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 such as the Unesco-Aschberg residency (Jordan, 2006), the Al Mahatta residency (Palestine, 2009) and the Red De Residencias Artisticas Local (Bogota, Colombia, 2011), the Rimbun Dahan artist residency (Penang, Malaysia, 2013), L’Atelier Sur Seine (Fontainebleau, France 2016).

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.

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

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 Gallery, London, UK

2018
Eros / Thanatos, Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg

2017
The Invisible Gardener, Everard Read Gallery /CIRCA, Cape Town, South Africa

2016
Mythematics, Mcontemporary, Sydney, Australia

2015 
Something Rather Than Nothing, The Cat Street Gallery, Hong Kong

2014 
The Lotus Eaters, The Reservoir Gallery, Oliewenhuis, Bloemfontein, South Africa
William Humphreys Museum, Kimberley, South Africa
North West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa

2013 
Disjecta Membra, Amelia Johnson Contemporary, Hong Kong

2012 
Canaries in the Coalmine, ErdmannContemporary, Cape Town and Aardklop, Potchefstroom, South Africa

2011
Library of the Infinitesimally Small and Unimaginably Large, ErdmannContemporary, 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

2021
Transitory Terrain, Everard Read, London, UK

2019
SUMMER, Everard Read, London, UK
Winter, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2017
Summer Exhibition, Everard Read Gallery, London, UK
Cut Up /Cut Out, 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
Booknesses: South African Artists’ Books, FADA Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
By the Book, Kaller Fine Arts, Washington DC, USA
Reality Check, Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2016
This is Not a Book, The San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, California, USA
Surface and Subtext, Everard Read Gallery, 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

2016/2015
Map of the New Art, Imago Mundi, Luciano Benetton Collection, Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore, Venezia, Italy and New York

2015
Ten years of Artists Books, A collection of artists’ books curated for the 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
Empire, Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2014
Butterflies in my Stomach, XVA Gallery, Al Fahidi, DUBAI
Capital: Contemporary, Fried Contemporary, Pretoria, South Africa
The Art of the Book, The Seager Gray Gallery, San Francisco, USA

2013
Crossing the Divide, Erdmann Contemporary, Cape Town
Wonder Works, The Space, HONG KONG
Cape Town International Art Fair, Cape Town
Joburg Art Fair Johannesburg 2013

2012
Conversations, Sydney, Australia
Clover Aardklop Arts Festival, Potcheftstroom, South Africa

2011
Implemented Environments, Brundyn & Gonsalves, Cape Town, South Africa

2010
The Mysteries and Mechanics of Perception, iArt, Cape Town, South Africa
Es(Cape), Pretoria Kunsvereniging, Pretoria, South Africa
Return to the Land, Klein Karoo Kunstefees, Oudshoorn, South Africa
Matters Conceptually(part I and II), ErdmannContemporary, Cape Town, South Africa
Reading between the lines, US Gallery, Stellenbosch, South Africa

2009
3d Riwaq Biennale, Birzeit, Palestine

2008-2009
Construct: Beyond the Documentary Photograph (Travelling exhibition) Unisa Gallery, Pretoria, KZN Gallery, Durban, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Gallery, Port Elizabeth, Grahamstown Art Festival (Main show), Grahamstown, 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
Greenhouse, Bell-Roberts Gallery, Lourensford estate, Stellenbosch
Critic and Committee’s Choice, AVA, Cape Town

ART FAIRS

2017
Art Africa Fair, Cape Town
Cape Town International Art Fair, Cape Town

2016
Turbine Art Fair, Johannesburg
artMRKT international art fair in San Francisco, USA
Cape Town Art Fair, CT

2015
Sydney Art Fair, Australia
Fringe Art Fair, Johannesburg
Turbine Art Fair, Johannesburg
artMRKT international art fair in San Francisco, United States
Art Central Art Fair, Hong Kong

2014
Singapore Art Fair, Singapore
Art Taipei, Taipei, Taiwan
artMRKT international art fair in San Francisco, United States

2013
Cape Town International Art Fair, Cape Town
Joburg Art Fair Johannesburg

2012
Art International Zurich, Switzerland

SITE SPECIFIC INSTALLATION AND OTHE PROJECTS

2016
Collaboration with 50ty50ty prints

2015
DEKOR-Z Collaborative site specific installation with Liza Grobler

2013
Chance Favours the Connected Mind Collaborative installation with Liza Grobler

2009
Mother Tongue. Site specific installation Riwaq Biennale, Birzeit, Palestine
ABSA Atelier, ArtB, Bellville, Johannesburg

2008
ABSA Atelier, ArtB, Bellville, Johannesburg
Public Memorial for Olive Schreiner, Kalk Bay

2006
Epitaph, (Collaboration with Sima Zereikat), Darat al Funun, Amman, Jordan

2005
ABSA Atelier, ArtB, Bellville, Johannesburg

2004
SPIER SCULPTURE BIENALE, Spier Wine Estate, Stellenbosch

2000
SASOL NEW SIGNATURES, Pretoria Art Museum, Pretoria

2003
BRETT KEBBLE ART AWARD, Cape Town International Convention Centre, Cape Town
ABSA Atelier, ArtB, Bellville, Johannesburg
PHOTO  ArtB, Bellville

2002
Vuleka, ArtB, Bellville

2001
Vuleka, ArtB, Bellville
2000: M-WEB NEW SIGNATURES, ArtB, Bellville

PRIZES, AWARDS and RESIDENCIES

2016
L’Air Arts Residency, at L’Atelier sur Seine, Fontainebleau, France

2013
Rimbun Dahan residency (Penang, Malaysia, 2013)

2011
Public Vote Prize, Sovereign African Arts Award 2011
Awarded the Red De Residencias Artísticas Local at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, (Bogotá, Colombia) to be undertaken during the course of the year.

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

2002
Overall winner: Vuleka, ArtB, Bellville
2002: Best work in another medium, Vuleka, ArtB, Bellville

2000:
Merit award: M-WEB NEW SIGNATURES, ArtB, Bellville