Jeanne Gaigher’s work is a composite of the body and its terrain, a supple amalgam of tensions between the two. Unreliable architectures and mercurial protagonists ripen on the surface of Gaigher’s shredded and stitched canvas. Her compositions rot and bloom to a dream- logic, where painterly gestures dissolve and resolution is substituted with fluidity.
Jeanne Gaigher was born in 1990 in Cape Town, South Africa, where she currently lives and works. Gaigher completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, in 2012.
Most recently, Gaigher presented a solo body of work titled Coded Surfaces for Osart Gallery’s presentation at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair in 2023. Further solo exhibitions include: Hot Dipping at Emanuele Catellani Contemporary in Turin, Italy, in 2023; Anatomy Lesson at Wschòd in Warsaw, Poland in 2022; Sing into my Mouth at Osart Gallery in Milan, Italy in 2021; Tango at SMAC in Stellenbosch, South Africa in 2020; Century’s View in 2018, Wieg in 2016 and Club in 2015, all at SMITH Studio in Cape Town.
Selected group exhibitions include: Labyrinth at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery in London, UK and The Phoenix Runway curated by RESERVOIR at Whatiftheworld Gallery in Cape Town, both in 2022; Silken, an independent duo show with Antonia Phoebe Brown in Woodstock, South Africa in 2021; Gather and A Show of Solidarity, both at SMAC gallery in Cape Town, and Peep Show, an artist curated online exhibition, all in 2020; African Textures at Osart Gallery in Milan, The Female Line at SMAC Gallery in Cape Town and Jeanne Gaigher and Jonah Sack, a duo exhibition curated by Chloe Reid at The Gallery in Johannesburg, South Africa, all in 2019; Close Encounters at SMITH in Cape Town in 2019; Constellations at Well Well Well curated by Noushin Redjaian in Vienna, Austria and Another Antipodes / Urban Axis Exhibition in Perth, Australia, both in 2018.
Gaigher was recently shortlisted for the Norval Sovereign African Art Prize, and her work forms part of the A4 Arts Foundation collection in Cape Town, South Africa.
