SANELL AGGENBACH
(b.1975, Cape Town, South Africa)

Sanell Aggenbach’s work deals primarily with the intersection of history and private narratives by considering the process of recall and interpretation. Her work displays an accomplished virtuosity as she moves comfortably between the various disciplines of painting, printmaking and sculpture. Since 2003, she has focused mainly on subverted feminine tropes and feminist themes.

In her most recent solo exhibition Bend to Her Will she subtly and mischievously reframed the hobbyist art of flower arranging by appropriating the traditionally masculine art of Japanese Ikebana. Her sculptural work, primarily in bronze, parody Western masterpieces from Michelangelo, Henry Moore, and Warhol to Pierneef and take a refreshing look at these pivotal references from a woman’s perspective. 

"My earlier works relied heavily on processing found imagery, rethinking associations and creating new fictions. These works were often an amalgamation of historic references with private narratives and forms part of a process of investigating pathologies and deconstructing the past. My primary intention is to construct subtle paradoxes by introducing a quite humour, either formally or materially.”

Aggenbach's explorative work has secured her many achievements including winning the Absa L’Atelier Award in 2003. Her work is represented in numerous public and private collections, including Sasol, Absa, Spier, SABC, Red Bull (Austria), the South African National Gallery, 21C Museum in Kentucky (USA) and Anglo Gold.

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2019
The Heart has many Rooms, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

2017
Bend to Her Will, WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town/Johannesburg, South Africa

2015
Atopia, NWU Gallery, Potchefstroom, South Africa

2013
Familia Obscura, Brundyn Gallry, Cape Town, South Africa

2011
SOME DANCE TO REMEMBER SOME DANCE TO FORGET, Blank Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2009
Graceland, Gallery AOP, Johannesburg, South Africa
Perfectly Still, Absa Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

2008
Sub Rosa, João Ferreira Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2001
From A Netherworld, Bell-Roberts Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2021
Masterpiece, Everard Read, London, UK
Myths, Martyrs, Monsters & Masterpieces, Everard Read, Leeu Estates, South Africa

2020
On Being, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa

2018
SUMMER, Everard Read Gallery, London, UK

2017
In the Forests of the Night, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa
The Future is Female, 21C Museum Hotels, Louisville, USA

2015 
Foreign Bodies, Whatiftheworld, Cape Town, South Africa

2014
20 Years of Democracy, Appalachian State University, North Carolina, USA

2012
Positive Tension, Whatiftheworld Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Seeing Eye, Brundyn + Gonsalves, Cape Town, South Africa
Paint I, SMAC Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2011
Alptraum, Deutscher Kuenstlerbund, Berlin, Germany

2010
Twenty, contemporary public sculpture, Nirox, Johannesburg, South Africa

2007 
Arcadia, AVA Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Turbulence, Hangar-7, Salzburg, Austria

2005
Sweet Nothings, Bell-Roberts Gallery,Cape Town, South Africa

2004
2nd Spier Outdoor Sculpture Biennial, Stellenbosch, South Africa

2003
YDESIRE, Castle of Good Hope, Cape Town, South Africa

2001
Micro/Macro, South African Printmakers at the Xchanges Gallery, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

OTHER:

2015
Aardklop Festival artist, South Africa

2009
Ampersand fellowship, New York, USA

2005 
Curator: ‘Sweet Nothings’, Bell-Roberts Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Nominated for a Kanna Award, KKNK

2003 
Winner of the 2003 ABSA L’Atelier

2000
Merit award: Anglo Gold Riches of Africa Design Competition

1999
Selected for the UNESCO-Aschberg Residency programme, Sanskriti Kendra, New Delhi, India