RINA STUTZER
(b. 1976, South Africa)

Rina Stutzer’s work is difficult to pin down because it is in a constant process of becoming, the pieces evolving out of each other, often guided by intuitive impulses rather than rigid philosophy or aesthetic. But her inevitably returns to her recurring preoccupations which include an interest in corvids (crows), their relationship to humans, and an exploration of ‘the nomadic’.

Crows and magpies are understood to be the most intelligent of bird species. They are known for their cunning, their capacity to prevaricate (an animal behaviour term for ‘lie’ or ‘mislead’), their attraction to shining objects and their proclivity to store food and objects for times of need. While Stutzer is not trying to anthropomorphise crows, she is using crows in her work as a metaphor for the human and the place of the human in the world – especially in the context of South Africa. Both are often maligned unfairly, both are misunderstood, their dexterity can be used for good or ill, depending on your perspective.

We are reminded of Ted Hughes’s Crow poems – where the crow is infinitely adaptable, unpredictable, inexhaustible and capable of mischief. Here the crow also stands for the artist herself: both operate outside of society, both are subversive, they are tricksters playing around with the possibilities of reality.

The crow is also a nomadic creature – sometimes in flocks, sometimes solitary. A vagabond, surviving on leftovers, on other people’s rubbish. The image of a tent recurs in Stutzer’s work. Like the human body, a tent is a place we inhabit on our journey through the world. It is a temporary dwelling, a place we can call home – but only up to a point.

Here we have tents constructed of delicate and ephemeral twigs and the naked female form resting on a forest floor. The tent is explicitly yonic in many of Stutzer’s works; we are reminded of the emergence of the human into the world, the birth of a child – the human spirit moving from womb to world, belonging in neither, only ever visiting both.

So too the female form on the forest floor is between life and death, between the human and a state of nature, dwelling both internally and externally. Here the ‘spirit’ that makes us human, gives us identity, is in a state of transition, moving between different realms, impossible to pin down.

Stutzer is drawn to making works that are not fixed – works whose identity is themselves ambiguous (as with the crow) and transitory, provisional (as with the nomad). All we know of the world is that we are passing through it. We are alive here, now. Stutzer urges us to have greater expectations for ourselves. She asks of us that we feel deeper, open ourselves more widely to the mystery of the present, understand that we must be gentle with one another because everything is delicate and provisional. Her work brings us back to the mystery that runs through all things.

Adapted from an original text by Craig Higginson, 2017

BIOGRAPHY

Rina Stutzer (born 1976) completed her BAFA at the University of Pretoria in 1999 and went on to complete her MAFA at the same university in 2007. After graduation, she started lecturing part-time in Painting and Drawing in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Pretoria. She works as a full-time artist, focusing on her own creative process and production, investigating both sculptural form and painting. In her recent paintings, she has been exploring ‘painting’ with acid as an everchanging image on copper plate as well as on paper. These images are presented alongside digital prints of the painting at the time of ‘completion’ (from when they are no longer actively worked on). However, during the patina and subsequent oxidisation processes (due to the acid content and its reaction to the metal), the original images continue to be altered and thus change in appearance.

Stutzer has achieved a number of accolades, including The Bettie Cilliers-Barnard Bursary from the University of Pretoria for excellence in painting (1999) AND the SASOL New Signatures Art Competition: People’s Choice Award (1999). She was awarded the first prize in the Ekurhuleni Fine Arts Award Competition (2007) and achieved a distinction in Painting for her Master’s degree in Fine Arts from the University of Pretoria in the same year. In 2012, she was awarded the Rendezvous: Focus Painting bursary (also named after the late doyenne of painting in South Africa, Bettie Ciliers-Barnard). This prestigious bursary afforded her the opportunity to attend a painting residency in France in 2013. In 2013, Stutzer also enjoyed a residency at Nirox and the following year she participated in the Sydney Art Fair and was a part of 20 Stellenbosch. In 2016, her work “Pinned transitory II” was exhibited at Reporting from the Front - Biennale Architettura 2016, South African Pavilion, Venice, Italy.

She has participated in a number of group exhibitions since 2000 in South Africa as well as in Great Britain and in the Netherlands. When not preparing for a solo exhibition, Rina Stutzer spends her time between her home studio and that of DSW (Dionysus Sculpture Works). She, along with her partner, manage the foundry and she is involved in all aspects of its running. Stutzer is represented by Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg, Cape Town and London.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2022
(Upcoming) Title Undecided (after Tswalu),solo, Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

2021
Transitory Terrain, South African female group show, Everard Read, Chelsea, London Joburg Art Fair, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa
AIR Program (Artist in Residency) at Tswalu Kalahari Reserve (6 months), South Africa
Initiated DSW Press print studio at the DSW Studio and Foundry, Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa

2020
PINK, Joburg Art Fair, Everard Read gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
Still Alive, Everard Read gallery, Cape Town & Joburg & London, South Africa and UK
Tiny 2020, Everard Read gallery Joburg, South Africa

2019
Birds, group exhibition, Rust-en-Vrede Gallery + Clay Museum, Cape Town Art Angels charity art auction, Ellerman House, Cape Town, South Africa
Holderstebolder, public commission sculpture installation, under team DSW, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India

2018
There is no Time like the Present, public commission with team DSW, Mall of Africa, Waterfall City, MidrandJoburg Art Fair, Johannesburg, (Everard Read), South Africa
Saronsberg Second Take, group exhibition, Tulbagh, South Africa
A Beautiful Mind Charity Auction, Diep in die Berg, Pretoria, South Africa
Winter, group exhibition, Circa, Cape Town, South Africa
Tacit, group exhibition of DSW studio affiliated artists, Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Bloemfontein, South Africa
In the Forests of the Night, group exhibition, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa
Annual members exhibition, Association of Arts, Pretoria, South Africa

2017
Bronze, Steel and Stone, Everard Read, London, UK
Winter, group exhibition, Circa, Cape Town, South Africa
Tacit, group exhibition of DSW studio affiliated artists, Pretoria Art Museum Art Angels Africa, St Martin’s Lane, London, UK

2016
Reporting from the Front - Biennale Architettura 2016, South African Pavilion, Venice, Italy
Opening Exhibition, group exhibition, Everard Read, Chelsea, London, UK
Merely this and Nothing More, solo exhibition, Everard Read, Johannesburg Dionysus’s Feast, sound sculpture collaboration, Tacit, NWU Gallery, , South Africa Potchefstroom/Johannesburg/William Humphreys Art Gallery, Kimberley Cool Capital Saadjies Project, Venice/Pretoria/Richmond/Potchefstroom/ Stellenbosch
Johannesburg Art Fair, Everard Read, Johannesburg Art Angels art auction, Ellerman House, Cape Town, South Africa

2015
Map of the New Art, Imago Mundi, Luciano Bennetton Collection, Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, Italy
Bronze, Steel and Stone, Everard Read, Johannesburg Monologue, curated by Meredith Randall, Aardklop National Arts festival, Potchefstroom outoftheCUBE’s SA Art Print exhibition, 20th Grenchen Print Triennial, Switzerland

2014
Pinned Transitory installation, Nirox Winter Fair, Nirox Sculpture Park, Cradle of Mankind, Gauteng, South Africa
Still, Johans Borman Fine Art, Cape Town, South Africa
What Lies Beneath, Equus Gallery, Cavalli Estate, Franschhoek, South Africa
Guild International Design Fair, Look Out, V & A Waterfront, Cape Town, South Africa
Sway, permanent installation, Everard Read, Johannesburg Dionysus Sculpture Works’ biannual exhibition, Grande Provence, Franschhoek Nature, Sophie Lalonde Art, Gabarone, Botswana Cool Capital DIY Biennale, public art exhibition, Pretoria Morfform, Fried gallery, Pretoria, South Africa
Syncopation, DSW group show, Aardklop, Potchefstroom Art Angels Auction, Ellerman House, Cape Town, South Africa

2013
Sydney Art Fair, Australia (Everard Read) Joburg Art Fair, (Everard Read), South Africa
Centenary, group exhibition, Everard Read, Johannesburg Vaspen / Pegdown, two person show, IS Art, Franschhoek South Africa, group show, Gallery Vivienne, Paris, France
Tom Waits for No Man, group show (curated by Gordon Fraud), University of Johannesburg, Grande Provence & KKNK, South Africa
Hiernamaals/Hereafter, Woordfees, Slee Gallery, Stellenbosch Dionysus Sculpture works’ biannual exhibition, Arts Association, Pretoria Engage, World Art Day group show, Arts Association, Pretoria, South Africa
WWF Auction, Circa, Johannesburg, South Africa
Art Angels auction, Ellerman House, Cape Town, South Africa

2012
For the Time Being, Everard Read, Johannesburg (solo) Art Fair India, Delhi (Everard Read), South Africa
Joburg Art Fair, Johannesburg, (Everard Read), South Africa
Designs of Nature, Fried Contemporary group show, KKNK, Outdshoorn Winter exhibition, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa
Art Angels Auction, Ellerman House, Cape Town, South Africa

2011
Die Opbou van Afbreek, Aardklop, North-West University Gallery, Potchefstroom (solo), South Africa
20 Stellenbosch: Two Decades of South African Sculpture, A Public Sculpture, Exhibition, Stellenbosch, South Africa
Friend – Request – Sent, The Cube, Bussum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Dislodge/Loswikkel, University of Johannesburg Gallery (two person exhibition) Rendezvous: Focus Painting, Michaelis Gallery, Oliewenhuis Art Museum, University of Johannesburg Gallery, North-West University Gallery, South Africa
Horse, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa
Designs of Nature, Fried Contemporary, Pretoria Joburg Art Fair, Johannesburg (Everard Read) Landscape 2012, Oude Libertas, Stellenbosch, South Africa

2010
An Accumulation of Change, Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg (solo) Joburg Art Fair, Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

2009
Collaboration, Reservoir Gallery, Oliewenhuis Museum, Bloemfontein Joburg Joburg Art Fair, Rooke Gallery, South Africa

2008
Visuality/Commentary, Visual Arts Centenary Exhibition, Pretoria Art Museum 2007 Medium Re-pulse, University of Pretoria (solo), South Africa
Contemporary Visions of Southern Africa, Pretoria Art Museum, South Africa

RESIDENCIES

2013
Residency, Nirox Foundation and Sculpture Park, Cradle of Mankind, Gauteng (October), South Africa
Residency, Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France (July)

2019
Residency, Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France (December) 2021 Tswalu, AIR program, Northern Cape, South Africa

AWARDS

1996 - 1999
University of Pretoria, Fine Arts Department – top student 1999 Bettie Cilliers-Barnard Bursary - painting excellence award
New Signatures Art Competition - People’s Choice Award 2007 MA(FA) degree, painting major – distinction in painting 2007 Ekurhuleni National Fine Arts Award Competition - first prize

2012
Rendezvous Focus Painting Competition, a Bettie Cilliers-Barnard Bursary – first prize (award includes a working residency in France in 2013)

2014
Awarded overall Best Artistic Design for 3CR12 Stainless Steel construction from SASDA for the permanent installation ‘Sway’ at Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

TEACHING

2000 – 2011
Part-time lecturer at the University of Pretoria for the Fine Art and Design Faculty 2019 Part-time lecturer at the University of Pretoria for the School of Arts (Visual Studies) 2009 - 2019 Co-owner, manager and studio artist at Dionysus Sculpture International (DSI)

2020
Digital Image Making & Transitive Drawing - practical modules, School of Arts, University of Pretoria
Digital Image Making module, Practical class (online), Second Years, School of Arts, University of Pretoria

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Pretoria Art Museum University of Pretoria Spoornet
Ellerman House collection Saronsberg Fine Art Collection South African Embassy in Nigeria Webber Wentzel Bowens Attorneys Frank and Lizelle Kilbourn Collection Atterbury Group
Attacq Group