BARBARA WILDENBOER

(b. 1973 Pretoria, South Africa)

Barbara Wildenboer uses a combination of analogue and digital processes to create sculptural artworks that primarily consist of collage, photo and paper-construction as well as digitally-animated photographic sculpture. Wildenboer also creates delicately-cut altered books which often contain maps, atlases and scientific subject matter, sometimes using images from the book as central elements to her pieces. Imagery and words become components of the larger designs, as she crafts new visual narratives from the raw material.

Through her practice Wildenboer creates contemporary surrealist landscapes that provide commentary on the human condition and our negligence with respect to our natural environment.  

Wildenboer has participated in several group exhibitions and art fairs both nationally and internationally, including South Africa, San Francisco, Washington, London, Dubai, Sydney and Hong Kong. In 2011 she was selected as one of the finalists for the Sovereign African Arts Award for which she received the Public Choice Prize.

Wildenboer has been awarded several international residencies in Jordan, Palestine, Colombia, Malaysia, France and Morocco. She obtained a Masters in Fine Art with distinction from the Michaelis School of Art at the University of Cape Town in 2007. Prior to this 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.

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

2023

BABEL, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2022

LOOT, This is Not a White Cube Gallery, Lisbon, Portugal

2020

A Retrospective, KKNK (Klein Karoo National Arts Festival) Festival Artist, South Africa

SUPER/NATURAL, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

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 Gallery, Sydney, Australia

2015

Something Rather Than Nothing, The Cat Street Gallery, Hong Kong

2014

The Lotus Eaters, The Reservoir Gallery, Oliewenhuis Museum, Bloemfontein, South Africa

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

2011

Library of the infinitesimally small and unimaginably large, Erdmann Contemporary, Cape Town, South Africa

2008

Present Absence/Absent Presence, ErdmannContemporary, Cape Town, South Africa

Vanitas, AVA, Cape Town, South Africa

2006

Everyday Alchemy, Darat al Funun, Amman, Jordan

2004

Rites of Passage, AVA, Cape Town, South Africa

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2023

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

Moving Art, XVA Gallery, Dubai, UAE

2023

Collide, Featherstone Centre for the Arts, Massachusetts, USA

Chimère, Fondation Blachere, Bonnieux, France

2022

EX LIBRIS, group show, Everard Read at Leeu Estates, Franschhoek, 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 Gallery, Paris, France

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

2020

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

Homework, Barnard Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

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

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

By the Book, Kaller Fine Arts, Washington DC, USA

Reality Check, Everard Read, 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

The Art of the Book, The Seager Gray Gallery, San Francisco, USA

Lush, SMAC Gallery, Stellenbosch, South Africa

Twelve Days, The Cat Street Gallery, Sheung Wan

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, The 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

2014

Butterflies in my Stomach, XVA Gallery, Al Fahidi, DUBAI

artMRKT international art fair in San Francisco, USA

The Art of the Book, The Seager Gray Gallery, San Francisco, USA

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, Johannesburg, South Africa

2012

Conversations, Sydney, Australia

Clover Aardklop Arts Festival, Potchefstroom, South Africa

Art International 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, Woodstock, 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

2023

Fondation Blachere, Bonnieux, France

Montresso Art Foundation, Marrakech, Morocco 

2022

Montresso Art Foundation, Marrakech, Morocco 

2021

Modern Art Projects, 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)

2006

Unesco-Aschberg residency (Jordan)

MacIver Scholarship

2005/6 KW Johnstone Scholarship

2005/6 Jules Kramer Award

2005/6 Harry Crossley Scholarship