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.

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, Aggenbach has focused mainly on subverted feminine tropes and feminist themes. In recent work 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, parodies Western masterpieces from Michelangelo to Henry Moore and Warhol. Aggenbach takes a refreshing look at these pivotal references from a woman’s perspective.

Aggenbach currently lives and works in Woodstock, Cape Town. Her 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.

SELECED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2025  PAST LIVES / NEW WORKS, Everard Read, Cape Town, SA

2023  Nightshade, WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, SA

2021  The Great Lulllll, WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, SA

2019  The Heart Has Many Rooms, Everard Read, Johannesburg, SA

2017  Bend to Her Will, WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town/Johannesburg, SA

2015  Atopia, NWU Gallery, Potchefstroom, SA

2013  Familia Obscura, Brundyn Gallery, Cape Town, SA

2011 SOME DANCE TO REMEMBER SOME DANCE TO FORGET, Blank Projects, Cape Town, SA

2009 Graceland, Gallery AOP, Johannesburg, SA

2008 Sub Rosa, João Ferreira Gallery, Cape Town, SA

2007 Perfectly Still, Absa Gallery, Johannesburg, SA

2005 Fools Gold, Bell Roberts Contemporary, Cape Town, SA

2003 Blank, AVA, Cape Town, SA

2001 From A Netherworld, Bell-Roberts Gallery, Cape Town, SA

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2025      Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Everard Read, Cape Town, SA

             Motherhood, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

             Art Düsseldorf, with Mario Mauroner Contemporary Art, Düsseldorf, Germany

2024     Inner Sanctum, Everard Read, Johannesburg, SA

            Winter Collection, Everard Read, Franschhoek, SA

            FNB Art Joburg, with Everard Read, Johannesburg, SA

            The Night, Mario Mauroner Contemporary Art, Salzburg, Austria 

2023  If You Look Hard Enough You Can See Our Future, African American Museum, Dallas, USA

         Bitches Brew, Everard Read Johannesburg, SA

2022  Seeds of the Fig, Reservoir & Whatiftheworld X Krone, Twee Jonge Gezellen, Tulbagh, SA

2021  Between Strangers, Nuweland Gallery, Netherlands

2020  Against Interpretation? Everard Read Gallery, London, UK

2020  Over The Rainbow, Red Bull Hangar-7, Salzburg, Austria

2019  MERDELAMERDELAMERDELAMERDELAMERDELAMER, curated by Kendell Geers, Mario Mauroner Contemporary Art, Vienna, Austria

2018  In the Forests of the Night, Everard Read, Johannesburg, SA

2015   Foreign Bodies, Whatiftheworld, Cape Town, SA

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

2012   Positive Tension, Whatiftheworld Gallery, Cape Town, SA

2012   Seeing Eye, Brundyn + Gonsalves, Cape Town, SA

2012   Paint I, SMAC Gallery, Cape Town, SA

2011   Alptraum, Deutscher Künstlerbund, Berlin, Germany

2010   Twenty, contemporary public sculpture, Nirox, Johannesburg, SA

2007   Arcadia, AVA Gallery, Cape Town, SA

2007   Turbulence, Hangar-7, Salzburg, Austria

2005   Sweet Nothings, new photographic work, Bell-Roberts Gallery, Cape Town, SA

2004   2nd Spier Outdoor Sculpture Biennial, Stellenbosch, SA

2003   YDESIRE, Castle of Good Hope, Cape Town, SA

2001   Micro/Macro, South African Printmakers, Xchanges Gallery, Victoria, Canada

AWARDS, FELLOWSHIPS

2015 Aardklop Festival artist, Potchefstroom, SA

2009 Ampersand fellowship, New York, USA

2003 Winner of the 2003 Absa L’Atelier, SA

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

PERMANENT COLLECTIONS

Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town
Absa Collection
Anglo Gold South Africa
Hollard Collection
Sasol Collection
Spier Collection
Didata
SABC
Labour 24 Pty Ltd
Red Bull Collection, Salzburg, Austria
New Church Museum
21C Museum in Kentucky

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

2025 Sanell Aggenbach 

2013     Familia Obscura

2009     Graceland Catalogue

2007     Turbulence, Hangar-7, Austria
Sanell Aggenbach Catalogue
Artinvestor, Germany
Art South Africa  Vol. 5, Issue 04; Page 82 (Review)

2005     Cape Town Month of Photography

2004     2nd Spier Sculpture Biennale Catalogue
Sasol Art Museum, University of Stellenbosch

2003     ABSA L’Atelier Catalogue
Art South Africa  Vol. 02, Issue 01; Page 14 (Review)

2002     Spier Sculpture Biennale Catalogue