About The Cosmos, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa

        Bitches Brew, Everard Read Johannesbug, South Africa

        Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2022 Seduction, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

        FNB Art Joburg, with Everard Read Johannesburg, South Africa

       1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, with Everard Read, Paris, France

       Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Everard Read Cape Town, South Africa

       Things I’d Like to Remember, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

       Ancestors and Dreams, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

2021 Spring Show, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

       Transitory Terrain, Everard Read, London, UK

       In Conversation, Everard Read CIRCA, Cape Town

       Art Joburg, with Everard Read Johannesburg, South Africa

       Investec Cape Town Art Fair Online, with Everard Read Cape Town, South Africa

2020 Against Interpretation, Everard Read, London, UK

        Staring Straight to the Future, online exhibition, Everard Read, South Africa & UK

        Masterpiece online, with Everard Read, London, UK

2019 CONTEXT Art Miami, with Everard Read, Miami, USA

        Art Joburg, with Everard Read Johannesburg, South Africa

2018 Old Masters / New Realities: Gerard Sekoto x Lady Skollie, TMRW Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

        This Is the Gallery and the Gallery Is Many Things X at Eastside Projects, Birmingham, UK

        Close: Proximity, Intimacy, Tension, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

        Right at the Equator, Depart Foundation, Malibu, CA, USA

        Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Tyburn Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2016 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, with Tyburn Gallery, London, UK

         SEX, Stevenson Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

AWARDS

2022  Standard Bank Young Artist Award (Visual Arts)

2020  10th Annual FNB Art Prize

2019  GQ Woman of the Year Award

          Mbokodo Award for Art and Design