BRETT MURRAY
(b. 1961, South Africa)

Transgressive ideas and imagery push and shift boundaries and, if effectively used and charged, can result in cathartic understandings and fresh reflections. Works and ideas that divide and challenge are interesting to me. I am drawn to this thin edge of the wedge, but not exclusively. 

In reflecting on what is unfolding, I hope to articulate a very personal understanding and an idiosyncratic psychological sense of place, and begin to describe who I am with this anomalous vision. Paradoxically, through this critique and comic exposure, I actually begin to define a preferred ideal in which I would like to live. 

I think we live in interesting times, where conversations are becoming more and more polarised and the rights and the wrongs of your political positions are becoming more difficult to define, and there’s a big grey area in the middle. Often what an artist can do is prick holes in that divide and I think some of my work does sometimes do that – and it’s potentially uncomfortable.

I continue to feel the urge to expose the absurdities of the powerful through satire.  Through my work I hope to explore my jaundiced love/hate relationship with South Africa’s unfolding democracy. 

Brett Murray studied at the University of Cape Town, where he was awarded his Masters of Fine Arts degree in 1988 with distinction. The title of his dissertation was ‘A Group of Satirical Sculptures Examining Social and Political Paradoxes in the South African Context’. As an undergraduate, he won Irma Stern Scholarships in both 1981 and 1982. He won the Simon Garson Prize for the most promising student in 1982 and was awarded the Michaelis Prize in 1983. As a postgraduate student, he received a Human Sciences Research Council bursary, a University of Cape Town Research Scholarship, the Jules Kramer Grant and an Irma Stern Scholarship.

He has exhibited extensively in South Africa and abroad. From 1991 to 1994, he established the sculpture department at the University of Stellenbosch, where he curated the show ‘Thirty Sculptors from the Western Cape’ in 1992. In 1995, he curated, with Kevin Brand, ‘Scurvy’, at the Castle of Good Hope in Cape Town. That year he co-curated ‘Junge Kunst Aus Zud Afrika’ for the Hänel Gallery in Frankfurt, Germany.

In 1999, Brett co-founded, with artists and cultural practitioners Lisa Brice, Kevin Brand, Bruce Gordon, Andrew Putter, Sue Williamson, Robert Weinek and Lizza Littlewort, ‘Public Eye’, a Section 27 company that manage and initiate art projects in the public arena with the aim of developing a greater profile for public art in Cape Town. They have initiated projects on Robben Island, worked with the cities health officials on aids awareness campaigns and initiated outdoor sculpture projects, including ‘The Spier Sculpture Biennale’. He curated ‘Homeport’ in 2001, which saw 15 artists create site-specific text-based works in Cape Town’s waterfront precinct. Public Eye have interfaced with cultural funding bodies as consultants and hosted multi-media events across the city.

Murray was included on the Cuban Biennial of 1994, and subsequently his works were exhibited at the Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art in Germany. He was included on the group show, ‘Springtime in Chile’, at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Santiago, Chile. He was also part of the travelling show ‘Liberated Voices, Contemporary Art from South Africa’, which opened at the Museum for African Art in New York in 1998. His work formed part of the shows ‘Min(d)fields’ at the Kunsthaus in Baselland, Switzerland, in 2004, and ‘The Geopolitics of Animation‘ at the Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporaneo in Seville, Spain, in 2007. He won the Cape Town Urban Art competition in 1998, which resulted in the public work ‘Africa’, a 3.5 metre bronze sculpture, being erected in Cape Town’s city centre.

Marray was nominated as the Standard Bank Young Artist of the year in 2002. He won, with Stefaans Samcuia, the commission to produce an 8 x 30 meter wall sculpture for the foyer of the Cape Town International Convention Centre in 2003. In 2007, he completed ‘Specimens’, a large wall sculpture for the University of Cape Town’s medical school campus. In 2011, he produced the public artwork ‘Seeds’ for The University of Bloemfontein and in 2013 he was commissioned to produce the 7 meter bronze ‘Citizen’ for the Auto & General Park in Johannesburg.

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2025
Upcoming retrospective, Norval Foundation, Cape Town, South Africa

2024
Brood, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

2022
Limbo, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2021
Limbo, Everard Read, London, UK
Hide, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

2019
Hide, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2017
Again Again, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

2015
Again Again, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2012
Hail to The Thief II, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

2010
Hail to The Thief, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2009
Crocodile Tears II, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

2007
Crocodile Tears, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2006
Sleep Sleep, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa and João Ferreira Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2003
Us and Them, Axis Gallery, New York, USA

2002
Standard Bank Young Artist of the Year Award exhibition, White Like Me:National Arts Festival, Grahamstown, South Africa
King George VI Art Gallery, Port Elizabeth, South Africa
Tatham Art Gallery, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
Durban Art Gallery, Durban, South Africa
Johannes Stegmann Art Gallery, Bloemfontein, South Africa
South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

2001
Hero, Bell-Roberts Contemporary, Cape Town, South Africa

2000
I love Africa, Bell-Roberts Contemporary, Cape Town & Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

1997
Own, Hänel Gallery, Cape Town, SA and The Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

1996
Brett Murray: New Sculptures, Gallery Frank Hänel, Frankfurt, Germany
White Boy Sings the Blues, Rembrandt van Rijn Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

1989
Satirical Sculptures, Market Theatre Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2025
EXPO CHICAGO, with Everard Read, Chicago, USA
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2024
Inner Sanctum, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa
Winter Collection, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
EXPO Chicago | We, the People, with Everard Read, Chicago, USA

2023
What I Feel When I Think About The Cosmos, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa
110 Year Anniversary Exhibition, Everard Read, London, UK
FNB Art Joburg, with Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa
If you look hard enough, you can see our future, African American Museum, Dallas, USA
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2022
Spring, group show, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2021
Spring Show, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa
In Conversation, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
Investec Cape Town Art Fair online, with Everard Read, South Africa
Myths, Martyrs, Monsters & Masterpieces, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa

2020
Staring Straight to the Future, online exhibition, Everard Read, UK & South Africa
Masterpiece online, with Everard Read, London, UK
Arco Lisbon online, with Everard Read, South Africa
The Portrait Show, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa
Staring Straight to the Future, Everard Read SA & UK

2019
IncarNations, Bo Zar, Brussels, Belgium
CONTEXT Art Miami, with Everard Read, Miami, USA
Southern Aspect, Everard Read, London, UK
Signature Works of a Century, Javett Art Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa
Ampersand Foundation - 21 Years Celebration, University of Johannesburg, South Africa

2018
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2017
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
FNB Johannesburg Art Fair, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa
Bronze, Steel & Stone II, Everard Read, London, UK

2016
FNB Joburg Art Fair, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa
New Revolutions, Goodman Gallery Cape Town & Johannesburg, South Africa
Graphica, Southern Guild, Cape Town, South Africa
The Armory Show, Goodman Gallery, New York, USA

2015
56th International Art Exhibition -la Biennale di Venezia, South African Pavilion, Italy
Slow Violence, Stellenbosch University Art Gallery, South Africa

2014
Cape Town Art Fair, Goodman Gallery, South Africa
Design Days Dubai, Southern Guild, UAE
My Joburg, Kunsthalle Lipsiusbau, Dresden, Germany

2013
C-16: A Group Exhibition, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
My Joburg, La Maison Rouge, Paris, France
Art Basel- Hong Kong, Goodman Gallery, China
Collectable South African Design’, Collective.1 Design Fair, New York, USA
Cloud 9, Dean Projects, Kuwait City, Kuwait
Design Days Dubai, Southern Guild, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Editions, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
et.al, Nirox Projects, Johannesburg, South Africa
Heavy Metal, Southern Guild, Cape Town, South Africa
The Armory Show, Goodman Gallery, New York, USA
Art Palm Beach, Dean Projects, Florida, USA
The Loom of the Land, Michael Stevenson Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
Summer Show, Casa Labia Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2012
Art Miami, Dean Projects, USA
Art Basel Miami, Goodman Gallery, USA
Spring Show, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Sensing the Subject, a selection of Piet Viljoen’s art collection, curated by Penny Siopis, New Church Museum, Cape Town, South Africa
The Art of Banking: celebrating through collections’, Standard Bank, Johannesburg, South Africa
FIAC, Paris, France
Johannesburg Art Fair, Goodman Gallery, South Africa
Our Fathers, AVA Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Recollect, Southern Guild, The Woodstock Foundry, Cape Town, South Africa

2011
Impressions From South Africa, 1965 to Now, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
Thinking Around, Tokara, Stellenbosch, South Africa
Art Basel Miami , Goodman Gallery, USA
A Natural Selection: 1991-2011, The AVA Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Southern Guild 2011, Johannesburg Art Fair, South Africa
Persona, Johans Borman Fine Art, Cape Town, South Africa
The Johannesburg Art Fair, Goodman Gallery, South Africa
Editions, Goodman Gallery Projects, Arts On Main, Johannesburg, South Africa
The Armory Show, Goodman Gallery, New York, USA

2010
Art Basel Miami, Goodman Gallery, USA
The Lie of the Land: Representations of the South African Landscape, Iziko Michaelis Collection,
Cape Town, South Africa
Divisions: Aspects of South African Art 1948 -2010, SMAC Gallery, Stellenbosch, South Africa
In Other Words, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
Halakasha, Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
Winter Show, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
Twenty - South African Sculpture of the Last Two Decades, Nirox Sculpture Park, Gauteng, South Africa
1910 to 2010: From Pierneef to Gugulective, South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Spier Contemporary, Cape Town City Hall, South Africa

2009
The Marks We Make, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Strengths and Convictions: The life and times of the South African Peace Prize Laureates, South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Dada South? Exploring Dada legacies in South African art 1960 to the present, curated by Roger van Wyk and Kathryn Smith, Iziko SA National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Registration, Joao Ferreira Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Forward March, Spier, Stellenbosch, South Africa
Words!, AVA, Cape Town, South Africa
Life Less Ordinary, Djanogly Art Gallery, Lakeside Arts Centre, University Park, Nottingham, UK
The Other Mainstream II, Selections from the Collection of Mikki and Stanley Weithorn Arizona State University Art Museum
Johannesburg Art Fair,The Goodman Gallery, South Africa
Nirox Foundation Outdoor Sculpture, Gauteng, South Africa

2008
Johannesburg Art Fair, with Goodman Gallery, South Africa

2007
Lift Off II, Goodman Gallery Cape, Cape Town, South Africa
Cape 07, Biennale, Cape Town, South Africa
Turbulence, HANGAR-7, Salzburg, Austria
The Geopolitics of Animation, Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporaneo, Seville, Spain

2006
Art Basel Miami, USA: The Goodman Gallery

2005
Art Basel, Basel, Switzerland: The Goodman Gallery booth, South Africa
Dorp Street Gallery, Stellenbosch, South Africa
Imprints, Axis Gallery, New York, USA

2004
Post Pop, Moja Modern, Johannesburg, South Africa
Min(e)dfields, Kunsthaus Baselland, Switzerland
Identity, Fortis Circus Theatre, Scheveningen, Holland
A Decade of Democracy, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2003
Literally and Figuratively: Text and Image in South African Contemporary Art, Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa
Absolutely/Perhaps, Simon Mee Fine Arts, London, UK
Mettle and Paint, Mettle Headquarters, Johannesburg, South Africa
Retreks, Video projections, Fotografins Hus, Stockholm, Sweden
Space Repurposed, Red Bull Music Academy, Cape Town, South Africa
Art City, Cell-C, Johannesburg, SA ‘Picnic’, Bell-Roberts Contemporary, Cape Town, South Africa

2002
Liberated Voices: Contemporary Art from South Africa, curated by Frank Herreman, University of Arizona Museum of Art, Tucson, Arizona, USA
I.D./Ology, Axis Gallery, New York, USA
Con/Text, Axis Gallery, New York, USA
Broadcast Quality:The Art of Big Brother, SABC TV, South Africa

2001
Liberated Voices: Contemporary Art from South Africa, curated by Frank Herreman, Iris & B. Gerald Cantor
Centre for Visual Arts at Stanford University, California, USA
World Wide Video Festival, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Body: Rest and Motion, Oudtshoorn Festival, South Africa

2000
Liberated Voices: Contemporary Art from South Africa, curated by Frank Herreman, The Austin Museum of Art, Austin, Texas, USA
Cast, Bronze Age Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Retreks: How the other half…, Animated Video Projection, Johannesburg, South Africa
Collaboration, Bell-Roberts Contemporary, Cape Town, South Africa
Returning The Gaze, Cape Town One City Festival, South Africa

1999
Visit, Natal Society of the Arts, Durban, South Africa
Liberated Voices: Contemporary Art from South Africa, Museum for African Art, New York, USA
New Worlds: Contemporary Art from Australia, Canada and South Africa, Canada House, London, UK; Edmonton Art Gallery, Edmonton, Canada; Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa: Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, Australia
P.T.O - Public monuments reconsidered, various locations, Cape Town, South Africa

1997
Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, re-launch, South Africa
Fin de Siecle, Lyons, France
Cologne Art Fair, with Gallery Frank Hänel, Germany
30 Minutes, Robben Island Museum, Cape Town, South Africa
District Six Public Sculpture Project, Cape Town, South Africa
Smokkel, 2nd Johannesburg Biennale Fringe, South Africa

1996
Vita Art Now, Johannesburg Art Gallery, South Africa
New Sculptures, Gallery Frank Hänel, Frankfurt, Germany
Anima-L: Der Mensch im Tier - Das tier im Mensch, Eislingen Kunstverein, Germany
Cologne Art Fair, with Gallery Frank Hänel, Germany
Groundswell, Mermaid Theatre, London, UK

1995
The Laager, Johannesburg Biennale, South Africa
Scurvy, The Castle, Cape Town, South Africa
The Scurvy Show, Newtown Galleries, Johannesburg, South Africa
Venice Biennale, Malcolm Payne’s installation, Italy
Spring time in Chile, Museum of Contemporary Art, Santiago, Chile
Junge Kunst Aus Zud Afrika, Galerie Frank Haenel, Frankfurt, Germany
Panoramas of Passage: Changing Landscapes - South Africa, Albany Museum, Grahamstown, South Africa
Frankfurt Art Fair, Gallery Haenel, Germany
Cologne Art Fair, with Gallery Frank Hänel, Germany

1994
Banquet, Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
5th Cuban Biennale, Wilfredo Lam Museum, Havana, Cuba
Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art, Aachen, Germany
Contemporary Art from South Africa, Deutsche Aerospace Gallery, Otobrun, Germany
Exit, Metlife Association Of Art, Cape Town, South Africa
Staff Exhibition, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa

1993
Vita Art Now, Johannesburg Art Gallery, South Africa
Volkskas Competition, Metlife Association Of Arts, Cape Town, Durban, Pretoria and Johannesburg, South Africa
Aids, Metlife Association of Arts, Cape Town, South Africa
Limits Of Liberty, Wits Theatre, Weekly Mail Anti-Censorship Exhibition, Johannesburg, South Africa

1992
Volkskas Competition, Metlife Association Of Arts, Cape Town, Durban, Pretoria and Johannesburg, South Africa
Staff Exhibition, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa
Other Visibilities, Newtown Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
Curator of ‘40 Sculptors From The Western Cape’, Stellenbosch University, South Africa

1991
Passages and Transitions, Newtown Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
B and B with Barend De Wet , Association of Art, Cape Town, South Africa

1990
Vita Art Now, Johannesburg Art Gallery, South Africa

1988
Art and Militarism, Michaelis Gallery, University of Cape Town, South Africa

1986
About Time: Towards a People’s Culture Cultural Festival, University of Cape Town, South Africa. Banned by the
Apartheid State
Art For Peace, Baxter Theatre, Cape Town, South Africa

1985
Group Show for the opening of ‘Gallant House’ club and art centre, Johannesburg, South Africa

1984
Aches and Pains, Market Theatre Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Iziko, South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Johannesburg Art Gallery, South Africa
Durban Art Gallery, South Africa
Tatham Art Gallery, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
University of Cape Town, South Africa
University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa
University of Bloemfontein, South Africa
Sandton Municipality, Johannesburg, South Africa
DirectAxis Collection, Cape Town, South Africa
BHP Billiton Collection, Johannesburg, South Africa
MTN Collection, Johannesburg, South Africa
Sasol Collection, Johannesburg, South Africa
South African Breweries, Johannesburg, South Africa
South African Broadcasting Corporation, Johannesburg, South Africa
The South African Reserve Bank, Johannesburg, South Africa
Vodacom Collection, Cape Town, South Africa
Nando’s Art Collection, Johannesburg, b
Sindika Dokolo African Collection of Contemporary Art, Luanda, Angola
Red Bull, Salzburg, Austria
Collection of Mikki and Stanley Weithorn, USA
The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, USA
The New Church Museum, Cape Town, South Africa

PRIZES AND AWARDS

As an undergraduate, he won Irma Stern Scholarships in both 1981 and 1982. He won the Simon Garson Prize for the most promising student in 1982 and was awarded the Michaelis Prize in 1983. As a postgraduate student, he received a Human Sciences Research Council bursary, a University of Cape Town Research Scholarship, the Jules Kramer Grant and an Irma Stern Scholarship.