NEILL WRIGHT

(b. 1985, South Africa)

Neill Wright is a multidisciplinary artist based in Johannesburg, South Africa. He explores various mediums, such as sculpture, printmaking and painting as modes of expression, drawing inspiration from a variety of sources within his lived experience. The bold, multi-layered and colourful work speaks to a curiosity about and affection for the natural world while the geographically impossible mashups hint at the chaos of everyday life. Abstract and representational elements co-exist in a seductive yet menacing way suggestive of both the exultation and terror present in the unknown and un-explored.

In 2007 Wright graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art (Honours) at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, where he was co-awarded the Simon Gerson Prize for an outstanding body of work. In 2009 he graduated with a Postgraduate Diploma in Fine Art, majoring in printmaking. In 2013, Wright was named one of the ten emerging South African artists to watch by The Times, and he has exhibited in a number of group and solo exhibitions as well as at numerous South African and international art fairs. His work is housed in both corporate and private collections throughout the world.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2023 This Quiet Company, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2022 I Forget Where We Were, District Gallery, Cleveland, USA

2020 The Only Way Out Is Through, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

        To Anywhere and Nowhere, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2018 Blizzard Head, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

2016 Wilderness, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

2015 The Atrophy and the Ecstasy, Sulger-Buel Lovell, Cape Town, South Africa

2013 The Hilarity of Reality, Circa on Jellicoe, Johannesburg, South Africa

        Spectacular but Empty, The Lovell Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2011 Protect Your Roots, Salon 91, Cape Town, South Africa

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2024 Winter Collection, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa

2022 Spring, group show, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa

        Things I’d like to remember, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2021 Spring Show, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

2020 TINY2020, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

        US, Everard Read, online exhibition, UK & South Africa

2019 Summer, Everard Read, London, UK

2017 Spectrum, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

        Off the wall: A group sculpture exhibition, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

2015 Bronze Steel Stone, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

2014 Liberation un(masked), Sulger-Buel Lovell, London, UK

2013-14 Summer of Sculpture, Mount Nelson Hotel, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2013 Whack! Gallery In Toto, Johannesburg, South Africa

2011 Summer Salon, Salon 91, Cape Town, South Africa

        TLG Competition Winners, Lovell Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

        Winter Salon, Salon 91, Cape Town, South Africa

2010 Out Of Africa, Salon91, Cape Town, South Africa

SELECTED ART FAIRS

2016 FNB Art Joburg, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa 

        Investec Cape Town Art Fair, CTICC, Cape Town, South Africa

2015 Turbine Art Fair, with Sulger-Buel Lovell, Johannesburg, South Africa

2014 FNB Joburg Art Fair, with Lovell Urban, Johannesburg, South Africa

        Turbine Art Fair, with Lovell Contemporary, Johannesburg, South Africa

        Cape Town Art Fair, with Salon91 Contemporary, Cape Town, South Africa

2013 Art For Me, with Lovell Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

        Sydney Contemporary, Australia

        FNB Art Joburg, with Lovell Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

        Turbine, with Lovell Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

        Standard Bank National Arts Festival, Makhanda, South Africa

2012 FNB Art Joburg, with Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa